Kundalini Yoga Meditation Practice

For the last few months I have intensely been practicing the kundalini yoga meditation practice I have learned from Swami Ganeshananda. I must say that my idea of kundalini yoga has changed drastically. Dadaji Mahendranath of our lineage spoke not much about the "raising" or "awakening" of the kundalini shakti. In fact, I think he at one point rejected kundalini yoga as a fraud. But I must say that from what I have learned from Swami Ganeshananda, kundalini yoga can be something very practical and useful.

I have myself been a ardent practitioner of Zazen Meditation, especially as taught by Thick Nat Hanh, Osho and the Kwan Um School of Zen, and I still am of the opinion that these are true, effective meditation practices. Also Dadaji Mahendranath gives a similar practice in his instructions for meditation.

But there is one fundamental aspect of the Kundalini Yoga Meditation Practice taught by Swami Ganeshananda that I have really come to appriciate. Something I in the beginning was suspicious of, since I have been of the opinion that everything that is added to just sitting silently is something that is besides the point.

Since my initiation into the Nath Sampradaya I have become more and more aware of the world as a play of energies, but learning the Kundalini Yoga Meditation has made me experience more and more the play of energies in myself. I feel I have developed in this short time a much stronger sensitivity as to how these energies play within myself.

I have aslo had a powerfull experience of the interplay of energies between to individuals that have really surprised me. I have always been suspicious of the jumping around, crying and fainting due to the shaktipat given by the teacher or guru. Now, I know beyond doubt, that these happenings are real. I was amazed when it happened to me, since I have been a sceptic to these events, but nevertheless they happened.

I feel enriched and healed by my experiences and have come to appreciate the value of the teacher or guru in a way that I never thought I would. This does not mean that I buy into the "guru buissiness" as a whole, but I definitely am more open. The flow of love and energy I feel between myself and Swami Ganeshananda is undeniable real, mysterious and wonderfull. I find it so amazing to relate with another individual in this way. He has his personality, which is very ordinary, friendly and accessable, and at the same time reveals a fathomless depth and presence of energy in his formal Darshans (called Open Eyes Class).

I do not feel these things contradictionary to the Kaula Nath Path, rather, I feel that Swami Ganeshananda embodies the essence of our individual path of Svecchachara. He never lays down any rigid rules or give commandments. everything he teaches he puts forward as a friend and fellow traveler. Even though he is a Sannyasi, he stays in the world, does his own thing and live according to his own heart and own intelligence. As his own teacher, Swami Rudrananda (Rudi), he is still a buissiness man, at the same time not attached to the riches he accumulate. His own home he offers as a center of yoga and meditation, and he is alwayas giving, never asking for anything. I feel that in Swami Ganeshananda I have found a teacher that embodies the qualities I seek as a nath.

- Visarganath

Sri Lalita Puja

Adesh!

The Will to Love is the Law to Live!

Just wanted to write something so that you know that I am still alive :-)

Lately I have been deepening my practical application of the principles that I learned as my initiation into the Nath Sampradaya. Even though my practice have been in the spirit of Shaktopaya (Jnana Yoga), I still maintain my practice of performing pujas and rituals that I learned as part of my Anavopaya (Kriya Yoga) practice. It is very important to have a solid foundation in Bhakti Sadhana (Devotional Practice) in order to have the trust needed to start with Vira Sadhana (Heroic Practice).

This spring my daughter and I have been performing pujas to Sri Lalita in order to greet Her and creative powers.My daughter is a very good pujari, and my heart was overflowing with joy when she was singing the mantras, sprinkling the altar and presenting the offering. It is a very nice thing to do together. As Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says (ore something like this, giving the same point :-): "When you are able to tell your child the deepest truths, then you can say that they are a integral part of you". This is my way of trying to share something I hold to be both true and important: reverence for life and total trust in existence.

Love from Visarganath

Silence...

I have been silent on this blog for a long time now. The reason for this is that in my non-virual life I have been very occupied with mundane work and spiritual work.

Some years ago I came in contact with a meditation teacher that is a direct disciple of the american maverick kundalini-yoga teacher Swami Rudrananda of New York. Last year I read that this meditation teacher had been initiated as a sannyasi and had became Swami Ganeshananda. On writing to him and congratulating him on his further deepening of his spiritual life we again reconnected.

Swami Ganeshananda teaches a simple and effective meditation technique that have really helped me in digesting the stresses of my daily life. This kundalini yoga practice is nothing like the more traditional practices given by Shyam Sundar Goswami, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Shri Shri Anandamurti or the Sikh Yogi Bhajan. This technique is functions more in the line of the meditations of Shri Rajneesh Chandra Mohan (Osho). It starts with calming the body through relaxation and awareness of the breath. Then one connect the awareness with the subtle flow of breath inside the subtle body.

