Our second six-week sessions of 2010 begin Thursday, February 25 and Saturday, February 27.
Instructor: Susan Wilkens (Nirvair Kaur)
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation
Thursday
Saturday
7:30 - 8:45 pm
8:00 - 9:15 am
Winter-into-Spring 2010 Class Schedule
Begins Thursday, February 25
Begins Saturday, February 27
Session Theme:
Strong as Steel, Steady as Stone: Part One: Stone
Beginnings~
Ends April 1
Ends April 3
One week break: NO Class April 8
One week break: NO Class April 10
Spring-into-Summer 2010 Class Schedule
Begins Thursday, April 15
Begins Saturday, April 17
Session Theme:
Strong as Steel, Steady as Stone: Part Two: Steel
Beginnings~
This is a seven week session (that's why there is a price difference).
This is a seven week session (that's why there is a price difference).
Ends Thursday, May 27
Ends Saturday, May 29
Energize and uplift yourself with Kundalini Yoga & Meditation! You’ll build a healthier body, reduce stress and make contact with your infinite self. Kundalini Yoga is a complete technology for transforming your body, mind and soul. Each class uses postures, breath work, chanting and meditation to provide you with the experience of your innate inner wisdom and joy. Kundalini Yoga & Meditation make you radiant, peaceful and strong so that you can meet life’s challenges and win! It’s like no yoga you’ve ever done before!
Please join us! You’ll enjoy it! And your body and soul will love you for it!
Our Saturday morning class sessions are specially prepared for folks who are brand new or fairly new to Kundalini Yoga. We'll be experiencing many of the breathing techniques, postures, mantras and meditations that are foundational to this practice. If you've been curious about Kundalini and looking for an appropriate place to begin your journey, join us!
Photos above and below by Narinder Kaur/Cara Bazen, who is a student in this year's Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training Program at Spirit Rising Yoga in Chicago. The pictures were taken during training weekends. So it's NOT the Thursday night or Saturday morning Kundalini class in Oak Park -- but it COULD be! View the complete photo albums at www.kundaliniyogateachertraining.shutterfly.com, and see how much fun YOU can have if you do Kundalini Yoga!
Classes are held through the Park District of Oak Park. Location: The Body/Mind Studio of Dole Center at 255 Augusta in Oak Park. Call Dole directly at 708.848.7050 to register.
$56 for a 6-week series for Oak Park residents; $84 for all others.
Remember that if you miss a Kundalini class, you are welcome to make it up by taking any other Hatha class taught at OPPD by Tom or Susan.
(Okay – women might not want to drop in on Yoga for Men.)
Try an Absolute Beginner’s class if you’re brand new to Hatha.
Join us for Early Morning Sadhana! 40 Consecutive Days: Feb 1 – March 12
The Level One Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainees at Spirit Rising Yoga have embarked on an annual training event: 40 consecutive days of practice of the Aquarian Sadhana. To support them on their path, Spirit Rising is offering early morning sadhana at the Yoga Center every day during this time. Sadhana begins at 4:30 am with the recitation of Japji, followed by a yoga set (Kriya for Elevation – every day!) and 62 minutes of chanting the Aquarian Sadhana mantras. Tom and Susan will be joining them on Sundays -- Join us! For more info and location/directions, please visit www.spiritrisingyoga.com. No one ever regrets making the effort to come to sadhana! So good for your soul!
Susan and Tom have both completed a 200-hour Level I Kundalini Yoga & Meditation Teacher Training Program. Tom has gone on to complete a second 200-hour Level I program, giving him over 400 hours of training in teaching Kundalini Yoga. Susan has embarked on Level II, working toward her 500-hour certification, which requires completion of five separate 60-hour modules over the course of a minimum of two-and-a-half years. Both Susan and Tom serve as mentors to students in the Level I program at Spirit Rising Yoga in Chicago.
"We teach Kundalini Yoga & Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan. In that spirit, according to his instructions, we emphasize the teachings and not the teacher. You will find our classes to be practice-based, not personality-centered. If you are longing to be a kundalini groupie, don’t get off the bus at this stop!"
do not go into the direction of despair; i tell you, Suns exist.
Life on the earth plane offers a multitude of opportunities for unfoldment toward our true Self. Coming in contact with the teachings of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation is a five-star potentiality NOT to be passed up or passed by!
Where are you on your journey back to Who you already are? Would you like recommendations for specific yogic tools that will enable you to rise to your particular challenges and overcome your particular shortcomings?
Have you been struggling with certain issues, habits, tendencies, ways of thinking, ways of acting and reacting to people and situations, and personality “quirks”, and wanting to reach a new level of leaving behind patterns that no longer serve you?
Kundalini Yoga and Meditation are amazing technologies for transformation. 12,000+ kriyas and 8,000+ meditations = a very large repertoire of tools you can use to connect and reconnect with your Infinite Self no matter what your circumstances or your issues.
