I am at heart a researcher. Over the past year, my research has led me to study the concepts of yin and yang, as well as kundalini yoga and meditation. In my own sadhana, or KYM practice, I have been endlessly intrigued and overjoyed to see how the concepts of yin and yang present themselves in the basics of kundalini yoga and meditation.
Yin and Yang overview
I've blogged about this before, but yin is the feminine essence and yang is the masculine essence. Yang leads, yin follows; yang does, yin is. While yang is aggressive, yin is submissive.
Kundalini and feminine energy
Kundalini is energy coiled at the base of the spine; it rises when the masculine and feminine energies are brought together. This is the purpose of kundalini yoga and meditation: to raise the kundalini from the base of the spine to the top of it.
Yin and yang in KYM
Here are just a few examples of how the principles of yin and yang are exemplified in KYM.
Sat nam. The phrase means "I am truth; truth is my identity." When you do meditations like cat-cow, you're supposed to think "Sat" on the inhale and "Nam" on the exhale. Inhalation is fundamentally yang, and exhalation is fundamentally yin. Similarly, the active voice, as exemplified in "I am truth," is yang, while passive voice ("Truth is my identity") is yin. The phrase "Sat nam" as a whole combines both yin and yang energies. And breaking it up with "sat" on the inhale and "nam" on the exhale... it's yin and yang, guys!
Sat nam, Waheguru. Other KYM things have you think "Sat nam" on the inhalation and "Waheguru" ("praise be to God") on the exhalation. Just as it is masculine to assert identity, it is feminine to praise others, and particularly to praise the masculine essence--and what is more "masculine essence" than God? Another perfect example of yin and yang in KYM.
Opposing postures. While other forms of yoga involve long deep stretches and minimal movement, many KYM postures involve movement--back and forth, flex and curl, etc. Doing the postures can really work up a sweat! KYM is designed to balance yin and yang energies, though, in a way other yogas are not. Using opposite postures (ex: flexed spine/curled spine) on the inhalation and exhalation balance the masculine and feminine energies in a truly fascinating and effective way.
Finite and infinite.
"Kundalini Yoga is the science to unite the finite with Infinity, and it's the art to experience Infinity in the finite." - Yogi Bhajan.
Infinity is yang, and the finite is yin. Just as the Heavens are yang and the Earth is yin. KYM purports to unite the two, finite and Infinity--as Yogi Bhajan says, the science to unite finite with Infinity, and the art to experience Infinity in the finite. A beautiful expression of what it means to bring the yin and yang, masculine and feminine, energies into alignment.
Going along with the Infinite/finite idea, consider the words of the tuning-out song, Longtime Sun:
May the longtime sun shine upon you All love surround you And the pure light within you Guide your way on
Even the tune-out song unites the Infinite (the longtime sun, or Son, for those Christian practitioners out there!) and the Finite (the light within you). This is another example of KYM uniting the perceived duality of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, Infinite and Finite.
Conclusion
If you are working to balance your masculine and feminine energies, or are working to achieve any sort of enlightenment, taking up a kundalini yoga and meditation practice will help with that. KYM is a technology that uses exercise and vibration (through postures and chanting) to bring energies into alignment for spiritual awakening.
I somehow missed this challenge when it was first announced. The challenge, the Axis and Orbit Summer Challenge, is to complete 30 kundalini yoga and meditation classes by September 21, the autumn equinox. When the challenge was issued, there was enough time to complete the challenge by doing 3 KYM classes/week.
Somehow I missed this blog post when it came out, and only became aware of it in late July. I committed on the first day of August, or so, and signed up for Progressive Prophetess's Prosperity series (available here). I figured I would just do the six classes over and over. Indeed, that is what I have been doing! Any day that I can, I do two classes, to make up for the days I can't do any.
The point of the challenge is to transform your "psyche, axis, and orbit," your axis relating to your connection with God, and your orbit relating to your connection with others. If your axis and orbit are both balanced, you will be happy and prosperous.
In the past few days I completed my fifteenth KYM class (this morning I finished class 17), and I wanted to update the world on how that was going.
Feel free to buy as many copies of my amazing novel as you'd like. Christmas presents, anyone? ;)
The most noticeable difference, probably, has involved money. I work by donation and a lot of times people don't donate and I am too--I don't know, something--to press people on it. So a lot of times I work for free. I'm trying to figure out a new solution but in the meantime, a notable change has been in spontaneous monetary donations. It has been kind of astonishing.
Additionally, I've felt renewed senses of creativity. I've always been a very creative person; I write a lot of music and I blog and I have a novel out which you should totally buy and review on Amazon now. This year I have barely touched my fiction or written music. But since I started taking that class, I've been feeling itchy to work on my most pressing work in progress (WIP), Spidermaiden. What an awesome book, guys. I love it but haven't felt able to work on it. But that is changing!
