Getting ahead by catching the Day at it's root - The special 4am meditation.

​Dear All,

​ The secret of success of some of the most influential people in society​, according to recent newspaper and magazine articles(see below),​is that they are up early, busy being productive, while the rest of us are still snoring in our beds.

One of these early risers is Helen Morrissey who is the CEO of a London investment company, and gets up before dawn to use the quiet and peaceful time to get some of her work done. That's before five of the nine children she has, start waking up at about 6:30am and her attention turns to them.

You don't have to be an aspiring CEO or be responsible for a large family to tap into the benefit of catching the day at it's root.

That pre-dawn time may be when we are at our most creative and have the maximum clarity. So what better time than that to use our meditative attention to shift a few things that we're finding it difficult to shift during the day when so much else is competing for our attention.

Whether it's a creative project you're engaged in or a personal or work-related matter that you'd like a happy resolution to,  4 o'clock in the morning may be the time to crack it.

In the long tradition of meditation, that special time when the night has passed but the new day has not yet shown itself, has been described as the 'ambrosial hour' when we are able to touch a depth of meditation difficult to get during the day.

The reason it's called the 'ambrosial hour'*, it has been said, is because 'heavens nectar', like dew-drops on grass, flows down to nourish and rejuvenate. And, indeed, you'll find, if you get up at 4 o'clock to meditate, that the flow of vibes in the sahasrara(crown chakra) is perhaps stronger than you've ever felt it. This makes it very easy to enter complete mental silence(thoughtless awareness).

The effectiveness of meditating at the time in order to get a change to something or some other desired result, is because that time is the 'root' of the day. The day has not yet taken shape and anything can happen. You can nudge things in the right direction by being in a state of deep peace as the day dawns.

Getting up at 4 o'clock may seem like too much trouble, especially if you're a night-owl and tend to go to bed late. But there's no need to change your daily schedule. All you want to do is to experience this at least once, so just pick one night, friday or saturday night is good, when you'll go to bed a little earlier than usual and set your alarm clock to wake up at 4am.

When you get up just sit for 10 - 20 minutes with your attention in sahasrara and let the vibes flow down into you. At the end of the meditation with the kundalini's connection at the top of the head still strong, if there's been any matter weighing on your mind then give it a bandhan: symbolically write down the matter in your left palm and give it vibes by moving the right hand clockwise over it until left palm goes cool.

Afterwards, you can go back to bed. Hey, it is the weekend :o).

The working of kundalini and bandhans to solve your problems is done by the movement of an all-pervading energy which may one day be discovered in Quantum Physics and which in sanskrit is called 'paramachaitanya' as described in this 8 minute video clip.

 

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

*In Greek mythology, 'ambrosia' was the food of the gods which removed sickness and old age and conferred immortality.
Early risers: why the world’s high-fliers including Mark Wahlberg, Anna Wintour and Apple CEO Tim Cook are up before  dawn
24 successful people who wake up really (really) early

Taking your brain to the gym - 'Neuroplasticity'

​Dear All,

I wanted to quickly share with you some science research that's recently been published in an international journal about the positive effect on your brain of sahaja yoga meditation.

It could explain what many of you begin to notice yourself: that if you meditate for 5-10 minutes a day then it not only improves your positive feelings about life but also helps your powers of attention and concentration - which could get you that promotion at work- as well as somehow improving the quality of your relationships.

The key word in this piece of research is 'Neuroplasticity' (see link below) . This basically means that the brain is not fixed but can be stimulated to make you better at a particular skill by the way you exercise it ie taking your brain to the gym.

An example of Neuroplasticity has been found in London black cab taxi drivers. To get a license to become a London taxi driver, they have to spend 3 years learning all the London roads by heart and then they are tested on it. It's like cramming into your head the whole London A-Z streetmap book. As a result of this massive feat of memory, the region of the cabbies brain responsible for memory, the hippocampus, enlarges itself.(see below).

The neuroplastic effect from sahaja yoga meditation is that it keeps your brain young by stimulating the formation of the brains grey matter as described here.


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The neuroplasticity of the brain from sahaja yoga meditation is potentially profound from a human evolutionary point of view because, according to Shri Mataji in this video clip: Brain Science of the Future , there are certain dormant powers of the brain which start working when the kundalini is awakened.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

What is Neuroplasticity?