We should talk! You can tell me who you want to be, what’s holding you back, what you want to let go of or get rid of, and what you want to bring more of into your life to be happier and healthier and more of an easeful blessing to the world around you. I can suggest a kriya and/or meditation for your personal practice on the basis of our discussion. We will do the practice together to get you started, to energize it, and to make sure you know exactly what you need to do on your own. I will give you recommendations for successfully beginning and sustaining your practice. You’ll leave the session with handouts and music as needed. I will be available by phone and email, and you can contact me with any questions or concerns, to schedule a follow-up session, or to say “This is working GREAT! I’ll call you again when I need you again.”
If you’d like to read a little bit about our journey on the Kundalini path, there are a few entries below. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the earliest entry.
December 2009
Winter Solstice Sadhana Celebration! Lake Wales Florida
Tom and I took two-and-a-half days to drive from Chicago south to the Circle F Dude Ranch in Lake Wales, Florida, for the annual Winter Solstice gathering of Kundalini yogis and yoginis. Thankfully, the roads were dry and the skies were clear.
We both attended Solstice on Service scholarships this year, meaning that we each agreed to volunteer 4-6 hours daily on a team of our choice, doing a small share of the great work that needs to be done for camp to run smoothly for several hundred participants from around the world. So we expected a somewhat different experience, although we weren’t quite sure exactly what that would be like . . .
What it was like was: cold! I mean – COLD! (Okay, I should speak for myself, as Tom, being on the sound crew, got to spend more time in a heated tent than I did.)
I was on the Security team. I spent most of my time stationed at the entrance to camp, raising and lowering a chain link fence after verifying the identity and valid registration of everyone who wanted to enter the grounds, and making note of the names and destination of everyone who left the grounds with plans to return.
Yes, this would have been a plum assignment if the weather had been typical Florida-balmy, warm, sunny, 70+ degrees . . . even 60+ . . . I would have been happy with 50+ . . . but I have to tell you that it was in the 40s. The low 40s. One morning it was 39 degrees. And the next morning it was 34 degrees. And why does that matter? Because the “Security Booth” was a table and four chairs underneath a tent top with only the back and half of two sides enclosed. And the log sheets and pens (which stopped writing because it was too cold). And the walkie-talkies. And an overhead light to highlight the chain link fence in the dark.
And my shift was almost always from 4-8 am. When it was dark. Windy. Occasionally pouring down rain. And very cold.
The first night we were there, when it was basically just work crew and service team folks, it rained. Torrentially.
The second night we were there, which was the first night for all other attendees, the wind was – fierce. Tents blew over. Tents collapsed. With people in them. People were too cold to sleep in their tents, so they squeezed into sleeping cabins. (There were eight sleeping cabins on the grounds, each with a heater. Most bunks had already been rented out.) They squeezed into non-sleeping cabins. (There were two of these. Because the bathroom in each was to be available to anyone camping, 24/7, the bunks were not rented out.) They brought their sleeping bags to the tantric shelter. (This huge tent was equipped with heaters which could be left on at night to keep campers cozy, but not run during the looooong days of White Tantric yoga . . . but that’s another story . . . )
When you are camping, weather matters. Weather can become the whole story. The only story.
Fortunately, I had my Chicago clothes with me, and I wore them most of the time. Long underwear. Wool socks. Winter boots. Down coat. Gloves. All of that often under the rain poncho. Sometimes with the umbrella. My sleeping bag is warm. Extremities could be chilled by the time I crawled into it, but they thawed out quickly. Getting up to go to the bathroom in the night – a bracing experience! I stood looking up at the stars, and the moon, and listening to the wind in the trees; I shivered; I ran. Getting up to take a shower in the morning – at 2:30, to avoid the rush – another primal interaction with the elements.
Weather was a big part of the story, BUT not the whole story, or the only story. (Although it did seem to encroach on just about everything else.) The wonderful people I met: that was the main story for me. My focus wasn’t on what classes or workshops I wanted to go to, or what teachers I wanted to be sure to see, or how to arrange my schedule so I could go to sadhana every morning and still stay up for the music in the Yogi Tea Café every night. Being a worker bee rather than a full participant in all of the scheduled events gave me a totally different orientation to how to spend my time and to what form my learning would take.
I sometimes felt as though my entire Solstice experience was one long series of conversations. Conversations begun in the rain, in the cold, in the dark of the early morning, conversations with my fellow Security team members, with the folks who came down to the booth to visit and hang out (and bring mugs of steaming hot Yogi tea – thank you!), with folks coming and going and coming back again. Conversations under the full moon, with the sound of hundreds of voices chanting in the distance. Conversations about where and how people grew up, the twists and turns their life paths took, how they were introduced to Kundalini Yoga, ways in which their yoga practice influences their lifestyle, decision making, and thinking about a wide range of topics . . . I can forget, in the busyness of my daily life, in the context of “normal” interactions with people, just how many individuals there are on the planet going about living their lives in a thoughtful, deliberate and extremely joyful manner, informed by their understanding of yogic principles and their experience of the transformative power of yoga practice. What a refreshing reminder this time at Solstice was for me! I felt inspired and encouraged and just a little bit in awe of the dedication of these yogis. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
June 2009
Summer Solstice Sadhana Celebration!!
