The navel chakra and kundalini yoga

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam. The following lesson is one of the most basic to Kundalini

yoga. The Navel Chakra is a book in itself. Below I discuss some of

the most important aspects of this power center. I have included a

yoga set taught by Yogi Bhajan in 1971, which remains a classic kriya

for balancing and activating the navel center. Practice this set for

40 days and let us know how you feel! It will definitely change your

life!

 

Yogi Bhajan teaches that the seat of the Kundalini is in the navel

center. Reflecting on my experience over the last 22 years of

practicing Kundalini Yoga (preceded by 8 years of Hatha yoga), I have

often had an intuitive urge to return to the navel center. The

answer to the question at hand, whether it is about me or a student,

is often " strengthen your navel center. "

 

The navel center is the focus of many spiritual disciplines. The

Taoists start and return to the navel center while practicing the

microcosmic orbit. (Internal circular breath that starts at the

navel, goes down the front to the base of the spine, goes up the back

to the crown and back down the front to the navel.) *(1) The

internal martial arts initiate moves from the navel or don tien,

which is 2-3 inches below the navel.

 

WHERE IS THE NAVEL CENTER?

 

In the very early Kundalini lessons taught by Yogi Bhajan, he said

that the navel center is actually approximately 2-3 inches below the

umbilicus. In these lessons, therefore, when we say navel center we

are referring to a point 2-3 inches below the belly button. This is

the center of energy that is the gravity balance point in the body.

 

When we pump our navel energy or move from our navel center we are

actually pumping and moving from a center where thousands of nerves

come together. Each person can find this center in their own body by

doing the Kundalini yoga exercises given by Yogi Bhajan. As you

practice the exercises, the nerve endings will be stimulated and the

energy will coalesce at this point. Practice of any of the martial

arts will also help you find and align this center of gravity in your

body.

 

One way to know is by feeling the pulse at this point. You can also

feel the pulse right at the navel or umbilicus. Either way, a

powerful pulse will indicate that your third chakra energy is aligned

or " set. "

 

There are different schools of thought about the location of the

navel center. I thought that all the martial arts taught that this

center, called the don tien, was 2-3 inches below the physical

navel. However, several years ago I studied with a Chi Gong master

who taught that it was right at the umbilicus. The man was certainly

a master of chi and his techniques worked. Kundalini yoga has been

taught using both locations. It all seems to work. Individual

practice will help you find and cultivate your power center. Might

have guessed that the Masters would give us just enough information

so we would have to practice the techniques in order to experience

the truth for ourselves.

 

OPENING THE HEART CENTER

 

When Yogi Bhajan came to the West and Los Angeles in 1969, the

strengthening and balancing of the navel point was one of the main

focuses of his classes. His yogic message was that in order to get

and stay in the heart center we first had to cultivate a powerful and

stable base or the " lower triangle. " The lower triangle is the lower

three chakras - root, sex and navel. The major theme of my first

book Transitions of the Heart-Centered World (1988) is how to build

the lower triangle as a base for moving into the heart chakra.

 

It is interesting to look back and observe the different spiritual

paths in the 70's and 80's. The message of the flower children of

the 60's was " All we need is love. " Yogi Bhajan attracted many of

these flower children to his classes. We certainly need more love.

The question is how do we get it? Yogi Bhajan essentially said, " If

you want love, you have to prepare your mind and body to give and

receive it. " So while other paths were concentrating on opening the

upper chakras to receive universal Love, Yogi Bhajan was teaching us

breath of fire, stretch pose and other strenuous abdominal

exercises. There was no time to sit around and love each other. We

were instructed to get up at 3:00am, take a cold shower and do 2 1/2

hours of Kundalini yoga and meditation. And then there was the rest

of the program, which included seva (selfless service), devotional

chanting, and teaching, setting up restaurants and ashrams. Who had

time for love? We were exhausted!

 

Yogi Bhajan is a " Saturn " teacher. He teaches through discipline,

lessons and committed action. We don't contemplate our navels. We

pump them until they are activated and our internal energy moves

spontaneously and dynamically.

