Kundalini Practices

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

—Henry David Thoreau

The reality of everyday life makes it especially important to engage our kundalini. How else are we to get enough energy to maintain our busy lives—and enjoy them? Kundalini is an energy, and this means it is critical to find kundalini practices that connect us with this engaging energy.

There are many different approaches to kundalini energy and the philosophy of how to work with it. Though there are hundreds of processes for the management of kundalini, inevitably you will enter a discipline through one of these two paths: Vedic and Tantric philosophies. (The Vedanta, discussed in chapter 1, could be seen as a triplet to the other two, or else a part of the Vedic.) From here, you will be directed to various yoga practices.

All yoga practices, no matter what they are called, begin and end with an understanding of kundalini, the basic energy of life.42 To access kundalini is to do yoga; to be a student of any form of yoga is to touch your kundalini. For this reason, this chapter delves into the path of yoga—not the different practices themselves, but the ideas taught by yogis. This chapter features a few of the different yoga practices that can increase your kundalini power in real life. We’ll cover the use of pranayama (deep breathing and release), meditation, mantras (chants and affirmations), asanas (movements and postures), mudras (gestures), visualization, and bhandas (body locks). Every technique is beneficial for cultivating a kundalini awakening, for helping you as experience rising kundalini, and for helping you integrate the lessons and gifts that stem from kundalini activation.

Know that there are thousands of books, Internet sites, classes, and teachers that can help you develop or further your understanding of and work with kundalini. Remember that it’s important that you customize your own practice and keep doing so. As the kundalini rises within, it changes you. As you change, so does your relationship with the kundalini and, ultimately, the Divine. To live the light of your own divinity is to keep transforming the path to your divinity. The approaches in this chapter can get you going, supplement an intermediate to advanced practice, or simply assist you in stress reduction. Above all, enjoy the practices and techniques you undertake, as the kundalini is ultimately a door-opener to joy.

Also know that you do not have to use an Eastern discipline to work with your kundalini energy. Exploring kundalini on your own through therapeutic means, by performing tai chi or qi gong, or through a major religion, including Islam, Judaism, or Christianity, will invoke the same basic concepts and even require similar practices. (Chapter 12 explores the spirituality of kundalini in more detail.)

Pranayama: The Kundalini Breaths

We breathe from the moment we are born, but most of us have little regard for this act or its importance—until we are short of breath, anyway. Breathing is one of the most vital tools for climbing the ladder to our enlightenment, and kundalini practices are always intertwined with conscious breathing. Pranayama is deep breathing that enables the activation and rising of the kundalini. Most yogis agree that breathing is essential for a safe kundalini awakening. One particularly effective breathing process is taught in kriya yoga, a kundalini-based practice easily integrated into everyday life.

The word kriya in Sanskrit means “action, deed, or effort.” Most practitioners incorporate various kriyas into their normal lives. Kriya yoga is an important process for activating kundalini, only recently emerging into the public eye. Favored by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, kriya yoga helped open the Western world to the importance of yoga during the twentieth century. Based on the principles of karma yoga, as well as certain other forms of Tantric and kundalini yoga, kriya yoga asserts that the indwelling soul, or ya, should be enabled to regulate all our actions, or kris. The cognate kri is also the root of the word karma. Whereas karma, the principle of cause and effect, refers to action, kri means “to do.” Kriya yoga is, therefore, the union with the Infinite through specific actions.43

The purpose of conducting kriya yoga rites is to become more sensitive to your indwelling soul. The core of kriya yoga is conscious breathing—a breathing that not only fills your body, but also your soul. Upon becoming “filled,” your soul can assert authority over your mind and eventually liberate itself from your body, ultimately achieving the state of samadhi, or realization of the Absolute.44 Meanwhile, the kriya practitioner lives the life of service, giving of self to assist others.

Why not see how even the simplicity of breathing can transform your life?

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Kriya Breathing

This exercise is adapted from one on the Spiritual Path of Yoga website by Furio Sclano, a minister with the kriya yoga–based Center for Spiritual Awareness.

• Sit on an armless chair and inhale for ten seconds. Now do the following:
• Hold your breath for ten seconds, and then exhale with a double exhalation, also for ten seconds. (A double exhalation involves breathing out, then pausing, then breathing out again. It sounds like “huh huhhhhhhh.”)
• Repeat five or six times.
• Close your eyes and focus on the point between your eyebrows.
• Connect with the Divine (as you understand the Divine).
• Simply watch your breath. Do not try to control or change it.
• When inhaling, repeat this word in your mind: hong.
• When exhaling, repeat the word so, pronounced as “saw,” in your mind. Hong-so is Sanskrit for “I am he.”
• Practice this hong-so inhalation/exhalation for ten minutes.
• Now stop concentrating on your breathing and focus again on the point between your eyebrows. Stop thinking.
• Become aware of light and only light. Gaze into this light and release yourself to the Divine.
• Gradually end your session and resume your daily activities.45

Meditation Made Marvelous

Meditation is one of the most important activities you can do to work with your kundalini. As shared by Tantric and chakra expert Harish Johari, meditation alone cannot arouse a kundalini activation, which makes it safe for those scared of activating the kundalini unexpectedly.46 Using meditation to help your kundalini process makes you impervious to a “kundalini attack.”

There are many types of meditation that use postures, bhandas, breathing techniques, visualizations, chanting, silence, and even walking or talking. No matter the form, meditation can be explained in a simple definition: meditation is a way of awakening.

