TYPES OF YOGA

We all must be pure to get anywhere with yoga, especially Kundalini.  Think the opposite of bad ideas.

Kundalini yogis dating back to Swami Sivanaanda Radha believe that life is divided into four 25-year periods focused on: learning (Brahmacharya), duty and family (Grihasta), learning under the Guru (Vanapratha), and then becoming the Guru (Sanyaa).  One must be very careful in the choice of words especially in the second half of their life.  

​

The path of Kundalini is precise.  Love is the center of the being.  The   One can inhale inspiration and exhale despair.  Chanting mantras raises the magnetic energy.  Holding the breath sailing over a mental lake and music off the waves, feeling the vibrations, into the universal light.  Sex is not a sin—light blends into light. Listening is an art that requires an ability to concentrate and the ability to mentally relax and receive.  Silence is of great profit.  A true listener has an ability to surrender.  Good listening will be met with gentleness, peace of mind, courageousness, and forgiveness.  Once one realizes one are divine light, one will be more accepting of others.  Sakta is the source of power. 

Kundalini yogis have some specific practices that help them meditation better: sitting on cloth rather than mats, drinking warm water, brushing the hair to connect oneself to the sun, taking a cold show, rubbing oil into one’s ears, wearing cotton shorts, and wearing a natural fiber head covering.

Via Kundalini one learns voluntary control over the autonomic nervous system. The pineal gland is the source of memory, like the register or an enormous filing cabinet without power of discrimination.  The pituitary gland is the master gland and considered to have the power of reasoning.  The mind operates on the conscious, subconscious, and super-conscious levels. There are sensational, rational and intuitive aspects: the comic, infinite, and universal aspects of the mind. 

Three gunas or aspectsa are sattva (pure), rajas (action/passion), and tamas (ineria, ignorance)

​

• Sattvic is non-colored mind: detachment, desirelessness, dispassion, and surrendering to what is. (luminosity, intelligence).  Sattva comes from 5 cognitive senses (jnanendrita) and manas (inner senses).

• Rajasic involves infinite possibilities to create and destroy (mental activity and motor energy).

• Tamasic mind: instinct and desire to move from darkness to light.  Everything starts in the mind.

 

Half knowledge is worse than no knowledge at all.  Pain can be a teacher, but a great teacher can help one avoid pain.  Impatience is an expression of arrogance.  The mind is a minute universe and takes time to explore.  A true guru will set the devotee free.  Be careful of making identifications, they can cause one to lose one’s divine nature.

​

Kundalini yogis are courageous but do not gamble.  They are very selective about what they open themselves to and why. They discriminate about who and what is invited into their mind.  Kundalini is not for one who seeks continue pleasure or achievement of fame. With practice clouded thinking becomes replaced with clairvoyance and clairaudience. 

Kundalinis believe in the power of sleep.  They watch their dreams and write them down, hold stones when sleeping, and see how stones changes one’s feelings in the morning.

​

Kundalini practice starts with the Adi Mantro chanting Ong Namo, Guru Dev Namo (I bow to all that is. I bow to the divine wisdom within myself) repeated 3 times.  The sound vibrations may align one to the divine golden chain.   Adi Mantra is frequently followed by the Devine Grind where participants lean into and out of 26 circles clockwise and then 26 counterclockwise with a relaxed body.  Next comess a 3-minute series of cat cow, followed by a Heat Opener lifting each arm up for 1 minute and looking at the sky.  A heat openr could be inhale and lift one’s right arm up, looking toward the sky.  Exhale and lower one’s arm. Repeat for one minute and the same on the left side for 1 minute.  This may be followed by an Aura Charger, where one sit, engaging Mula Bandha with a straight spine and curl one’s fingertips to touch, elbows straight.  Use breaths of fire.  Allow light to flow out one’s fingertips into the ground.  Then rub one’s eyes for three minutes to allow one’s third eye to open.  Next is Archer pose.  Stand up and take a wide stance with one’s left foot facing forward. Bend one’s left knee so it’s directly over one’s toes. Turn one’s right foot inward so it’s at a 45-degree angle with the front of one’s mat. Raise one’s left arm straight out in front of one and make a gentle fist. Then begin drawing one’s right arm back with one’s elbow bent. Keep one’s eyes open and focus forward on what one want to manifest in one’s life. From this position, straighten one’s left knee and then bend it again, continuing this motion for 2 minutes. Then, repeat on the other side. Continue with Cobra to down dog, holding each for 2-4 seconds. Seated ideally in padmasana (but sukasana is okay as well) with Mula Bandha engaged silently say the mantra: Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru, Wahe Jio. (meaning: Wow! From darkness into light. Wow! From unconsciousness into consciousness. Wow! From fear into love. Wow! It is happening now in my soul). When one silently repeat the words Wahe Guru, activate one’s Root Lock. Savasana is used to close the practice with an emphasis on imagining light bathing one’s soul.  The soul is not subject to birth or death. Practice is completed by chanting Sat Nam 3 times. Sat means truth. Nam means name.  Kundalini yogis converge at Sat Nam Fest in the Spring in Joshua Tree and in the Fall in Massachusetts every year.  European Kundalini practitioner’s often attend a three-day European Yoga Festival.

Here is another fun Kundalini exercise: Try brushing one’s finders upwards on the exposed stomach to pull energy up and then placing one’s thumbs against the back of the earlobes, cupping the rest of one’s hand around one’s head with one’s fingers pointing up.  Then push the hands forward again and again, drawing the magnetic energy through the brain to the point between the eyebrows.  Magnetism moves via nerve channels.  Remain sitting in an upright and comfortable position, inhaling slowly (ideally up to 30 seconds per inhale), and exhaling end more slowly.  After the mind is calmed by focusing on the breath, focus on the deeper energy, tuning out one’s breath from focus but continuing to breath.

​

The divine light invocation is also a strong practice in Kundalini yoga.​

• Tense body and then release it. See light coming down, filling one’s head and then one’s entire being. 

• “I am created by divine light. I am sustained by divine light. I am protected by divine light. I am surrounded by divine light. I am ever growing into divine light.” 

• Then one can stand with palms facing forward. 

• Send divine light to circle another, circling feeling clockwise then surrounding entire person.  

• See divine light cocoon at night before sleep. 

• Must be meaningful.