Kundalini boo boos and why we Tune in

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam all,

This may address some recent questions regarding "Kundalini crisis". I

can't say much to the issue of spontaneous Kundalini awakenings. It is

up to the individual to listen deeply and "allow".......simply, in order

to work their way through it. I also cannot to speak to problems of

Kundalini arising in someone who is practicing Kundalini without tuning

in with the Adi Mantra. There is a whole nuther list where all people

talk about is Kundalini crisis and spontaneous awakenings. PLEASE, that

is not what Kundalini Yoga is about.

Kundalini Yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan) is about manifesting the most

positive, compassionate aspects of the Self. Being healthy, happy and

yeah, ya bethcha'... Holy.

Sat Nam,

Dharam Singh, a teacher of Kundalini Yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan)

 

TUNING IN: The Adi Mantra

 

Sat Nam, Tuning in sweeps away the rubble of normal every day life.

Tuning in as we do it for kundalini yoga is actually a kriya. It's the

first kriya we do. It's not just the particular repetition of several

different sounds in order to create some sort of bogus affect, tuning in

actually through chanting the mantra "Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo" is a

particular kriya which opens up all of the centers of the body, all of

your chakras (energy centers). This is kind of important because we do

Kundalini Yoga, which is all about raising the energy up the spine.

 

THE ADI MANTRA

 

To center yourself before a set of Kundalini Yoga we chant the Adi

Mantra at least 3 times. Adi means the first or primal; Mantra is the

creative projection of the mind through sound. This mantra is the first

creative action. It centers you into the higher self and reminds your

lower minds that it is not your ego that will practice or teach

Kundalini Yoga. It is an invitation to your higher self to take the helm

and guide the course of the experience. Technically it is the linking

mantra for the GOLDEN CHAIN. The golden chain is the inner spark of

Kundalini that is passed person to person; teacher to Student; guru to

teacher; cosmos and God to guru. By chanting this and linking, the

exercises and meditations that you practice are guided by your higher

consciousness and the collective energy and consciousness of teachers

that have brought this opportunity to you. It makes you very receptive

and sensitive to the message of your body, mind and intuition.

 

How to Recite:

 

Sit in an easy pose with your spine erect. Press both palms together at

the center of the chest with the fingers straight up. Press the second

joint of the thumbs tightly against the sternum at the level of the

5th-6th ribs - about nipple level. Concentrate at the brow point (where

the eyebrows and top of the nose meet). Inhale deeply and chant the

words as you exhale. Chant the entire mantra on one long breath, or take

a very slight inhale after NAMO. The sound DEV is chanted a minor third

higher than the other sounds. The gentle pressure created by the sound

increases like a gradually growing wave on DEV.

 

 

 

THE MANTRA:

 

The Sound of Ong is created in the inner chambers of the sinuses and

upper palate. It is made with all the air coming through the nose. The

mouth is open so that the cavity of the mouth acts to enhance the

resonance of the sound. It is the "ng" sound that is emphasized. The

first part of NAMO is short and rhymes with "hum". The "oh" sound is

held much longer. The first syllable of the word GURU is pronounced as

in the Word, "good". The second syllable, "ru", has a sound that rhymes

with the word "true." The word DEV rhymes with "save."

 

Further Commentary:

 

If you have read anything in the more popular readings on kundalini

yoga, it's enough to make you not come to class. Because it talks about

very scary things happening to people, people winding up in mental

institutions, inability to move their hands and all kinds of neurotic

nonsense. But some of these things do happen to people when the

kundalini rises suddenly, and it happens because their centers are not

open and they have this rocket explosion of energy going up their spine

and the nervous system cannot handle it. The practice of tuning in is so

perfect and pure, that even if you are someone who has messed up your

body and nervous system and never meditated a day in your life and your

centers are 97% closed, this "tuning in" actually opens up the energy

centers just enough so as to allow the purity of this energy to travel

up the spine at a pace that it is meant to.

 

So whether you become enlightened in your first class or your 14,000th

experience in yoga, there is energy that is moving up the spine. It is

very powerful. By chanting this mantra correctly it opens these little

stars, these little centers, these circles of light, these chakras that

are on the path of the spine and allows the energy to move and balance

itself.