Summer Solstice 2009 at Ram Das Puri, way up in the mountains just outside of Espanola NM: June 18 - 27. Yes, Tom and I were there this year! Five days of yoga workshops -- plus three days of White Tantric Yoga -- plus Peace Prayer Day -- plus -- Camping! Star-gazing! Yogi tea! Music, music, music! Cold showers! (WHAT??) Connecting with friends from the global Kundalini community: 2000 beautiful souls from 33 countries around the world were in attendance! Here are several YouTube links to videos of the Celebration to give you an idea of what we experienced, and inspire you to be there with us in 2010.
I have committed myself to the 300-hour course of study that comprises Level II Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training. This level is offered in five 60-hour modules, to be taken over the course of at least 2 ½ years while continuing to teach and maintain a strong private practice.
What intrigues me about the Kundalini approach to advanced training is its focus on the caliber and quality of the teacher. Rather than simply giving Level I teachers more teaching techniques, and skill sets that relate primarily to their interaction with their students, the Level II modules focus on the ongoing internal maturation of teachers, with the understanding that everything we do flows from who we are. And who we are is molded and transformed as we apply yogic principles and practices to all areas of our lives.
“The second stage of training and personal development . . . is fundamentally different from the first stage in which you established the foundations for becoming a teacher and for a lifetime of personal practice. [It] is about the transformation and deepening of your own core capacities, character and consciousness. In this stage we will share a lot of new content in terms of information, techniques and themes, but the essence of this stage is about establishing the ability to use your applied mind, applied intelligence and applied awareness. This stage includes the projection of identity (Sat Nam); the embodiment of character through word and behavior; and the expansion and deepening of the teacher’s state of consciousness.”
Thus the level II modules focus on the areas of “Conscious Communication”, “The Mind and Meditation”, “Authentic Relationships”, “Lifestyles and Lifecycles” and “Vitality and Stress”.
I flew to Washington DC for the first weekends in April and May to attend a “Conscious Communication” training at YogaHouse Studio. This module was facilitated by two wonderful senior KY teachers and trainers, Deva Kaur from Florida and Kirn Kaur from New Mexico. Seven other women took the training with me, which made for a beautiful feminine energetic throughout the course. (No, it’s not just for women – it just worked out that way this time!) From the beginning I felt the undercurrent of the expectation that we could and would rise to the occasion of engaging fully with this material. No excuses! We were asked to speak, reflect, write, draw, role-play, give feedback, meditate and do yoga sets – yes, right now, on the spot, without hesitation, from the navel, from the center, no time to waver or give in to fear or uncertainty. No time to say, or even think, “I’m not sure if I can do this . . . “ It was understood: “You have completed Level I. You are a teacher. You are here, now. You can do this.”
Yes, it was a challenge. And it was refreshing to rise to the challenge. Inspiring to have the examples of Deva and Kirn. Empowering to have the company of other teachers, other yoginis, wholeheartedly committed to this path and this process.
We are all now completing our coursework for this module by reviewing some of the videos we watched over the weekends, answering study questions, and teleconferencing to discuss the material presented. We have reading to do; we will have an exam to take; and we are also each practicing the same 31-minute meditation daily for 90 days. It is designed break the masks of our “underground personality” with its hidden agenda that cloaks the radiance of our real identity and trips us up in our pursuit of conscious communication. It opens the heart center to relate beyond the pain and/or fear that was imprinted on the soul at an early age, and invokes the higher transcendental self.
It seems that each of us in the group find the meditation challenging in one way or another or at one time or another. BUT we remain committed and we remain in the practice. My own commitment is strengthened when I get on the phone with these beautiful souls from DC, LA, PA and the Boston area and hear all of the ways in which they are Keeping Up! and working this information, these practices, into their lives, in the midst of all of what is always happening in all of our lives. It is the consistency of practice and the fruits that grow from it that run like golden threads through all the rest of it, shaping it, putting it into perspective, giving it meaning.
January 2008
Winter Solstice and THREE Days of White Tantric Yoga!
Last month Tom and I traveled south to Lake Wales FL for the Kundalini community’s annual gathering at the time of Winter Solstice. They’ve been getting together like this for @ 30 years, and observing the Summer Solstice in the same way.
The group “takes over” a dude ranch that is normally used for kids camp programs. So picture rustic buildings, the bare essentials in facilities, and lots of wide open space.
Most people bring their own camping gear and set up tents in one of those wide open spaces. Since this was our first time, we stayed in a motel @ 10 minutes from the campsite. I was mindful of taking care of my body and didn’t want to add the stress of sleeping on the ground to the demands of a week of yoga, including the 3 days of Tantric. But next year we plan to stay onsite and add that dimension of community to our experience.
