Meditation for Interdependence

 Today  feels sweeter, the light feels brighter, my being feels clearer!

I have discovered another gem of a meditation :  Meditation for Interdependence.  I have recently, in the last couple of days, added it to my daily practice.

You sit comfortably, no specific hand mudra is given, hands relaxed and you make a strong clucking sound with your tongue striking and releasing it against the upper palate.  The tongue presses the upper palate and breaks from it with a force.  It pulls forcefully on the upper palate at the rate of approximately 2 clucks per second.  This stimulates the hypothalamus.

Very important!!! Do not practice for longer than 3 minutes.  Yogi Bhajan says more than 3 minutes and its no longer an excercise, it becomes an addiction.

You will find this meditation in the book:  SUCCESS AND SPIRIT:  An Aquarian Path to Abundance

I will definitely be teaching this meditation in my classes this week:)

ONE of the MILLIONS of things I love about Kundalini Yoga is that through these ancient techniques gifted to us from a long lineage of dedicated yogis, we can shift our consciousness in the shortest of times.  Try this meditation and observe how you feel afterwards. I would love to hear. 

Truely in 3 minutes, with the right tools, you can take yourself from a negative space into a clear, centered and balanced place.

Out of curiosity I consulted my old brown pages of The Concise Oxford Dictionary.  Their definition of
Independent:  self governing, not depending on something else for its validity, not depending on others for one's opinion or conduct.
Interdependence:  depend on each other

For me this also sums the essence of the Aquarian Age up, where we move away from an "I" focused reality and self gratification but rather towards a reality where we live to support and serve each other, uplift each other in a way that honours each one of our unique purposes and the highest good of our planet and all beings.

This is a powerful, short, punchy and pertinent  meditation. I have probably spent most of my life subconciously trying to prove how independent  I am!  Balance is always ultimately the aim. Moving away from the external act of proving and softening into the natural rhythm of  fully BEing, living.


AND....from the Aquarian Teacher by Yogi Bhajan:  The hypothalamus is the main intermediary between the nervous system and the endocrine system, the two major control systems of the body.  IT IS THE CENTRE OF MIND BODY PHENOMENA.   It sends information throughout the body in the form of chemical messengers that trigger emotions, metabolic activity, and actions in a nonlinear wavelike manner.

In the last few days Eckhart Tolle has been speaking to me through these words:  " whatever you fight you strengthen and what you resist persists"

Sat Nam

Travelling Yogi

I spend what feels like hours in the car everyday flying between classes. My car has become a second home.  I have my sandalwood oil to douse myself in after class, my cd's, himalaya lip balm I bought  in India a year ago, a water bottle and at the moment some organic oranges rolling around on the floor at the back. My current inbetween class snack! Juice and food in one!

The mantras are essential, they play continuously.  At the moment it is hours of the Dhan Dhan Ram Das Guru mantra by Sangeet Kaur.  Normally it is hours of Ardas Bhae by Mirabai Ceiba from their album Heart of Healing.  The mantra that gaurantees that our prayers are answered!  Recently I have also been playing Chardi Kala's version of Japji over and over inbetween some pumping pick me up Jai te Gang by Gurunam Singh! Thank you Carmen for this:) Before this Yogi Bhajans voice was on repeat  " Patience pays wait, let the hand of God work for you..."  always uplifting.   It always retunes me into the flow and rhythm of my life and drops me gently back into that place of trust.  Trusting again that my soul knows where my life needs to flow and who it needs to flow with.  Every soul is a great soul and is here with a great purpose.  We need to be gentle with each other as we each negotiate the new territory  that each new moment and breath brings.

When my daughter (Maya) remembers, she tries to put up a little fight to hear some 5 fm in the car, but mostly now we are ALLOWED  to listen to the mantras if they play softly!  When I am on my own I chant loudly or drift away and allow the rhythms to wrap around me and pentrate my being with their subtle healing effects.

Sometimes when she is with me we do splash out and have a little wild rock moment together. A laughing liberation.... Fun!  She is normally the one who turns the music softer!  She says that when I wear my turban it makes me deaf!

A few things I have learnt to do while driving:

• chant with wild abandon, smiling sweetly at incredulous fellow drivers as they drive past
• tie my turban at a red robot - sometimes even better than the one I tie using a mirror and lots of time!
• reach under the back seat for my juicy oranges

And in those moments where everything feels too much, too overwhelming, too challenging I remind myself that whatever I am healing within myself now, whatever I am releasing now, whatever I am sitting with and observing now, no matter how painful or scary, I not only liberate myself, but free the generations who came before me and energetically create a clearer space for my daughter and all the generations still to come. 

