The Process of Creation

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Most people have the process of creation reversed. They believe that if they?have?a thing, for example more time, money, a relationship, they can?do?something, which will allow them to?be?? happy, contented, etc. This is?have-do-be.

The problem is the process of creation is the reverse;?be ? do ? have. If you want to?have?a different outcome then you need to generate a different way of?being.?The middle step of what to?do?is a how question. This is the one that trips us up with the first approach ? we look at others and ask questions like ?how come that?s possible for them and not for me, what am I doing wrong?? and many others that show that we cannot maintain a state of being that allows us to remain sensitive, non-judgemental and response to our environment. The second approach takes the second step out of the equation, for example if you are happy you do certain things because you are happy, as opposed to doing things because you hope they will make you happy and then wondering what you missed when you don’t get the result you hoped for. This gives weight to the new age anthem ‘whatever you are being you are creating’ A jump is then made from this to saying ?you create your own reality?. This is the carrot of the new age culture that puts us back on the treadmill of have-do-be because the reality we are encouraged to envisage is related to something that we haven?t got now, and is limited by our focus on the carrot!

Now listen up, this is important.

We are asking the wrong question.

The real question to ask is why am I not in a state of gratitude, contentment, peace etc now?

There are many responses to this question and they are all called complaints!…

If only? which causes us to a greater or lesser extent to feel victimised, and it?doesn’t?matter much how much money or status you have?(just in case you still thought that was the governing criteria for being happy!)

The teachings inherent in Kundalini Yoga and meditation, which bring Hatha and Raj yoga together, give us access to another way of being. This path requires loyalty and training but through it the state of contentment and peace alluded to here become a stable state;

Kundalini Yoga for Addiction

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The process and effect of addictions

Many addictions start in the teens as an attempt to escape from uncomfortable feelings. Since drugs have a numbing effect some addicts show a lack of emotional maturity stemming from a ‘freezing’ of their emotional development from this time.

Yoga postures and deep breathing allow feelings to flow again. For those that are ready to rehabilitate (re-habit themselves) Kundalini yoga is a very effective tool. Ironically there is usually a lot of resistance to a regular yoga practice because as blocks are released so are the subconscious, irrational fears that put them there in the first place.

An addict may have to reach ?rock bottom? before they are open to change. This means they have to pass through their depression to rediscover the life impulse that was suppressed in childhood.

Since low self-esteem is often the trigger and maintainer of addiction this is where the particular package of yoga, mantra and meditation can be so helpful.

Society?s message is that we are somehow incomplete and need to add more things to our lives. The yogic message is that you are complete as you are. We have just lost touch with our deeper self. Healing is a process of remembering who you really are. This is initiated and maintained by what you stop doing (stopping drinking, smoking, drugs, eating unhealthy food, going to bed too late etc.)

The 5 Reasons for Any Disease

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We are made up of 5 Tattwas or Elements; earth, water, fire, air and ether which correspond with wilfulness/lust, greed, anger, pride and attachment. The elements are responsible for projecting our passions and our attitudes. We cannot escape the primal drives evoked by the passions, they are a big part of what makes us human, but we can channel them for positive ends. This is called turning emotion into devotion. In David Shannoff Khalsa?s book Kundalini Yoga for complex psychiatric disorders (p326) he writes ?When any of these five factors (passions) is excessive or inappropriately expressed, there is a consequence in the mind. This consequence is eventually expressed in the body in the form of what we call disease. Therefore, the diseases that we commonly acknowledge today are all actually symptomatic of an imbalance in a previous or current state of consciousness, which can include the karmas of a previous lifetime. On a spiritual plane, there is a purpose and a destiny, or fate for each individual soul. These symptomatic diseases are learning experiences for that host individual.?

The 5 Levels of Healing

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The 5 Levels of Healing

There are 5 levels to healing and though healing on one level can trigger healing on another it helps to be aware of their differences. The most profound healing happens when all levels are addressed.

(1) Healing at the earth and mineral level. This includes remembering our soul nature and healing the split between mind and soul. Calling on the universal soul through the Guru or whatever other name you give to focusing your intention to let the soul speak to the mind is relevant here. This is where the most stubborn resistance to healing is usually found.

