Here's your progress card over the past year - 2015

​​Dear All,

Two free download links are provided below which you can click on and get meditation music for the chakras and photos to use for meditation.

The music files are indian 'raga' compositions that help improve the particular chakras they are related to. So, for example, to help your creativity and problem-solving ability, while travelling to work on bus or tube, just put your ear-phones on and listen to the raga for swadisthana chakra on phone/mp3 player with your attention on swadisthana chakra.

The photos for meditation files , you can copy to a memory stick and take to Boots and print off on their self-service photo printers. If you're able to feel vibes then try swapping the photo you normally use for meditation with one of the other photos and see what difference this makes to the meditation.

Remember that to preserve the vibratory power of the photo and therefore it's effectiveness for meditation, keep the photo framed and do 'arti' by moving a lit candle in a horse-shoe shape over the photo 3 or 4x before sitting down to meditate in front of it.

As 2015 draws to a close, you can congratulate yourself on how far you've progressed in your knowledge and practise of sahaja yoga meditation. Even if you haven't managed to frequently attend the weekly group meditation sessions but have kept the meditation up at home as far as it has been possible for you, then well done as well.

Here are some of the things you may now be able to do that you might not have been aware of at the beginning of 2015:

1. achieve relative mental silence whenever you want  2. handle easily situations that used to be stressful for you  3. bring yourself back into balance with a footspa after a hard day at work   4. be able to feel your chakras on your finger-tips and cure yourself by clearing your chakras   5. insulate yourself with bandhan before you leave the house to help keep your meditative calm even when in a hectic environment.   6. help friends and family just by being with them   7. raise the kundalini of another person and make them feel great  8. use the power of your meditation to help solve any problems you may have 9. be able to feel the all-pervading - paramchaitanya- on your hands as the 'vibes' 10. gained an understanding from your experiences that the vibes is the  integrated knowledge of everything 11. find yourself in better circumstances generally. 12 looking and feeling  better generally 13. take a broader view of what's happening in the world knowing that the power of your attention can help 14..and more  (see links to remind yourself below)

No matter how far you've reached over the course of the past 11 months , you can become deeper still and discover other extraordinary abilities that you have as a result of your kundalini awakening and daily meditation. So keep at it.

Next Tuesday 22nd December is the last group meditation for the year. We'll be back on 6th January 2016.

Also below is a newspaper cutting from the 'Bedfordshire Journal' of 1982 reporting on a 'strange incident' of Shri Mataji being in two places at the same time!

See you at group meditation on Tuesday. Otherwise have an very enjoyable christmas  & new year holiday.

Regards

1. Meditation music for chakras

2. Meditation photos

 

1. achieve relative mental silence whenever you want 

2. handle easily situations that used to be stressful for you 

3. bring yourself back into balance with a footspa after a hard day at work  

4. be able to feel your chakras on your finger-tips and cure yourself by clearing your chakras  

5. insulate yourself with bandhan before you leave the house to help keep your meditative calm even when in a hectic environment.  

6. help friends and family just by being with them   

7. raise the kundalini of another person and make them feel great 

8. use the power of your meditation to help solve any problems you may have

9. be able to feel the all-pervading - paramchaitanya- on your hands as the 'vibes'

10. gained an understanding from your experiences that the vibes is the  integrated knowledge of everything

11. find yourself in better circumstances generally.

12 looking and feeling  better generally

13. take a broader view of what's happening in the world knowing that the power of your attention can help 

The Key to your success - starting your day Alive & Well!

Dear All,

Have you noticed how, the more energised you feel in the morning, the better the day seems to go.

That morning boost could come from a cold shower, exercise ,eating the right food for breakfast  or doing your 10 minutes of meditation to put the tiger in your tank which sets you up perfectly for the day ahead.

As it has been said, 'the first wealth is health' and the nabhi chakra is particularly associated with health and healing. This is why, as you may have noticed, we try and pay some attention to the nabhi chakra at the group meditation on Tuesdays. Hopefully, you're noticing how much better you feel when the vibes flow from sahasarara chakra at top of head into the nabhi chakra in the stomach.

In traditional chinese medicine and martial arts, the energy center in the stomach is called ' dan tien' / 'field of elixir' and is known as the centre of the life force and vitality. It's perhaps no surprise then that the effects of daily sahaja yoga meditation first show up in the feeling of physical health and well-being.

This has been documented in research done by long-term sahaja yoga meditators who also happen to be medical practitioners. One of these doctors is Dr Ramesh Manocha at the University of Sydney in Australia, who has put together the Researching Meditation blog , showing how sahaja yoga meditation(SYM) has helped cure stress, anxiety, depression and other psychosomatic ailments.

​
The benefits of regular meditation are sufficiently validated now that quite a number of large organisations including Microsoft* and Google have corporate meditation sessions in the workplace. Dr Ramesh Manocha ran a session for some television studio staff - see what their reaction was like : Sunrise TV staff do some sahaja yoga meditation - 3 minutes

Here's a TV interview Shri Mataji did with Lorraine Kelly on GMTV:  GMTV Southbank Interview - 3 minutes

​

Speaking of TV, the photo at top is from 1983 in Los Angeles on the set of the TV show 'Live and Well'

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

*Microsoft - participated in a large European Union funded project, RESPONSE, which was organised and run by long-term sahaja yoga meditator and former INSEAD professor, Maurizio Zollo (below) which showed how the innovative use of meditation as part of corporate executive training led, amongst other things, to better decisions in Corporate Social Responsibilty(CSR).