For many of us, meditating is not easy. It’s hard to concentrate, the most important aspect of meditation. It’s also difficult to find the time and a quiet setting. So don’t try—just do. Simply become aware of your breath throughout your everyday life. This helps you focus and increase your ability to be at one with yourself and others. Other processes and techniques can be added, but all meditation starts with breathing, which is something you do all the time anyway.

Breathe into the moment. Breathe into the words you speak. Breathe into a project or the opening of your palm or the aroma of fresh bread. The word for “breath” and “spirit” are the same in many religions. All breathing is a spiritual experience. Breathe.

A few other tips, important for both the beginner and the advanced meditator, include:

Keep it simple—and the same: Employ the same process at the same time every day and in the same place, if possible. If you use tools, use the same ones as often as possible. Rituals ease your mind and body.

Bend and stretch: Be comfortable before you settle. The asanas, or physical postures, of yoga were specifically designed to help the body prepare for sitting in meditation. So if you practice physical yoga, consider doing some simple postures before finding your meditation position.

Occupy your body: You live in your body. Breathe into the fullness of it and visit every corner of it.

Wander awhile: The best way to keep your mind from wandering is to give it permission to do so. Let it play before you give it time off from thinking.

Breathe: Use any breathing technique you like or simply breathe. If your mind forgets it’s on vacation, concentrate on your breath.

Chakra-Based Meditation

One helpful way to meditate is to use a chakra-based approach. By “going chakra,” we can:

Boost our most essential chakras: We all have chakras that serve more vital purposes for us than others. If we’re an opera singer, for instance, our fifth chakra is innately stronger than the others. If we’re a football player, we employ our physically adept first chakra for most endeavors. Each chakra is best strengthened with certain types of meditations rather than others. By selecting the meditation style that supports the chakras most active in our lives, we enhance our strongest qualities.

Heal a block: Our kundalini gets stuck in chakras that are blocked. By meditating in or through the inhibition, we can potentially heal the issue and encourage our kundalini to climb. (See the exercise “Easing Kundalini-Triggered Chakra Symptoms” in the meditation section of this chapter for a step-by-step method.)

Develop an underdeveloped chakra: When we focus on a weaker chakra, we awaken the qualities latent in that chakra and promote a new way of interfacing with the world and our kundalini.

In short, a chakra-based approach develops our gifts, mitigates the effects of the kundalini, clears blocks, alleviates concerns, develops our weaker qualities, “lets off the steam,” and helps us work through triggered issues.

Conducting a chakra meditation is no different than performing any other meditation. It starts and ends with breathing, and there’s a lot of relaxing and mind release in between. If centering on a certain chakra, however, you can supplement the process with chakra-based tools and activities, which are shared in chapter 2. For instance, you can put your hands on the related body part; wear, surround yourself with, or envision the chakra color; or concentrate on a chakra’s attribute or theme (see chapter 2 for a listing of these). You can also sound the seed syllable encoded in a chakra center; focus on a number, symbol, or picture associated with the chakra; or hold a chakra-related gemstone (see the following chart for some examples).

Here are a few meditative approaches that work with the various chakras. These suggestions employ my twelve-chakra system.

First chakra: Highly physical, this chakra responds to postures, mudras, and meditations conducted while moving, such as walking or running, or when standing. Make sure your feet are on the floor. Postures can be aerobically oriented. If this is one of your strongest chakras, try challenging yourself to become more and more successful at your meditation.

Second chakra: Meditate near water. If using asanas, employ those that emphasize waterlike grace and fluidity. Use visualizations that employ the full five senses. Pay attention to what you are wearing, as this chakra is sensually based. When meditating, pay special attention to the feelings in your body.

Third chakra: This chakra responds to organization, detail, and thought. Try structured, breath-based meditations that progress in difficulty over time. Asanas should be practiced in a series. Consider using affirmations and meditations that clear the mind, as people with dominant third chakras can tend toward worrying. Meditate at the same time and place each day.

Fourth chakra: This chakra affirms love, healing, and relationships. Meditate holding an image of a loved one or the Divine, or with a partner guiding or sitting with you. Do postures or chanting as a couple. Imagine beams of light interconnecting you with loved ones.

Fifth chakra: Chanting, mantras, or listening to music can be ideal meditative techniques, as is prayerful communication with spiritual guides or the Divine. Even reading poetry or inspirational writing can be meditative for this chakra.

Sixth chakra: Use visualizations and guided meditation; surround yourself in a setting that is visually pleasing. Use colors that reflect the meditation. You can also use yantras, symbols or designs that have meaning. There are yantras with agreed-upon purposes, used by various yogis and practitioners; you can see many on the Internet. You can also develop your own personal yantra, or picture images.

Seventh chakra: Concentrate on white light. Some people fast before a deep seventh-chakra meditation. Development of this chakra should not be rushed or pushed. This is the final in-body chakra, the home of the divine masculine energy. Here, the feminine kundalini merges and blends into the divine light of the masculine—and this process can take time. To speed through it is to miss the delight, but it can also cause us to skip some of the important integration process and become too “high” or spacey.

Eighth chakra: The goal of this chakra is neutrality and awareness of service. Meditation can involve the safe use of remote viewing, astral travel, regressions, and shamanic protocol. The protocol called karma yoga could be useful.

Ninth chakra: This chakra is oriented toward service, promoting global harmony and love amongst all beings, sentient or not. When meditating, focus on higher principles and figures of light that have made a difference in this world.

Tenth chakra: Employ sounds and visualizations from nature. Conduct your meditation in as natural a setting as possible, sitting or standing as close to the earth as you can. Consider walking meditations in nature and using natural elements as a focus. Make sure you ground into the earth, perceiving yourself as a tree with deep roots and branches that lead to the sky.