 

FROM ANGER TO ACTION

 

One of the reasons for following a spiritual path is our desire to be

more spiritual. However, we can't be spiritual if we are filled with

anger and fear. We have to clear out or transmute our anger and fear

in order to make room for Spirit and Love.

 

Anger is navel chakra energy. I like to think of navel energy in

terms of " anger into action. " When our navel chakra is strong, we

have the energy to take action and accomplish things. When it is

weak, we have difficulty taking action for ourselves. When we can't

act, we feel like victims of external forces, outside authorities and

political or economic systems. And indeed, when we do not take

action to get our needs met and do what we want and need to do, we

usually are victims. Those with a weak will, or navel center, are

easy prey to those who live off the manipulation, control and

exploitation of others through personal intimidation, guilt trips,

advertising, political, financial and brut power. Not taking action

on our own behalf and falling prey to the manipulation of outside

forces, breeds inner anger and rage.

 

With rare exceptions, we all carry unresolved anger in our body and

psyche. Everyone has experienced some injustice or abuse, which when

triggered or remembered, sets them off. Our goal is not to get rid

of this reaction all together. Anger is a normal and useful

emotion. Emotions are the way our Soul speaks to us. When we

experience anger, we are receiving information from our Soul that we

must translate into messages that pertain to the situation at hand.

Some messages anger tells are- " This situation does not work for

me. " " Don't waste your energy. Gracefully leave. " " I need to take

action. " " Something needs to be done, and I better do something

about it. "

 

The problem with all our " negative " emotions-anger, fear and sadness-

is that these emotions are too often not evoked in response to a

current situation. What typically happens is that current life

situations evoke unprocessed abuse and reactions from the past. One

of our major life goals is to process unresolved emotions, so that

our responses, instead of being automatically controlled by our past,

give us accurate information about moment to moment circumstances.

 

Unprocessed emotions are stored on our body. Kundalini yoga is a

powerful tool to help dislodge these emotions from our body and

transmute this energy into higher frequencies. Anger is eventually

transmuted into Light.

 

One of the most powerful ways to move out of the state of

disempowerment into empowerment is to cultivate our own internal

power. Yogically, the navel center is the place to begin.

 

As we work on the navel point, we will also work on the first two

chakras. Yogi Bhajan used to tell us that a cup without a bottom is

not going to hold much tea. In building the lower triangle, we are

building our foundation, or the bottom of our cup, so that we can

hold the universal tea of Love. Creating a bottom for our cup and

clearing out the past hurtful memories from our cup are two important

steps in making our " Transition to a Heart-Centered World. "

 

A FAST PATH - " IN YOUR FACE " YOGA

 

In the yogic scriptures it is said that Kundalini yoga is 16 times

more powerful than Hatha yoga. On the one hand, that seems to be

good news. The Catch 22 is-- How do we make such quick progress?

We are confronted with our issues 16 times faster! Kundalini yoga

is " In your face yoga. " Spirituality can be a rough ride. A lot of

things get better and some things certainly seem to get worse! No

spiritual journey is a free lunch. We are obliged to deal with our

issues in order to set ourselves free.

 

I remember how some of us naively thought that everything would be

blissful on a spiritual path. Many of us used to think that

enlightenment was just a few meditations away. At one Ladies Camp

many years ago, Yogi Bhajan responded to this fanciful interpretation

of spirituality. He said, " I never told you that you would not have

problems. I told you that you would be able to get through them.! "

 

THERAPY AND GROUP HEALING

 

Kundalini yoga is a powerful tool that helps us unleash our vital

energy. Regular practice unblocks and transmutes energy that is being

held as stress, pain, anger and fear. Combined with the meditations,

the breathing, movement and positions help clear our psyche, cleanse

our subconscious and balance our emotional energy. However, the

dynamics of the healing process often require outside support and

interaction as well.