​"Maurizio Zollo is the Dean's Professor in Strategic Management of the Sustainable Enterprise, in the Strategy Institute, at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, and the director of the Center for Research in Organization and Management (CROMA). Zollo holds PhD and MSc degrees in managerial science and applied economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and the Laurea degree in economics from Bocconi. Zollo previously had appointments in strategic management at INSEAD, Fountainbleau, France, the Wharton School, and the Advanced Institute of Management in the United Kingdom, and was visiting professor/scholar at MIT for the 2012-14 academic years. Best known for work in the field of strategic management on mergers and acquisitions, dynamic capabilities, and organizational learning, Zollo has in more recent years turned his attention to how organizations learn to change in a responsible way. He headed up a European-Union-funded project called RESPONSE, and currently directs an innovative global research initiative called GOLDEN, the Global Organizational Learning and Development Network for Sustainability, which brings together people from around the world to study how companies make the transition to sustainability successfully. Editor of the European Management Review, and former president of the European Academy of Management, Zollo has published nearly thirty articles in prestigious academic journals, ten managerial publications, and two books, as an academic, and previously was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., a major consulting firm, an associate for Kidder Peabody Italia, and a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets."  -from the book Intellectual Shamans by Sandra Waddock

May the Force be with You!

                                with Argentinian ladies Buenos Aires 1994

​Dear All,

On 17th December the new Star Wars movie, 'The Force Awakens' is released in the UK and if you go and see it, consider this while you're taking in  the action on screen and munching your popcorn:

You may have a touch of the Jedi Knight in you :o)

When you first discover Sahaja yoga meditation and experience the awakening  of the Kundalini energy as a subtle cool breeze above the head, this represents just a few strands of a massive force of energy.

 

The reason just a few strands come up is because the opening out of the chakras is very little in the beginning. With regular meditation the state of the chakras are improved(cleaned) and more strands of the Kundalini energy can pass through.

With this you achieve a deeper, more enjoyable meditation; you can feel the vibes; you become a more relaxed and peaceful person; you can solve your problems easily; you become better off financially; you can cure yourself ; you can cure other people (unintentionally). And all this from still a relatively small number of strands of Kundalini rising in you.

So just imagine if you could somehow get more of the energy to come up.

Progress in sahaja yoga meditation is not measured by the amount of 'knowledge' you gain (and there's a lot of it), but by how much more of the energetic force of the Kundalini comes up within you and the effects of that.

To get more strands of Kundalini rising, a little bit of desire has to be put into the meditation practice ie. meditate 'with intent' . This can be done by verbalising the desire eg by saying  a few times, 'Mother Kundalini, please rise', which acts like an affirmation. The photo is tremendous help as a target.

If you then begin to achieve the results of that, then your effects go beyond just yourself but extends wider , as explained in this 2-minute talk: Effects of going deeper in sahaja yoga meditation - Sydney, Australia 1987

May the force be with you!

See you at group meditation on Tuesday

Regards

Related previous emails:

The Extraordinary Power of your Attention

Power in your hands - action at a distance

Connecting to World Community - your power of collective awareness

What scent does your meditation have?

​Dear All,

What scent does your meditation have? How can scent give you a deeper meditation?

Some sahaja yogis have mentioned that when they first had the experience of their kundalini awakening, it was accompanied by either a scent of roses or of sandalwood. When they looked around to see where the scent was coming from, there was nothing there and they realised that the scent seemed to be coming from within themselves.

It turns out that those most likely to get this experience have a very good mooladhara chakra because it's the mooladhara chakra that relates to scent. Even if you don't recall this experience with scent, a touch of diluted sandalwood or rose oil applied to the center of the crown of the head can add a subtle and pleasant extra feeling to your meditation.

The photo above was taken in 1994 in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia in Arab north Africa when Shri Mataji gave presents of vials of natural perfume (alcohol-free) or Ittar, to a group of arabic ladies who came to see her.

Interestingly, the region of the world most associated with the development of perfume is Arabia. And even today, if you get a chance to wander through the old souks of Bahrain, Dubai or any of the Arabic Gulf states, what is most likely to attract your attention is the waft of the scent of oud .

If you can get some arabic fragrance then these tend to be the best as an aid to meditation. Also if you tend to do a lot of concentrated work at the computer screen, which can affect the agnya chakra at forehead, then applying an invisible dab of sandalwood oil on the center of the forehead before you leave the house can soothe down the agnya.

Today's 6-minute video clip is about the mechanism of the Kundalini within you: 'Sacred Technology'.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

Related previous email : Getting to the next level

How you can go with the flow and succeed.

​
​Dear All,

In last week's email about how your meditation helps you to overcome stress, mention was made of a concept from Chinese philosophy called 'Wu wei' (无为).