Eleventh chakra: Set goals before the meditation and consider using meditation as a way to become aware of supernatural forces inside and around you, becoming one with the guidance that can teach you to direct these forces ethically. Attune to moving natural forces, such as wind, waves of the sea, and the sweeping of the sand to create changes within you or to bring you messages.

Twelfth chakra: Completely empty yourself of any goals or purpose for a meditation except to open to the mystery and in-the-moment magic of the Divine. Seek yourself within the Divine, and the Divine will find you.

Ready to design your own chakra meditation? First, prepare for your meditation by considering the following details:

• Select a site for meditating based on the chakra you most want to connect with.
• Choose a position—for instance, sitting, standing, walking, running, posing, or employing a posture.
• Decide if you are going to use a partner or not.
• Select implements, such as a gemstone.
• Decide what to wear.
• If desired, choose focus points, such as a place in the body, a symbol, number, sound, or theme.

When you’re ready to meditate, do the following:

In a comfortable position, breathe deeply, holding any implement you have chosen to help you ground your energy. As you relax, bring your focus to the chakra on which you are concentrating. The spirit of your breath gently opens this energy center on every level, and you resonate with it, settling into the myriad sounds, shapes, colors, and gifts it has for you. You completely erase all goals except for being the “you” that you are in this special space.

After a time, you notice that this chakra is now shining and glowing. Through it, the Divine now gives you a message. You lovingly accept this insight, allowing it to illuminate your entire being. When you feel complete, shift your focus from the chakra to your heart and breathe deeply until you are ready to rejoin the conscious world. The kundalini, at whatever level it has been flowing, settles into a level that is safe and comfortable for your everyday existence, and you awaken to your everyday self.

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Easing Kundalini-Triggered Chakra Symptoms

This is a simple meditation for working with energetic blocks within a chakra affected by kundalini activation.

1. Breathe deeply, drawing your breath from your abdomen.
2. Ask the Divine to accompany and guide you through this exercise.
3. Invite the earth to sustain and heal you through this process.
4. Now focus on the symptom creating a disturbance.
5. Track this energy to its chakra of origin.
6. Gradually make your way to the outer ring of that chakra. Breathe deeply into it, and allow yourself to surrender to an image, memory, sense, feeling, sound, or another intuitive communiqué that explains the origin of this block.
7. Once you feel like you understand this issue, ask the Divine to guide you into the inner circle of this chakra, the place of spirit within.
8. From this place, ask to understand the reasons you experienced the trauma or misperception held in the chakra’s outer ring. Then ask to receive the gift available from that experience.
9. Forgive yourself or others for the challenge that brought this teaching, and ask the Divine to lift the symptoms that have been affecting you.
10. Embrace the gift, take a few breaths, and return to your normal state of consciousness.

Guided Visualization

Guided visualization is meditation that uses the imagination to create changes in your psyche, especially important to the Tantric and Vedantic traditions. As compared to the classical Vedic track, which emphasizes the release of the soul from bodily concerns, these two pathways highlight the integration of the body with the soul. Sensual experiences are considered bridges between the physical and the spiritual. Guided visualization is one such tool for employing the senses, employing pictorial imaging to generate changes in the psyche. The key to visualization is to become part of the picture while employing all your senses, so you create and enjoy a full experience and, in doing so, unblock the pathway for the kundalini to climb.

Visualization can also help us clarify choices, solve problems, receive messages, open to revelation, gain a better understanding of a person or situation, perform healing, and even glimpse parts of the future. Most individuals visualize through the sixth chakra, the energy center imbued with the gift of clairvoyance, or clear seeing. When I teach visualization, I help individuals open this energy center, but I also emphasize the seventh chakra. Housed in the pineal gland, the seventh chakra gathers different information than does the sixth and shares it in an unusual way.

These are the visualization processes embedded in the sixth and seventh chakras:

The sixth chakra: Based in the pituitary gland, this chakra is the most well-known center for visualization. The center of clairvoyance, the pituitary gland is divided into two physical sections, front and back, each of which performs a different psychic task.

The posterior pituitary gathers information from our unconscious and the Divine. This data streams into the backside of our sixth chakra and is evaluated and interpreted based on our self-image. If we like ourselves, we will perceive the highest possible choices. If we don’t, our unconscious will automatically eliminate optimum choices and keep the most challenging ones. We select our favored option and project this decision through the front side of the pituitary gland. The projected energy manifests our reality.

Our pituitary gland presents us with this information in visual mediums, translating messages into images, colors, shapes, motion-picture shows, and still shots—everything and anything pictorial. If your visualizations are colorful and photographic, you are using your sixth chakra.

The seventh chakra: Did you know you can receive images through your pineal gland? Compared to colorful sixth-chakra visions, the seventh-chakra pictures come only in black, white, and the shades in between. This is because the pineal gland reflects levels of consciousness and purity of spirit.

We view through the pineal gland to assess integrity, truth, and honesty. White signifies purity and a high degree of spiritual veracity. Black could mean the opposite, as in representing dishonesty or lack of truthfulness, but it might also indicate a lower stage of development or a state of denial. White does not always mean good, and black does not always mean bad. The two extremes simply point out an adherence to divine will versus a “timeout,” or resistance to higher will. The continuum of gray illustrates the grades and stages in between.

Imagine I am evaluating a prospective job. A brilliant white would confirm that the job enhances my spiritual destiny. It does not mean I will like the job or even get it, only that it suits me at the highest possible level. If I envision black, the job is not supportive of my true self, or there is more to be revealed. Gray would suggest that this job is mixed in terms of its suitability.