Ultimately the soul does not need to be healed, untouched as it is by all the changes we go through, calmly waiting for us to come back to our original unborn state of complete wholeness. However the separation we all feel from this state of wholeness and the longing we have to return to it is the method to get there! The other levels have limitations in this regard.

(2) Healing at the organic (water) level including diet, herbs and management of energy. Many of the ways we try to manage our energy through alternative medicine falls into this category.

(3) Healing at the animal level (fire), including replacing bad habits with good ones, what Yogi Bhajan called ?demoting ? and ?promoting? habits. Our dharma and discipline is what counts in training the mind. Sometimes, some of us may feel the need to call on friends, family or counselling/psychotherapy for help, which is natural, but this inevitably involves transference and it is worth remembering; ?discipline is your best friend?(YB)

(4) Healing at the human level, healing through your touch and your presence. This includes the recognition that we all have a wound and that the wounds of love need love to heal them. Sangat (a spiritual community) is important in this regard and provides an uplifting and non-judgemental holding space.

(5) Healing through balance; for example, overcoming cycles of stress and exhaustion. The autonomic nervous system is central in this. As mentioned our stress levels are determined by what in our external environment we place importance on. Ultimately we are continually choosing ?Who am I? and Who do I choose to be? in relationship to everyone and everything. The way we talk to ourselves and those around us and how we interpret incoming messages puts the word and listening at the centre. Mantra and shabd (the sound that cuts the ego) clean the mind to establish a new vibration so that we relate to ourselves and our environment in compassionate and effective ways. Sacred sound is the highest form of healing.

An interesting thing to note here is that there are many claims made for healing at the 2nd level through holistic health practitioners. Thankfully most people don’t expect to be completely healed by visiting a health practitioner and in general there are usually two outcomes; the most stubborn health issue/s (usually one or two) don’t ever completely resolve however long you have treatment for and however many practitioners you try. Despite this because the flow of energy improves so does your overall energy and some other symptoms. So, for example you feel less tired, your digestion and sleep improve and you feel better overall even though the original complaint, that bugs you the most, does not ever really resolve. These are often issues that run in a family, and so run deep in the genes (in other words at soul level). Some people therefore conclude that holistic medicine does not work. For others they are happy to enjoy the often unexpected benefits of other things improving.

Keep Up!

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When we have a regular yoga and meditation practice we remain bright, receptive and self-sufficient, embrace the flow of life and tend to complain less. This implies that there is an inbuilt resistance to change and going with the flow when we don?t keep up with a regular practice.

 

This is true.

 

This is because our resistance to change are patterns of reaction that have solidified within us and continue to maintain unhealthy and unwanted patterns of behaviour. When we face these patterns and move through them we release the energy that is behind them and has been maintaining them – the fear, the anger, the grief etc. This is more or less uncomfortable.

 

What actually happens is we have an experience in which we discover that we are not who we thought we were. This happens because when we adopt a universal or dharmic form as proposed in yoga, and Kundalini yoga in particular, we align ourselves with the natural, unencumbered universal life force.

 

This is something we have a lot of subconscious resistance; our posture represents the sum total of our beliefs and attitudes crystallized in our physical form and this is what gets broken down as we work through the kriya.

 

In fact the more fully and accurately you maintain the posture, ‘the angles and triangles’, the deeper the experience you will have and the greater the meaning you get from your practice. So?

 

Keep Up!

If you don’t go within you go without

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It has been said that It doesn’t matter what your external life is like if you don’t have access to the soul you are poor

The teachings encourage us to; turn our attention inward by closing down the nine holes (sensory orifices) so that our inner light can shine. Our self-illumination can then shine a light for others.

Meditation is very helpful for this.

Keeping the body as healthy as possible for as long as possible means that it?s aches and pains don?t become a burden that distract us from achieving our destiny. Yoga is very helpful for this.

It is essential that we direct the mind by tuning into the destiny of our soul. Chanting is very helpful for this.