This has been variously translated as: 'going with the flow' , 'success without action', 'non-doing'. Since this concept is central to understanding how your practice of sahaja yoga meditation begins to seep into your day-to-day life and can begin to reward you in some very interesting ways, it's useful to know more.

The idea of wu wei is specifically found in Taoist philosophy, founded by Lao Tzu  who is quoted as saying:

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"

Shri Mataji uses the term: ' Ritambara pragnya' which could be translated as the 'enlightened knowledge/intelligence of Mother Nature'.

When you got your kundalini awakening, felt as a cool breeze above the head, this was your connection to Ritambara Pragnya. The cultivation of this connection is through your daily 10-minute meditation.

Although the most visible expression of Ritambara Pragnya is the changing seasons: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, it is much more than that. As Lao Tzu remarked,  this 'Tao' is in fact the Mother of existence itself. With the kundalini awakening it's as if you become a child of that.

Here is how this sometimes manifests:

You're looking for something; suddenly you find it. You're thinking of somebody; suddenly they give you a call. You're running late to the airport; news comes through that there is a flight delay. You're stuck somewhere; something happens and you're unstuck.
 

These and many other examples of the working of Ritambara Pragnya is the common experience of many sahaja yogis and if it hasn't started happening to you yet, it soon will. Just be more regular in your meditation and use the photo.

On the subject of the photo, the chinese sahaja yogis, who have a culture as ancient as the indians, tell us that Shri Mataji is the embodiment of Guan Yin .

​

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

 ps. 1-minute video : More than just a meditation , also solves problems.

How you can overcome stress and enjoy positive change.

Dear all,

 

Dealing with stress is a big problem for many because it seems we're living in an increasingly stressful world, which may sometimes feel like being tied to a runaway horse.  The stress may be due to work pressure, financial pressure or being stuck in a rut in your life without any idea how to make a positive change.

 

Stress may have been a good thing in our evolutionary past when it provided us with a shot of adrenaline to either fight the sabre-tooth tiger or run away as fast as we could. The 'fight or flight' instinct is still with us. However, in modern, civilized life, when faced with a stressful situation, we are unable to act on the 'fight or flight' urge so it's like being dressed for the party but with no where to go.

 

With all that useless adrenaline giving us a feeling of emergency all the time, this can begin to have a bad effect on mental, emotional and physical health. This is what the science says(see notes). Unfortunately, science is unable to provide a definitive solution to stress. Some people self-medicate and turn to alcohol amongst other things(see notes).

 

With the deeper understanding about yourself that your daily 10-minute sahaja yoga meditation gives you, it's possible to see for yourself that stress, as with other aspects of your life, all begins in the mind.

 

Although what's happening to you may seem real enough, it's your mind's reaction to it that forms your experience of the situation. If your reaction were different, your experience would be different. Sometimes, a change in perspective or seeing a situation differently is sufficient to provide a solution or relief from stress.

 

But how about no reaction at all.

 

On the sahaja yoga subtle system chart(below) you'll see that activity on the left and the right channels produce exhaust that fill out the balloons of the super-ego and ego in the brain. It's the super-ego and ego that form the mind. But super-ego and ego are plastic because they change all the time based on reactions to the environment. So the mind is not real.

 

When you meditate, your kundalini rises up the central channel taking your awareness through a passage way between ego and super-ego. So with regular practice of meditation your awareness is increasingly able to enter a state of 'no-mind'* or 'thoughtless awareness'. There's no reaction**.

 

The effect of entering that state even for a few seconds or a few minutes can be powerful. Stuff happens. You are the captain of your ship.

 

As the effects of your meditation begin to seep into your day-to-day life then stress won't be a problem and you can positively change things by overcoming your mental limitations.

 

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

 

Regards

​

Notes:

* 'No Mind' -  also described as 'mental silence', which makes sahaja yoga meditation quite different, and in fact , opposite of mindfulness.

 

 ** No Reaction : the awakened kundalini can completely simplify and make effortlessly achieveable in a very short time certain ways of being talked about in Zen and Chinese philosophy eg. Wu wei 无为 or 'Going with the Flow' as the basis of success in everything.

Stress Hormones explained - Huffington Post article

Both alcohol and substance abuse are implicated in a new study by husband and wife Princeton University economists , Angus Deaton and Anne Case and reported in New York Times Nov. 2, 2015.

Curing yourself with 'vibrated' water

​

Dear All,

If you've reached the stage in your meditation practice where you regularly feel the flow of vibes through your hands, then you can make use of this in some interesting ways, which you may already be familiar with from our weekly group meditation sessions.

 

This includes raising another person's kundalini and giving a bandhan to solve a personal problem or to help a friend in need (see a previous email : 'Power in the Hands - action at a distance') . Another very beneficial use of your vibes is to 'charge' water with it and drink the 'vibrated' water everyday.This has been known to cure an 'overactive' liver which is related to how relatively peaceful you feel most of the time, as well as the health of your skin.

