Meditation focuses attention on your breath and channels your energy, bringing you to a state of calm and greater awareness. It also is an integral element of kundalini yoga. This style of yoga, first introduced to the West by Yogi Bhajan in 1969, emphasizes the importance of meditation as a way of accessing and releasing the dormant energy known as kundalini. You can practice kundalini meditation in silence, with mantras, or even with certain music. If you are new to meditation, kundalini yoga may provide the ideal introduction.
Identification
Kundalini refers to the cosmic, creative energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine. The word "kundalini" comes from the Sanskirt word "kunda," or coil. Kundalini is often depicted visually as a coiled serpent. The practice of kundalini yoga, which includes meditation, uncoils this energy, enabling it to rise up the spine and through the body's major energy centers, or chakras.
Features
As taught by Yogi Bhajan, kundalini yoga practice includes meditation. The meditations often involve movement, hand and finger positions, body postures and chanted mantras. Some meditations are practiced in silence. Meditations can last from 11 to 31 minutes.
Benefits
If you find the silence and stillness of meditation challenging, meditation in kundalini yoga may be the perfect introduction to this spiritually fulfilling activity. The use of mantras in the meditations taught by Yogi Bhajan supports beginners, for whom extended periods of silence may be difficult. According to Kathy Wyer, writing in "Yoga Journal," kundalini meditation techniques may be the most accessible style of meditation.
Types
The Kundalini Research Institute offers a large number of meditations for different purposes. There are meditations for healing, for boosting the immune system, for resolving inner conflicts, for a calm heart, for emotional guidance, for prosperity, for stress, for changing the ego, for opening the heart and for numerous other purposes. Master Charles Cannon, or Swami Vivekananda, a kundalini yoga teacher from a different tradition than that of Yogi Bhajan, advocates specially produced music to move you into a meditative frame of mind. Cannon heads the Synchronicity Foundation, which produces a series of special CDs for this purpose.
Expert Insight
Teachers of kundalini yoga and meditation have differing insights into the practice and how you should experience it. According to Swami Shankarananda of the Shiva School of Meditation and Yoga in Australia, your meditation should include self-inquiry, asking yourself such questions as whether you are tense or relaxed, and whether you are experiencing something pleasant. Another teacher, Swami Chetanananda of Portland, Oregon, advises that you should focus attention on your breath and the flow of energy, so that your "mind chatter" will fade into the background. Both teachers come from a different kundalini yoga tradition than that of Yogi Bhajan.
Member Comments