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I have often struggled with what it means to be a warrior of a peaceful nature. Having been trained as an officer at West Point and then serving in the Army for five years, I constantly question what it means to truly be a peaceful warrior in this life. At first I rejected my military experience completely.

Then when I found kundalini yoga, I came to know the great lineage of Sikh gurus, such as Guru Gobind Singh, who were often forced to pick up the sword and fight. Still, there was always a gap of understanding in my mind– why would a fully realized being still train to fight and ultimately fight if necessary? Why did Sant Hazarra Singh, Yogi Bhajan’s Master, tell Yogi Bhajan that he would never see him again, and then enter a period of “living hell” as a freedom fighter during the partitioning of India in 1947?

For the longest time, I just took it on faith and continued to do my best to bring my warrior attitude to my practice of kundalini yoga and teaching.

Recently a friend of mine asked me to remove a picture that I had on myspace, because they said, it frightened them. The picture is nearly twenty years old-it’s me, as a cadet, with an M-16 rifle, on patrol in the Panama jungle.

I removed the picture, out of respect for this person. Ironically enough, though, the night before I had come across this following passage which put it together for me. It’s called “Victory,” from a book called 365 Tao: Daily Meditations, by Deng Ming-Dao.

Victory

Can you be both martial and spiritual?
Can you overcome your ultimate opponent?

To be martial requires discipline, courage and perseverance. It has nothing to do with killing. People fail to look beyond this one narrow aspect of being a warrior and so overlook all the other excellent qualities that can be gained from training. A warrior is not cruel murderer. A warrior is a protector of ideals, principal, and honor. A warrior is noble and heroic.

A warrior will have many opponents in a lifetime, but the ultimate opponent is the warrior’s own self. Within a fighter’s personality is a wide array of demons to be conquered: fear, laziness, ignorance, selfishness, egotism, and so many more. To talk of overpowering other people is inconsequential. To actually overcome one’s own defects is the true nature of victory. That is why so many religions depict warriors in their iconography. These images are not symbols for dominating others. Rather, they are symbols of the ferocity and determination that we need to overcome the demons within ourselves.

These words had somehow come and completed the notion in my mind of what a spiritual warrior is and why it’s okay to train and act with soldier-like discipline in life- because ones biggest opponent is always oneself.

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Got this email from my friend Kelly. Thought I’d repost it here because it’s got some wisdom if you can get past the corny…

: )

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed shovels and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Later, the donkey later came back, snuck up on the farmer and bit him on the ass. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer died from septic shock.

Moral of the story:

When you do something wrong and try to cover you’re ass, it always comes back to bite you in the end.

Five simple rules to being happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

That is all…

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When people get on a spiritual path often they think that they have to renounce everything. It’s a concept that keeps many from deeply exploring their own soul. It’s a function of duality. Many people, because religion has misled them, have a belief that you can’t be spiritual and still live a material life. It’s just a big, fat lie that in order to be spiritual you must be poor. I like the way Wayne Dyer puts it: I’m going to paraphrase here– but basically in The Power of Intention lectures he says, no amount of my being poor is going to improve the world. In other words if you’re upset that kids are starving halfway across the world, starving yourself in sympathy isn’t going to feed them. The converse is also true… if you make yourself whole, complete and radiant with the success that is You living a prosperous life, you add to the world simply living positively and happily. Your presence will uplift those that see you living well. It will inspire them to do the same. You can also apply some of that wealth charitably, healing some of the poverty and lack in the world.

Certainly you have to give some stuff up so that you can get perspective on your life and change your habits. In order to change you need to leverage your mind. You have to make time for a practice that allows you to connect with the greater part of your Self, the soul. You can’t change yourself if you’re doing everything the same as you always have because you have to step outside your normal life to gain perspective. You have to step outside your normal thinking and habits before you can see yourself in a different light.

We must become the change we wish to see in the world. –Mohandas Ghandi

That’s why many spirtual paths seem so austere, because you have to step out of the world and give up a bit of what you’ve attached importance to in order to see what’s beyond it. The devout seeker gives up everything to find God, but as mentioned earlier, that isn’t the only way. You can still be spiritual and have a job!

The path of the householder is someone who has a job and a family or in other words is engaged in an earthly life, but also has a spiritual practice. The history books are ripe with examples of great beings who follow the way of The Bodhisattava, “grounded in eternity, but moving in the field of time.¹”

The practice of Kundalini Yoga at its origins in India was given mostly to the royal caste as a householder’s yoga. It was practiced in secret and passed on from Master to student only through ardent initiation period to ensure comittment. It is now available to everyone, equally across the world since Yogi Bhajan came to the west in 1969 and began to teach it openly. Kundalini yoga is a practice that allows you a deep connection with the spiritual aspect of your being in very quick order. Movement (Kriya,) breath (pranayama,) and mantra (naad or sound current) combine to awaken the kundalini energy which is at the base of the spine. I tell my students it’s your superhero powers. Only you don’t have to have a nuclear accident or get bitten by a contaminated spider to activate them! There’s a super-human potential inside each human being. You simply have to do the yoga and it will happen gradually.