 

To vibrate water, simply hold the palm of the right hand over a glass of water for a few moments, keeping the attention at the crown of the head. The hand channels the vibes into the water. Some people also stand a glass of water near the photo used for meditation, for a little while. The photo emits vibes some of which is absorbed into the water.

Clearly, there's no visible difference in appearance between an ordinary glass of water and vibrated water. The difference is in effect . See : Research on the effect of vibrations on water .

For any of you with a vegetable allotment or if you grow house plants/flowers, some experiments have been done which show the effects of vibrated water on crop/plant yield and you could experiment yourself. See: Effects of vibrated water on crop yield (1 min) . This is taken from a Press Conference & Scientific Discussion, Mumbai, India 13/01/1990.

 

 See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

Your 3 parts of Happiness

​

Dear All,

Many of you may have noticed that meditating daily allows you a little space each day in which to nourish, repair and create your real and authentic self. This then gradually begins to have it's effects on your outer life by giving it new meaning, purpose and satisfaction. How does this work?

According to Sahaja Yoga understanding, which is not contradicted by medical science, the 3 great organs of the body are the brain , the heart and the liver. These 3 organs represent our intelligence, our passion/emotion and our attention/creativity respectively. 

Because of the sometimes unfavourable circumstances of life we are not generally able to integrate these 3 aspects of our personality, or necessarily fully express them. The result can be a feeling of dissatisfaction with life and it may not be clear to us where this is coming from.

This dissatisfaction, in many cases, is being blamed on the effects of the sometimes meaningless grind of daily life, usually in the context of career and work. It has been suggested that this is evidence of a "midlife crisis" happening to people at an earlier age and a number of solutions have been offered, many of which involve quitting a job( see links below). 

However, it may not always be easy to change your job to a more satisfying one; or start your own business or drop everything and go travelling; even winning the lottery is not always the answer.

 

Shri Mataji once remarked that the increasing stress and dissatisfaction that many people are feeling is an indication of a collective unconscious urge for something higher, a new freedom. This is the unconscious urge to kundalini awakening, which represents the evolutionary breakthrough in human awareness/consciousness. 

It is no surprise that over the past twenty or thirty years, the interest in meditation, from TM to Mindfulness, has gradually gone mainstream; everybody seems to be doing some form of meditation or wanting to learn. In evolutionary terms this is the equivalent of ancient fish* massing in shallow water, growing legs from modified fins and then walking onto land to become the first amphibians. 

 

There's no doubt that , based on experience, when the kundalini is awakened and regular practice of meditation is established, then things do begin to fall into place in a very satisfying way.

 

As the kundalini begins to fully integrate the chakras, like pearls on a string, she is also integrating the personality and bringing into harmonious working the subtle controlling power of the brain, heart and liver, which could be described as the 3 parts of your Happiness.

 

Happy meditating!

 

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

 

Regards

 

PS. The Integrated Self 

*Ancient Fish - Tiktaalik also see: Neil Shubin's "Your Inner Fish"

  

Emma Jacobs FT 18/09/14 - "Is midlife crisis just an excuse?"

Marianne Cantwell - "Be a Free Range Human: Escape the 9-5, Create a life you love and still pay the bills"

John Williams - " Screw Work, Lets Play: How to do what you love and get paid for it"

Rob Symington  - "The Escape Manifesto: Quit your corporate job , Do something different"

How the lotus of your heart boosts your immune system

​

Dear All,

If any of you have been to see your GP recently because of the throat infection that seems to be going around, it's likely that although you may have been prescribed antibiotics to fight the infection, your GP may at the same time have recommended that you avoid taking them. The reason for this is that in August doctors were issued with guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence* to limit antibiotic prescription because it is leading to a growing problem of 'superbugs' or bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

The medical professionals claim that there is a real danger that if the resistance continues to develop, then we may be faced with a situation where there is no viable treatment for certain types of infection. In April the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued an updated factsheet on 'antimicrobial resistance' citing tuberculosis and malaria as becoming untreatable in certain parts of the world**.

Should we be worried?

Well, take your pick. With catastrophic climate change, a geopolitical nuclear miscalculation and being taken over by terminator robots to choose from, surely a superbug pandemic doesn't add greatly to the risks human beings are already facing.

And , as a species, we may have been here before when our Neanderthal ancestors transitioned to the Homo Sapiens*** of today. The good news is that Mother Nature, like Apple iphones, sometimes provides 'bug-fixes' in the upgrade version. The bad news is that you have to scrap your iphone 4 and go buy a new iphone 6.

A clue as to how Nature is introducing this  'bug-fix' lies in the human immune system, which is the body's in-built mechanism for fighting infection. It's like the body has a vast army of highly trained soldiers with excellent communications that know when the body is under any kind of attack, and rush to the battle site to contain and remove the intruder. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services provide a very good public information document as to how the immune system works(see link below).

A key part of the immune system is the thymus gland which lies behind the breast bone in the chest and produces 'T-cells' which fight infection. According to a sahaja yoga understanding the thymus gland is governed by the heart chakra, which is nourished by the kundalini energy during meditation. So there's a strong connection between the heart chakra and how easily you are able to fight infection and therefore your health. There's even scientific evidence supporting this(see the Health Benefits of Love- link below to Huffington Post article).

