(The necessity of committed, multi-channel practice)
But if you want to really make progress in this life, you must multi-channel your efforts in the direction you want to go. It is like that in all things. Spiritual practice is no different.
But everyone will sooner or later. In fact, a little practice fans the fire of divine longing. Just a little bit of practice opens the door enough so the divine desire wells up. Then we are on fire and want more practice and more powerful ways
If you set your heart and mind to it, you can do it. Honest. And then nothing will ever be the same. You will laugh and laugh when you see how it really is. This discussion is for wise souls, those who are ready to do what it takes for as long as it takes. Were the sages of old less committed than this? Of course not. We marvel at their remarkable stories in the scriptures. It is just the same now. You will get out of your practices what you put in. It has always been like that.
Why bother with all this? To be honest, it is the greatest high we can have. The pleasure is beyond anything on earth. Really. The essence of divine experience is unending devastating bliss and an unshakable silent peace. It seems contradictory, doesn’t it? That’s how it is. But don’t take my word for it. Try some of these methods and see for yourself. It’s all waiting in you. Take a few baby steps, and soon you can be opening by leaps and bounds. That is assuming you are ready, and choose each day to go for more. Remember, it is the one thing we can take with us when we move on from this life.
Continuous desire is the fuel. Daily action is the fire. The word “continuous” is important, as is the word “goal.” Without these two operative functions, desires are scattered, actions are unfocused, and not much happens. With them, anything is achievable.
Silent mind is peaceful, blissful and healthy, and radiates these qualities out through the person to the surroundings. People who know how to cultivate quiet mind not only are in touch with their inner creativity; they also radiate a youthfulness and optimism that effects everyone nearby. They have “good vibrations.” Earlier we spoke of consciousness (awareness – the observer), and the objective world (the observed). The essential nature of our consciousness is blissful silence. It is what is behind the mind, what is experienced when the mind becomes still. It is an infinite storehouse of the qualities just mentioned – the realm of what we know as God, always right here within us. This is why it is proclaimed in the Psalms, “Be still and know I am God.” To access the divine all we have to do is know how to be still. Meditation is the process of systematically allowing the mind to become still for specific periods of time each day.
(Meditation as nervous system purification)
A: Our nervous systems are wired for the experience of blissful silence. Indeed, we are created for this. No human being is an exception. However, every nervous system contains obstructions which are to be released and flushed out – lifetimes of accumulated impurities that block our natural state from manifesting in the world, blocking us from inward seeing. The practices of yoga are concerned with the removal of these obstructions. Yoga is a cleaning process. It is the cleaning that brings union between our inner and outer nature.
In a way, it is like digging for treasure. Good digging is moving earth in a very particular way that efficiently takes us down to where the box full of gold sits waiting for us. The digging itself may not seem to resemble a box full of gold. Nevertheless, it is the digging that leads to the gold. The good news with meditation is that we will glimpse the gold often during the digging process, and also while we are not digging during our regular daily activities. Our experience of the gold accumulates gradually over time as we practice meditation daily.
Remember, meditation is not a fight with physical or mental activity we may have. These are all symptoms of the release of obstructions from deep in the nervous system. We just let them go.
This is not a war on the level of the conscious mind. You can never win it that way. We are working from the inside, within and beyond the subconscious mind.
Under these conditions, human life gradually morphs into a kaleidoscope of bliss. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God within, and all will be added to you.”
In time, bliss will predominate, and we will see the world as we have not before. Bliss will be seen bubbling up everywhere, constantly. A dirty pipe can’t stay dirty forever if we are flushing it through with the pure water of consciousness every day. So, while the bliss you feel is a treasure, and certainly for real, keep in mind that there will be cycles of experience as your meditation proceeds.
If we are sitting in a café in New York, and I tell you there is a wonderful place called California three thousand miles away and that you should go see it, why would you go? Suppose you didn’t believe me, didn’t believe such a place existed at all. How could you find the motivation to go? It would be hard. Having never been west of the Mississippi River, you might believe that everyone who has gone past the Mississippi fell off the edge of the earth.
our body and nervous system gradually become purified, breath naturally begins to suspend, and a new kind of biology comes up in us.
In the ancient scriptures, there are references to inner alchemy and to magical substances such as “soma,” “ojas” and “amrita/nectar” occurring in the body. These are biological substances that are produced as the body transforms to a higher state.
