*** Tuning in ***

[Guest guest]

TUNING IN: (more info at http://kundaliniyoga.org/kyt03.html )

 

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. This is kind of important because we do Kundalini Yoga

which is all about raising the energy up the spine. 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).

 

 

 

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from

http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm