Author Archives: DonBothell

KUNDALINI — YOGA

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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

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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

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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

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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.

THE LOTUS AND YOGA

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LOTUS

From the conclusion of the meditation with the Morning Ritual presented as a way to start each day to receive the benefits offered in the introductory chapters of Weight loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus:

After eight exhales, inhales and pauses, consciousness floats above the head and the attention is focused on a beautiful THOUSAND PETAL LOTUS (water lilly) that is so strikingly pure white, it radiates all the colors of the spectrum.

Do a final eight cycles of pranayama. Realize the lotus starts in the mud at the bottom of the pond, grows up through the muddy water to the surface and opens, a beautiful unblemished white, basking in the sun.

A Thousand White Petal Lotus so pure and brilliant-it shines with all the colors of the spectrum-Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

A Thousand White Petal Lotus so pure and brilliant-it shines with all the colors of the spectrum-Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

Breathe normally and swing the arms overhead in a wide arc.

Bring the palms together capturing the purity. [Photo 22] Capture the radiant white in your palms.

Then slowly pull your hands down to rest on the crown of the head. [Photo 23] The radiant white mixes with the ultra violet. The elbows extend wide.

To have instruction on completing the entire Morning Ritual, see Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus. Chapter 3, pages 37 through 42.

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THIRD CHAKRA

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313395_506551749381195_2105438405_nThe color of the third chakra is bright yellow and its element is fire. The third chakra is the meeting place of the apana of the lower core of the body and the prana of the upper body. The first and second chakra are negatively charged with apana, and the fourth and fifth chakra are positively charged with prana—a living battery. As the meditator focuses awareness on the third chakra and the apana moves up the Sushumna to the area of the diaphragm, the negative ions of apana mix with the positive ions of the prana. This causes a fusion reaction similar to what occurs in the sun. The third chakra can be envisioned as the sun. Just as the sun provides the energy for life on our physical world, energy from the third chakra radiates down, stirring and reinvigorating the apana below, which otherwise becomes stagnant. This new combined energy also shines upward illuminating our subtler inner spiritual world.

ILLUMINATING OUR SUBTLER INNER SPIRITUAL WORLD

ILLUMINATING OUR SUBTLER INNER SPIRITUAL WORLD

THE EIGHT LIMBS

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After thousands of years of individuals practicing yoga under the direction of a teacher or guru who would orally pass down the traditions that guru had learned from their own teacher, a basic path was put into writing. Around 200 AD the text, the YOGA SUTRA, appeared. It is attributed to Patanjali, although it might have risen through a group effort. Little is known of its origins. Some consider it a response to the growing popularity of Buddhism to remind spiritual seekers of the reach of yoga beyond what they perceived as the goals of Buddhist teachings.

The YOGA SUTRA describes a basic system for the practice of yoga, an eight-limbed path for fostering connection to the divine.

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS    page 71.

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