It has been amazing to see how such a simple technique has helped in releasing stress tensions and increased my power of presence. I have been practicing Sandhya Yoga Meditation for many years, both with yogik teachers and buddhist teachers, so the experience of meditation is not a new experience for me. What is new is how much faster I get into the state of meditation and how well I get established there through this technique. 

I must admit that I was a bit skeptic in the beginning, thinking that this technique was a bit "new age" but still I dedicated myself to a one month steady practice of it every morning and evening, as part of my regular Sadhana. And I am glad I did.

What I like about this technique is how natural it is to perform and that by performing it one does not get lost into all kinds of esoteric imagery but simply enters into a natural and easy state of meditation. The technique leads to a state of non-technique and in my book that is how it always should be. A technique is of little value if it leads you to more and more techniques. A technique should lead one to the natural state of being, strengthening ones awareness of awareness. 

As a nath yogi this Kundalini Yoga Meditation is in accordance with the path of Svecchachara. I also feel that it

Spiriual and Mundane Personae

[This was originally posted on another mailing list but a friend a mine told me he had benefitted from reading it, so therefor I also post it here. I also publish the question my post was an answer to but have kept no names.]

Is it possible to lead a dedicated spiritual life without messing up dmask of our everyday persona ? if so, how can this be achieved ? is adeliberate split personality i.e. worldly & spiritual, deterimentalfor spiritual growth?

Svecchachara! 

The Will to Love is the Law to Live ;-) 

I think the discussion "Spiritual & Mundane Personae" is an interesting one. I think many on the path to self-ralization, or Self-actualization, has encountered this question. 

As for myself, I think we operate with multiple personalities on a daily basis. At least I do. 

Personae means mask, and I have many of them. I have the mask of the son in relation to my parents. I have the mask of the father in relation to my daughter. I have the mask of the lover in relation to my ladyfriend. I have the mask of the professional in relation to work. 

I do not think that wearing mask is bad in itself. It is only natural. They arise spontaniously when we enter different sets of social interaction. 

I think Karl König (famous for working with mentally disabeled people) once said that the main difficulty for the mentally disabled is that they only operate through one mask all the time, and that it is this that make social interacting so difficult for them. 

Roberto Assagioli - the founder and developer of Psychosynthesis - also acknowledge that individuals operate with multiple personalities in a healthy way. 

So, in relation to social interacting, masks are a necesary tool and asset. 

But masks are masks, and every good actor knowns this. What is important is that we remember our Self in every acticity, behind every mask. We have to be rooted in our fundamental I-feeling when wear our masks and engages in "mundane" activities (but one could argue that there is no real difference between the spiritual and mundane. The Kaulas of Kashmir holds this notion: there is no difference. All is Chaitanya, (universal God-consciousness). We just have to remember to NOT IDENTIFY ourselves with the masks and keep the rememberance that the Self is the Divine Actor. We have to practice what Gurdjieff calls Constant Self-Rememberance. 

Also, I find the suggestions of the Nandinathas very helpful in this regard. The Hawaiian Naths say that one choulddivide ones awareness two thirds on the inner world and one third on the outer world. In this way one is always aware on how one reacts and responds in relation to the outer world. One also becomes aware on which mask one wears, or which personality one emits. 

So, as long as we live under the rules of Maya's Leela, why not participate in her play? And as long as one have a body one will be under the influence of the the three gunas, the five elements and multiple personalities. 

One could say that all "normal" people are kind of schizophrenic. Only the individual who recognizes the operations of the different personalities can be said to be really healthy. As I understand it, being as master of oneself and ones ways of functioning, is what is ment by being a "Lord" or "Lady" 

Love from Visarganath 

Reflections on The Right-Hand and Left-Hand Paths

If you was to tell someone that you practice the left-hand path of tantrika, you may experience to encounter some raised eyebrows. It is common both in the east and west that we view the left-hand paths as something dark, sinister and evil, and if one is to reach salvation, one better stick to the right hand path.

This is actually not the case in the tantrika tradition. At least not according to the Kaula Nathas. It is true that there exists some individuals practicing tantrika for their own benefit and gain only, but this would be true for any tradition, left or right. 

The Kaula Nathast uses theses expressions in relation to practice, not in relation to the goal. The uniting goal of every Kaula Nath is the realization of true peace, true freedom and true happiness, and I guess this goes for most yogis and humans in general.

In India the right-hand path and left-hand path are called Dakshinachara and Vamachara, respectively.