 

Our aim is not to just be totally up here (in the head); we want a

perfect flow between the chakras. You may know people who have

meditation practices, they may do "TM", or they may do this practice or

that practice, you may sense or even be told that they may be very

enlightened people, but their physical form is a mess, their nervous

systems aren't great, they are all up here and down here they have

serious imbalances in their energetic being. Our aim is to create some

sort of a flow. There is enough energy down here (gestures to groin)

already, and if it could all wind up here

(gestures to "third-eye", that's great, but we need to move it up so

there's a balance.

 

The mantra Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo has to be chanted in a particular way.

In chanting a mantra one of the most important things you can do is to

have neck lock. Neck Lock is one of the four bhandas or four locks

(jalandhara bhanda) and it is accomplished very simply. Your head moves

slightly back and it perfectly aligns your spine. You just lift up from

the back, and what will happen is, the chin will come in. Your chin is

not down here, you don't want some sort of strange angle going off to

the front of the room, the neck is straight, your chin is in and your

face is forward. This accomplishes a couple of things.

 

The first thing it accomplishes is that it opens up the throat center

and in doing so it allows the vibration of the sound (which is created

herein the vocal cords by passing prana from the lungs through them) it

allows that vibration to move up into the sinuses, that vibration in the

sinuses has an effect on the third eye and the pituitary. So as you

chant there is a very specific thing that is taking place, the chin is

in and you are chanting from the navel. Ideally you may notice that you

don't have enough breath to make it all the way through Ong Namo.

 

Originally this was taught as a kriya, it is done with one breath and it

is a particularly short breath, it's a long powerful chant. Now you can

take a little breath after Ong Namo. What that is translated to after

thirty years of being in the West is that people take enough time to go

get a cup of water between this Ong Namo and Guru Dev Namo - you take a

little sip. You may go and take a class somewhere else and it may be a

totally different teaching, but the original way it was done is one

breath and the idea is that you build up the capacity of your pranic

body so that you have enough breath and strength in your lungs, so you

can do it one breath. But if you can't, you just take a little breath

and you complete the rest.

 

Your eyes are focused at the third eye as you do this and your spine is

very straight. So let's tune in so we can begin.

 

Sit in a comfortable meditative pose, your hands resting on your knees

for a moment and begin to breathe long and deep. Eyes are closed. Use

your awareness to know this is no small endeavor to tune in, because it

is the foundation for the work that will do. A concentrated action to

clarify your energetic body. Consciously try and prepare yourself for

this, in many ways, most important kriya. To acknowledge yourself for

even creating the time in your life and the space in your life to work

on yourself. It's a noble act. Feel yourself prepared and ready for all

that comes, because the mantra itself will invoke your highest self (Ong

the Namo - the infinite is identified, Guru dev Namo - the teacher

within - that aspect of me which will move me from my darkness into my

light is identified).

 

An invocation of the self. Perfect! Bring your palms together, rub your

hands, the hands are in prayer pose, palms are together, the sides of

the thumbs against the fingers and now the sides of the thumbs are going

to press against the sternum. This is the area known as the mind nerve.

Straight spine shoulders back and down, eyes are closed and feel

yourself solidified as a perfect yogi, prayerfully ready to invoke the

inner self. Spine is straight, eyes are closed and the focus is within

and up at the third eye (seat of the soul). Inhale deeply, exhale,

inhale, and exhale, inhale deeply, and exhale completely! Inhale to tune

in.

 

(Class chanted Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo). Now inhale, suspend the breath,

draw your focus within and up and meditate. Exhale and inhale, exhale

and gently relax your arms down, your wrists once again to your knees,

your hands in receptive gyan mudra (the index finger touching the thumb)

and connect to the breath. Slowly open your eyes (if you like).

[Guest guest]

kundalini boo boos?! LOL Dharam you crack me up sometimes.

 

On a more serious note........WOW! I was so pumped after reading

this, I was ready to go and meditate right now. Who needs work

anyways? ;-)

 

I do have a question though. From your post, in one of the last

paragraphs, you say to put your hands together, with thumbs touching

fingers and then thumbs also touching sternum. I had always done it

with thumbs against the sternum, but not touching the fingers. I have

the fingers together touching each other and all pointing straight

up. If I touch my thumbs to fingers, then thumbs to sternum, my

fingers don't point straight up, but rather angle in and point

towards my throat. Maybe I misread the instructions. Could you please

clarify that for me? Thanks!