It is helpful to tap into both the pituitary and the pineal glands when using guided meditations or visualizations. We are then provided a full-color, three-dimensional picture screen, as well as a spiritual assessment. The following guided meditation can help you learn how to access the viewing powers of both chakra centers.

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The Path in the Pituitary and Pineal: Visualizing Truth

To visualize through your sixth chakra is to see through a prism. The world is full of rainbow colors, which form literal or metaphysical messages. To look through the lens of your seventh chakra is to assess your images for awareness, to ascertain how much of the Divine is in a situation. To blend both is to perceive truth.

Select a topic and create a question from it. Now sink into a relaxed, meditative state. Feel the support of the earth underneath you and the illumination from the heavens above. Know that you are safe and supported as you bring your attention to the space just above your nose. Breathe into this area, relaxing your body.

Bring your awareness into the sacred space in the middle of your pituitary gland, which is behind the base of your nose, in between your eyebrows, in the center of your brain. This area glows with an iridescent lavender light, in which you bask. Your cares begin to drift away; you cannot even remember them. You remember only the question you desire to ask your higher self and the Divine.

The beautiful light surrounding you begins to change. Colors emerge and shift into myriad forms, literal or metaphysical. These transform into an entirely different world, with you in the center of it.

On your left side is a brilliantly lit door. This is the gateway into your pineal gland. You open this door, and the brightest white light you have ever imagined streams into the room. It is warm and cool at the same time, objective and loving simultaneously. Again, focus on your question. The colors and light around you morph again, this time creating an image or set of pictures, which are now various shades of black to white.

You obtain the answer that you need from the emerging visualizations, which seem to have a life of their own. If you require an interpretation, ask the Divine to send you more images. Ask for insight until you feel complete.

Now ease your focus over to your heart and breathe deeply. The images in your mind fade, but you are left with an instilled sense of peace and serenity. You know the answer to your question. Breathing back into your everyday reality, open your eyes when you’re ready and adapt safely to the world around you.

The Melody of a Mantra

Mantras are chants or affirmations often used in meditation to open the self to sacred energy. Often called “sound symbols,” they invoke spiritual forces and may also be represented in a visual form.

Nearly every religion or spirituality makes use of mantras. A mantra is any process that invites a devotional practice; it can be a hymn or a chant, a repeated part of a sacred text, a poem, a prayer, a song, or even a magical incantation. It might be a name of a god or one of the names of God. A mantra helps you join with the Divine and embody its characteristics.

You can turn your own name into a mantra, or take a positive statement and, through focus, transform it into a mantra. Some people even use pictures representing the idea behind a mantra as a focal point. Anything that creates a worshipful attitude—including a behavior, feeling, idea, or statement of a goal—can be a mantra.

We are going to concentrate on verbal mantras, as the energetic effectiveness of a mantra is related to the eighty-four meridian points on the tongue and the mouth. Meridians are energy channels that run throughout the body and disperse chi (or qi), much in the same way the nadis circulate prana. (Some people believe these two-channel systems are one and the same.) Each of the major meridians is represented on the tongue as energetic points that link with the in-body channels. Different sounds operate like different codes, which unlock your higher spiritual centers.47

Yoga scripture frequently uses simple sounds, such as Aum or Om, So, Ah, and Hum. These Sanskrit sounds seem simple, but their power is incredible. In Sanskrit, each letter carries meaning, as do combinations of letters. Therefore, the smallest of words is a sacred energy, able to invoke a great spiritual force. For instance, chanting the chakra seed syllables mentioned earlier in this chapter can draw the kundalini to the representative chakra or heal an issue impeding the kundalini flow. I find that chanting two of the seed syllables together opens a passageway between chakras, forging an alliance that helps manifest a desire. As an example, you can link your first chakra, which governs security and money, with your heart chakra, which reflects healing and love, by chanting those chakras’ seed syllables: Lam and Yam (pronounced “lum” and “yum”). This influential combination could attract an enjoyable job that could also pay your bills.

Know that you do not have to have a “good” voice to chant a mantra. Your voice is your own, as are the effects of a mantra.

I have designed two simple exercises using mantras for healing and well-being. The first exercise employs the Aum, which is said to incorporate the entire energy necessary to help the kundalini rise. Aum (or Om) represents the material and material aspects of the Absolute and can open you physically and spiritually.48 It is probably the most popular sound for meditation, prayer, and songs.

The second mantra exercise will stretch your imagination. You will create your own mantra, one to accelerate, calm, soothe, smooth, love, motivate, and embrace your own kundalini process. This will be your personal kundalini mantra to use whenever and however you want.

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The Aum or Om Mantra

The Aum or Om is the most sacred symbol in Hinduism, representing Brahman, or the Absolute. This exercise will help you open to its powerful message.

Take a few moments and concentrate on the sound of Aum in your head. Savor the feel, texture, and shape of this intonation. Now bring the Aum into your heart, and feel its sweet sound vibrate. After your heart feels full, bring your Aum into the center of each chakra, one at a time, continuing to enjoy this sound silently. Finally, let the sound of Aum reverberate throughout the entirety of your body until it surrounds you and you are wrapped inside of it, a butterfly in the cocoon.

When you are ready, verbalize your Aum any way you want—fast or slow, low or high. Find your right speed, sound, or pitch, and sound this Aum through the entirety of your heart, back to front, and then throughout the totality of your body. Let yourself become the Aum.

Continue to sound Aum until you feel complete.

After breathing deeply, slowly return yourself to an awareness of your everyday reality.