Everything that goes into making Solstice happen and keeping all aspects of it functioning smoothly is organized by a committee of yogis and yoginis who work with every person who attends in doing some form of karma yoga, or seva -- selfless service. So a group of folks volunteer to work at the registration table. Others chop vegetables or sort beans or cook food or make yogi tea in the kitchen. Some are on a grounds crew, some on security detail, some work with the kids who come in a mini children’s camp. Others serve food, assist the teachers who lead classes, or work at the hospitality table. There is something for everyone and alot to be done! It’s amazing to see that everything does get done, that everyone willingly does their part to make it all work.
This year there were more than 600 people from around the world at Solstice. Fifteen of us were from the Chicago area.
We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, December 18, got our registration taken care of, got settled into our hotel room, toured the campgrounds, and had our first camp dinner Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday we chose yoga classes to go to, ate meals with everyone, and got into the rhythm of the camp schedule.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were our three days of White Tantric Yoga. There is something to be said for doing this practice under a big-top tent with 600 other people all dressed in white, all committed to meeting the physical and mental challenges of the yoga, whatever those might turn out to be for each person, all open to the internal transformation that occurs as a result of the White Tantric experience. Have you ever chanted the Adi Mantra with 600 other people?? Talk about energy! The group energy was a powerful, tangible force that held us up through the tough moments and washed over us in gentle waves in the relaxed, blissed-out ones.
Sunday night was an all-night kirtan-fest. Monday after Tantric was another day of yoga classes, and Monday night brought some awesome Bhangra dancing with drumming in the dining room. Tuesday morning, Christmas Day, we shared our last group breakfast and then went on to spend the holidays with family in St. Pete.
Highlights that my mind turns back to:
Doing my daily yoga practice outside, on a wooden pavilion built around the base of a huge tree. Looking up through the branches at the blue sky. Feeling the warm air playing all around me and on me and over me as I moved and stretched and breathed. Hearing laughter in the distance.
Monday morning after Tantric at 7 am, sitting in a KY class under an awning on the shore of a lake. The full moon was hanging in the western sky over the water. A few minutes into the class we heard an incredible sound and looked up to see two beautiful blue herons winging over the water under the moon.
Night sky dark, dark, dark and full of stars.
How easy it was to talk to everyone. Everyone! It didn’t matter that I didn’t know these folks, and camaraderie didn’t require exchanging life histories. Our common experience of being at Solstice was the starting point for our interactions, which were easy and uplifting and affirming. “And seldom was heard a discouraging word . . “ Wow! Try a week of that with 600 other people!
Music, music everywhere, music always being played somewhere at all hours of the day or night. Tracks from CDs being played during the breaks between exercises on Tantric days. Chanting mantras during some of the Tantric exercises. Music constantly coming out of the kitchen, the crew chanting or singing as they cooked and scrubbed pots and pans, way early in the morning, way late at night. Small groups of people scattered here and there across the landscape with guitars, strumming and singing. People singing out loud, unselfconsciously, as they did their seva or just went about the camp. Spontaneous expressions of well-being.
The food! Yes, I loved the Solstice diet! I enjoyed the yoga of receiving whatever I was given and offering thanks for it. And it was relatively easy for me because I like mung beans and beets and carrots and potatoes and onions and garlic and ghee . . . and the delicious Indian buffet that was spread out for us as our last dinner. I liked sitting on the ground cross-legged in a long line of people, waiting for the servers to come my way with their ladles and huge buckets of food, holding my bowl up to receive . . . and that one cinnamon graham cracker that I was given on one of the last nights was indescribably delicious!
Here’s an excerpt from a letter I wrote to friends about my first tantric experience:
yesterday was THE DAY. i did it. i made it thru with all body parts intact. i had a great time. i had some excruciatingly painful moments. i had some exquisitely blissful moments. yeah, sort of like a very concentrated, accelerated, intense experience of life.
many people said that this year's tantric was nowhere near as physically challenging as some in the past have been. i thought, thank god for that; i wouldn't want my first experience to be my last. others said that while the exercises in this year's were not as aggressively physical, they found the "smaller" movements to be more challenging to maintain over time, so it was more difficult for them.
our first two meditations were 62 minutes each, which was a good way to start, for me. after that, 31 minutes was a breeze.
this will give you an idea of how sweet the day was. the first meditation was to sit in easy pose across from your partner. each person held their left hand in surya mudra at their heart center, with the palm facing up. right hand had the jupiter & saturn fingers extended straight up, with the thumb holding down the others. both people extended their right hands out in this mudra at mercury chakra level and touched their jupiter/saturn fingers to their partner's. we maintained eye contact for the whole 62 minutes.
the mantra that was played in the room was singh kaur's beautiful version of "guru guru wahe guru, guru ram das guru". which translates (one version) as "o, the indescribable, exquisite ecstasy of moving from darkness to light; in the service of the Divine i meet my own inner Divine Teacher." i have this mantra on my ipod playlist of "music for transformation while sleeping" & it is one of my favorite pieces of music. just hearing the first few notes of the harp intro always makes me cry.