Dakshinachara is what is most commonly practiced, both in the east and west. A follower of the Dakshinachara goes to the temple, says his or her prayers, read the scriptures and follows the priests rules and regulations. In this case, most hindus, christians, muslims and jews must be said to be followinging the Dakshinachara. Indian yogis and tantrikas approves of this path, but since it does not require much effort it is said to take many lifetimes to complete.

The Vamachara is not so commonly practiced, either in the east or west. The practitioner of Vamachara is one wants to experience for him- or herself, who experiements and reflects over this existence in a more active way. There are similar people also here in the west, for instance the gnostic christians, the muslim sufis and the cabbalistic jews. These were all mystics who experimented with the laws of nature, who sought to reveal the hidden mysteries and who arranged situations where they could experience the deeper secrets of life for themselves.

The Kaula Naths fits into this latter category of Vamacharins. We seek also the deeper and hidden truth of this existence, and we do it by applying many different means. We use pujas or kriyas (forms of rituals and exercises), mantras (sound), yantras (geometrical "machines") and tantras (treatisies on topics related to tantrika practices). We also apply a certain degree of magick in order to make our progress faster.

Many misunderstand "tantra" to be some kind of sexual gymnastics for achieving prolonged orgasms and a better sex life. But this kind of "Californian Tantra" is not what real tantrika is about. It is true that sex is given a central place in the tantrika tradition, but there is a great difference between how sex is viewed in tantrika and how it is viewed by the "californians".

If you look around you, you will see that sex has a great presence in existence. Sex is the force that lies behind all creation, and it is the force that makes nature display Her great beauty and creativity. This kind of kind of sex is a force, it is not sexual. It is importand to understand that tantrikas understand sex as a natural force of nature. The sexuality we se displayed everywhere in our western culture is a creation of the mind. This sexuality is an intellectualization of the sex force, but has little to do with with the natural force itself that the tantrikas seek to understand.

Tantrikas are natural people and if you look at their symbols it is almost always directly related to nature and Her processes. Shiva and Shakti; Man and Woman; Stars and Planets; Life and Death; Animals and Plants, (and the list goes on).

These are symbols of nature and the tantrikas tries to dive deep into them through ritual and practice in order to understand the deeper realities behind them. Not to become the greatest scientists or the greatest magicians, but in order to understand life and what we are part of. It is all part of the most ancient questions man has ever asked: who am I? Where did I come from? Where to will I go? What is the meaning of all this?

As a Kaula Nath I use ritual settings to create situations where I can experiment with the forces of life through symbolic representations. These forms can be anthropomorphic gods and goddesses, geometrical structures or inner and outer sounds. Through rituals I experiment with these forces and enliven them within my own being. One of the yogis in our lineage said that the most important faculties in man is Imagination, Insight and Intuition. It is through these three "Super Faculties" we as human beings can engage in the ritual practices of our mystical nature and benefit from them. But they always has to be worked on in direct relations to our own lives.

Last year I did much work on Kali Ma in relation to the death of my zen teacher. He died of heart failure and at the funeral I discovered that my relationship with death was not so clear and easy as I initially thought.

What I did was that I engaged in a kind of meditative dialouge with Kali Ma. I did much mantra japa with her mantra Krim Kalikaye Namaha. This mantra I repeated during everyday activities and as I did so I ideated how everything that I saw around me one day would turn into ashes. The people around me, buildings, the earth itself and the whole of cosmos, everything. What this led to was some insights that was of great importance and value to me.

One of the insights was that I understood that death itself is a fiction. There is no death. Yes, people will disappear but the Life Stream itself will never end. I saw that out of the dead new life was sprouting continuously. I realized that the very soil I was walking, this "creamtion ground", was the ashes of my ancestors (on a collective level, including humans, animals, plants and minerals). But this "ashes of the dead" was at the same time the womb of the living. It was only my attachment to form that made me think that there is such a thing as death. In reality there is only a continuous stream of life, shifting shapes and expressions through time and space.  This made we at ease with the fact that I too one day will have to give up my form. I am a father and realized that in order to let my daughter experience this magic and wonderful place called earth, I need to make space for her to live. I need to give up my form so that the new generations have space to live.

Fore some this might sound like a depressive outlook on life, but for me it had the opposite effect. I realized the importance of being present in the Now and rejoice in everything that is happening. And even though I knew this truth from before, it got a stronger emergency for me after the Kali Bhakti Sadhana.

Tantrikas do acknowledge the reality of dual existence as we experience it here and now, at the same time they never forget the universal perspective that we are All One, Shiva-Shakti.