Chakras? – Schmakras!
When I first started learning Kundalini yoga, I was entirely
sceptical about it (‘chakras - yeah, right!’)
but I chose to suspend disbelief and just follow the practise.
I am so glad that I did! I was soon whizzing off on
delightful journeys of relaxation, getting in touch with my
deeper spiritual needs, and honing my body, at the same time!
Kundalini is holistic – mind, body and spirit.
It comprises exercises, meditation, chanting, and visualisation.
Gradually, I gained a deep sense of peace and ‘inner
knowing’. Partly through Kundalini yoga, I was
able to contact the ‘wise voice’ inside of me
that I call my ‘higher self’. She is always
there for me to call on, giving amazing advice, telling me
what is not yet known, guiding me in surprising directions!
I am so lucky to have made this contact! Yoga is a great
way of fine-tuning your powers of listening.
What’s this scary ‘Kundalini Awakening’
stuff?
The energy in the body (known as ‘prana’ in yoga)
flows in a double helix around the spine. It emanates
from the base chakra at the perineum, (where it is visualised
as a ‘coiled serpent’ – or ‘Kundalini’)
and rises through each chakra in a spiral up around the spine
to the crown chakra (located above the head).
There are two spirals – one is called ‘ida’
(feminine)and the other is called ‘pingala’ (masculine).
It is no accident that in diagram form this looks much like
a ‘caduceus’ - two snakes coiled around a central
staff - which is the universal symbol of healing and medicine.
Much is made of sudden ‘Kundalini awakenings’
– i.e. the awakening of the serpent, or inner
energy - which can cause unpredicable (even psychotic) results.
Kundalini yoga, if practised in a gentle and incremental way,
under a trained teacher, is highly unlikely to cause a sudden
‘kundalini awakening’ (which means that the energy
has suddenly been released in an uncontrolled rush, which
the student may not be equipped to cope with). It is
the aim of all yogas, actually, to ‘awaken kundalini’.
This just needs to be done gradually, that’s all.
Don’t let it put you off!
What is Yoga?
Yoga is the ‘royal road to self-realisation’.
It means ‘unity’. It works by opening and
balancing the chakras so they are all working in harmony,
enabling the energy to flow.
Briefly, the chakras are energy centres in the body, located
along the spine from base to tip. They are the route
and focus for metaphysical energy. Energy flows freely
between the base chakra at the perineum (real world) to the
crown chakra above the head (the divine). If fully functioning,
this ensures that our real-world actions are guided by our
soul’s true purpose (see article on chakras in last
issue for more detail). No single chakra is ‘good
or bad’ – we need all of them in order to expess
ourselves fully as humans.
The lower triad of chakras (base – real world, sacrum
– femininity, money and flow, navel - action) are based
in the physical world. Higher feelings begin at the
heart centre (love) and progress up to the throat (communication),
brow (insight), crown (divinity). Once the brow and
crown are open, you receive a precious bonus – ‘inner
wisdom and knowing the unknowable’.
The other thing I gained from yoga, perhaps because Kundalini
has specific ‘sets’ of exercises (known as ‘kriyas’
which means ‘completed action’) was a direct experience
of how the quality of each chakra ‘feels’.
Each ‘kriya’ has a specific end result –
for example ‘breaking through money blocks’; ‘releasing
toxins’, ‘clearing the spleen’, ‘opening
to love’ and so on. There are literally hundreds
of different Kundalini ‘yoga recipes’, focused
on various physical qualities , emotional states, or specific
chakras. They each have a very different ‘feel’
and result.
The ‘Rainbow Journey’
Now that I have a sense of the different ‘energies’
of each chakra, I find that it gives me more of a ‘palette’
of different shades of emotional response to choose from when
I’m relating to other people. For example, if
I want action (on a project or in an emergency situation perhaps),
I respond from the navel. But if I want to respond in
a higher way of relating, I can choose to come from the heart.
I’m trying to give you a flavour for Kundalini here
– maybe you have
“ God”, Ink on Paper, by Putu S.
Available from Ashram.
already tried it and have an inkling of what I mean, or are
familiar already. However, if you haven’t tried
it yet, this is rather like the difference between me describing
the taste of an apple, and having you take a bite out of it!
You have to get down on the mat and try the yoga experience
to really appreciate what it’s about.