The Kundalini is the creative potential of the human being. It’s at the base of the spine at the level of the 4th lumbar vertebrae (L4). All types of yoga will inspire this kundalini energy if you practice with devotion. Kundalini just works much faster than some of the types of yoga that focus solely on the physical body. And in my personal philosophy, who needs to waste time in today’s world? Kundalini is the infinite energy that is inside all of us, that we have the universal right to awaken and use freely. It’s what gives you God-like power. The rest of it can be described all day long but until you have the actual experience of doing it you’ll never know.

Kundalini Yoga is both practical and esoteric. Because it’s been practiced by great mystics it can seem an ungrounded, out-there kind of practice, but it’s effects on the human apparatus can be measured very practically in time and space. Many studies have recently been done on its effects but are simply not widely known yet. There’s been a lot of medical research into the beneficial, some might argue miraculous effects of kundalini yoga and meditation to impact positive health.

The main idea here is that we’re all spiritual beings having a human experience. It’s easy, when caught in the web of duality to think you either have to be practical or spiritual and pick a side, but it’s not true. All we need is some way to access the spirit in the present moment. The rest will just come through you and you won’t want to stop because knowing your own soul is so sweet an experience.

I taught this yoga because it helps the householder who must live in and build a better life. You can find the heavens here within your life; you do not need to wait for a later heaven. During this lifetime, you must penetrate to the core and build yourself to go home.

When you grow and become the nucleus or hub of energy within your life, then everything comes to you. You have a hypnotic, electromagnetic psyche which can attract everything. Your very presence can work and have an impact…

Kundalini yoga is a householders yoga. It is the yoga which allows an ordinary person to live in this world, experience of the ecstasy of consciousness, then use this consciousness to serve humanity. –Yogi Bhajan

You can be in the world but not of it. I’ve always loved what Joseph Campbell said about Carl Jung– he’s a perfect example of someone who is “grounded in eternity, but moving in the field of time. ²” I’ve always sought that, ever since I read those words. Kundalini yoga gives you that power… to be constantly grounded in eternity and flowing effortlessly through time and space.

<sub>1. Reflections on the Art of Living, A Joseph Campbell Companion ~ Diane K. Osbon, editor; p. 120
2. ibid., p. 121</sub>

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<<Printable Version ~ Download Recipe>>

I got this recipe from the men’s lectures that Yogi Bhajan gave. In these lectures he outlines several high energy foods and recipes which contribute to potency. I’ve tried this recipe and it’s become one of my favorites.

He says that after eating these cauliflower chapatis you should take a little nap and when you wake you’ll be full of energy.
(recipe continues…) (more…)

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It’s interesting for me, as someone immersed in the yoga community, to watch how the world is waking up to yoga… especially when mainstream business starts to try and cash in on the upswing of a new thing. Found this article while surfing… from two years ago. Yoga has grown in the mass consciousness exponentially since then. They’ve created a name for a new demographic: “Yoga Mama’s” - young mothers who are basically earth and health conscious and buy more expensive green products.

In Hot Pursuit Of Yoga Mama
She’s busy and choosy. But reach her, and you tap into her network of friends, too

Two-year-old Casandra King’s bedroom is stocked with products that are very different from those her mother, Julia, had when she was that age. Instead of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ) Baby Oil and Vaseline (UL ), the Edison (N.J.) toddler gets slathered daily with petroleum-free lotions from California Baby. Her mom pays three times the price of the mass brands. And Casandra’s dresser is filled with organic cotton shirts and pajamas from niche marketers such as Hanna Andersson and Mama’s Earth, which can cost 50% more than clothes from Sears (SHLD ), where Julia’s mother shopped for four kids 35 years ago.

Julia King, 38, is part of an emerging class of women whom marketers call Yoga Mamas. These middle- and upper-income mothers are more style- and brand-conscious than their parents. No matter their income, they spend like lottery winners on their babies and toddlers. In the process, they’re revolutionizing the baby-products market and forcing manufacturers and retailers of all sizes to adjust. Read More…

It’s nice to know who’s marketing to you and that they even have a name for you!

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Came across this video on YouTube… It’s a great explanation of kundalini yoga from one of my teachers, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. Gurmukh is a great master who with Gurushabd Singh, her husband opened the Goldenbridge Yoga Center in Hollywood where I teach.

This video is a great overview of the practice from the point of view of one of the great masters of this yoga, Gurmukh.

Enjoy!

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