The Aum or Om affirms the recognizable and nonrecognizable aspects of God. You can use this sound anytime you want during the day to gain a sense of peace, calm, and fulfillment.

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Making Your Own Mantra

Many people believe that the most effective mantra is one that is personalized. You can create mantras for any reason. You might design a generic mantra, one designed to meet a specific goal or one that expresses your true essence. When carefully sculpted, a mantra works like a program in a computer, carrying out a desired effect.

Here is a process for creating a mantra for your kundalini process. You can use this process as a framework to devise any other desired mantra.

Compose yourself and breathe deeply. Your breath ushers in a state of peace and calm. With your mind floating and free, focus it on the idea of kundalini. Simply sense, without interpretation, everything that comes to you about kundalini; feel, smell, hear, see, acknowledge, taste, and be with the kundalini within you.

Let your kundalini be wherever it is. Sense where it is in your body and energy system; let it be. Now invite it to share its own personal sound with you.

This sound conveys the impression of the kundalini as it is right now, as well as what it will become. You might hear this sound; you might also put images, colors, shapes, textures, and impressions into the mix. When you are ready, invite this sound and its accompanying qualities into your chest and then upward into your throat. Begin to sound this mantra.

Stay with your personal kundalini sound or song as long as you feel like it. Commit it to memory, and return to it whenever you want.

Asanas: Movements Toward Joy

Asanas are central to a yoga practice because of their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits. On the physical level, the movements, various postures and poses, are excellent for our health. There are sixty-six basic poses in classical systems such as hatha yoga, most of which provide stretching and toning. These types of postures work by first restricting a part of the body and, upon release of the posture, reoxygenating that same part. This process improves strength and stamina, aids in weight loss, and helps control blood pressure. It is well known that yoga reduces stress and aids flexibility of the body.

Certain yoga styles, including versions like power yoga and Iyengar yoga, go a little further and serve as aerobic exercise. Other practices, like Bikram yoga, add a cleansing component: Bikram is performed in heated rooms, which, along with the asanas, encourage the release of toxins via sweating. All yoga helps us release the feelings trapped in our bodies, and the philosophical principles of yoga promote mental health and actions consistent with our values.

The classic method of yoga is founded on the Eightfold Path of Yoga created by Patanjali in ad 200, which, in turn, has its origins in the Yoga Sutras. According to Patanjali, the asanas specifically represent the first limb of the Eightfold Path, which invites us to discover our own restrictions. If we can only bend to the right instead of the left, we can embrace our current level and, if possible, move beyond. Some people, however, question the pursuit of yoga because of their restrictions. I’ve watched many a client blush, embarrassed to share why they resist yoga. Some don’t think they’ll fit into the current “designer yoga fashions,” while others are afraid they will look foolish. One woman simply pointed to her stomach and said, “This is in the way.”

The first time I ever went to a yoga class, I was five months pregnant. As I proceeded with my pregnancy, I reached the point where I was fortunate if I could even stretch my arms and legs, and even then, I constantly toppled over. I loved going to yoga, though, if only for the few minutes of quiet it afforded me.

Don’t get scared of the advanced yoga moves. You might already be employing them, or maybe you’ll never choose to do more than stand and breathe. According to the Yoga Sutras, yoga is any position that is steady and comfortable. The goal of holding a particular position is to encourage concentration, discipline, and meditation, or connection with kundalini and the Divine. In other words, asanas assist in meeting many of the requirements of the Eightfold Path of Patanjali.49

To get the full benefits of the asanas, it is useful to learn them, especially complex ones, under the guidance of a teacher. What goals might you achieve? Asanas serve as terrific physical exercises, boosting health, the immune system, and well-being. Devotional asanas bond us body, mind, and soul, and the use of breathing, visualization, or other spiritual exercises through asanas help us connect with the Divine as well as our own intuition. Learning under the auspices of a guide ensures that we reap the full benefit of the practices while being safe. But to give you a taste of yoga asanas and their effects, here are two exercises. The first explains a basic yoga pose, one that is always good to learn and review. The second exercise is actually an approach to yoga, one that centers on chakra-based postures. As relayed earlier in the chapter, in our discussion about chakra-based meditation, customizing a kundalini practice to the chakras is useful in several regards. Different asanas support different chakras, as shown below.

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The Basic Yoga Pose

The mountain pose, as it is known in hatha yoga, is the most basic yoga pose and should be mastered before you advance to other poses. This standing pose will develop and strengthen your legs, improve your balance, align your hips and spine, and teach you to maintain equilibrium.

To practice it, stand with your feet together, hands at your sides, palms facing your legs. Relax your shoulders and keep your stomach tucked in, moving your chest and collarbone upward. Pretend you have a loop attached to your crown and a string tied to that loop. Someone above you pulls the string, and your entire spine and neck shift and stretch upwards. Breathing evenly through your nose, hold the pose for at least thirty seconds.50

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Chakra-Based Yoga

Kundalini requires a clear path through the nadis and chakras to make its way to the sacred space awaiting it in the seventh chakra. A chakra-based yoga practice employs classic yoga poses in order to cleanse, strengthen, and support each of the seven vital in-body chakras.

Following is a set of recommendations for setting up a chakra-based yoga practice.51 Included is only a simple overview to acquaint you to the possibilities; you can look up specific yoga postures.

First-chakra yoga: In hatha yoga, the first chakra is supported with strengthening and standing asanas and those opening the pelvis. One example of this type of asana is the “bridge” pose, which strengthens and empowers us.

