Archives for January 2014

Tantra and Mysticism – Part Eight

January 29, 2014 by

PRANAYAMA

This brings us to pranayama. Prana is the life force, and yama is the control. We need these to accomplish both our spiritual desires and material desires. When we took an incarnation we also had a material desire. Concentration helps us to focus in order to fulfill our desire. Power helps us to accomplish our desires, thereby allowing us to live in a state of harmony with our Soul. It allows us to have an open heart, an open mind, to be in communion with our Divine nature, or God. This is truly what it means when it is said that the heart or heart chakra is the gateway between the material world and the Spirit or Divine world. It allows us to flow freely in fulfilling our material desires and our spiritual desires or Soul’s purpose for manifestation.

Power is necessary. Pranayama is taking control or understanding prana, and is a very important step in our self-awareness. The yogis say that if you know prana, you know God. Prana becomes another name for life force or the Christ/Krishna Consciousness. To work on pranayama, controlling prana, is a necessary step to accomplishing our material and spiritual goals. This is why the yoga traditions have pranayama as a necessary step. In the Eightfold Path,[1] first there are the yamas, niyamas, asanas, and then pranayama. We then withdraw our attention from the external to focus our attention on our goals. Then we come to concentration, then meditation, then samadhi.

We need to understand that pranayama, or controlling the life force, benefits us in every aspect of our life–materially, spiritually, on the inward journey, and on the outward journey. In order to touch and perfect both the inner life and the outer life, we need control and focus, and the knowledge of how to control and focus the life force, prana. This brings us to the pranayama techniques.

The pranayama techniques are not just breath techniques or exercises. The pranayama techniques help us focus on bringing in more prana (life force) and power. We get prana directly through oxygen, water, and foods that are exposed to sunlight. More importantly, we draw it through the medulla oblongata, which is the point where the skull meets the spine. The prana comes in through the medulla on the exhalation and retention. By retention, I do not mean holding our breath. Retention is a natural pause between inhalation and exhalation, between exhalation and inhalation. We take a slow deep inhalation, and have a slow even exhalation. On the slow exhalation we are drawing more prana in directly through the medulla. Then we allow an even pause. We aren’t holding our breath, or having a broken breath. We make it even and uniform, which allows us to recharge and revitalize the atoms and cells of our body.

We do pranayama exercises to revitalize our pranic channels: the ida, pingala, and sushumna. Where the ida, pingala and sushumna meet in the cerebral spinal system is what is called chakras. By revitalizing or recharging with more power or prana, we lead the energy from the base of the spine to the crown. This allows the sushumna to flow, which allows for the awakening of the kundalini, which allows for even more prana to flow. We do pranayama to attain power and energy for the purpose of accomplishing or attaining our goals. It helps with accomplishing the outer goals and also with accomplishing our inner goals. Pranayama also helps in attaining awareness of the Divine Will, the Soul is an expression of God, which has been sent out like a cosmic wave, sent to fulfill some purpose that God has for us. This is why it is important to be in harmony with our Soul, so that no matter what stage we are at in our development, we are still in harmony with the Divine Will. We practice the pranayama techniques, which in turn helps to attain diaphragmatic breathing, which brings more power to help accomplish our goals.

We start with proper diaphragmatic breathing. We should understand that the average rate of breathing is 18–22 times a minute. Most people only breathe in the top portion of their lungs, taking in approximately 500 cubic centimeters of air, yet the full capacity is approximately 3500 cc. The average adult is taking in only 1/7th of oxygen or prana, and while exhaling they draw in only 1/7th of possible prana through the medulla.

We begin with a simple diaphragmatic technique that has three phases. We need to develop breath awareness. We need to become aware of how much air or prana we can actually take in on a deep full inhalation, and on a deep, full, slow exhalation. We do deep diaphragmatic breathing, and then add chest breathing. To get the maximum amount of energy, we then add shoulder breathing. We do this throughout the day to retrain and reeducate our self in breath awareness. It is a simple technique or process.

Complete Diaphragmatic Breathing:

  1. Do a full exhalation through the nostrils to expel all air from the lungs.
  2. Take a full inhalation through the nostrils, drawing the diaphragm down, until full (count from 1–8).
  3. Expand the chest, shoulders, back, to bring in more air (count from 9 to10).
  4. Raise the shoulders to bring in the last bit of air (count from 11–12).
  5. Exhale through the nostrils, slowly and gently (count from 1–12), allowing the shoulders and arms to relax, and gently pull the stomach in/diaphragm up (or bend forward slightly) to expel all the air.

If the count of 12 is not comfortable for you, use a lower more comfortable count. However, the count on the inhalation should be the same as on the exhalation. We want the inhalation and exhalation to be even, which will prepare us for the next technique, the 1–12 technique:

1–12 technique:

  1. Breathe in through the nostrils to a count of 12 (or a count comfortable to you).
  2.  Exhale through the nostrils to the same count. We are simply breathing deeply, gently, and evenly, and we do not need to expand the chest or raise the shoulders in this technique.
  3. You may want to allow a small pause of 1–2 counts between the inhalation/exhalation and exhalation/inhalation, but don’t extend the pause at this point.

[1] Eightfold Path: A system of yoga practices attributed to Pantajali. See page 4.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Tantra and Mysticism – Part Seven

January 20, 2014 by

In realizing our nature, we must expand our consciousness and come to our Wholistic nature. This is where meditation comes in. It helps us to expand our awareness or consciousness of our life and life around us. Everyone is pursuing happiness, and the Holy Ones tell us happiness is our very nature. However, to come to this realization, we have to expand our awareness of our Wholistic nature.