we weren't chanting with the music -- it was a silent meditation on our part. just listening & getting blissed out, & giving that energy to & receiving it from our partner. i found the silent exchange to be extremely powerful. think about how the mudras just set certain energy up to be channeled in a particular way! i was totally enveloped in it. very nice.
on the other hand, the next-to-the-last meditation, which was also 62 minutes, was a real challenge for me because a particular muscle in my mid-to-low back, on the left side, totally contracted, & i couldn't get it to loosen up no matter how i manuevered my torso to try to stretch it out. this muscle tightens up when i sit for long periods in meditation & i literally have to fall out of the position onto my back on the floor & insert a tennis ball under the muscle so that i can relax my body weight onto the ball & loosen the muscle that way. in the tantric meditation we were sitting in easy pose with our hands up at face level, palms facing toward our partner & hands pressed against our partner's hands, moving the joined hands in outward circular motions. i sat in one position until i couldn't stand the pain anymore; then i would squirm around trying to stretch the muscle & get into a more comfortable position while maintaining the hand contact. i knew i wasn't going to relieve the pain so it became a total mind game: how many ways can i approach this/think about it/not think about it/breathe into it/breathe it out so that i accept it into the circle of my present experience without letting it define that experience? what is the basis of equanimity & tranquil mind & how is that accessed consistently over time in the midst of physical discomfort? again, sort of like MY LIFE LESSONS in extremely concentrated form.
at the end of the day i was in Some Other Place. very solid & strong & very light & unburdened at the same time. revisiting some emotional places that i had set the intent to heal & wondering why they had ever bothered me in the first place. "okay, i'm just not THERE anymore. awesome!" came home to a solid 8 hours of sleep -- unusual for a Teacher Training weekend -- we didn't have to be at early morning sadhana today because . . . we had to be at early morning sadhana yesterday (jeez, was that ALL just one day??) slept to "music for transformation while sleeping". dreamed i was doing a meditation with tom where we each held our left hand in surya mudra at our heart center, with the palm facing up. right hand had the jupiter & saturn fingers extended straight up . . . woke up to hear singh kaur chanting "guru guru wahe guru, guru ram das guru". looked at the clock: 3:45, when the alarm would (usually) be going off for sadhana (tom & i do ours together as soon as we get up, then go in separate rooms for our individual practice). was i dreaming i was doing sadhana or was i doing sadhana while dreaming? & if it's burning off my karma, does it really matter?
tomorrow we (each) start a 40-day post-tantric sadhana & daily journalling.
would i do it again? o yeah!
March 2007
We have just completed our sixth weekend of Kundalini Yoga Teachers Training! Only two more to go – our graduation ceremony is set for Sunday, May 6.
The February and March weekends were tough: long, demanding, pressurized. In February we each handed in a 10-class curriculum that we’d been working on for a month. Our fellow students began their practice teaching, meaning that we all went through six 45-minute classes during the course of the weekend, in addition to all the other hours of yoga we did. Bring on the Epsom salts! This past weekend I did my practice teaching, but Tom won’t do his until May. Now we’re working on a second curriculum, revising the first to resubmit according to suggested corrections, and filling in the remaining blanks in our study guide so that we can prepare for our final exam. AND getting ready for an entire day of White Tantric Yoga on April 21! (www.whitetantricyoga.com for more info). All of us trainees are doing a special 40-day sadhana leading up to the day of Tantric, and many of us are making dietary adjustments & generally “cleaning up our acts” in order to better experience the effects of this all-day meditation. I’m very curious to see how I fare with 31- and 62-minute meditations if they involve keeping my arms up in the air, motionless or moving. Tom will be my partner for the day. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is how we are celebrating 25 years of marriage: our wedding anniversary is 4 days earlier, on April 17!
December 2006
Tom and I have completed the first three weekends of Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training. The last two weekends were intense: @ 28 hours worth of training from Friday through Sunday evenings. There's also a great deal of reading to be done before the training weekends, yoga classes to attend (20 required) and our own personal daily spiritual discipline (sadhana) to keep up with. I am so grateful that my body is responding positively to all that I ask it to do. In fact, I feel that I have reached a new level of health and wholeness since the program began and my involvement in the practices has gotten more extensive. Fibromyalgia is barely a twinge now! We attended a Winter Solstice class that involved doing a dynamic kriya (series of exercises or postures) which we have been practicing together every morning. The kriya consists of five different postures using arms: arms up over head doing this, arms up over head doing that . . . We have been doing each posture for the minimum time suggested. During the Solstice class we did each one for the maximum time of 11 minutes! I got into such a groove, such a zone, with the rhythmic movement and the mantra music that was playing and the sound and strength of my own breathing and the sound and strength of the breathing of all the people in the room around me -- that it was truly effortless! No pain, no strain! I felt like I could go on forever. And that made me cry! Made the tears stream down my face during the kriya -- the sheer Joy of feeling so good and vital in my own body. Wow -- it's been a long time! Please may I not take it for granted -- please may I continue to be grateful.