If you're meditating daily then you may have noticed how when your friends come down with a bad case of flu, for example,  that completely knocks them out for two or three days, it only affects you for a day and is milder; if you catch it all.

The kundalini energy it seems is improving and strengthening the heart chakra in a way that seems to protect from infection, over and above the health-enhancing effects of meditation in general. And there potentially lies the 'bug-fix'.

If you remember from when we covered chakras & mantras - 'What's that tingling I feel on my fingers'  or 'Keeping good health -Be fearless!' the archetype of the heart chakra is the Warrior Mother. In indian iconography she is represented as 'Goddess Durga' or 'Jagadamba'('Mother of the Universe'). Also, interestingly, in India a connection has been made between this image and the person of Shri Mataji herself.

The allegory of a feminine power defeating a negative force (as portrayed in this 3min dance-drama : mahisasuramardini ) could very easily apply to the fight against infection.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

ps. Also related: Health and How your Lifestyle can make you Sick.

* Guidlines set to tackle over-prescribing of antibiotics

**World Health Organisation - Microbial Resistance/ factsheet 194 updated April 2015

*** Neanderthal Extinction

How Human Immune System works

The Health Benefits of Love

'KonMari' ing your Mental House - BIG results from small change.

​Dear All,

 

Making a small change can have a large and positive effect on your life. This is what was discovered by Marie Kondo, who has become a guru of how to improve your life by getting rid of stuff clogging up your house. She's even written a book about it which is currently on the New York Times Best Seller List* .

 

This idea of a little thing leading to a big change and doing that little thing now is also true in your practice of meditation.

 

Some of you have mentioned to me that because of being busy with work and other things, you sometimes don't get the time that you'd like to meditate. 

No problem. Meditation is a way of unclogging your mental house. But is not an activity. It's a state, which you can be in at any time. Wherever and whenever convenient, just close your eyes , put your attention to the top of  your head and go into thoughtless awareness for 1 or 2 minutes. It has an immediate effect and can even change something for the better straightaway.

Examples regular sahaja yoga meditators have given of how merely shifting their attention to the top of head, while being in a particular situation, has suddenly unclogged something and led to a positive result, include: being in a job interview; at a work meeting; facing an immediate problem of some kind; stuck in an unpleasant situation.

 

Little.Now. Being in the moment. Simple. These are qualities associated with the 'Ganesh'** principal within us on the Mooladhara ('root support') chakra and they can be strengthened. How?

 

With the late burst of summer sunshine it's still dry enough outside to go sit in the park. Sitting regularly on the mother earth is very good for the mooladhara chakra, as well as regularly footsoaking.

 By improving the mooladhara, you're strengthening your foundations. Like building a skyscraper, the higher the building has to go the deeper must be the foundations. And with that meditation is easier and you'll be amazed by the results you get.

Here's a 13 minute clip from a 2002 lecture in California to sahaja yogis : Importance of meditation.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

* Marie Kondo's:The Life-changing Magic of Tidying

​** The 'Ganesh principal' is said to lie at the basis of everything and has often been related to the carbon atom in chemistry .It's the basis of life on the planet itself:
"What we normally think of as 'life' is based on chains of carbon atoms, with a few other atoms, such as nitrogen or phosphorus", per Stephen Hawking in a 2008 lecture, "carbon [...] has the richest chemistry." ^[3] The most important characteristics of carbon as a basis for the chemistry of life are, that it has four valence bonds, that the energy required to make or break a bond is at an appropriate level for building molecules, which are stable and reactive Because carbon atoms bond readily to other carbon atoms allows for the building of arbitrarily long complex molecules and polymers" -wiki on Carbon

An interesting 1 minute clip about Carbon Atom : Spiritual Secrets of Carbon Atom  ("I am the alpha and omega")

​

A Natural High - getting more of a good thing!

​Dear All,

There is a popular myth that everybody only uses 10% of their brains*. Science has shown this myth to be a false one and that, in fact, we are using 100% of our brains. But what if there is some unintended truth in the original myth?

You could be using 100% of your computer but you'd clearly be missing something if you were doing this without an internet/wi-fi connection. This is what has been shown in sahaja yoga. The kundalini energy is that internet/wi-fi connection.

In the past couple of weeks we've looked at specific practices of 5000+ year old hatha yoga, compared it to our related experience in sahaja yoga meditation and can see how the physical wellbeing we're getting may be just a little bit of what could become a lot for many people in the future, whether or not they practice yoga or meditation.

But it's not just about improved physical health and looking younger. The kundalini, through your daily practice of meditation, is also switching on some lights in the brain.

Neuroscience knowledge about the brain is at the beginners stage. In this 14-min clip: Brain science of the future, Shri Mataji explains the connection between the cervical plexus ('vishuddhi') and the limbic system/brain ('sahasrara') and how the kundalini energy awakens dormant faculties in the brain.