 

Christa

[Guest guest]

If I can add my two cents.........I have never seen, after 25 years of

practicing and teaching, a single "kundalini" blockage in students, myself,

or in clients. I have seen lots of chakra and meridian blockages, lots of

blockages due to unresolved psycho-spiritual issues, blockages of prana and

elements. However, according to Yogi Bhajan, the old way of doing kundalini

yoga was dangerous and caused problems. It didn't involve tuning in; it

didn't involve regulating time, and it didn't take into consideration the

relationship between the chakras and the arc line and radiant bodies ( the

inner and outer projection of the kundalini energy through the aura). His

system has corrected that and as I say, I have never seen a "kundalini"

problem and I have lived with this personally and professionally all my

adult life. When you need healing, you need healing. And when you practice

yoga you also need the "ethics" of it because that is what protects you. It

is also necessary to understand that kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan

is a reformation of many of the old ways in order to make them successful

and accessible in a new age. Many of our thought processes and many of our

approachs to understanding spiritual technologies therefore have to be

reformed too. I don't think people often accept this quite yet, and I also

don't think a lot of people realize the extent of the self healing required

to usher in the aformentioned change of ages and make the future a reality,

rather than more of the same. And who wants that?!

 

Seva Simran

[Guest guest]

Satnam ji,

Tuning in is half the work done if you ask me. As a teacher who have done

this over and over with Yoga students I can safely say I could not in my

wildest imagination do this form of energy work without asking for guidance

from God and the chain of teachers out there. I am absolutely sure that I

would be sending in posts of strange kundalini rising and students with many

weird experiences!

Don't get me wrong I have had my share of kundalini awakenings and have been

overwhelmed by them and in the beginning very scared . I started pretty young

in the yoga business so I did make a few mistakes assuming that I could get

away with out respecting the laws of nature and the laws of the yoga and

common sense.

I remember when I was around 18 I did a meditation to create energy beyond

description...No probem I was stuck with so much energy but my environment

did not support it or my creativity was not open enough to use it so I had

the strangest experiences. I did not stop the yoga but started questioning

what I did with the yoga and watched my experiences with it the same way I

did when I take my medicines.

If you don't respect the purity of this science it will come back and bite

you.. a wise man sayeth. There is a lot of subtleties to this science that

you will only understand with practice. Therefore do what the master says and

follow and trust the rules. be the disciple and humble yourself to the

process and the process will teach you.

I encounter a lot of students who do not want to listen to the rules and the

mudras and the exact positions ect and as a teacher I have to teach and go

through the pain of it with them. Life is about mastery and a master knows

that the universe is based on laws. Master the yoga through disciple and it

will serve you. A person without discipline is like a rose with out a

scent...pretty but..

Tune in to the higher self with the mantra and experience and understand that

what we do is far beyond us. It is a science and we are constantly learning

through our experiences.. also where we are going with it is infinite.God and

creation in it's most awesome capacity.We are not only learning but becoming

a vessel for it. Powerful stuff if you ask me.

Well I gotta go and don't forget to tune out also.. but that's another

topic:)

peace and love

s.i.r.khalsa

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Christa,

Sorry for just getting back to you. My desktop went south.........

The thumbs are relaxed. The knuckles are pressing the "mind" nerve in

the sternum and the soft part of the thumb tip is making contact with

the index finger or at least the edge of the palm. The thumb represent

the ego and you don't want it to be separate from the rest of your

being. It seems like a subtle point but it is very powerful.

Take care,

Dharam

 

 

> kundalini boo boos?! LOL Dharam you crack me up sometimes.

>

> On a more serious note........WOW! I was so pumped after reading

> this, I was ready to go and meditate right now. Who needs work

> anyways? ;-)

>

> I do have a question though. From your post, in one of the last

> paragraphs, you say to put your hands together, with thumbs touching

> fingers and then thumbs also touching sternum. I had always done it

> with thumbs against the sternum, but not touching the fingers. I have

> the fingers together touching each other and all pointing straight

> up. If I touch my thumbs to fingers, then thumbs to sternum, my

> fingers don't point straight up, but rather angle in and point

> towards my throat. Maybe I misread the instructions. Could you please

> clarify that for me? Thanks!

>

> Christa

>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Oops, mine have been seperated from the fingers this whole time.

Thanks, I'll make that correction effective today.

 

Christa