November 2006
Yes, it has finally appeared in print -- the condensed version of my story of my first experiences with Japji Sahib. See below for the entire story, or go to www.aquariantimes.com for the magazine version. This is a great publication which I recommend subscribing to -- and it's free!
October 2006
We’ve taken our first intense weekend of Kundalini Yoga Teachers Training and loved it! It was demanding, challenging, exhilarating, uplifting and inspiring. There are 23 trainees in our group, many from Chicago and suburbs, others from Utah, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. We were together from 7 am – 7 pm on Saturday and again from 3:45 am – 5 pm on Sunday. 3:45 am – is that a misprint?? No – that’s when the Kundalini folks do their morning group sadhana – and I must admit it’s one of my favorite activities to participate in. Being up before (most of) the rest of the immediate world, in the stillness and crisp fall air . . . going downtown to the studio on Michigan Avenue . . . finding a place in the softly candle-lit room with two dozen other white-clad practitioners . . . chanting, doing yoga, meditating, watching the shadows and light change on the walls, feeling the energy of the morning unfold . . . Remember that old ad for Ravinia: “Nothing quite like it under the stars”? Yes!—It’s just like that.
July 2006
Beginning in October 2006, Tom and I will BOTH be taking an eight-month training program which will lead to our certification as teachers of Kundalini yoga.
We are excited about embarking on this adventure for several reasons, one of which is that we will be doing it together! We have been taking Kundalini classes and workshops together, and practicing specific kriyas (sequences of kundalini postures) and meditations together, and have found that these joint practices have added a whole new wonderful dimension to our relationship. We have always enjoyed being together and doing things together, but being able to experience this particular practice together has been extremely gratifying on a deep level. So we are looking forward to one intense weekend of training each month from October through May, as well as all the “homework” assignments and additional personal practice that will come with it.
We’re also excited about taking this training because when we’ve completed it, we’ll be able to teach Kundalini yoga. Since we know from our own experience how powerful and transformational it can be, we are committed to bringing it to others who will also experience it as a new phase in their own personal and spiritual evolution. We'd like to offer Kundalini classes in the Oak Park area on a weekly basis once we finish our training in May 2007.
If you’d like more info on Kundalini yoga and the national umbrella organization for our training, please visit www.3HO.org.
How did we get started down this path? Well – it’s an interesting story – one that begins almost 11 years ago with my struggle with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and needing to quit my job and discovering yoga and other mystical sciences and having panic attacks and chanting Sanskrit mantras to overcome them and then being mesmerized by the chanted version of the prayer which begins all kundalini yoga early morning group practice and beginning my own chanting practice of that prayer to overcome fibromyalgia . . . .
I wrote here in May of 2006 that "I'd like to eventually make that entire story available for public perusal. Because I get re-inspired every time I review it in my mind – all those moments of hard work and pure grace – and I want others to have the opportunity to be encouraged and motivated by it."
Well -- here it is! A condensed version of it will appear in the November 2006 edition of *Aquarian Times magazine, but I'm posting the complete original below.
The Power of the Naad -- Experiences with Japji Sahib
My first personal encounter with Japji Sahib(1) occurred late one summer night in June 2003. Unable to sleep, I sat at my computer listening to audio clips at Spirit Voyage Music. I clicked on Mata Mandir Singh's Gurmukhi(2) version of the Mul Mantra(3) from his 2-CD Japji set. During the few moments it took for him to sing this mantra in his resonant voice, what felt like a great far-reaching awakening began within me. I thought, "This is the most beautiful music I have ever heard", and while I "knew" that I had never heard it before, at the same time it felt familiar to me. It felt like finding a precious jewel that I had forgotten about – forgotten that at one time I had; forgotten that at some point I lost. And the re-encountering it, the re-membering and the re-cognizing, was an instant, gentle and complete breaking open of my heart. I began to cry. I played that 60 second audio clip over and over again, and sang with it, and cried, and my mind wondered vaguely in the background, "What does this [experience] mean?"
Since 2001 I had listened to and chanted the mantras of the Aquarian Sadhana frequently during my morning meditation. I was not a practitioner of Kundalini yoga, but two friends who completed Kundalini teacher training in 2001 had shared their expanding musical horizons with me during the course of the program. I had collected a variety of recordings of these seven mantras by different musicians using different melodies, so I was familiar with the Mul Mantra. But something about MMS's singing pierced me to my core and opened a whole new world of thinking about this chanting, about this particular mantra. "It's the opening pauree of Japji? What is this Japji? And if this one portion of it is so powerful, what dynamic is contained in the entire" – I didn't even know what to call it at this point – "prayer? Scripture?" I knew that I needed to purchase these CDs and explore this experience.