The healing most often does not come in the doing, the searching, the intellectualizing, the running and the resistance, but slowly opens and flows when we open to full acceptance, full presence with what is, as it is in our lives. 

Kirtan and Poetry

What a deeply beautiful evening it was last night.  Speaking my poetry felt like a powerful meditation, and the chanting an expression of the divine poetry of all our souls.  "Naad" the essence of all sound melted and merged.  What inspiration and honour to have Haripal and her instruments holding and carrying my poems as I read.  Loved it!  Especially my little microphone:) Creative fire and infinite spirit met and danced a silky circle dance through the perfect channel of sacred sounds.

  Thank you to those of you that joined us and added your unique voice to our circle.  Sat Nam :) 

New Moon Kirtan and Poetry for the Soul

Join Haripal Kaur and Me for some New Moon chanting and poetry.  Alive Dance Studio, Palmer Road, Muizenberg. Sunday 14th October. 6pm-8pm.  Search Cape Town Kirtan on Facebook for more details.
xx

Jaap Sahib

Jaap Sahib:  "  The Naad of Jaap Shaib rouses the soul and the self of the Being.  'Sahib' means grace.  Recite it when your position is endangered, or when your authoratative personality is weak.  This Bani brings grace and greatness. It will also give you the ability, that whatever people say, you will automatically be able to compute what they are actually saying.  And, once you are able to recite it correctly, it will give you the power, the Siddhi, that whatever you say, must happen.  Man can direct  God and God can direct man.  Guru Gobind Singh recited Jaap Sahib so that we would not become beggars at the doors of others....This Bani brings rulership, self-command and self-grace.  It brings royalty, divinity, ecstacy, bliss, bountifulness, beauty and grace.  It takes away fear and brings vitality, courage, power, strength and self-esteem." taken from Psyche of the Soul by Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan


It's amazing, in the last couple of months a lot of the kriyas I have been choosing to teach have either the last four lines of the Jaap Saahib in them, either to chant, to listen to or bow in rhythm to or include the  full Jaap Saahib, mostly to bow in rhythm to.

  What a huge Bani this is, so powerful and rhythmical.  Like with Japji Sahib when you listen to it or chant it, the sounds feel so familiar, it is said that your soul remembers the sacred sounds, Jaap Sahib feels the same.  As you move to the pulsing, deep rhythm of the chant you deepen and deepen and deepen into the healing POWER of the sacred sound currents.  You become the sound current.

 At this time on the planet there is so much duality as the excruciating growing pains of ALL of us reverberate and penetrate the cosmos.  The growing pains of our souls urging, nudging, encouraging us to expand, elevate and grow.  This of course can never be a comfortable process. We are all challenged and stretched to our absolute limits, faced with the darkest shadows of ourselves and others as we continually trigger, mirror and heal ourselves and each other, one precious breath at a time.  It feels like a great time of healing.  Being comfortable with the discomfort is a beautiful aim and a beautiful way of being.  Yoga poses like stretch pose or the kriays that ask us to do 108 of everything help greatly with becoming comfortable with discomfort!!!!

 I always remind myself that I have chosen to be here, in this incarnation, holding within me the most exquisitely profound purpose.  WE ALL DO.   I found Gurmukh Kaur Khalsas words she spoke in a workshop a couple of years ago so powerful..... I am para phrasing, the essence of what she was saying was this.....The Age of Aquarius is like a river, nothing can stop its flow!  So if our hands are bleeding and our fingers raw from hanging onto broken branches, breakable reeds, movable rocks and unsteady mud....we need to let go.  Flow with the river.  It is the only way.  That image is strong.

Let Go!


The last four lines of the Jaap Sahib:

  "Chattar chakkar vartee, chattar chakkar bhugatay
suyambhav subhan, sarab daa sarab jugatay
Dukaalang parnaasee, dayaalang saroopay
Sadaa ang sangay, abhangang bibhootay"

You are pervading in all 4 corners of the universe.
You are the enjoyer in all 4 corners of the univers
You are self-illumined and united with all
Destroyer of bad times, embodiment of mercy
You are ever within us
You are the everlasting giver of undestroyable power.