(Pranayama, mulabandha, and kundalini arousal)
Mulabandha is a physical maneuver that quickly becomes a habit. In the beginning, our attention will be drawn to the sexual sensations it produces. It can be distracting for a while. That is normal. The aroused sexual energy may want to go down as much as up at first. That is normal too. We just continue with our pranayama practice as always, easily favoring our spinal breathing. This brings the energy up and down in our spinal nerve. In time, we will feel pleasurable sensations higher up, and the event of sexual energy going down during pranayama will become a rarity, and, eventually, never.
Awakening ecstatic conductivity in the spinal nerve awakens the connection between the pineal and pituitary glands, and this corresponds to the opening of the third eye, the opening of inner sight. It is a complex process involving the entire nervous system. Someday science will unravel all the chemistry involved in the human transformation to enlightenment.
Our concern in Advanced Yoga Practices is with the main controls that influence the complex machinery inside, coaxing the nervous system and all the biology to a higher level of functioning – naturally giving rise to sustained pure bliss consciousness and ecstatic experience in daily life.
the while his bhakti was working like a laser beam, slicing through every obstruction in his nervous system. By bhakti alone he merged with the divine.
A: You are wise to be taking a measured approach, gauging your practice to your experiences. The most important thing is to find a stable platform of daily practice that brings balance to the inner energies. Once you have that in place, then you can facilitate the expansion of kundalini in a more comfortable and pleasurable way, while being more aggressive at the same time. Finding this stable platform may involve doing some things outside your regular sitting practice as well. First off, if you have not already, it is suggested you begin a light session of spinal breathing before meditation, only five or ten minutes. See if that brings some balance. See if you can find a platform of practice with only pranayama and meditation that is smooth. Don’t do any mulabandha or sambhavi yet.
However, it is a good idea to make sure the wheels are on straight before you put the pedal to the metal. Once you have done that, much greater speeds will be possible, and it will be a faster, safer and more pleasurable ride.
(Shiva-Shakti union and managing kundalini symptoms)
He is just hanging out there doing nothing, you know. They make love, and nectar (amrita) overflows downward, enlightening the practitioner. Very romantic, isn’t it? Especially for Shiva, who sits up there doing nothing while Shakti fights her way upward (through your nervous system!) to find him. While it looks great on paper, this scenario does not work very well. In practice, most of the time this approach is a flop because it assumes that Shakti will do all the work, and find Shiva at the crown. She will surely try, and tear up your nervous system in the process. Hence the excessive kundalini symptoms. Things can get so uncomfortable that practices can’t continue, and then it goes into a long slow burn from then on. The answer to this is to get Shiva off his butt and doing something. He has to get off his lofty perch and “get down” with Shakti wherever she may be in the body, which is everywhere once she is awake and coming up.
If this is done, some craziness may still be there, but it will be the craziness of the ecstatic union of Shiva and Shakti going on in every nerve and cell in the body, rather than the blistering chaos of Shakti’s energy alone burning through everything it meets, all of which is in your body. In short, which do you prefer, ecstasy or agony?
There can also be a varied assortment of goose bumps, occasional shivers, hot pinpricks, slight headaches and other weird sensations. All of this stuff settles down in time. To the extent any of it remains, it is overshadowed by the experience of pure bliss consciousness and divine ecstasy coming from inside. You will find things like these in a normal kundalini awakening. All of them are symptoms of obstructions coming out, making way for a new life in unending ecstasy.
Taking long daily walks with a relaxed mind is one of the best therapies for smoothing out surging kundalini energies. Tai Chi, practiced regularly, is very grounding also. Yoga asanas (postures), which we will get into in the next few lessons, can help.
The degree to which a chakra is closed, or inactive (or over-active), and depleted or congested, is what determines dis-ease in the being – that is, things are not in sync in the etheric body, and the effect of it manifests on the physical body.
The recommendation is not to keep anything closed (sahasrar included), but to let everything open naturally during advanced yoga practices. We really don’t think about the chakras at all during practices in this approach. They are considered to be “under the hood” of the car as we use the main controls in the driver’s seat. This is not to say other more direct approaches to chakras are not valid. It is just not the approach here.
I have eliminated coffee all together – who needs that artificial stimulation when you have this dynamo inside yourself? A: There she goes. Kundalini, that is. The thing to do is be very intent on integrating all this into your daily activity. You are very wise not to blindly push practices ahead. Find that stable platform of practices and lifestyle that goes around the clock, 24 hours. Very important. You will know when it is time to press ahead again.
Over time, it changes and becomes very smooth and ecstatically blissful energy flowing up in the body like a fountain all the time.