When the music arrived in the mail, I immediately put on a pair of headphones and listened to the 45-minute Gurmukhi CD. I wept my way through it. I found my mouth moving to form the sounds even though I had no idea what the sounds might be and certainly no idea of what the words might mean intellectually. But I found myself thinking, "Even though I have no idea what he's saying, I know what he's saying." Because on a level far beyond left-brain comprehension and literal understanding of dictionary definitions, I knew the beauty and the grace and the transformative power of that sound current.
I listened to that CD many, many times before I ever looked at the transliteration in the liner notes. I wanted to just hear the sounds, to listen purely, without help from another sensory organ. I didn't want to think about how to make the sounds I saw on the printed page – I just wanted to hear and imitate. After some time I did look at the transliteration, downloaded it from Sikhnet, and printed out my own copy to work with. After some more time I listened to MMS's English version, the 60-minute 2nd CD, and that also brought me to tears with its sheer beauty. I thought, "These are such beautiful concepts – this is such a beautiful Reality that is described here, and MMS's poetic rendering of it is so clean and true, and then the music he has set it to is so captivating . . . " So I began working with the English version also. At that time I was taking several therapeutic baths weekly, using various mineral salts and essential oils in the water, and I began setting up a CD player so that I could play the English version during my hydrotherapy. At first I followed the words on paper so that I could chant, too, but gradually I learned it by heart (or it settled into my heart) and I could put away my prompts. I continued learning Japji in Gurmukhi during my morning meditation practice and at whatever other times I could find during my days or nights to sit and chant.
I deliberately chose not to initially question or analyze the way that this bani instantly took up residence within me. I knew that my mind could easily fall into the "But this doesn't make sense" mode, and I didn't want to shut off my experience by rationalizing that I "shouldn't" be having it. Because on a deeper level, I knew that I most definitely should be.
I knew that my intellectual objections would stem from the fact that I had been studying kriya yoga since 1995 and had in fact been ordained as a swami in an order established by Paramahansa Yogananda. My primary teacher of kriya yoga was a disciple of a disciple of Yogananda's. I had studied Sanskrit, learned many Sanskrit mantras, and in fact spent a great deal of my time in meditation chanting in Sanskrit. I knew that my immersion in Sanskrit mantra had helped me in my recovery from a debilitating bout with chronic fatigue that began in 1994 and lasted for seven long and painful years. So part of my discomfort revolved around the idea that I "should" continue spiritual practices within "my own" tradition.
There was also an emotional attachment as well – the feeling of being comfortable with the path I had chosen, of being part of a group of people who walked the same path, of sharing a common language and philosophy and understanding of the meaning of spiritual concepts within “our” framework. Kriya yoga, like most yoga schools, teaches that there are many paths to the One. I suspected I would find that while it was easy to agree with that idea in theory from the security of my established comfort zone on my chosen path, it would be quite another story in reality to sit in a different place in the circle and take up “someone else’s” spiritual practices.
Just as fatigue was beginning to recede from my life in 2000, fibromyalgia was taking its place. The condition had lurked in the background concurrent with the fatigue but subordinate to it. When I finally regained enough energy and vitality to begin moving in and through my life again, the fibromyalgia symptoms flared up with full force and incapacitated me in a new way. By the time I "discovered" Japji in June 2003, I had been trying to come to terms with fibromyalgia for 3 and 1/2 years. I had repeatedly altered and curtailed my physical activities, trying to find that magic level at which I could remain active without provoking continuous and excruciating pain. It eluded me. I had taken several private sessions with a wonderful instructor to learn Kundalini yoga sets specifically designed to correct the internal imbalances related to fibromyalgia and fatigue. I wanted very much to be consistent with these practices, feeling that they offered real help in my healing, but my body was not capable of doing them on a regular basis. Finally in 2002 I STOPPED everything, altogether. I felt that I couldn't continue to push myself through the pain; that I had to be kind to myself, even though complete inactivity might bring on another set of problems. During the course of a year the pain decreased, gradually becoming less intense and less frequent, eventually even allowing me to sleep though the nights for the first time in a long time.
By the summer of 2003 I felt "plateaued" – happy to have reached a relatively pain-free resting place, but also stuck there. Tentative attempts at walking more than a block or two or doing gentle yoga caused rumblings below the surface which signaled that the volcano of pain could be activated with little provocation, and I was very resistant to triggering that cycle again. I thought I needed to commit myself again to intense japa, but I didn't feel intuitively drawn (in my heart) to any Sanskrit mantra in particular, and I couldn't seem to logically work out (in my head) which one might be appropriate for me at this time.
Such was my state of affairs when I visited Spirit Voyage Music and clicked on the Japji audio clip. I knew instantly, without even thinking it, that I had found the mantra that I needed – or that it had found me. I knew that it resonated in me and that I resonated with it and that chanting it was going to change my molecular structure – was going to literally rearrange my DNA, transform me at a cellular level, and gradually move me up and off of the plateau that I was resting on. I knew all of this within the first minute of hearing the audio clip, knew it completely and wholly as though someone had pressed an imprint of its truth on my third eye and I had absorbed it without needing to mentally process it. I had a fairly good idea of what my "logical" objections to pursuing this path might be, and I didn't want to give them precedence. I wanted to be open to the experience of working with this bani. I wanted to have the experience and then judge it, rather than pass a judgment which would keep me from having the experience.