Kundalini Yoga brings together yoga, meditation and chanting. Add to this healthy eating, herbal medicine, and interventions such as acupuncture and we have a formidable package for total health and healing.

Yogic Process part 2; 3 Levels of Health

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3 levels of health

Let us consider the 3 levels of health and how the 3 processes of yoga give us the tools to recapture the deep and lasting health that vitality brings.

  1. Fitness. This is the correct use of the body. Each muscle, organ and thought has its own strength but at this level integration between them is limited. For example you may have good circulation and muscle tone but stress levels remain high and exercise only brings temporary relief, or it is done solely to look good and without much bodily awareness.

(2) Health. Each instrument is synchronized with one another. There is a link between thoughts and emotions, actions and intentions.

(3) Vitality. Something miraculous happens. Mind and soul work together. A strength is drawn on beyond the finite sense of body and mind. We open the circuit to link more consciously to the abundant and universal life force. Synchronicity is recognised as finding ourselves in the right place at the right time successfully engaged in the right activity. This is known as being in the zone in athletics. All the preparation and training pay off in the moment (not ultimately, as is mistakenly assumed, by our own effort alone, but because we are met by grace. We are 40% responsible for the outcome. 60% is grace, sometimes thought of as luck it is actually the mark of the infinite).

The Yogic Process

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The Yogic Process

There are 3 processes – Rejuvenate/Harmonise/Eliminate or Gather, Organise and Deliver/Destroy. (Yogi Bhajantakes the fist letters of these words to make G.O.D.)

The gathering in process is the strengthening, the tonification. The harmonisation is also the action of organising or balancing the energies. To eliminate is to cleanse, to let go of something. Our deliverance is the change that comes about through the destruction of something else. Something new can come in. This is also a recycling – turning shit into sugar. Knowing that every cloud has a silver lining.

(1) Rejuvenate/tonify/gather. This is the process of bring new energy in, building up prana, engaging the pingala (right side of the spine) and the raja guna (active). Brought about by Long Deep Breathing (LDB), inhalation and retention of inhale. Also Breathe of Fire (BOF) which is both rejuvenating and cleansing.

  1. Balancing/Harmonising. This is creating a balance between prana; drawing energy from the breath (also from food, sun, water etc) and apana (eliminative power) and includes the practice of suspension at the top of the inhale and holding the breathe out at the bottom of the exhale. When both prana and apana are strong they mix together at the navel to raise Kundalini through the Sushmana, the central channel which engages the sattvic guna (angelic realms). This provides a bridge between our material and spiritual life.

Cleansing/elimination. Yoga helps cleanse body and mind, especially organs that are involved in the breakdown of toxins; the liver and kidneys. Also meditations to release us from our attachments to the past. Apana is the force that helps us to eliminate what we don’t need psychically and physically. It is associated with the large intestine and bladder. It engages the ida (left side) and the tama guna (passive, inertia). It is brought to focus through exhalation and retention of the exhale and BOF

The technology of the yoga of sound, part 1

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Sat Nam,

In the previous article,?I wrote about some of the problems that are unique to the modern age and indicated that Shabd Guru (the sound that is a teacher; Sha = ego, bd = to cut) has a central role to play in healing these maladies.

I would like to share a bit more about the technology so that we can delve deeper…

The ancient yogis considered that there were 2 caves; the bij (seed) gupha = cave for bringing in new life; male & female sexual organs for procreation and gian gupha = cave of wisdom; tongue & mouth used as a merger with the divine where the tongue represents the penis and the mouth the vagina

There are 84 pts ? 32 pairs of points (64) on the hard palate nearer to teeth. 20 pairs in a ?U? shape on the central part of palate. When stimulated by the tongue ?these points are like a keyboard input to a computer? The computer is the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is connected to the pituitary which is the master endocrine gland together they play a key role in regulating hunger, drinking, sleep, moods, emotional behaviour & sexuality. So Shabd Guru stimulates the hypothalamus to change the chemistry of the brain so that it becomes a more highly receptive instrument. It also helps the mental, emotional and physical bodies to integrate more gracefully and harmoniously. In fact there are;

4 areas affected by sound and breathe combination via neuro-endocrine link:

~ ?the autonomic nerves , sympathetic and parasympathetic, that control states of excitement, relaxation and high performance

~ the senses and c.n.s. through the neuro-chemical ocean of the body that connects all the cells

~ endocrine system that produces hormones and controls our moods and the feeling of vitality and energy

~ the immune system?