 

I used to believe that I could just do Kundalini yoga and meditate

and everything would be taken care of over time. Kundalini yoga and

meditation does much to purge us of the emotional charges of past

traumas. However, to achieve lasting empowerment and inner peace, we

must look at and consciously resolve our inner wounds. Kundalini

yoga and meditation help us become aware of our wounds and give us

the strength and perspective to consciously deal with them.

 

What is often referred to as our inner child issues (the wounds that

we received or perceived that we received while we were very young)

must be " healed. " In addition to a spiritual discipline, this task

is expedited by working with a competent therapist and working with a

group such as a Twelve Step program. Interaction with a trained

counselor who can identify our patterns and with a group that can

support and accept us as we are, are invaluable parts of the human

growth process. They complement and speed up our results. Realizing

that we are not alone and identifying our common human problems and

solutions as we move through the human experience can be a welcome

relief and powerful asset to our healing. Bonding with others is not

only comforting, it opens up our hearts.

 

Our individual process is a very personal part of the empowerment

game. However, as we practice Kundalini yoga together, the Onelist

system, for example, gives us the opportunity to share our results

with each other. It is fun to monitor our progress. What issues are

in our face that we can no longer relegate to our inner cave called

denial. How have our lives changed? What is happening internally

and externally? What different situations and new opportunities are

we attracting? As you practice Kundalini yoga, keep track of your

progress and share them with the group as you feel inspired to do so.

 

FROM ANGER TO FORGIVENESS

 

For your own personal processing, I recommend a book called From

Anger to Forgiveness by Earnie Larsen. It is short, concise, to the

point, easy to work with and cheap (only $6). For me, one of the

most interesting and liberating lessons of the book was the

revelation that past anger is often disguised as problems that we do

not often associate with anger-depression, having the fidgets, being

secretive, feeling victimized, being a workaholic, undefined

agitation and smoldering rage.

 

I personally found that simply identifying a situation that made me

angry as a child allowed me to become calmer in my daily activities.

I discovered that my fidgety agitation and tendency of my mind to

jump from one activity to another was linked to the expectation of

over responsibility as the oldest child. The combination of the

revelation of this understanding, sharing with a friend who was also

working with the book and the practice of Kundalini yoga catapulted

me to a more peaceful state of consciousness.

 

IDENTITY IN THE LOWER TRIANGLE

 

The basic problem with unresolved anger is that this vital energy is

consumed and unavailable for living our lives and creating our

dreams. Unresolved anger creates blind spots in our psyche, which

results in indecision, the inability to commit and even the inability

to know what we want in the first place! It is my experience that

when I know what I want, go for it and achieve results, I experience

a sense of satisfaction in my life. I believe that this is true for

all of us.

 

It is in the lower triangle that we achieve a sense of our own

identity. The first three chakras are where we experience our

individuality. It is in our uniqueness that we identify not only who

we are, but also what we want and how to accomplish our goals. It is

the FIRST CHAKRA and our connection with the Earth that gives us the

power to manifest, to bring into being our desires, and to achieve

results. The SECOND CHAKRA gives us the power to create. The THIRD

CHAKRA gives us the energy to take action.

 

So let's take action to strengthen and activate our navel center and

build our lower triangle.

 

SETTING THE NAVEL CENTER

 

The navel center is the easiest chakra to monitor. You know your

navel center is " set, " when you feel a pulse at or around the rim of

the umbilicus. You can also monitor this pulse at the don tien or

navel center 2-3 inches below the navel and in the line between these

two points. Although you can check the pulse sitting or standing up,

the easiest position is lying down. The best times are before and

after the navel exercises.

 

Simply take the middle finger of either hand, place it on the navel

or navel center and search for a pulse. If there is no pulse, the

pulse is weak or it is not in or around the navel, your navel

needs " to be set. " When there is a strong pulse on or near the

center of the navel, it is " set. " You will experience that after the

exercises, the pulse is stronger and the position may have also

changed.

 

After a few leg lifts, one woman had her pulse jump from the lower

right corner of her abdomen to the center of her navel! So do not be

alarmed if you cannot find your pulse. The Kundalini yoga works.

 

It is normal to have a weak pulse in the morning after sleeping.