Second-chakra yoga: The “cobra” asana helps to stimulate the second chakra for our emotional well-being. For the second chakra, consider postures that move the synovial body fluids of the joints and stretch the connective tissue. These encourage flexibility and cleanse the body’s fluids.

Third-chakra yoga: The “bow” pose helps us take our place in the world. Asanas that amplify and tone our core energy will warm the body and stimulate the mind.

Fourth-chakra yoga: The “camel” pose enables true love. The home of love, the fourth chakra responds to exercises that energize the heart and lungs, awakening our healing powers and feelings of interconnection.

Fifth-chakra yoga: The “fish” posture helps us absorb and communicate wisdom. Chanting is an ideal way to open this chakra, the center of our communication, and help us express ourselves.

Sixth-chakra yoga: The seated “yoga mudra” posture supports confidence in our life path. The sixth chakra, through which we access our inner vision, is the center of our self-image. The seated mudra irons out our misperceptions and “wrinkles” and helps us perceive our true and amazing self. Balancing poses bring balance to our total self, restoring hormonal, mental, and emotional integrity.

Seventh-chakra yoga: Meditation, especially after a yoga workout, connects our consciousness to that of the Divine.52 Here, in this holy grail of divinity, we mingle the feminine kundalini with her masculine counterpart, unifying these two aspects of our personal self and our totality with the Divine.

Mudras

Thousands of years ago, yogis determined which areas on the hand represented different parts of the brain or body. These areas also mirror emotions and behaviors. A mudra is a hand position that opens the energy in the related hand area, sending a clear message to that part of the energy system. Kundalini yoga often employs mudras to help clear our chakras and nadis, which results in a smoother ride for the kundalini. Following are popular kundalini yoga mudras.

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Prayer Mudra

This mudra neutralizes or joins the right, masculine side of the body and the left, feminine side. It can be used for invocation, devotion, and centering.

To perform this mudra, bring your palms together in a classic prayer position in the center of your chest (at heart level). Press your hands together and gently hold the thumb knuckles at the center of the sternum.

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Gian Mudra

This mudra, designed to increase your wisdom and knowledge, is used with most meditative postures. There are two forms: passive and active. The first is receptive and calming, and the second projects energies.

Passive: Put the tip of your thumb together with your index finger.

Active: Curl your index finger under your thumb so your fingernail is against the joint of the thumb.53

Bhandas (Body Locks)

Bhandas are combinations of muscle contractions that alter nerve pressure, the flow of the spinal fluid, and blood circulation to direct the prana in the main energy channels. They assist in unlocking the granthi and clearing chakra blocks to make way for the rising kundalini, to raise consciousness, and to assist in healing.

In kundalini yoga, there are three main bhandas, which focus on the neck, diaphragm, and perineum, physical locations connected with the chakras housing the three granthi. This is why these bhandas are called body locks.

Following are brief descriptions of these locks. To activate them, ideally you should sit on your heels on the floor with your knees apart and facing at angles away from each other. Keep your back straight and your arms at your side. If this position is uncomfortable, sit in a straight-backed chair with your arms hanging at your side. (The diaphragm lock can also be done standing up, with your feet shoulder-length apart. While bending forward slightly, put your hands on your knees and keep your back straight.) All these locks should be done on an empty stomach. Beginners can do each repetition up to twenty-six times, with a minute in between each cycle. Please listen to your body, however, and only conduct as many cycles as you feel comfortable. I advise you to receive instruction if you have questions, or look for pictures on the Internet.

Root lock: (Sanskrit, mul bandh) Unites the prana and apana (upward and downward breaths), the key to the activation of the kundalini, mixing these two energies at the navel center. Directions: Exhale, then contract the anal muscle, drawing it in and up. Add a contraction similar to that felt in orgasm. Now draw your lower abdomen toward your spine, which pulls in your navel and draws your rectum and sexual organs upward. This body lock is usually applied at the end of a deep exhalation and released on the next inhalation. During the inhalation, sense energy moving up your spine and end the in-breath by focusing on your sixth or seventh chakras.

Diaphragm lock: (Sanskrit, uddiyana bandh) Opens the heart and invites prana through the sushumna into the neck, stimulating the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands. This body lock is said to bring youthfulness. Directions: As you exhale, pull your upper abdomen muscles backward, toward your spine, and lift your diaphragm into your thorax. This lock is only safely applied on the exhalation.

Neck lock: (Sanskrit, jalandhara bandh) This lock activates secretions of the thyroid, parathyroid, and the pituitary glands. When powerful energy is rising, it often triggers your blocks. This body lock can help shift negative reactions. Directions: As you exhale, contract your neck and throat with your head level. Do not tilt your head forward. The prana can now travel more freely into your head.54

In addition to these three bhandas, there is a great lock, which applies the other three body locks simultaneously. We will cover the great lock in more detail in chapter 11, which discusses gender issues, as this lock relieves the preoccupation with sex, among other benefits.

Chakra Gemstones

Although using gemstones to work with kundalini is not a yoga-based practice, gemstones have been used for thousands of years to aid in healing, manifesting, and meditation focus. Following are a few of the hundreds of available gemstones, brief descriptions of their supportive qualities, and suggestions for which chakras from the twelve-chakra system each gemstone suits. (Chakra numbers are listed in parentheses.) The gemstones on this list can be used in conjunction with any meditation or other kundalini-based practice. For instance, you can hold a gemstone while meditating or visualizing, place it on the chakra affected by a kundalini rising, or carry it with you in order to heal a kundalini-triggered issue.