On Winter Solstice 2003, I made a formal 40-day commitment to chant Japji daily, with the understanding that I would continue to renew that commitment unless something cataclysmic pointed me away from it.
In June 2004 I attended the Naad of Japji workshop in Espanola NM. The concentrated immersion in the sound current accelerated my physical healing in a way that I couldn't have imagined. At this point in my life it had been over two years since I had engaged in any type of regular physical activity. One day during the Japji course we were asked to do a meditation that involved holding our arms over our heads for 11 minutes. I thought, "I can't even hold my arms over my head for 11 seconds because my muscles are so weak, and even if I could, the pain would be unbearable." And then I thought, "That might not be true anymore. Let's test it." I did the meditation for 11 minutes. My arms were strong enough. And although it was somewhat painful, it was the predictable pain of the nervous system adjusting and the muscles working – not the signature gripping and aching of fibromyalgia. At that moment I knew I was on my way, physically, in my body, off of that plateau.
When I returned to Chicago after the Japji course, I designed a "Return to Exercise" program for myself. I began with just 10 minutes of slow walking on a treadmill, every other day, and mapped out how I would ever-so-slowly increase my exertion over the coming year. For that year I stayed with my exercise program and kept renewing my 40-day commitment to chant Japji. I also learned, one at a time, Shabad Hazaare, Jaap Sahib, Tav Prasad Swaiya & Chaopaee, and Anand Sahib, and incorporated chanting them into my morning practice. I also learned Kirtan Sohila and Rehiras, and discovered Sukhmani Sahib and Asa di Var. I found many beautiful renditions of the banis(4) on tape and CD and felt much gratitude for the variety of melodies and styles of chanting.
In June 2005 I returned to Espanola again for more Japji! By this time I was able to engage in some sort of cardiovascular exercise for an hour at a time, 4 or 5 days a week, at a moderate to intense level, as well as lift weights 3 times a week. I was also getting out of bed consistently at 4 am for sadhana, and I had gradually increased the amount of time I spent at my job up to 40 hours weekly – something I had not been physically capable of doing since 1995. In Espanola I was able to participate in group sadhana, which I had not been able to do the previous summer.
It’s now June 2006. I’m still chanting Japji every day. I’m also attending a weekly Kundalini yoga class, doing a yoga set in my own morning sadhana, and preparing to take Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in the fall!
It has been a great blessing to be engaged in a transformative relationship with Japji Sahib, and to discover through experience that “at the root of [them] all there is only the One.”(5)
(1) Japji is the most riveting Sikh Prayer recited by the devout early in the morning. The composition is not assigned to any particular raga or musical measure, as is the rest of the Scriptural text . . .
"The word ‘Jap’ means 'to recite’ or ‘to chant’. ‘Ji’ is a word that is used to show respect as is the word ‘Sahib’.
"Japji is universally accepted to be the composition of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, although, unlike other scriptural hymns and compositions, it remains anonymous without being credited individually to any of the Sikh Gurus . . .
"Preceded by what is called Mul Mantra, the basic statement of creed, Japji comprises an introductory sloka, 38 stanzas traditionally called pauris and a concluding sloka . . . The entire composition including the Mull Mantra, two slokas and the thirty eight pauris form the sacred morning prayer Japji Sahib. It serves as a prologue to the Sikh Scripture and encapsulates Guru Nanak's creed and philosophy, as a whole . . .
"The message of Japji is abiding in nature and universal in application. It simply describes the nature of Ultimate Reality and the way to comprehend it, and is not tied to any particular religious system. In a word it simply defines Sikhism, the religious view of Guru Nanak . . . "
Japji is also recited by Kundalini yoga practitioners at the beginning of their early morning group sadhana (spiritual practice).
(2) Gurmukhi: Literally "from the mouth of the Guru". Gurmukhi is the name of the script used in writing primarily Punjabi and, secondarily, Sindhi language. It is used in the Sikh scripture and in contemporary India.
(3) The Mul Mantra comprises the opening lines of Japji Sahib. It is also the first of seven mantras chanted in the early morning as part of the Aquarian Sadhana, a practice specific to Kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
(4) "Bani" is the Gurmukhi word for "prayer", and this paragraph lists a number of them by name. Like Japji Sahib, they are not religious dogmas or doctrinal statements but beautifully written, lyrical expressions of the nature of Reality and of one's own individual relationship to It.
(5) A line from the 22nd pauree of Japji.
*Aquarian Times is an inspiring, uplifting bi-monthly magazine highlighting events in the global Kundalini Yoga community. And it's FREE! To subscribe or to read back issues online, please go to www.aquariantimes.com.
