Monthly Archives: August 2024

SECOND CHAKRA — NAVEL CENTER

Posted on by
A VIBRANT ORANGE, AND ITS ELEMENT IS WATER

A VIBRANT ORANGE, AND ITS ELEMENT IS WATER

The second chakra is a vibrant orange and its element is water. Its location is the center of the physical body. The navel is what remains from the umbilical cord that nourished our development in the womb where we are dependent on our host mother for life. Apana energized the erection and fueled the passion, propelled the egg to the fallopian tubes and the sperm to their union. Apana was the life force for the dividing zygote until nadis developed with the development of the umbilical connection to the prana of the mother’s body. As the embryo grew and became more complex, no longer was absorption of the mother’s apana adequate for further growth. Prana from the mother, through the umbilical, gradually replaced it as a source of life force. The mother’s apana provides energy for the birth contractions, forcing the child into the world.

The newborn enters the world separate from the mother. It exhales, and then inhales a first breath. Breathing begins with an exhalation and the last breath at death is an inhalation. With that first breath cycle, the new being draws life force into the body as an individual for the first time. This is the moment of the beginning of life. The spirit enters the body. Before, the now sentient being, was a complex growth within the mothers body. At the moment of life, with that first breath cycle, the circulation of blood in the infant’s body reverses direction. The heart pumps in the opposite direction and the blood that was being pushed through the veins out through the circulatory system is pushed through the arteries and returns to the heart through the veins. A soul has entered the little body, having picked the perfect set of parents, in the perfect set of circumstances, to give it an opportunity to experience what’s necessary for this cycle of spiritual growth. Free will determines how well the opportunity is utilized.

SECOND AND FIRST CHAKRA

SECOND AND FIRST CHAKRA

BEGIN JEWEL IN THE LOTUS MEDITATION (Grounding)

Posted on by

Our Meditation starts with focusing on the perineum, that part of the body between the legs, from the anus to one’s sex. This has a stimulating effect and can be very pleasurable. It is the beginning of the arousal of apana. The meditator is asked to envision, seeing with the mind’s eye, or third eye, the area as a deep dark brown, almost black, like rich fertile top soil. With our focus on the perineum, we are being grounded. Feel through the bottoms of he legs and buttocks to the ground below.

GROUNDED

GROUNDED

The meditator is being grounded to the earth, one of the five material elements that combine to structure reality on the physical plane: earth, water, fire, air, and space. Grounding links one with the core of the mother planet, Earth. This grounding is everything that supports the meditator, and all that composes him or her at this precise moment in time. Past incarnations, family and cultural history, genetic makeup, environment, and life experience are all realized in this point of focus. This isn’t a thought process. It just is.

KUNDALINI — YOGA

Posted on by

In the Hindu yoga tradition, Kundalini is a beautiful metaphor for unimpeded flow of energy from the lowest depths of the base of the spine to beyond the crown of the skull into the realm of the divine. The Kundalini experience relies on universal body structures and has been encountered by mystics throughout the ages. The imagery reflects the occult principle of the body as the microcosm echoing the large configuration of the macrocosm. Shakti, the cosmic feminine principle, combines in perfect union (yoga) with Shiva, the masculine cosmic principle to create perfect balance.

courtesy Sacred Art

Yoga (Union) = Shakti/Shiva = Perfect Balance

YOGA REVERES BALANCE

Posted on by

Yoga sees the human body is a finely tuned, finely balanced vessel for awareness. Multitudes of balanced chemical and functional relationships are requisite for our being. Just as the earth revolves in its perfect orbit without the coaching of our minds, so our infinitely complicated bodies draw upon a higher order.

Yoga sees the body as a finely balanced vessel for awareness — weight loss through yoga

“Yoga sees the body as a finely balanced vessel for awareness” —  Weight Loss Through Yoga

 

YOGA REVEALS THE SECRET OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Posted on by

You are being let in on a big secret. This shouldn’t be a secret, but it is: ‘enlightened’ and ‘relaxed’ mean the same thing. They are synonymous. We are easing into liberation of the full expression of ‘Self’. If you had the capacity to fully let go, you would literally fall into the perfect expression of your being. Since enlightenment is so infrequent, the ability to completely relax appears to be very rare.

yoga teaches relaxation so we can let go, realizing full expression of 'Self'

yoga teaches relaxation so we can let go, realizing full expression of ‘Self’

RISHIKESH, INDIA — the home of yoga. Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

Posted on by

Me and my good friend and teacher, Fran Gallo, just below the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, where the river Mother Ganga, splits the city of Rishikesh — connected by two narrow suspension  bridges. Here the Ganga is a rushing torrent of fresh clean mountain runoff.

River Ganga — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus


River Ganga — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

This is considered the home of yoga and has the greatest concentration of sadhu, who have renounced worldly life to spend their time in contemplation, meditation, and the practice of yoga. More wealthy devotees, who have families, occupations, and haven’t divorced  themselves from worldly concerns, donate money to support the temples that feed and shelter the renouncers. (males — sadaka, females — sadhika).

It can be a tempting thought, to renounce all worldly concerns, practice yoga and quietly sit in peaceful meditation — listening to the melodious eternal flow of this most spiritual river.