KUNDALINI YOGA and SURVIVING THE HARD TIMES
Yes, times are hard and seemingly getting harder. But there are a lot of things you can do to get through whatever the Universe has to throw at you. There’s a great toolbox in Kundalini Yoga and by rummaging around in the teachings you can find what you need to “Keep up” in these hard times. Here are a few suggestions:
1. DESERVE - To begin at the end: we trust that the things you’ve learned at yoga class are serving you well i.e.: helping you to love yourself, no matter what the circumstances of your life. You DESERVE the same patience, love, understanding, and encouragement you give to a good friend, a beloved, or to someone in need! Your continued study and practice of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation will help.
Yogi Bhajan has said, “If you pay a little bit of attention to yourself and show love to yourself you will find yourself to be different. You have been taught to hate everything, and that what you do not hate will eat you up. This is your most stupid behavior.” 7/19/01
2.
SERVICE
-
Call a local church, synagogue, mosque or temple, social service
agency, or community center, and see if you can be of service to
those in need. Ask your yoga instructor if they have any ideas of how
you can serve; talk with your fellow students and work together.
Serve.
3. GENEROSITY - Connect with the source of all abundance. Tithing (giving a percentage of your income to a spiritual cause of your choice) commits you to a good cause or those in need, even when it doesn’t seem convenient. It's a Universal law that those who give will always receive. Give.
Yogi Bhajan has said, “If you do not already pay … begin now! And add one dollar more each day … so that your community can be in strength and spirit. There are certain principles in life that have to be learned.”
He
recommended the following meditation: Prayer
of Surrender
- Sit in Easy Pose with the hands loosely held crossing at the wrists
(left over right) palms up, relaxed, thumbs separate. Close the eyes
and sing along with the Ajai Alai mantra for 62 minutes. Chant as if
you are being recorded, in that consciousness. During the last three
minutes, switch to a powerful Breath of Fire. To end, inhale deeply,
expand the chest and shoulders. Expand the body and exhale. Repeat 3
times. 10/04/01
4. SADHANA - Daily Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, even of the briefest sort, can help you remain, in spite of outside pressures, in a very positive internal place, which will then uplift you and those around you beyond the bleakest of financial events. Sadhana. A student said, “I have no sense of satisfaction although I have been doing Sadhana for 20 years!” Yogi Bhajan replied, “20 Years of Sadhana is nothing. Some students who have 2,000 years of Sadhana are still here. Sadhana gives you the way to conquer life. It is your humility, which gives you discipline, for humility makes you flexible. We have such blindness that we do not know how to be grateful. The purpose of life is to be grateful. The purpose of our discipline is to bring the grace and greatness of God into our inner thoughts.” 2/19/01
5.
POVERTY
- Do you have less now than you had before? Hard times are a blessing
in disguise. (For a fuller explanation read the English translation
of the 25th
Pauri of Jap-Ji Sahib by Guru Nanak.) The less we have in
possessions, the more we can see those blessings that remain. “If
you are consciously compassionate, sweet and smiling, you will never
be poor. Your poverty is your misbehavior, your poor talk, not
receiving people, acting like a stranger, not socializing and being
alone.” Yogi Bhajan, 7/17/01
6. STRENGTH - Keep your Navel Center strong, your body balanced, your mind calm and your spirit elevated. In other words be sure your daily spiritual practice is strong, balanced and consistent. This will assure you and those around you of positive outcomes. Nabhi Kriya in the Intermediate Meditation Manual.
7.
OPPORTUNITY – Opportunities
sometimes knock down our door. Social networks work! Kundalini Yoga
gives you the awareness and intuition to understand and to act on
these opportunities. “Sequence has a consequence. When we start a
sequence, the consequence will be there. If you do not want the
consequence, do not start the sequence. Have that control! Control
your couldn’t.”
Yogi Bhajan, 9/04/01 Meditation
for Intuition and Strength of Excellence – Sit
in Easy Pose. Cross
the middle finger behind the index finger and lock the other two down
with the thumb. Bring this mudra up to the level of your ears. Elbows
are by the rib cage. Chant with the Tantric Har from the Navel Point
as if you were Lord Buddha, constant and consistent. 11 Minutes. To
end, inhale deeply, hold, and let it multiply into the being. Exhale.