My two most favourite musical mantra versions of this are Snatam Kaurs version from her album 'Ras'.  It is so movingingly beautiful and truely does feel like your soul is being roused out of a deep slumber.  Her voice purely angelic and the words reach into the widest, highest and deepest parts of your soul.  Pracitically I also find that this version is a really beautiful version to learn the mantra to, as it is clear, with a slower rhythm.

And then the amazing Chardi Kala version is also powerfully rhythmic and strong.  Their version instantly  takes me straight to the Golden Temple in Amritsar!  Actually all their music does!  You are there bowing on the soothing cool marble floor or on the red carpeted roof of the actual Temple as the mantra echoes around you and pulses below you, as live musicians chant in the Gurdwara below.... truely chanting your soul beyond bliss!

I never doubt the kriyas THAT CHOOSE ME to be taught.  I have realised that as Kundalini Yoga teachers there is without a doubt something way bigger than us, our Golden Chain of connection that chooses the kriyas for us!  How many times have you been to a  Kundalini Yoga class and it feels like the class is just for you.  How many times have I been to a class where it feels like that? All of them!  We can only smile  with relief and trust that CLEARLY whatever we need on all levels and layers of our beings will be provided in accordance with what our soul needs to receive and learn.
Phew!

Sat Nam
xx

Yogi Bhajan says "I do not believe in miracles, I rely on them" love that, me too.  They happen all around us all the time.

9October: Miracles, Healing, Death and blessings

This quote found me today "  Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.  If in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free"  Thich Nhat Hanh

9 October 2012:

 My day started early, 2.30am with some honey sweet tea!..to begin our special sadhana at 4am .......Today marks the birthday of Guru Ram Das, Yogi Bhajans Guru and the 4th Sikh Guru who embodies the qualities and energy of healing, blessings and miracles. When he was alive, he used to disguise himself and go out and help the destitute and heal those in need of healing. For the last 5 years one of my soul sisters Jai and I have chanted this mantra together or apart, but energetically always supporting each other through it, waking each other up at the crack of dawn, starting at the same time and speaking to each other straight afterwards....and then the great letting go and allowing the miracles to unfold.

  Today we gathered in a tribe of 17 at the most magnifecent Phakalane in Hout Bay to chant from our hearts.  We were blessed to also have  4 beautiful children join us, wrapped in duvets and blankets sleeping like little angles throughout the 2.5 hour chant soaking up the ancient sacred sounds floating around and through them "Dhan Dhan Ram Das Guru....".  What a blessing to chant with these beautiful souls.  There were even a couple of new people who had never practised Kundalini yoga before or chanted for that long either, who journeyed with us into the mantra that became more and more familiar as they repeated it.  Time seemed to stretch and shrink in unison, in a divine rhythmic dance, as the sound currents kissed the air and danced us beyond the darkness of pre-dawn, beyond our fear, pain and karma and into the stark, sparkeling spring day, into the light, beauty and clarity of consciousness. In deep silence we took time to send our prayers and intentions out into the ether.

 The spirit winds of our souls sang.... guiding us one step deeper into trust.

 TRUST THE DIVINE RHYTHM AND UNFOLDMENT OF YOUR PURPOSE IT IS ALL AS IT SHOULD BE.PERFECT.

My Ward 20 Valkenberg class(criminally insane men) was also extra powerful today.  We chanted the healing Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung mantra.  The mantra for self healing, healing of others and healing of environments.  All the men chanted with gusto once they felt familiar with the mantra.  *Sean (all names have been changed to protect the identity of the patients) who normally has a smile on his face and participates so enthusiastically in the class, came to me at the beginning of the class to tell me he had boils on his body and they were sore. He seemed very distressed.  He coped so well with the class, doing as much as he was able to.  After the chanting meditation had finished *Bob who was lying on his back in corpse pose continued the chant throughout his relaxation.

....and the duality: driving out of Valkenberg, all my classes finished for the day, ready for a big nap, food and tea, I saw a crowd of people gathered just behind some yellow tape that cordined off an area.  There were police cars and a lifeless body lying on the grassy pavement. As I drove past a policeman lifted up this thickly dreadlocked mans limp arm and dropped it back down onto his body. In that split second that is all I saw. Life , death , miracles, sanity , insanity. The duality of life.  All we can do is allow the experience, fully experience the experience, observe and allow the emotion of the experience. Taking the practice of yoga into each breath. Full presence. Full allowance. Full observance. Full acceptance

Sat Nam