Ayurveda: A Complete Life Program

One of the most comprehensive systems for ensuring a full life and healthy kundalini process is Ayurveda, a science for self-healing and self-realization. Ayurveda is actually a holistic medical system that encourages physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health through a long list of approaches, including diet, herbs, exercise, and yoga regimes such as meditation and practices. The goal? To create harmony within our self, our higher self, and nature.

In his book Yoga & Ayurveda, David Frawley recommends the use of Ayurveda for ensuring a healthy and supportive kundalini experience. Kundalini is considered integral to the Ayurvedic process, which involves the enhancement and merging of three actual energies.

As we know, kundalini is the higher feminine energy that catalyzes our evolutionary potential. It is formed from an energy called tejas. Nectar, or amrit, descends from the crown chakra to feed the kundalini on its upward descent. This nectar, also called ojas, is a masculine spiritual energy that is purified through proper practices and development. This union creates the highest prana, the immortal life energy that the kundalini carries upward through the spine (see chapter 1). Called buddhi, this prana allows us to discriminate between the transcendent and the mortal and become who we really are.

To purify the ojas and thus nurture the upward-climbing kundalini, we employ a proper diet, tonic herbs, control of sexual energy, control of the senses, and devotion—all practices discussed throughout this book. The tejas is supported through controlled speech and other austerities (tapas), mantras, concentration exercises, and Jnana yoga, or the yoga of knowledge. We encourage our higher prana through pranayama, or breathing exercises; passive meditations emphasizing space and sound; and raja, or integral yoga. To become and remain balanced, we must simultaneously develop all three—ojas, tejas, and our higher prana. For instance, ojas will vitalize our life and help us mature. To increase the prana without the ojas is to become spacey, to lack grounding, and to possibly become deranged. To open only to the tejas (raw kundalini) is to burn ourselves up.55

Through Ayurveda, you personalize these concepts by determining your basic personality type, a combination of your dosha and guna.

A dosha is a cosmic force, the original ones being energy, light, and matter. These three original forces empower consciousness and determine specific constitutions, or mind-body types. Each of us is constructed of one force more than the others and can, therefore, be described as sharing similar biological traits with others in our type.

A guna could be described as a mental or spiritual state. Within our dosha type, we have the choice to operate at a higher rather than lower guna. Paying attention to everything from diet to mental activity helps us achieve a higher guna while we tend the practical day-to-day needs of our bodies.

The easiest path to becoming your true self is to follow the prescriptions for your dosha typology, decreasing the negative tendencies inherent in each and encouraging the highest and most spiritual qualities.

Nice to Meet You! What’s Your Dosha?

Here is a brief description of the three doshas—called vata, pitta, and kapha—each of which relates to a central element and includes personality traits that can develop positively or negatively. Can you recognize yourself in these descriptions? With this knowledge, you can further pursue the path of Ayurveda to create a supportive plan to foster the rise of your kundalini.

Vata: Relates to energy, the primal force of the universe, which actualizes through the element of air. Vata people are like air—action oriented, quick thinking, spirit based, and always moving. The highest goal should be to move with divine will. To accomplish this, they carry strong healing gifts, are truly inspirational, and draw from a seemingly abundant source of vitality. If undeveloped,
they can become easily distracted and superficial.

Pitta: Created from light, the instrument for seeking, knowing, and discerning. Light is the basis for the individuation of the soul, which means that the pitta person assists others with finding and following their soul paths. Light metabolizes in the material realm as fire. The fire and light qualities form intelligent and warm personalities. Most typically, a pitta person is perceptive, courageous, and a natural leader. When incomplete, they can become power hungry, subverting others to gain control. They can also be prone to anger and highly intolerant of others.

Kapha: Based in matter, the materializing of spirit and soul in form and substance. Elementally, kapha people relate to water, a nutrient that stabilizes, nourishes, and binds things together. They tend to exhibit the virtues of love, devotion, and faith, which serve them well, as they are life’s comforters. Steadfast and balanced, they are loyal and nurturing. If undeveloped, kaphas shift into greed and materialism, eventually becoming owned by their possessions, rather than the other way around. When stuck, they can be really stuck, becoming inert and stagnating, sometimes turning to addictions to cope.56

There are specific activities that support each of these three basic types. For instance, vata people must pay special attention to their colon, as wind rules the colon. This bodily area energizes, and energizing is the main characteristic describing a vata person. Pitta people percolate, ripening thoughts, situations, and others to maturity. Biologically, pitta regulates digestion and transformation. Imbalances appear through infection and inflammation; therefore, pitta people must tend the “fire systems” of their bodies. Kapha energy, on the other hand, serves through the power of cohesion. What “sticks us together” is mucus and phlegm. Kapha people must tend to the organs generating connectivity, love, and emotions, such as the stomach.57

All three energies interrelate within each of us. We cannot forget to feed our minds while working with our emotions and bodies. Further, we must care for not only each aspect of our physical body, but also our subtle or energy body and the causal—the energy we carry from lifetime to lifetime and experience to experience. Everything counts—as do we, even in this big world of ours.

How Do I Select a Practice?

Ultimately, living with kundalini is a dance. Kundalini tickles your fancy until you wake up and start a solo jig. It plays its music until you can’t help but step in time with an important other. Its final goal is to engage you with the world, until pretty soon the entire universe is dancing with you.

However, there are so many approaches to kundalini that it can be overwhelming to know what to engage in. Should you practice yoga? If so, which kind? Should you attend classes, visit an ashram, or watch DVDs? Should you continue your current pursuit or start another altogether? Or should you give them all up and simply be?