The faculties that Shri Mataji refers to in particular are : 'the attention becomes enlightened' and 'collective consciousness'. We've discussed both these faculties previously but just to remind you: the enlightened attention is the attention that has the power of action in it and collective consciousness is being able to feel your connection to the whole. So these are two things you can do now that you couldn't do before.

Also described by Shri Mataji in the clip is the flow from the top of the head that creates the feeling of relaxation when you meditate. It's this sense of relaxation which can develop, with the daily practice of meditation, into the meditative bliss or natural high that some of you may feel. There's even a basis for this in science.

For a long time scientist couldn't understand why there are opioid receptor sites in the brain. Opioid receptors are what bind to the active  ingredient in recreational drugs to give the feeling of a high**. Surely, human beings weren't designed to all become drug-takers? Then scientist discovered that the body produces it's own opioids or endorphins that can come from eating chocolate, falling in love or running (runner's 'high').

But these don't sustain, may have side-effects and are drugs of another sort. The potential for the high that the brain has built into it is what is being actualised when the sahasrara is being opened out by the sahaja yoga meditation.

Recently, Science and Social Science have become engaged in the study of anti-aging and human happiness respectively. Both could be on the right track. And you have a headstart. To get more of a good thing and get to your natural high just keep meditating :o).

See at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

*We only use 10% of brain myth - Neuroscience for kids

** Drug action in the brain

Yoga of the hands & why the open hands in meditation.

Dear All,

You may recognise the respectful form of greeting shown above and  used in India and most parts of south-east asia. What you may not be aware of is that the hands placed together like that and positioned in front of the chest is a simple and effective way to balance your left and right sides(see: Achieving Emotional Fulfillment.), and encourage the flow of the kundalini energy to the crown of head, making it easier to meditate.

If you're at home while reading this, you could try it right now. Just press both palms together and place against the centre of the chest; and now close your eyes and see whether you can feel the flow of vibes in sahasrara(crown chakra). The heart chakra and sahasrara chakra are directly connected; so if the heart chakra opens the sahasrara chakra will automatically open as well. You only need to do this for a few minutes.

The hands used in this way is an example of mudra(compare to last weeks khecari mudra) - a yogic gesture which has the power of changing or increasing the flow of subtle energy. This one is called Anjali Mudra. Mudras are extensively used in Bharata-natyam, a form of Indian classical dance, which is a kind of musical mime using the hands(mudras), facial expression, sculptural poses and rhythmic footwork to depict some aspect of divinity.

In the dance clip below, Urmila Sathyanarayanan is portraying Shiva Nataraj ('Lord of Dance')- see notes, who is the archetype of the left heart chakra. 

Another common use of the hands in sahaja yoga meditation is when we place them palm-open on the laps to meditate. Why is that done rather than the typical yoga meditation position of thumbs touching index  finger ?
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Shri Mataji explains the purpose of the open palms here and also puts into proper context the use of yoga asanas and pranayama(breathing). In answer to a question from the journalist, Shri Mataji makes reference to the predictions contained in some highly accurate, ancient astrological text - 'the Nadi Granth' - by Bhrigu Muni, wherein , amongst other things he says :

“Human beings, their old age will disappear, their body will remain as it is, and they will have a body which is divine.”

 

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

Notes:

Shiva Nataraja

​By MicheleLovesArt (Tropenmuseum - Shiva Nataraja (6274-1)) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Bliss on the tip of the tongue - Khecari mudra + changed format of meeting

​Dear All,

Continuing our look at physical aspects of sahaja yoga meditation to coincide with National Yoga Month, here is Shri Mataji teaching some sahaja yogis the 'khecari mudra' in Vienna, Austria 1985 : Khecari Mudra .

What is the 'khecari mudra'?

Well, according to the extraordinary claims found in a 600 year old Indian text* relating to hatha yoga,as well as other sources,  the khecari mudra ('mudra' means yogic 'gesture') was the Queen of all mudras, the highest and the root of all other mudras. By the practice of this mudra, it was possible to catch on the tip of the tongue the nectar flow from the crown of the head and by so doing conquer disease, death and achieve immortality.

Oh, and by the way, also achieve raising of the kundalini. And be able to fly!

As Shri Mataji pointed out in various of her lectures, there was a great deal written about hatha yoga and raja yoga that was far from accurate. Possibly because the authors of the books were writing not from personal experience. The analogy Shri Mataji used to illustrate this, was of someone trying to turn the steering wheel and the wheels of a car without first turning on the ignition . The ignition being the initial awakening of the kundalini energy.

So, for our purposes, we can ignore the fantastical abilities the khecari mudra was said to bestow, and, instead, focus on the much more simpler one which is to activate the vishuddhi chakra in the throat. It's the vishuddhi chakra which , when clear, allows us to feel the vibes on the hands and around us. This is the 'sixth sense' that it has been predicted all human beings will have at some point.

The khecari mudra, as taught by Shri Mataji then is practiced by curling the tongue back in the mouth without touching the palate; pressing the chin against the chest and breathing in by pushing the chest out and stomach up; keeping the attention at the top of the head while the eyes remain open. The counterpart to this is to again curl the tongue back in the mouth; raise the head and look up; insert the index fingers(vishuddhi fingers) into the ears (the ears representing 'directions of space'/'akash'/ ether/ vishuddhi element) and keeping attention on sahasrara chakra.

