Kundalini Yoga Yogi

Meditation & Yoga

A Silent Meditation

 Meditation is the most critical part of any yoga practice. After all, the reason we do yoga is so we can meditate. Yoga enables us to sit straight, breathe deeply and focus inwards.

 If you are new to yoga and meditation, then some explanation may be necessary. Meditation is NOT a blanking or smothering of the mind into submission. We do try to quiet the mind, calm it and bring it under our conscious control.

 You may think you are in control of your mind but, if you use your mind to think about it, our thoughts pop up from what seems like nowhere. How often has a random memory, from years ago, come to mind in the middle of totally unrelated conversation or circumstance? Our minds are like exotic radio or television receivers. Instead of precise tuners or channel selectors, our focus is wide and general, wandering and accurate only if we concentrate with effort.

 Similarly, when we meditate we want to focus on our divine nature, our soul, our connection with the infinite. There are many tools in Kundalini Yoga to help us with that focus. This meditation is one. Yogi Bhajan gave it in December of 1995 at a Winter Solstice Celebration.

 First sit in Easy Pose with the spine straight. (It’s a lot easier to do if you have just completed an invigorating set of yoga.) The left hand, palm open, is placed on the sternum with the thumb pointing up towards the head. The rest of the fingers are horizontal, parallel to the floor. The right hand, similarly configured, is place on top of the left. Both thumbs point towards the head while the elbows are relaxed against the rib cage.

 By way of explanation this is called a mudra. It will occupy the physical body. Maintaining it requires attention to how we are oriented—is the spine slouching, are the hands moving from the parallel, and so forth. When the mind begins to wander, we can check our physical position and correct it as a way of bringing the mind back to the task of MEDITATION. There’s no need to shout, just do it.

 Next comes the breath. Inhale though the nose and exhale through the rolled tongue, that is curled in a “U” and protruding slightly past the lips. (This position is called Sitalee Pranayam.) 

 This breath, in addition to the mudra will aid in gently disciplining the body and mind to remain focused on the task of meditation. Sit silently, do it correctly. Be calm, quiet, silent, in silent meditation. Yogi Bhajan has said, “It will give you the deepest silence of the self. You will hear the silence. Silent meditation is one in which you can hear yourself. Otherwise it’s not silent. If you extend to the point where you can hear your own heartbeat, you are done.”

 You can begin with three minutes but it is best to sit for at least 11 minutes if you can. You can work your way up to 22 or 31 minutes. The 31 minute goal is ideal.

Solstice

What if there were only one thing?

By Karta Purkh Khalsa

I.Sadhana Time

I am walking carefully along the “path”

In the parking lot of Ram Das Puri

It is about 3 a.m. or so,

Completely dark, no moon

And I am using this vain dark discipline

Of walking without a flashlight

To save the batteries, I lie to myself

But really,

To prove myself a yogi.

Sadhana Time, of course,

The most perfect time

I have realized

In all the 30 years of this

Rising early (bedding early)

Practicing yoga, meditating, singing

Stretching

Thinking

That if this were the ONLY thing

Going on here these seven or eight days 

It would still be a perfect thing to do,

To hunger after (before the hot Yogi Tea)

Each and every morning

Perfecting a practice

Practicing a perfection

To someday become what I am

Perfect in practice

And practicing a perfection.

II. White Tantric Yoga!

Oh God, I plead to myself

Please make it go away.

But it never does

For 31 minutes, for 62 minutes

For however long, however often

I must (want to/not want to)

look into my beautiful wife’s eyes

Or imagine them, from behind closed lids

In the depths (or heights) of a mantra

Rolling over and over

My voice and my ears, repeat

My mind commences never shutting down (or up!)

My arms and legs do not matter,

Nor does my spine

None of them will burst or break or fall off

Just do it as the arcane slogan says

Yeah, just do it!

And would I do it, as imperfectly as I do

If this were the only thing

We were to accomplish

Up here at 7000 plus feet

In the hot windy sunny dusty desert

For three days until the rains come

And our ascendants align themselves

Awaiting our blessings

So they might move on

And we will too

Would I do it?

I suppose, not happily

But I would,

Just to experience the end

When its over

In awesome relief of another

Great task complete.

III. Meal Times

In long and squirrelly curved lines

Seated in the shelter’s cement floor

Hungrily awaiting this humble meal

Of vegetables and spices

The morning’s bananas and oranges

The evening’s hot sauce, beets and carrots

Has food ever tasted this good

Oh. I suppose so but there’s no memory like this one

Of a hot bowl of soup

(Sat Inder always supplies me with a protective paper towel)

as I too freely enjoy the pleasures of a balanced mineral meal

And most especially as I am enjoying this

A beloved friend walks by and

I can barely stop him or her for the food’s enjoyment

Has he cooked this for me?

Has he served my wishes?

And one server says to me,

“You’re the reason I’m here!”

I almost flop over in pleasure

But dare not spill this precious meal

So, why would I not come?

Just for this “precious meal”

And all that it entails

For these few days upon this healing land

To eat at the healing hands of saints

To swish my soiled dishes clean

and cleanse and purify them in bleach water

to await the next sacred meal.

Why would I not come?

If this were the only thing I had to look forward to

IV.The Water

What else could help so?

This deep and sacred healing water

This liquid clear delight

That keeps me alive, hydrated

(You do not know,

If you have never been there,

How important this water is

In this dry and dusty high desert)

Everything up here utilizes this

Alpha and omega of elemental elements

The soup, the beans, the cleansing cold

Showers that sweep away the dust and

Proceeds back into the earth and air

To circle ‘round again and regain

My favor as beautiful and useful

Lovely tasting

Perfection upon my tongue and down my throat

Coursing through dust addled dryness

Working magic magically

With so many stories (legends, really)

Attached to its finding

Did he really defy the well driller

And bet him money that there was water there

When the experienced worker laughed and

Said there was none?

Did I really imagine that first year?

That first Solstice here?

Was there really just a single water faucet?

Jutting up out of the ground for us to fill bottles and canteens from?

Of course there was (or wasn’t)

And of course I would return each year

To see and experience

The course of that water

Down my arid throat

To heal what was gone wrong in the

Year long time since I’d been here last

As I would have to,

Return, if not just for this one thing,

this one healing. And as I leave

It is not the last bottle of this solstice

It is the FIRST bottle (of water)

of Next solstice.

V.Solstice

I will always come back

For wonder and these one things

Each separately enjoyed

And perceived

Never to be duplicated until

The thing arises again

A benevolent monster

Taking over my eyes and ears and body

With what is hard and right

Hot healing dry inspiring dusty

This one thing

This one spiritual act

Repeated over and over annually

Like a lifetime’s kriya

Enveloped perfectly within

But not within

Enveloping rather all that I do

Or try to do

This one thing

I attempt to do

Perfectly, precisely, annually

For myself and all those dear to me.

This one thing.