I also have felt like it is now within the realm of possibility for me to actually make my own webinars, so I've been trying to figure that out. In the past, I just figured it was something too complicated for me to figure out, but now I feel a confidence about it that is amazing.
Physically, I've had two ear infections in the piercing on the right ear. In Chinese face reading, mien shiang, the earlobes are connected to wealth and prosperity. The bigger, fleshier, longer the earlobes, the better! So I've found that fascinating, that my earlobe associated with increasing wealth would be swelling so much lately. I'm taking it as another sign that things are working! A kind of annoying sign but a sign nonetheless. I think it's probably like how when I have started other meditations that gave me acne--I started prosperity meditations in earnest and I'm getting the equivalent of acne on the part of my face that is associated with prosperity.
I also got very sick after I started this challenge; I was sick for two weeks and have just been getting over it all. I had a moment where I realized that part of the purpose of my sickness was to help my body change faster (reorganize, consolidate, purify). So now I wonder if it was connected to the challenge.
Also physically, I've noticed an increase in physical strength since I started doing the classes. Before, it was a struggle to complete certain exercises. But every time I do them I can do them longer and more effectively.
Spiritually, I've felt transitional, but good. Things are reorganizing in my life but in a good way.
As far as connection to others, I've been noticing a lot more how the idea of separation is an illusion. I feel very unified with the people around me, even if we don't know each other very well, or even if we disagree on things. It's less of a unity of thought or ideas or something, and more of a unity in the sense that I feel like we are part of each other, and so I feel this love for them for that.
So: thirteen more classes to go before September 21. Excited to see what other changes it brings....
Meditation is an amazing tool for healing. I always recommend it because it makes such a huge difference in the brain. And this is not just kooky weirdness. There are tons of studies that back up the effects of daily meditation. Here's a link to Wikipedia. Here's a link to an article 3HO, a meditation organization, about the medical benefits of meditation. Actually, go read that article right now. It talks about the effects of meditation on sleep, productivity, memory, stress management, and more. Basically, the benefits of meditation seem just about endless.
I love kundalini meditation (as opposed to other forms of meditation) because it isn't boring. That's the only way to say it, for me! I've tried other forms of meditation in the past--the kind where you sit quietly and try to still your mind, but I always feel like a failure in that because I clear my mind of some stuff, only to have other stuff rush in and fill the same space. Sitting still gets old after not a long time.
Kundalini meditation utilizes "mantras" (chants) and "mudras" (motions) while you meditate. This gives your mind and body something to latch onto while you're clearing your mind. In other words--it's meditation, but not boring!
When you do kundalini meditation, it's important to kind of tune your mind into the frequency of the meditation. So every meditation session starts with a tune-in to that frequency and a tune-out. This is how to tune in:
Then you can do your meditation(s). Most of them are only a few minutes long. I do the kirtan kriya every day. To me, this is a Christ-centered meditation and I always think of Him while I do it. The words, Sa Ta Na Ma, mean Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth (or, to me, rebirth through Resurrection). This one has has a lot of studies done on it for its power to change the brain. Check out this article from the Huffington Post on the many benefits of kirtan kriya. I do it for 7 mins/day, or occasionally 11 minutes if I'm feeling extra meditative.
This is a video where you can just meditate along with me every day--no explanation, just meditation!
I do the prosperity meditation daily as well, for around 3 minutes, and let me tell you: it works. Money, stuff (clothes, food, books--material goods) and job opportunities flow into your life when you do this daily! Try it! I saw my first results within 3 days and within a week, I was really feeling the change. Love it.
This is a meditation for clearing anger:
This is a meditation for healing addictions. Almost everyone is addicted to something... if you don't have a high profile addiction like one to drugs, alcohol, sex or pornography or nicotine, you likely have a lower profile addiction like one to working, using the Internet, texting, or sugar. Here's the meditation:
This is how to tune out and end your session:
Surprising Side-Effects of Meditation
Two things stood out to me when I began my daily meditation practice. The first was that about three days in, I got acne again for the first time in years. To me, this was a visible proof that my meditation was actively clearing toxins from my body. I also got some canker sores in my mouth for the first time in a very long time.
The other thing that stood out to me as I began a daily practice of meditation was how my meditations seemed to affect the people around me as well--not just myself. For example, when I started the prosperity meditation (har, har), three days into my meditation, my husband was contacted about a new job opportunity, seemingly out of the blue.
Basically, when you start a meditation practice, you don't just bless yourself. You bless your whole family.
Your anger meditation can release anger from yourself, but also your children.
Your addiction meditation can break your own sugar addiction, while also helping your loved one's pornography or drug addiction.
