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We just got back from Summer Solstice in New Mexico and as always it was spectacular. It was a quick trip this year as my girlfriend Jamila and I both had pretty tight schedules. We moved into the new loft on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles the day after driving about 14 hours coming straight home.

Besides the three days of White Tantric Yoga– which is always amazing, we each did a couple of workshops. Over dinner at Nyala the other night we took out our little notebooks (that Jamila makes with her company 11:11) and compared notes.

Here’s a summary of some things… they’re quite like Koans, some of them. Spiritual riddles to ponder.

From Guru Dev Singh’s Sat Nam Rasayan workshop:

Everything has the right to exist.
This is interesting because in a dual world we want to discern and classify with the ego– good vs. bad. If you can wrap your mind around the idea that everything in existence has a right to exist, then this might just lead you to the insight that all are one– coming and going from one source. In this way if you can say yes to both the good and the bad in your life, breathe a little deeper and keep focused on your life’s intention, you’ll get a little closer each day. Another aspect of this concept is acceptance which as we’ve mentioned before is the key to just about everything. Pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are in the moment. However when you accept everything exactly as it is in the moment, you’re free to go and do whatever you desire. You’re not caught up on the impossible mind block of wanting things to change that you can’t change. In this way, when you’ve come across something dark or negative in your life, just accept that it too has it’s right to exist, then it becomes a part of the oneness of your entire projection. This isn’t surrender, it’s acceptance and it frees you up to focus on your life’s intention.

Sat Nam Rasayan is healing with the Shuniya or Zero state:

This is a mouthful and it’s always going to be a stretch for those who don’t meditate. You have to have an experience of this state to know it. Other than that, it’s a perfect example of the unspeakable nature of these things. As Nanak has said, “talking about it is like eating nails.” That said, I learned that the healing technique of sat nam rasayan is a way of creating a state of shuniya or the meditative zero state where you intend to stop as much of the mind stuff as you can so that the ultimate source of you can come through. We know that every time we meditate, particularly on the breath, that our auric field expands. In this way, if you practice this meditative healing technique of Sat Nam Rasayan and build your ability to become neutral, you can create a very healing field for the person you’re working on. Now, going back to this business of everything has a right to exist– when you’re performing SNR, your mind and body will give you sensations and thoughts and the idea is that this is all a part of the technique. If you don’t resist it, but rather use it, then it becomes an asset and can give insight as to what the person needs. Essentially it is healing as an extension of yourself.

Now more than ever individually we need to improve ourselves and become our best. Each person who elevates themselves, elevates the collective consciousness. In these tumultuous and dark times, there’s no question that each individual must be their all.

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A friend of mine suggested this idea a few days ago and so I ran with it. After all, everybody loves lists! Thanks Ali.

1. Think About Your Destiny Once A Day
2. Follow Your Heart
3. Follow Your Bliss
4. Pray for Others
5. Pray for Yourself
6. Meditate
7. Give to Charity
8. Follow Your Intuition
9. Breathe Deeply
10. Forgive Someone
11. Love Everyone You See
12. Treat Others as You Would Like To Be Treated
13. Do Something Self-Less
14. Be At Peace Within
15. Live In The Present Moment
16. Accept Things As They Are Now
17. Get Rid of Anger
18. Call Your Mother
19. Call Your Father
20. Be Kind to Yourself
21. Do What’s Right for You
22. Make The Higher Choice
23. Clean Your House
24. Try Something New
25. Don’t Worry

(more…)

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I’ve often seen people balk at kundalini yoga because they aren’t sure how it would sit with their religious beliefs. I tell people that Kundalini Yoga is the real time experience of everything religion promises or talks about with regard to the spirit– or God. Kundalini Yoga is the real-time experience of the soul of the human being, in the present moment. The exercises and breath coupled with sound current causes a vibration which raises the person’s frequency of consciousness higher. This higher vibration simply makes you feel good, no matter how you define it.

You can take God completely out of it if you want, it doesn’t matter. You can come from a purely medical perspective if you like. Breath and movement and sound stimulating the internal organs, the endocrine (glandular) system, the nervous system, and the electromagnetic field of the brain, causing greater relaxation from stress and better overall health.  You can approach it from pure science if you like. Sub-Atomic particles of matter vibrating at higher and higher frequencies, emitting light.  Everyone likes a person that’s bright.  No matter how you slice it, yoga, particularly Kundalini Yoga is universal. It simply makes you feel good.

It doesn’t matter what belief system you subscribe to- Kundalini Yoga will make you a more devout practitioner of your faith because in Kundalini Yoga, you actually feel the energy that created you and therefore you understand the structure of your religion and belief system even more– no matter what the flavor or denomination. The practice of kundalini brings you into harmony with your soul and from that you intuitively connect with your highest good and in doing so you will see the symbols of your particular faith and religion much more clearly.

Before Kundalini Yoga, I had been raised Catholic and then Protestant, Christian. I had fallen away from these religions because they weren’t satisfying to me. After practicing yoga I came to understand Christianity even more than when I had participated in it. So have no fear, Kundalini Yoga is non-denominational and is not faith based. It is for everyone.

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When you accept things the way that they are in this moment, good or bad, you free yourself to enjoy everything in your life.