That is why it is strongly recommended to set your navel center

before you start your day. Also during the day, if you feel off

center, pump your navel center or do breath of fire to come back to

center.

 

Footnotes

 

*(1) Sexuality and Spirituality by Gururattan Kaur Khalsa and Ann

Marie Maxwell, pp. 153-7. sexuality.html

 

NABHI KRIYA TO SET THE NAVEL CENTER

 

The following set NABHI KRIYA was taught by Yogi Bhajan in 1971 and

remains one of the classical sets to set the navel center.

 

(The diagrams to accompany this set can be found on our Website -

kundalini yogakyt07.html)

 

(1) Lie on your back, arms by your side, palms down. Or hands under

your buttocks to protect the small of your back. The small of the

back is remain touching the floor during these exercises. Placing

the hands under the buttocks helps make this possible.

 

Inhale as you lift your right leg up to 90 deg. or perpendicular to

the ground. Exhale as you lower it. Inhale raise your right leg.

Exhale lower it. Continue lifting alternate legs with deep, powerful

breathing. The original directions were 10 minutes. Begin with 1-2

minutes. Stabilize your practice at 3-5 minutes and work up to 10

minutes if you can.

 

(2) Without pause, lift both legs up to 90 deg. on the inhale, and

lower them on exhale. Arms are stretched straight up over the heart

center, palms facing each other. Continue for 1-2 minutes and work

up to 5 minutes.

 

(3) Bend your knees and clasp them to your chest with the arms below

the knees. Press the small of your back to the ground. Allow your

head to relax back. Rest in this position for 5 minutes. (No need to

shorten this time :+)) Make sure you are warm enough.

 

(4) In the same position as #3 inhale, open your arms straight out to

the sides on the ground and extend your legs straight out at a 60

deg. angle above the ground. Exhale and return to original

position. Repeat and continue for 1-3 minutes. This exercise was

originally given for 15 minutes. Again work up to that amount of time

if you can. (#3 and #4 are known as Pavan Sodan Kriya.)

 

(5) On your back, bring your left knee to your chest, hold it there

with both hands and rapidly raise the right leg up to 90 deg. and

down. Inhale up. Exhale down for 1 minute. Switch legs and repeat for

1 minute. Repeat the complete cycle one more time.

 

(6) Stand up straight, raising arms overhead, hugging ears, and press

fingers back so that palms face the sky/ceiling. Exhale as you bend

forward from the navel center to touch the ground, (if you can) Keep

the arms straight, hugging ears, and inhale up VERY SLOWLY with a

long deep breath. On the exhale (as you bend forward and especially

while you a fully forward, apply Mulbhanda or Root lock. Continue at

a slow pace for 2 minutes, then more rapidly for 1 more minute.

 

(7) Totally relax or meditate for 10-15 minutes.

 

BENEFITS. This set focuses on developing the strength of the navel

point and build a powerful base in the lower triangle (chakras 1, 2

and 3). The full times indicated are for advanced students. To begin

practice, start with 1-5 minutes on the longer exercises. (1) is for

lower digestive area.. (2) is for upper digestion and solar plexus.

(3) eliminates gas and relaxes the heart. (4) charges the magnetic

field and opens the navel center. (5) sets the hips and lower

spine. (6) is for the entire spine, unleashes spinal fluid and

expands the aura. Together, these exercises get the abdominal area in

shape quickly!

 

This exercise set is found in Transitions to a Heart-Centered World

and Introduction to Kundalini Yoga.

 

TUNE IN Be sure to tune in before doing the set by chanting the mantra

 

ONG NA MO GURU DEV NA MO at least 3 times. See Lesson Three.

 

To warm up the spine and ground your energy first see Lesson Four on

the Flexibility of the Spine.

 

CONCLUDING Conclude all Kundalini Yoga sessions by singing

 

May the long time Sun shine upon you All love surround you And the

pure light within you Guide your way on.

 

Then chant

 

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat Nam 3 times

 

For one or more minutes ground yourself by being present to all the

sensations in your body.

 

(Source: kundalini yogaclasses.html )