Quick fear-buster
Here’s something you can try right now though –
it’’s a handy tip for overcoming fear (useful
in these challenging times). You can use it any time
you feel nervous or afraid. Simply pump the navel, about
twenty to thirty times. Pull the muscles in, hard, and
release. On completion, you should feel much more confident
and ready for action, as this activates the navel chakra.
Should you feel inspired to try a yoga class, I’m open
to putting learners/teachers in touch – drop me an email
and I will see what I can do. At a later date, we’ll
put info like this on the Ashram website.
Why we get sick…
It should be noted that we may have blocks (or disfunctioning
chakras) for a reason. If we cannot handle strong feelings
(such as anger, for example) then we may ‘close down’
in that area (i.e. the heart chakra). However, over
a long period, a disfunction such as this can result in actual
physical damage (such as heart disease for example), as a
result of the stress of trying to restrain natural feelings
over a long period of time.
You may believe that disease happens by chance or is inherited
– these factors have a part to play, of course.
However, I choose to believe that we get sick because we NEED
to – because, for some reason, we have not been able
to respond to the gentler urgings of our inner feelings (or
soul, guide, call it what you will).
The body finally starts sending stronger and stronger messages
to try to get us to change the orginal energetic (i.e. chakra-linked,
or emotional) behaviour pattern! This results, finally,
in the need to visit the doctor. Generally, once you
have a serious physical problem, you may need conventional
medicine to sort it out.
However, the greater our capacity to get ‘in touch with
ourselves’ and listen to inner urgings, the greater
is our chance to heed the messages and make small changes
to pre-empt what can later become serious health problems.
Louise Hay’s excellent book ‘You Can Heal Your
Life’ is a great source of further information if you
need it.
Opening to Love in West Hampstead?
To give you an example of how powerful yoga is, one sunny
Autumn Saturday morning, I had just completed a Kundalini
set with my teacher Amber’s group in West Hampstead,
London. Amber’s yoga room is a large, airy, white
painted room with a high bay window stretching from floor
to ceiling, and opening onto a green garden. Flowers,
crystals, little statues of deities and other inspiring things
always adorned this lovely window.
Amber herself is a tall and slender Amazonian – a magnificent
combination of Ethiopian and European I think, with large
expressive eyes, high cheekbones, sculpted lips, amazing body,
and hair coiled like an Egyptian princess. She studied
under Yogi Baijan, the Kundalini leader, who brought this
previously covert form of Sikh mysticism to the West from
India in 1975.
We had just completed a yoga set entitled ‘Opening the
heart to love’. There were some static exercises,
holding a (somewhat challenging!) position for three minutes
at a time. There were some repetitive exercises, repeating
a movement many times for three minutes, all with specific
breathing. And an exercise called ‘bear grip’
– sitting cross legged, you clasp your left hand with
your right and pull as hard as you can over the heart area
for three minutes till the sweat runs off you. Finally,
eleven minutes of singing a mantra with an accompanying repetitive
movement. Phew!
After about two hours of this, we sat in our circle afterwards,
all ‘loved up’ – just feeling a beautiful
sense of peace and tranquility and love.
Quickly fighting through the bathroom bustle to dress and
leave the class, I meandered dreamily up the road, savouring
the bright blue sky and crisp fresh air. Suddenly, I
noticed a young man, standing with what looked like his father.
I realised that the young man was a little mentally retarded.
As I walked up to them, he suddenly broke into a huge child-like
grin, extended his arms, and wrapped them round me in an enormous
bear hug! It was very sweet. (And yes, it felt safe).
He obviously was very open and attuned to the ‘heart
energy’ and just connected with it straight away.
It was lovely to make a connection like that – we chatted
for a few moments, and I went happily on my way, marvelling
at the ability of ‘energy work’ to connect us
all at a soul level.
NEXT ISSUE: ‘Stand up, New Aquarians!’
– what the new age we are entering means for us now,
and how to get ready for it.
ASHRAM of SPIRITUAL JEWELLERY & ART is at 1 Sukma St,
Tebesaya, Ubud (Oppositie Jazz Cafe). Tel: 081
239 43354. Open 10am-10pm (to 5pm Sun/Mon)
Jeli welcomes comments and may be contacted on:
Email: jelila@jelila.com
Website: www.jelila.com or www.imagine-retreats.com