Just a taster about the potential of Shabd Guru.

Thanks for listening, Amrit

Problems of the Age?

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Chronic illness, including changes happening at a cellular level (for example cancer is the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells), auto immune disease (the system that would normally protect you starts attacking you), hormonal imbalances leading to sleep disturbances and mood swings including irritability and anger, sugar cravings, high/low blood pressure, PMS, low/high libido, addictions/obsessions/compulsions, depression, disorientation, feelings of helplessness, alienation, loss of meaning, diffusion of identity, errors of judgement and withdrawal.

Coming From

(1) Information Overload including increase in complexity of tasks and conflicting messages. Exposed to masses of information all trying to form / mould you (including e.g.; advertising / social structure / history competing to engineer us). Not easy to know what is relevant / no clear way to filter out useless. All of this is causing a bottleneck of stress and inability to process. Also a constant bombardment of discordant vibrations.

(2) We are living in a time of great paradox: Fast Pace and Less Time. More Global and more Individual and a breakdown of community. Fewer boundaries and more demand for political separation.

(3) Emphasis on the technological and Material side of Life bringing increased complexity, deferred responsibility and lack of human contact.

(4) Success is Measured by our Stamina and Constant Peak Performance.

(5) Illusion of Choice. All knowledge and information is available at the touch of a button but to choose wisely assumes that we have a reference point from which to assess our real needs and determine our values.

What?s happening in technology puts particular demands on us

We need faster processing power

More information storage capacity

Greater Complexity; because there are multi levels, for example within an organization there is less predictability. There is also greater accountability through greater tracking. This means that karmic consequences are more immediate.

More networking and less boundaries. Communication is global which changes the power relationships.

All of this leads to an Increased Sensitivity and Load on C.N.S. (central nervous system). Pollutants and radiation puts an increased demand on our endocrine and hormonal systems.

Now that we are transitioning out of the Piscean Age and into the Age of Aquarius we are becoming aware that;

Info and knowledge are not enough we need wisdom. Knowledge becomes wisdom when it becomes your personal experience. We need to reconcile & integrate the spiritual side of life with the material side so that we can find value & meaning.

The breakup of communities and the unpredictable nature of the times means we are more fearful and insecure. The antidote is more love and unity.

Our actions either directly or indirectly affect many others. We cannot live as though we are in isolation.

WHAT IS NEEDED?

Technological complexity will continue unabated so to increase stamina and constantly performing at our peak we need to go inward and regenerate.

Less predictability means we need to become more intuitive so that we find ourselves in the right place at the right time successfully engaged in the right activity.

To appreciate change and learning as lifelong and continuous. Learning how to learn. The many levels and subtleties to learning requires flexibility and adaptability; mentally, emotionally and physically. This means being prepared to let all preconceptions die to discover something new.

Clarity comes from embedded core values and a vertical axis to keep the spiritual alive. A reference point acts as an directive to know when to act and when not to. It is like a rudder to guide and steer us in the right direction when seas are choppy and calm.

We need an integration of the spiritual side of life with the material side. We need a spiritual fitness to give meaning. We over identify with the ego mind which makes us forget our relative value and limitations.

Intellect is not enough we need in-tell-igence. An abundance of knowledge will no longer represent empowerment. It gives the illusion that so much is possible, the illusion of control. In fact it adds to the confusion. Guidance comes from embedded ?core values? that open up our capacity to relate intuitively via a sense of the infinite to the unity of the uni-verse.

The coming age will be governed by increased sensitivity and whether we can live with this. People will numb out more. ‘Cold Depression’ will become more widespread. We need the capacity to read the context & relate universally to have a healthy sense of proportion and perspective.

We will introduce Shabd Guru as the solution (Sha means to cut and bd is the ego). It is the sound that is a teacher.