A lot of people use the word surrender to describe this business of acceptance and I think like a lot of “spiritual” words Surrender can be a trap. Surrender is sort of what you’re after in acceptance, but it lends itself to the idea of doing nothing. Surrender is not apathy. What you’re after in surrender is simply acceptance. Acceptance is letting everything be just as it is and with that, in the moment, making your next best move.

When you accept even the things that you don’t want, you are re-affirming the universal truth that everything comes from within you, to you. Everything is a projection of your soul through the mind. This is pretty tough to accept on both ends. We all like to take credit for the good things in our lives… “I did that right there… see that?” But when it comes to the seemingly random or bad events that affect us from the outside, we don’t want to accept that it’s all coming to and through us. Because it is coming from a place that is beyond our ability to talk about and put it into a neat little box of understanding. First you have to accept that there’s this thing that you’re infinitely connected to that’s way bigger than you as an individual, but at the same time it is simply the bigger you. After that it’s about accepting everything that comes to you in the way of experience. There’s great liberation in acceptance. It’s called responsibility. (more…)

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Coincidences are what Carl Jung termed Synchronicity. There really are no coincidences. People like to say, everything happens for a reason. I don’t think everything happens for a reason, but I do think you can bring reason to everything that happens. A coincidence is like a happy accident, but actually it’s no accident that all. The coincidence is a glimpse into how things are supposed to be. Remember the universe is perfect and whole out beyond time and space. It contains infinite possibilities. It’s we who are limited by the mind. By the same token, we can be unlimited depending on how we use the mind.

When a coincidence happens, you should rejoice that you’re experiencing the divine perfection in the moment. The same goes for when you look over at the clock and it says 11:11 or 3:33 or some such seeming coincidence. That is actually a pulse from the universe where everything is lined up for a moment. My teacher says it’s good to project a prayer of some sort when you find yourself in an aligned moment like that. You can use a mantra or simply “make a wish” as some people like to say when they see these things appear. (more…)

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There’s a kundalini yoga yahoo group and a recent thread was posted in the forum about removing negative energy. I gave what I thought was a pretty good answer, so I’m posting it here for all to see. What do you think?

Please tell me how to remove negative energy from my body and tame my mind as my servant so that no negative thoughts ever in my mind…

It’s important to remember that the energy is neutral. It is we who bring meaning to the experiences we’re having. That meaning is shaped by the momentum of our personality and our mind (karma.)

We live in the world of opposites and this duality makes us forget the one source within. The pain that’s caused out in the world is designed to get us to re-member what’s within and seek it out so we can re-unite with it (yoga). In that light, it’s not really negative energy or bad, but rather “it’s all good.” I’m not saying it feels good though. (more…)

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A student of mine was telling me about an experience she had, recently. She was feeling down about something relating to her Dad. Often times when we regret something it’s because a realization about that situation has come too late, and hence, we regret what we did not do; what we missed out on, or what mistakes we made at the time. In this case, this woman remembered an angry moment with her dad and she regretted not telling him off and it began a whole series of emotions for her.

Thousands of thoughts fly through the mind with each blink of the eye, but they only take hold if we grab on to them and back them with emotion. Soon she found herself following a train of thought back into her past, having a non-existent argument with her dad. Suddenly she realized that this was all happening inside her mind. What was happening around her in the present moment was completely different from where her mind was– off in some non-existent landscape of the mind re-creating a scenario from the past. All of us do this. We grab onto a thought or even an assumption that may have never even happened and we go off in our minds, creating situations that don’t even exist, sparked by something that happened in the past. (more…)

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I came across this great blog called Gurushabad .  It’s maintained by a man from India named Surjit and it’s a pleasant little place with cool, short and to the point entries. One of his posts is so inspiring I am going to share it here.

Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile soil. The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me … I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring … I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”

And so it grew…

The second seed said, “I am afraid. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts … what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”

And so it waited…

A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food, found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.

Moral of the Story: Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life..

Make sure and visit his blog if you can. There’s a lot of nice thought provoking stuff there

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Since karma is simple cause and effect or action and reaction, if something happens to you and you just don’t react, you can stop karma in its tracks. Of course, like many practices of a spiritual nature, this is easier said than done.

The key word here is practice, though. Once you become aware of something that you were otherwise oblivious to, change begins to happen immediately. This is the power of the mind at work. It’s like shining a flashlight at a shadow in the corner. The shadow disappears. Whatever you put your attention on will grow and change. So if you make the decision to observe your reactions to things over let’s say, a forty-day period, you’ll begin to see change in how your life flows.

As you become a new observer to aspects of your life that previously went on automatically, you’ll begin to marvel at how you acted in the past. Perhaps you have a habit of getting into a road rage when you’re driving. Maybe you have to have the last word in arguments. You will change yourself if you just stop playing the game of reaction. Reaction is almost always emotional. Someone says or does something and it triggers in you a train of thought, which you then engage with emotion. This emotion swells in you and propels you into a reaction of some sort. This process always takes up a lot of energy that you could use for better things in your life. This doesn’t mean taking no action at all. It means not re-acting when something happens to you or someone does something that makes you want to respond. (more…)

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This is a great discussion of meditation by a great mind. Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, PhD., helped with the writing of the book “The Mind, Its Projections And Multiple Facets” by Yogi Bhajan, PhD. He’s a brilliant yogi and he really knows his stuff. For those of you who may be put off by appearances, forget about the turban and the Sikh religion for a moment and really listen to what he is saying about meditation on a strictly human level. It’s a wonderful discussion.

Enjoy!

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