The first step in the process of expanding our awareness is the desire to have the awareness of our Wholistic nature.

We need to understand that this desire is the Soul’s natural inclination or desire to manifest and express the Divine Will in the Causal body, Astral body, and finally to the Physical body. This inclination or desire has a different form in each of the bodies, and we must become aware of the desire in each body and fulfill each stage or each body’s desire. The only way to do this is to become aware of what the desire is at each body: Physical, Astral, and Causal. Through calming down the mind, breath, and lower ego, we are able to see our desire.

Each Soul ultimately has a unique purpose that it must fulfill in life in order to be in harmony with God, or its higher nature. Until we become aware of this desire or purpose, it is very difficult to be in harmony with the Divine Will, with the Christ/Krishna Consciousness. Most people will interpret this call for Wholistic completeness as a dissatisfaction with their everyday life. Rather than attain transcendence or attain awareness of their Wholistic nature, and what would fulfill their Soul, Casual body, Astral body, and Physical body, they just feel a dissatisfaction or discontent with everyday life. With the proper guidance and techniques, we can go inward to find or discover the desires and answers that are unique to our Soul’s reason for taking an incarnation. We can discover what is necessary for fulfilling those desires. However, we must calm down the mind, breath, and ego in meditation to make this discovery.

We need to understand there is a Major and a Minor aspect of this desire. The Major aspect is that we are created in the image of God. We are created as a unique expression of Divinity for some unique purpose of God, and each unique expression will seek its own fulfillment. The Minor aspect of desire is that the Soul, in each moment of each incarnation, will strive to be in harmony. However, until we are aware of how to attain this harmony, we cannot be living in harmony, and therefore, we will not be happy or enjoying our life. It becomes our responsibility to find or discover the harmony, the purpose, the experience where as Christ said, “Let Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  This brings us to meditation, which allows us to discover our Wholistic nature, and the purpose of our creation, and the purpose of what we hope to fulfill this specific incarnation.

No one takes an incarnation without having a specific purpose to fulfill. That very purpose is what attracts us or draws us down to the Physical incarnation. To go along in life without knowing our purpose is a very discordant way of living. This is why most of the world is stressed, unhappy, and unfulfilled. They believe it is natural to be discontent with life, rather than believing it is natural to go within and find the harmony and contentment. When it comes to finding our purpose, we need awareness, but we also need power, energy, and concentration.

Filed Under: Self Realization

Tantra and Mysticism – Part Six

January 10, 2014 by

WE CAN BE OPEN TO LIFE

One of the greatest obstacles in spiritual evolvement is the idea or belief (and therefore practice) that we must protect our self from life, or that we must protect our heart from getting hurt. This idea is a natural evolution of the lower ego, but this belief has to continue evolving as we evolve. We must allow an openness and the willingness to learn and grow in order to progress. The alternative is to allow the ego and its self-protection to close us off from life, thereby closing us off from learning and growing.

We can be open to life, and embrace life while still having healthy boundaries. We come to the realization that our nature is Satyam, which is also the nature of God. We understand that we don’t get love or Satyam from other people, or from activities. It is our very nature. Our interactions and relationships with other people are where the boundaries are. These are the rules we use when relating with other people. We can be open to life and have healthy boundaries. Having healthy boundaries means that we don’t have to accept everything that others want to give us. We understand the difference between love, Satyam, which is our nature, and the healthy boundaries of relationships with others. If our relationships are healthy, they are beneficial for our self and the international community. They are not harmful in any way. When we have healthy boundaries, we don’t have to close off any part of our self. There are things that we might outgrow and no longer wish to participate in, so we gently go beyond it.

The process of self-discovery starts with our self but continues into awareness of God.  We begin with the study of our Self, our Wholistic nature. Lahiri Mahasaya taught Kriya Yoga so that those who could not believe in the divinity of someone else could discover their own Divinity and the Divinity of all life through Kriya Yoga.

Hazrat Inayat Khan said the greatest religion of all is the study of life. The study of life is more than just studying the Physical life. It is the study of life Wholistically. If we accept that responsibility, then self-discovery becomes our religion, defined as the rejoining the small spirit with the large Spirit. We do not need to have a great library of theology to define our religious beliefs. Our direct experience with our self becomes our religion, our path. This process can be very simple. We continue to make minor adjustments while learning and growing.

All of humanity wants to be happy, to feel love, have friendships, know about their immortal nature, and feel free. The person who is studying Self-realization is no different from anyone else; it is just a matter of where they are looking to get that love, freedom, friendships, knowledge, and health. Most of the world is looking outside themselves. They are looking for security in money or relationships. They are trying to find love with other people. They are trying to find freedom with money and power so they can do whatever they want, thinking there will be no cost or causation. Those who are studying Self-realization have the same desires to feel freedom, experience love, to have a healthy body and mind, in wanting to have knowledge of God or our Wholistic Self. They differ in that they have accepted responsibility to discover their true nature

The Royal Path brings all responsibility to our self. We don’t say, “I have no one to love.” We say, “I’m not feeling love today. I need to focus more on Om Satyam. I need to express more love and identify with love.” We begin to identify with our Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram nature. When we do this, we experience that we are complete. We begin to realize that all life is created from this Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram nature and that we can appreciate, enjoy, and delight in life. The difference between the true spiritual devotee and the world is that the worldly person is still trying to collect their happiness and love from external sources. They have become collectors, possessors, and owners. True spiritual devotees already have the sense of ownership of their Soul, and they begin to appreciate and delight in the beauty, love, harmony, and joy. It is their very nature, the very nature of life, and the very nature of God that they are striving to appreciate and delight in at all times.

Filed Under: Self Realization