Your kirtan kriya meditation can bring you greater peace, while also increasing the overall peace in your home.
And so on.
Resistance
One thing worth mentioning briefly is the concept of resistance. Sometimes the subconscious mind resists meditation--it doesn't want to process the gunk it's been storing. This resistance can take many forms but basically it comes down to the subconscious mind really fighting you from meditating. One example would be, you start falling asleep every time you try meditating. Or in the middle of your meditation, you get really jumpy or something. Resistance can take many forms. But it is actually a really, really good sign. It means that you are on the brink of processing something big that will really bless your life to get out of your system. So keep going!
Meditate, meditate, meditate!
Conclusion
Me after my morning meditation.
The greater peace you can receive from meditation may not come right away--since meditation helps you process subconscious junk, it can actually be kind of uncomfortable. Your life may get a little uncomfortable as your body and mind begin this processing. You may find yourself dealing with issues you thought you'd overcome, but really didn't. For me, I was blown away by the magnitude of some things that came up in my first 40 days of consecutive meditation. Did I spend some time in tears? Okay, yeah. I did. I had things to mourn and grieve and things to sort out from my past, and getting those out involved some crying and general spiritual discomfort. But it was important to get those feelings and those issues out of my body and my spirit so I could move on.
I've compared this before to giving birth. In order to get that baby out, heal up, and move on and be happy, you have to actually push the baby out. And sometimes that process can be kind of difficult and painful (obligatory link to how I gave birth in my living room, which was incidentally, not that painful or difficult! Still intense, though). But after the baby is born, things are good.
In my observation, it seems that many people would rather spend their whole lives being the spiritual equivalent of 41 weeks pregnant, about to pop thanks to the sheer volume of spiritual and emotional trauma that they would rather keep inside than suffer the pain it would take to let it all go. I must assume that some of this holding onto trauma is due to ignorance about how to let go of it, and some of the white-knuckled grip on the past is insufficient faith that God will take care of everything. But there are answers! And the pain of processing complex emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual trauma is basically nothing compared to the pain and inconvenience of carrying around that baggage on your back for your whole life.
I can't recommend meditation highly enough. I believe it is a tool that should be in everyone's toolbox. Is it better than prayer and scripture study? Uh, NO. Always prioritize those first. Although I will mention that meditation has helped me learn how to study the scriptures better. To me, my scripture study and meditation are linked now.
But if you're already on top of growing your faith in God through daily prayer and diligent scripture study, meditation is a great add-on that will truly bless your life and the lives of your loved ones.
I wrote before about taking a 40-day Meditation Challenge. Well, I'm almost done with it. It's been kind of a sacrifice--it requires planning ahead and remembering to do it--but it's been good so far.
Someone once asked the Buddha skeptically, “What have you gained through meditation.”
The Buddha replied, “Nothing at all.”
“Then, Blessed One, what good is it.”
“Let me tell you what I lost through meditation: sickness, anger,
depression, insecurity, the burden of old age, the fear of death. That
is the good of meditation, which leads to nirvana.”
Did Buddha really say that? Apparently not! But the idea behind it appears to be solid enough.
In kundalini meditation, you chant things. All these chants are designed to stimulate the roof of your mouth, and the roof of your mouth apparently has endings for all 12 major organ meridians in it, along with a connection to your hypothalamus gland. So just by making the sounds, you encourage your body to jump-start its processes. This leads to a physical cleansing of sorts.
For me, the day after I started meditating--or maybe it was two days after--I got a canker sore for the first time in a long, long time. I've also gotten acne for the first time in several years. I'm hoping that as I continue my meditations my skin calms down again! We'll see.
For my 40-day meditation, I've been doing the Kirtan Kriya. The chant for this one is "Sa Ta Na Ma," which means birth, life, death, and rebirth. I always think of rebirth as resurrection, though. The chant is, to me, about Jesus Christ.
Also in kundalini meditation, you talk about the Guru a lot. Turns out "Guru" comes from two words, "Gu" and "Ru," meaning light and darkness--the Guru is the one who enlightens the darkness. Examine:
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
12 ¶Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants constantly refer to Christ as the light of the world--the one who brings light to the darkness.
In other words, the Guru.
Last night I doubled my meditation time for the first time. I was having a hard night. But during my meditation, I just focused everything on Jesus Christ, and envisioned Him before me.
And it was incredible. The clearer I sought His image in my mind, the closer I felt to Him, until I could see Him so clearly and felt just enveloped in His love. Just remembering it is so powerful to me. It was like getting this spiritual hug from my Savior. It was beautiful. I cried.
If you're seeking peace in your life, and moments like that, where you just wholly feel God's love for you so clearly, I do have to recommend taking up Christ-centered kundalini meditation. Here. Use this website. It is great.