While the regular practice of kechari mudra, which takes 2 minutes, won't cause you to fly, it will improve your vishuddhi chakra so that you can more easily feel vibes. When you are better at feeling vibes then it's an excellent way of helping you make better decisions and choices in almost everything. The truth of things is to be felt; not rationalised.

Changed format of meeting - focus on meditation:

Following our move from the large hall into the smaller space in The Hut and our slightly awkward first meeting there, we're adopting the suggestions some of you offered:

1.  Chairs - rows running length-wise to hall (rather than width-wise as at first meeting). This allows a comfortable amount of personal space for everybody and provides room for the workshops. It also allows easier entrance and exit from the hall.

2. Noise - Sam has kindly made a pact on our behalf with the downstairs hall users, who have agreed to be as quiet as possible when they leave their meeting. We're also keeping the door and cubbyhole into kitchen closed during our sessions. The ceiling windows will be opened instead.

3. Time - Since the meeting has been reduced to one hour (7:30 - 8:30pm) we are having to be smarter about the use of the time . So the emphasis is being placed on actual meditation and collectively achieving the thoughtless awareness state because it's in that state that all the magical stuff happens, even for the new-comers.

 In order to be able to do that, we're dispensing with the introductory talk and the video as fixed features of every single meeting. Instead they'll be an opportunity for you to develop your principal of guru if you want by explaining the mechanism of the kundalini, chakras and vibrations to any new-comers you happen to be working on in the 1-on-1 workshops. Shri Mataji's video talks will continue to be pushed out over these weekly emails as occasional short clips that you can watch in your own time whenever convenient. In the experience of many of us, listening to video talks can be incredibly powerful . The effect they can have on our own vibrations is described by the sanskrit word , ' karyanvit' which means 'it just works' ie listening to a talk(while thoughtless) can clear your chakras. You can avail yourself of the treasure trove of talks on youtube.

See you on Tuesday.

Regards

​* Hatha Yoga Pradipika

The Art of Sitting - Sahaj Asana

​Dear All,

At an international seminar in New Delhi, India, some years ago, a local resident told me that he once had what can probably only be described as a 'cosmic' experience during his regular practice of sahaja yoga meditation.

Apparently, his kundalini shot up so strongly that he only remembered two things: the tremendous sense of peace, joy and the panoramic view of everything  and coming out of the meditation the next day; having sat on the spot for some twelve hours or more.

Being polite, I didn't enquire whether he had missed work that day and what excuse he had given to his employer. But it seemed pretty impressive that anyone could sit still in one spot for that many hours and not need a comfort break.

Reflecting on our friends experience and comparing it to any similar experiences we may have had ourselves, it seems that the key to any sustained sitting in meditation is not only how  comfortably we're sitting, but also how effectively we're sitting.

Indeed, there's an art of sitting as far as meditation is concerned and in Zen, the words for 'meditation' and 'just sitting' are combined in the word 'Shikantaza' . In Sahaja Yoga meditation the most comfortable sitting is the most effective by definition, because then you are not distracted by a forced sitting position, and that's why sitting on a chair to meditate, as a matter of convenience, is fine.

However, if you haven't already tried this at home, then experiment by sitting on the floor to meditate. The simplest cross-legged position to sit in is the 'Sahaj Asana' shown above in the photo of the sahaja yogis in Brisbane, Australia. This posture is both comfortable as well as  beneficial to the mooladhara(root support) and swadisthana(pure attention and creativity) chakras. You may straight away feel the effect of this on how easier your meditation becomes.

In the west, the practice of sitting cross-legged on the floor disappears in childhood, which makes it difficult to sit that way later on. By contrast, children in India, China and other Asian countries grow up regularly sitting cross-legged on the floor. Sitting in such a way that the crossed legs form a firm triangular base for an upright spine can only improve attention, concentration and groundedness.

To help ease ourselves into learning how to sit in Sahaj Asana, if our legs are a little stiff and also remembering that this month of September is National Yoga Month, we could do some hatha yoga. Here is Shri Mataji giving guidance on doing baddhakona asana  which increases flexibility in the thigh muscles and knees which then makes  sitting in Sahaj Asana very easy: click here.

 

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Is your job ageing you fast ? Massaging away the stress.

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​Dear All,

There's perhaps no more stressful a job than being the leader of the U.S of A and the before and after headshots above, of Obama and Bush, show what it can do to you. Ok, so perhaps your job doesn't involve trying to balance a 17 trillion dollar budget but all it takes for the smile to get wiped off anyone's face is being in a tight spot.Regularly.

When we experience sustained stress over a period of time - especially at work where most people spend most of their time -  then it begins to show on our face as signs of ageing.

According to Ayurveda, there are two types of ageing: 'Kala jara' - timely ageing and 'Akala jara' - premature ageing'. This difference is recognised in western science as chronological age(kalajara) vrs. biological age(akalajara).