Repeat one more time, then inhale deeply and powerfully, hold, pull
the navel point in, exhale and relax.
8. SIMPLICITY - Simplify your life. Do you really need a new “thingy” when your current “thingy” still works? New stuff might only satisfy you temporarily, if then! Out with the old and don’t bother with the really new unless you can justify it in a number of ways other than “It’s really cool!” or “I don’t know why, I just want it!” Also, how much of your old stuff do you really need? If you haven’t used something in 12 months, get rid of it according to Paramahansa Yogananda. From Yogi Bhajan, “Some people elevate themselves above the attachment of the earth. They BRING prosperity to the earth and greenery to the same shore from which they have gone. Lift yourself higher and higher; with your chakras open and working in unison. The higher you go the vaster your horizon will be.”
9. PATIENCE - The media's gloomy forecasts and hysterical headlines do nothing but darken our thinking. What goes around comes around. You can’t know the upside unless you’ve experienced the downside. Hard times are real, but like all cycles they will change. We are a nation of “consumers” according to the media. According to Yogi Bhajan, “You consume your good luck, you consume your destiny, you consume your dignity, and you consume the gift of God—the prana of life. And then you blame others for it! As a human being you are complete. Follow the path of grace with patience and self control.”
Meditation - Healing with the Breath of Life – Sit in Easy Pose, lock the neck in Jalandhara Bandh. Cross the arms, right over left, with the hands in the armpits. “Concentrate on the breath of life with pure sentiments.” Make an “O” of the mouth and inhale, exhale through the nose for 11 to 31 minutes. During the last two minutes heal yourself, chant slowly and melodiously, Ra Ma Da Saa / Saa Say So Hung. (You can of course play the music throughout the meditation but only chant at the end.)To end, inhale and hold squeezing the body and spine, Exhale, repeat twice more.
10. INFINITY - Your identity is your Infinity. Happiness is your birthright. Prosperity is more than your net worth. The recognition of Infinity in you and others is your perfect vision. Really see your Infinity and see it in others. After all, “If you can’t see God in all, you can’t see God at all,” Yogi Bhajan says. He also says, “This is the Age of Aquarius where people will acknowledge each other by being sensory human beings, not by face, features, color, status, or religion. In the Age of Aquarius, people will meet with a sensory psychic flow beyond any barriers and any consideration of wealth.”
Meditation – Create Balance – Sit in Easy Pose, right arm forward at sixty degrees with the palm down. Left arm straight up, palm also facing forward, Breath of Fire for 11 minutes … last four minutes make it heavy; last minute make it really heavy. To finish, inhale and hold, squeeze the body, Cannon Fire exhale. Repeat twice more. During this meditation/kriya your right arm angles yourself while the left arm raises your antennae. The BOF opens all the chakras and burns your karma. “The body will come into balance. Once you are balanced, your thoughts, projection and progress will improve.
Here in Kansas City, a number of Sat Tirath Ashram members and students have committed to the 1,000 Years and Beyond Meditation. We are gathering each day in the Sadhana Room at the 3HO Kundalini Yoga Center on Walnut Street or in our homes to participate in this beautiful meditation for 1,000 days. We began on Valentine’s Day (2/14/09) and we’ll continue until Nov 10, 2011 when there will be a world wide coordinated meditation (11:30 AM Pacific Standard Time) when the cusp period will end and the Age of Aquarius will be fully installed in the Universe. Yogi Bhajan has said we will be challenged on every front—and from that pressure, a new culture of consciousness will bloom.
I’m not saying I (or we) will be perfect in this 1,000 day meditation, but we will continue and if our focus stumbles or stalls we’ll take it up again and continue. If you want to join (It’s not too late!) just click on the link above for all the information you’ll need. As of this writing in March 0f 2009, we still have more than 900 days to go. Just remember, to survive any crisis, go through any trial complete any task, exercise or meditation (White Tantric or otherwise) all you have to do is “Keep up and you will be kept up” as a wise man once said.
