Applied Awareness

[Guest guest]

Applied Awareness

 

Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, is, as many have experienced, a

very powerful and effective yoga, bringing about an overall experience of

vibrant physical health and dynamic mental clarity in a relatively short

period, compared with other yogas.

 

But there is another aspect of Kundalini Yoga that we have been addressing

more and more with each class and with each posture and movement, which

takes it far beyond the physical dimension.

 

This aspect, which is very basic to yoga, is simply that as you enter into

each posture and movement, you mentally link yourself and watch yourself

experiencing the flow of the energy/consciousness within the Kundalini Yoga

exercise. This is to say that you "watch" yourself in the posture and

movement; you "watch" the breathing process; you "watch" the movement of

energy along the nadis, and you "watch" the emergence of the feeling and

flow prana throughout the body field.

 

At this stage most of the students coming to the classes know how to do the

basic postures and are able to quickly adapt to the ever new and interesting

Kundalini yoga exercises, Kriyas and Laya Yoga practices. What needs to be

added now is a type of awareness that is still and watchful.

 

This awareness is itself Kundalini. When you unite the Kundalini Yoga

exercises with the still watchful mind, you become aware of the prana, and

the stillness from which the prana arises begins to permeate, electrify and

brighten the areas being charged through the Kundalini Yoga practices.

 

This awareness, which is also the basis for the sensation of "identity," is

actually single and all-pervasive. For the time being, the awareness seems

to be limited to the sensations of the body and thoughts and images of the

mind and related emotions, but as the body centers of nerves, glands and

organs and related systems begin to charge, if one's mind is also still and

attentive to the movement and postures of the Kundalini Yoga practice, this

awareness begins to release an emanation of Light that seems to pour out of

the atoms themselves. Suddenly, there is a link of the sense of "identity"

to That which Lights the body and mind and denotes the original feeling of

"I" to all we experience.

 

With this emerges a sense of clarity and a radical new perception of oneself

as pervasive Being without an object, because, what were formerly seen as

objects one identified with are now appearing within the totality of "single

essence." The subject and object are no longer 2, because there is nothing

separate, and duality has lost all meaning.

 

You feel a sensation throughout the body as though the inertia has lifted,

as though the gravitational pull on the organs has been relaxed. The mind

is always "empty, clear and self illuminating."

 

And with this is felt the sensation of the mind turning inwards to reflect

the source of being and light, a sense of deep inward enquiry into the Truth

one has read and been told about in the lives and words of the Saints and

Saviors (Sat Guru's), which one now feels compelled and drawn to know, to

experience and to realize with single purpose.

 

A singularity seems to appear in the hrdayam (spiritual heart) that sucks in

(dissolves) the sense of identity with images and objects, and you "hear"

[sikhs call it "Sunia" - Hindu's call it "Sravana") the Truth, that has been

repeated in all the scriptures for thousands of years in Temples and

Churches, and you realize that "I am That" and abide trans-fixed in and as

that Truth.

 

All this may seem far from the conventional view of the world, but it is the

experience of true spirit written about in spiritual texts, where we read

and are told over and over that inherent in these words is the Truth we must

awaken to and are awake to, if we could just "hear" ...

 

Kundalini Yoga is called the "Yoga of Awareness" because it brings awareness

to the practice of yoga, and through that practice amplifies Its emergence

into our consciousness.

 

In fact Raja Yoga of the ancient sage Patenjali has, as one of it's eight

limbs, the practice of hatha yoga postures and another pranayamas, that are

taught to be practiced as though one was in prayer, where not a thought is

permitted to arise, so careful and attentive is one's flow of awareness to

watch each posture, movement and flow of prana in the nadis (nerves) and

centers. This careful awareness, similar to the concept of the awareness

one brings one's consciousness to in the slow flow of TaiChi is actually how

the practice of Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, is intended.

 

This is an element that is often forgotten, but it was taught originally

some 30 years ago.

 

Try it while practicing Kundalini Yoga sets, kriyas, pranayamas and

meditations and see what happens.