Wherever you are in your decision making, the most important point is this: you are already dancing with your kundalini. If you are walking, breathing, thinking, loving, seeing, and being, your life force is generating within you. This powerful energy is already pulsing into and through your body. What remains are really two issues:

• Your degree of conscious interaction with your kundalini
• The needs of your daily life

Everyone wants to achieve a sense of oneness with the Divine, to enjoy a union with that special loved one, and to know oneself as worthy of love. This is what the kundalini path really offers. If you can gain that awareness by attending church, soaking in a hot tub, or practicing kung fu, that is what you must focus on. Most of us need a more mindful process, because most of us are frightened of our true divine nature, as well as our human needs. We are scared of our greatness. We are scared of our vulnerability. We are scared of opening to love, because we are scared that maybe we will discover we do not deserve love. To select any suitable kundalini practice—suitable because it meets our own criteria—is to open to the support needed to allay these fears and venture boldly into the spiritual unknown.

I cannot tell you what your particular criteria might be; no one can. I can, however, suggest a number of questions that can help you hone in on your needs, which, in turn, can help you select an appropriate practice. Ask yourself:

• What kind of money can I spend?
• What kind of time for a practice can I realistically build into my day?
• How can I balance my work, relationships, and personal needs to support a kundalini-based practice?
• What process will leave me feeling happier, more refreshed, calmer, and uplifted?
• What process will help me release stuck emotions, stress, and negative beliefs?
• What process will improve my self-esteem?
• What process will create a healthier body for me?
• What path will improve my connection to the Divine?
• Is there a path through which I can connect with my special “other” or my family or circle of friends?
• What path will I feel proud to tell my friends about?
• Which practice fits with my value system?
• Which practice will assist me in becoming the me I know that I really am?
• Which process feels safe at every level, including energetic and spiritual?
• Which path leaves me empowered?
• Which path makes me glow?
• What path do I think the Divine would want for me?
• When I look back at the end of my life, which path did I select?

These questions might lead you to where you already are or into yet another special place where you can dance with the cosmos and light your dreams.

My Own Kundalini Practices

Hercules was a famous Greek hero. One of his most notable endeavors was to wrestle and defeat a serpent when he was still an infant in the cradle. We can only imagine the strain and struggles involved in defeating a mighty and fearsome creature that would have been ten, fifteen, even fifty times longer than ourselves.

Many people read accounts of the kundalini and assume an equivalent effort in relation to taming the serpent energy. The task must be awful, hard, arduous. Certainly, one would have to concentrate hours each day to attain the objective. To let up would mean being struck with the fatal venom of this wild female.

We’ve explored some of the potential dangers of an uncontrolled kundalini, but the truth is that kundalini risings can also be gentle and sweet, or at least assuaged, especially if we are willing to face our issues with grace and honesty. Kundalini isn’t out to get us. It is a form of our awakening consciousness, and because of this, it seeks to woo and assist us. It wants only to be awakened and allowed to court our divine enlightenment. If we’re willing to cultivate our kundalini in small ways each day during our normal lives, it will reward us with kindness and assistance.

A few years ago, I began cultivating my kundalini in a more dedicated fashion, searching for short and simple ways to unfold it into my everyday life. I had little choice but to take this route— weeklong seminars in ashrams or three-hour yoga classes were not for me. As a single mother with two children, a foster daughter, and five animals, I couldn’t plan dinner, much less a few kundalini moments. The best I could do was catch a few breaths when I could, sloppily achieve a few yoga poses in the morning, and eat a somewhat reasonable diet. I had a lot of excuses. I noticed, however, that these brief interludes of sanity had an effect: I felt better. I slept easier. I handled stress with more grace, and I tracked with my intuition more often. My spiritual guidance literally talked me through my days.

I have found that intuition is most beneficial when it gives me practical information. I wasn’t receiving “grand advice,” nothing like lottery numbers. Rather, a vision might remind me to turn on the oven so that dinner could bake. A trusted voice might announce it was time to get the car’s oil changed. A dream even told me when to fly home to Minnesota from a business meeting in another state. Annoyed, I still heeded the dream’s recommendation, staying away from home the extra night. The next day at the airport, I met the man whom I’m now dating.

After that experience, I perked up and began to integrate breathwork and meditation into my daily walks and so-called free time, which consists of sitting at schools, waiting to pick up kids, and the like.

One particular day, after I’d spent a few minutes drawing up my kundalini, I suddenly felt like reality broke down, or maybe I should say broke through. I sensed a group of amazing light, clear beings around me, full of kindness and wisdom. I also knew that the reality I was living in wasn’t really “real.” That reality was important but incomplete.

These beings insisted that they weren’t in a separate reality. They weren’t visiting from heaven, sitting light years or dimensions away and, from afar, flinging wisdom for humans to pick up and try to sort through. They were here. In fact, all of heaven is here; we simply can’t perceive it. Their job, I was intuitively told, is to mirror the truth of this reality, the ultimate truth being that we are all connected through love. Because of their message, I began to call them the Spirits of Love.

I now sense and feel this web of love all the time, but not through the shimmering veil of separation. I can perceive this love in the eyes of a homeless person who smiles as I walk by and in my cat, who wakes me nightly to remind me of his existence. It’s there in the guise of my sons, my clients, even myself at my most grumpy. Quantum theory insists that everything is connected and that, in fact, is in at least two places at once. Perhaps we are these Spirits of Love reaching through to remind ourselves of the same. If so, we must remember that we are on this earth to be on this earth. We don’t need to cut chunks of time out of our lives to learn how to live our lives—we’ve only to open to the light that is already present to invite in more of it. Kundalini doesn’t need to be wrestled to the ground to lift us to the skies.

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