Thursday, December 30, 2010

Kriya Yoga Course

My Kriya Yoga Course has two parts available for downloading: beginner and advanced. Download details are provided on my Download page. In this post I'll provide an overview to help give you an idea of whether this course might be useful for you.

Yoga is a spiritual practice, similar to any other spiritual practice, where the purpose is to discover your true self, also known as achieving Self-Realization. The state of being where the true self is realized is known as Samadhi. This state of being is achieved through the process of Kundalini Awakening.

By awakening the Chakras, awareness of the true self increases, until Kundalini Awakening in achieved. Within yoga there are many different paths, and after investigating most of them, I feel Kriya Yoga is the safest and most efficient method for achieving Kundalini Awakening.

To ensure the practice of Kriya Yoga leads to a positive result, some preparatory practices need to be completed to prepare the body/mind/spirit complex for the magnitude of energy that is generated by the Kundalini Kriyas of Kriya Yoga. The book "A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya" provides those preparatory practices. In my beginner course, I cover the first 12 beginner lessons given in this book which I expect to take about 6 weeks to complete depending on your level of fitness. In my advanced course, I continue to go through the lessons in this book, but also combine them with the practices given in the book "Kundalini Tantra". The advanced course is designed to take about 8 months to complete.

There are three types of practices involved in each lesson: Asanas (postures), Pranayama (breathing), and Dhyana (meditation). Each type of practice has a special role to play and prepares you for the next type. With each practice your mind is gently and progressively turned inward, but each practice also has a distinct spiritual effect. The primary effect of the Asanas is to unblock the Nadis (spiritual pathways) and allow the Prana (spiritual energy) to flow freely in the body. The primary effect of Pranayama is to increase, balance and purify the flow of Prana in the Nadis, while the primary effect of Dhyana (at the beginner stage) is to balance, purify and awaken the Chakras.

In my next two posts, I'll provide more details on the beginner and advanced courses respectively.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Chakras and DNA

Over 5000 years ago in the ancient Sanskrit texts of India, the Chakras were first documented. Today spiritual teachers of the East and the West both still refer to them as being key to spiritual development. All spiritual practices, either directly or indirectly, will awaken the Chakras and eventually the Kundalini. However, with our relatively recent understanding of DNA (discovered 140 years ago), spiritual teachers can now bring DNA activation into the picture and explain its relationship to Chakra awakening.

The Founders claim to have created the energy pattern that manifests at our level of reality as DNA. They say our DNA is actually composed of 24 strands in 12 double helix pairs. If you remember from an earlier post, the number 12 also corresponds to the number of densities in the universe. Essentially, as you activate additional DNA pairs you also evolve into higher densities of existence. Scientists are currently only aware of a single double helix, which corresponds to our physical body in the 1st dimension, but ordinary animals and humans have already activated 3 double helix pairs, where the 2nd pair corresponds to our emotional body in the 2nd dimension, and the 3rd to our mental body in the 3rd dimension. Remember that these are not spacial dimensions but parallel realities.

Now let's bring the Chakras into the picture. The Founders identify 12 Chakras that of course correspond to the 12 DNA pairs and 12 densities/dimensions. By awakening a Chakra you will in turn activate the corresponding DNA pair, raise your vibration to the corresponding density, and gain awareness of your body that exists in that dimension. Like the Chakras, the dimensions have also been named in Sanskrit as Lokas (see table below).

It is possible for anyone to have a momentary experience of all 12 levels of existence, and through a disciplined spiritual practice, eventually raise the Kundalini and achieve a more permanent higher level of existence for yourself. For the Golden Age, we will need to fully activate the fourth DNA pair, raise the Kundalini to the fourth Chakra (Anahata/Heart), raise our vibration to the fourth density and become aware of our fourth body (Astral) in the fourth Loka (Mahaloka). All of this is summarized as being in 4D. Enlightenment or Self-Realization is said to occur when a person reaches 7D.

So while most spiritual practices don't involve Chakras 8 through 12, the Founders say the following about them:

The eighth chakra is about two inches above the head; the ninth chakra is about a foot above the head; the tenth chakra is about two feet above the head; the eleventh chakra is about two meters above the head; and the twelfth chakra is very diffused, but it is several meters above the head and can vary greatly in size. All of the chakras can vary in size, shape, color and intensity.

The following table provides an overview of the Chakras for densities 1 to 7. The "Body" column is provided by the Founders, while the other columns are based on the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

Chakra Location Body Loka
1D Mooladhara Perineum(m) /Cervix(f) Physical Bhuloka
2D Swadhisthana In Spine, one inch above Coccyx Emotional Bhuvarloka
3D Manipura In Spine, opposite Navel Mental Swahaloka
4D Anahata In Spine, opposite center of Sternum Astral Mahaloka
5D Vishuddhi In Spine, opposite Cricoid Etheric Janahloka
6D Ajna Top of Spine, opposite Eyebrow Center Causal Tapaloka
7D Sahasrara Top of Head, directly above Ajna Soul Satyaloka

This table of Chakras, along with their Kshetrams and Bindu, are used by Kriya Yoga to facilitate Kundalini awakening (download my free course for full details), however, there are other systems that use different sets of Chakras for meditation and spiritual practice. For example, Diana Cooper, uses the following set: Earth Star (1 foot into the ground when standing), Base, Sacral, Navel, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, Crown, Causal, Soul Star, and Stellar Gateway. I haven't studied her system in detail, so I'm not sure how well it correlates with Kriya Yoga, but I'm sure you'll have good results if practiced regularly.

In a future post I'll discuss my Kriya Yoga course in more detail, but if you're relatively fit and healthy and looking for a challenging spiritual practice that requires strength, flexibility, muscle control and breath stamina, while providing rapid spiritual advancement, then Kriya Yoga might be for you.