one kriya changes the world

Earlier in the year I felt strongly that I needed to commit to adding Sodarshan Chakra Kriya to my daily kundalini meditation sadhana. I wrote about it a little bit here. Sodarshan Chakra Kriya is amazing because it deeply cleanses the subconscious mind--gets the garbage to the surface for processing. In a previous post I quote Yogi Bhajan about it, and I'm going to do it again:

Image here.

There is no time, no place, no space and no condition attached to this mantra. Each garbage pit has its own time to clear. If you are going to clean your own garbage, you must estimate and clean it as fast as you can, or as slow as you want. You have to decide how much time you have to clean up your garbage pit.

About five days into my daily Sodarshan work, my life completely fell apart. A well-meant but completely, 180-degree misinterpreted conversation led to weeks of the silent treatment from a beloved friend and ended up making life pretty miserable for a while.

Then, a few weeks into that misadventure, my husband asked if he could join me in meditation. I taught him Sodarshan Chakra Kriya with the stern warning that when they say it cleans your subconscious garbage really fast, they actually mean it. By "they" I mean the yogis. The yogis mean their business.

So my DH meditated with me for just three minutes a day, for just two days, and then his life fell apart too! I don't think he made the connection or would ever believe it exists, but I did warn him. Sodarshan Chakra Kriya cleans things up fast. It brings our internal garbage to the fore and then we have to deal with it. By hook or by crook, it must be processed.

One kriya changes the world

Weight loss in others can trigger insecurity. Image here.

I went to my meditation teacher to figure out how this all works, and it turns out: one kriya changes the world. Because meditation alters the landscape of the subconscious mind, and because all other subconscious minds are aware of each other, changing your subconscious triggers changes in those around you.

On a physical, observable level, consider the overweight girl who begins losing weight. As she gets slimmer and slimmer, her fellow overweight friends tell her it's not healthy to "lose weight so quickly," try to talk her out of what she's doing, etc. Her positive changes are triggering her friends' insecurities.

Similarly, on the subconscious plane, the same thing can happen. As your own internal workings alter, the people you interact with respond in ways their subconscious minds feel are appropriate. They will often not understand why they are acting the way they do, or why they feel the way they feel. But when one person changes on any plane, the people they interact with respond accordingly.

Responses: it's not about you, it's about me

The important thing to remember about other people is that their responses are never about you. Their responses are always about them. We all filter reality through our own filters. The things that you actually say may not be what other people hear. Because people hear what they choose to hear, just like they see what they choose to see.

When spiritual progress upsets
others, it is sometimes a sign that their
subconscious knows it should be
changing too. Image here.

This is why seeing someone slim down can trigger an overweight person's insecurities, to go back to the example above. In reality, the friend's reaction has nothing to do with our heroine's weight loss or weight gain or her weight at all. The reality is that this friend has a bunch of body-related insecurities, and they are essentially waiting to be triggered at any opportunity. Watching the heroine slim down just happens to be the most convenient opportunity for these triggers to come out to be dealt with. These feelings coming up are actually a blessing because someone who is awake can notice these feelings and recognize them for what they are, and do the spiritual work to overcome the feelings of resentment and frustration with the self.

When you start changing your life, be it through exercise or healthy eating or meditation or extra scripture reading and temple attendance--as you change who you are on the inside--other people will not always react well. And that's okay. It is all according to eternal principles that we attract what we are. When what we are changes, the things in our life change too. The people in our lives change. Sometimes they change who they are, and sometimes their change is to remove themselves from your life entirely.

Additional witness

Addiction meditation. Image here.

This post has been in my drafts for a long time. After my first time being burned with Sodarshan Chakra Kriya back in March, I kind of gave up on it for a while. This past week, on Sunday, I believe, I took it back up again, just for 2-3 minutes a day.

Sure enough, up came the stick episode I blogged about yesterday. Precipitated by the same people involved in the first time I started doing this meditation in earnest. To me it is an additional witness that indeed, when you start making internal changes, others respond--whether or not they are even there in person, whether or not you have contact at all. This is why there are so many reports from those who do the addiction meditation that they doing the addiction meditation actually seems to influence other family members with addictions as well. One kriya changes the world.


Changing your world

Got some changes you need to make? There's probably a kriya for that! Here is a list of kriyas publicly available on 3HO. Here is a list of meditations. The term "kriya" refers to a complete set--anything that when you do it in its entirety, is complete. So some meditations count as kriyas and some yoga sets count as kriyas. Sodarshan Chakra Kriya is obviously a meditation considered to be a kriya.

Go check out the meditation page I linked if you like--find a meditation that applies to your life and try it out. Sodarshan Chakra Kriya is a very fast-working meditation specifically for clearing subconscious garbage, but Kirtan Kriya is much gentler. If you're dealing with a specific thing you want to clear, you could try some meditations for healing the broken heart, releasing inner anger and negativity, physical or emotional healing, alleviating stress, etc. There's a kriya for just about everything, and let me tell you: they work. But at the same time, just sticking with one kriya over time will clear a wide, wide variety of issues.

Meditate through it!! Image here.

It's best to pick one kriya to work on and do it every day for at least 40 days before dropping it. You can do multiple kriyas a day and switch them out, but it's best to keep one that you do every day over and over. You will see a difference in your life as you add this practice to your daily scripture study and regular temple worship.

Please note: sometimes the initial difference is things getting worse, not better--it's due to things getting shaken up and moved around and the subconscious mind adjusting. For example, it's really common for people who start meditating regularly to start feeling randomly angry all the time for a week or two. Just keep meditating and the anger or other unwanted emotion will clear.



Conclusion

Altering the landscape of your subconscious mind triggers responses in the subconscious minds of others--and those people will react, whether their reactions make sense outwardly or not. The scriptures teach that now is the time to take care of our spiritual development--and that means clearing up not just conscious issues but the subconscious issues that underlie our dysfunctional ways of thinking and acting.

Alma 34:32
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.