Taxi drivers' brain grows on the job

Free Download - 2 tracks for your meditation.

​Dear All,
 

If you enjoy being plugged into your favourite music while commuting or at work because it soothes you or energises you, then, without knowing it, you may be helping your mental, emotional and physical health by practising a form of musical therapy.

In an article that appeared in a 2013 issue of New Yorker magazine, entitled "How music makes us feel better", writer Maria Konnikova cited research that showed that listening to some well-chosen music, had a beneficial effect on certain physiological measures of stress such as heart-rate variability and a decreased level of the stress hormone, cortisol(see link below).

As with other ideas related to better ways of living and better ways of looking after ourselves, such as meditation, science is playing catch-up. The knowledge has been around for ages. Literally, ages.

Probably, the oldest body of knowledge in the world is contained in the 'Vedas', ancient texts from India. One branch of this collection of texts in called the 'sama veda' , the vedas relating to song. From the sama veda has arisen both the knowledge of mantra and the knowledge that forms the basis of Indian classical music.

The 2 tracks provided for free download are a sanskrit chant/mantra performed by sahaja yogis in Mumbai, India, which enhances the energy of the mooladhara chakra(joy & spontaneity). And an Indian classical composition, a 'raaga' performed by Dr. Arun Apte a sahaja yogi musicologist/music therapist, that enhances the energy of the sahasrara(bliss & freedom).

The way to use these tracks, and you can try it now, is to go into meditation - raise your kundalini and put on a bandhan- play the track for mooladhara - 'Shri Ganesha Arthavar Shirsha' while keeping your attention on mooladhara chakra, 'tail' bone, and see whether you feel any sensation of expansion.

Next shift focus of attention to top of head while listening to the next track raaga darbari for sahasrara and see whether you feel an expansion at the sahasrara.

Notice that unlike the instrumental music we normally play at the beginning of the group meditation session on Tuesdays, these two tracks are vocal pieces. It's been said that the best musical intrument of all is the human voice. It's also been said that an instrumental musician only really achieves virtuoso level when they are able to make their instrument sound like the human voice.

If you are a musician then you'll appreciate a demonstration of this truth by B.B King playing at the 1993 Monreaux music festival :o)

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

How music makes us feel better

Anointing your head with oil for a soothing meditation

​Dear All,

Although, this has been mentioned before, it's worth repeating because it really does help to improve the quality of your meditation, as well as helping you keep relaxed and balanced throughout the day.

Just before going to bed at night, try massaging a teaspoonful of almond oil into the centre of the top of your head. The oil can be placed in the centre of your right palm and put on the head and then massaged in a clock-wise direction.

The centre of the top of the head corresponds to the very important yogic point called the 'brahma-randra' which is the hole through which the kundalini emerges during sahaja yoga meditation - hence the cool breeze felt at the top of the head.

Once you have applied the almond oil, sit still for a moment in meditation and see whether you notice how especially soothing the meditation feels and how easier it is to achieve your state of thoughtless awareness, even for a few seconds if not minutes.

Also, using a dropper, put a few drops of ghee (clarified butter - see below) into both nostrils and then lean the head back so that the ghee can be absorbed and lubricate the inner lining of the nose. The inner lining of the nose is prone to dryness because of the amount of time we spend in places with dry air eg. air-conditioned work spaces.
 

This can be the cause of various problems, including sinusitis.

From a yoga and meditation point of view, the ghee helps a small chakra that sits at the bridge of the nose called the 'hamsa' chakra which is the chakra that gives us discriminative awareness. 'Hamsa' in sanskrit means swan. A famous question was once asked: "What is the difference between a Heron and Swan?"

The answer was that, when both aquatic birds are given some water to drink, mixed with milk, only the Swan is capable of sieving out and just drinking the milk from the mixture. This is what the discriminative awareness is. So a good hamsa chakra can guard you from making some bad choices or decisions by helping you to quickly suss out the Truth in a world of false appearances.

Since the hamsa chakra occurs at a point in your subtle body representing the merger of the left and right subtle channels, a good hamsa also keeps you in a good state of balance, which can be a big advantage to you at work.

This weeks 4-minute video clip is about how to overcome mental limitations.

See you at group meditation on Tuesday.

Regards

Here's how to make ghee at home. It becomes solid at room temperature, so to melt it to put into nose, place the dropper with solid ghee in it into a cup of hot water.