For example, two 30-year olds  sharing the same birthday could have different biological ages due to lifestyle and stress. The less stressed one may have a biological age of 21 and the more stressed out one may have a biological age of 40. This has implications on life expectancy, so it's clear that if you look after your body, then your body will look after you. The opposite is also true.(work out your body age below - see notes)

Ayurveda gives several daily practices that can be used to look after yourself and remove akalajara. The easiest of these, that anyone can do, are:  'shiro-abyanga' (head massage), 'pada-abyanga'(foot massage) and 'nyasa' (ghee nose drops).

An explanation of ghee nasal drops has already been given at a Tuesday group meditation session, so for now we'll just look at the head and foot massage.

The therapeutic value of head and foot massage, as far as sahaja yoga meditation is concerned, is that the chakras are mapped on both the feet(see: sustaining thoughtless awareness with footspa detox) and the head(see below), so by massaging them you're improving the state of your chakras. And therefore your over-all health and the depth and quality of your meditation.


 
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Here's a demo clip of the head massage . For the foot massage (best done after footsoak ) just work the oil* well into the toes and the soles of the feet.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

Notes:

* Coconut Oil is especially good for head and foot massage. Almond oil can also be used.

Concept of Ageing in Ayurveda

Chances of getting a stroke "more likely" with longer working hours.

What's your body age?

Overcoming barriers to progress - habits,conditionings & the back agnya

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​Dear All,

If you're finding it difficult to make progress or achieve a break-through in any area of your life, whether career or personal (or even in sahaja yoga meditation - see notes), the state of your back agnya chakra could hold the key. Here's a simple way  to clear the back agnya chakra and help you remove the blocks that may be holding you back in life.

The back agnya chakra is located in the small bump at the back of the head and in medical terms corresponds to the occipital lobe, which controls the eyes, and is part of the cerebral cortex, which is the seat of memory ie store of past events.

All our past experience of things, can influence us at a subconcious level.  The bigger the load of the past we carry with us then the bigger the influence. The bigger the influence then the bigger the brakes or drag on our forward progress. It's like running to catch a flight at the airport while carrying a large, heavy suitcase(not on wheels).

As human beings, we're all creatures of habit and conditioning, so we're all carrying some suitcase with us. It may be a small one for some people and a large one for others. Some people's suitcase could contain not only their own items but also items belonging to Auntie Sally or Uncle Billy ie ancestors. Or books they've read or anything that has entered into the subconcious mind(even advertising -see notes).

 

The suitcase could show as repeated patterns of behaviour leading to the same undesired outcome ie being your own worst enemy; difficulty in sustaining a positive change; clinging to old 'knowledge' or old ways(being stuck in the past) and not fully embracing the new; lacking confidence and having doubts about yourself.

So how do you clear the back agnya chakra and set yourself free from any weight of past conditioning?

Easy.

There are two sahaja yoga methods; which can be used: Mantra or a candle & photo.

1. Mantra
Use of 'Mahaganesha' mantra with left palm  placed on back of the head(on the back agnya). Mantra can be said three times followed by short meditation. The Mahaganesha mantra is : 'Om twameve sakshat Shri Mahaganesha sakshat Shri Adi Shakti Mataji, Shri Nirmala Devi namoh! namah!'

This could be included as part of your daily meditation for about a week and see whether you begin to notice the difference.

2.Candle & photo
Since the back agnya relates very much to the eyes; if you clear the eyes then you're clearing the back agnya. To clear the eyes watch the hands in the photo above through a candle flame without blinking until the eyes begin to water. Then blink hard and let the tears wash the surface of the eyes. This technique has the added benefit of improving the health of your eyes if done regularly. (see: candle treatment for agnya chakra)

With practice and as the back agnya begins to clear some of the common indications are a feeling of lightness in the personality; more optimism about the future; increased motivation and zest for life - this can also be accompanied by de-clattering of your home by throwing out many old items that had just been sitting there gathering dust.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday. And the hand photo above will be available at the meeting to take away with you.

Regards

Notes:

The Kundalini is made up of many millions of strands of energy and the number of these that actually rise from the sacrum bone at the base of the spine to the limbic area of the brain determines the depth of self-knowledge a person practicing sahaja yoga meditation is able to achieve(Buddha's nirvana was achieved by the whole kundalini coming up at once). The kundalini awakening is the easy part and many people can get it. But initially just a few strands of the energy come up . Afterwards the real work begins. Which is where the meditation and motivation('pure desire') come in . As a result of conditionings - back agnya- one of three things may happen : the experience of the awakening of the kundalini may not register at all for one person and they may choose not to follow it up; a second person may feel that something has happened to them but because they set the experience in the context of other 'knowledge', practices, or ideas, the uniqueness of the kundalini experience may get so diluted as to fade out. A third person may get over this hurdle, usually because they have read less or not tried many other things before. The barrier for the third person is sahaja yoga 'knowledge' itself because knowledge about the chakras and subtle system seems finite and after it has been understood, then what? So monotony and boredom may set in and the result could be like repeating class 4 over and over . So clearing the back agnya is very helpful.

* See Packard Vance - The Hidden Persuaders about subliminal methods used  in advertising (New York Times Book review 30/12/2007 )