I saw the light

and it was brilliant, as lights at the end of long tunnels are wont to be. :-)

i have learned more from people of faith - spiritual people, religious people, christians, muslims, hindus, buddhists, taoists - than i ever learned at school or university.

they were there in the light, coaching me out of the tunnel, guiding my path, and they embraced me and taught me how to love, what compassion was, gave me smiles, laughter, music and dancing. there is a heaven here on earth. god exists. and when i let people of faith into my life, i let god into my life and good things started to happen. no arguments from me! :-) i have no religion and feel i need no religion. why would i need a religion when people and god are with me?

Happy New Year 2010

people have asked me what it is that motivates me to shine so bright, to be so positive, to send out love and kindness and compassion. i tell them it's because i can't go back into the darkness. if i shine my light, then others will reflect it back to me and i can bask in their radiance, stay in the light and be a bright shiny mirror for people who need me. it is on the days that i feel the darkness creeping back that i try to be the most positive, sending out as much love and light as possible and feeling so grateful for the love and light i'm given in return.

there are, however, a few people who have seen me in the darkness and who have held my hand until i found the strength to raise myself up from out of the deep dark well of despair. it takes an amazing person to do that, to sit in the darkness with someone, because it's very draining and they give up light for a while in order to do so. this is compassion in its highest degree.

it is thanks to them and to the people who shine their lights of love, laughter and smiles that 2010 will be a light year for me, a year in which my mirror will become so shiny bright, that i will be able to enter the darkness and hold the hands of others when necessary.

Silence

Silence, unmoved and rising,

Silence, unmoved and sheltering,

Silence, unmoved and permanent,

Silence, unmoved and brilliant,

Silence, broad and immense like the Ganga,

Silence, unmoved and increasing,

Silence, white and shining like the Moon,

Silence, the Essence of Siva.

- Sivavakkiyar

Sivavakkiyar

Sivavakkiyar (sometimes Civavakkiyar) was a great Tamil Poet who lived in the period preceding the 10th Century A.D.

Sivavakkiyar was an early rebel against the Brahmanic order; he was resolutely opposed to the Caste system and was opposed to idol worship and temple ceremonies. His rebellion against any kind of orthodoxy meant his work was left out of the Saiva canonical literature however some of his poetry is well read in Tamil literary compendiums.

The slothful

Sluggards

Say: He is far, far, far

Away!

But the Supreme It

Is spread everywhere
on Earth and in Heavens.

O you poor dumb ones,
running
stunned and suffering
through towns and fields and forests
in Search!

He is right there
within you!

Stand still
and feel Him,
feel!

Shiva

On the white summit of eternity
A single Soul of bare infinities,
Guarded he keeps by a fire-screen of peace
His mystic loneliness of nude ecstasy.
But, touched by an immense delight to be,
He looks across unending depths and sees
Musing amid the inconscient silences
The Mighty Mother's dumb felicity.

Half now awake she rises to his glance;
Then, moved to circling by her heart-beats' will,
The rhythmic worlds describe that passion-dance.
Life springs in her and Mind is born; her face
She lifts to Him who is Herself, until
The Spirit leaps into the Spirit's embrace.

- Sri Aurobindo, 1939

Vishnu

Brahma the creator
Shiva the destroyer
Vishnu the maintainer...

shanti

is about so much more than just inner peace and peace with other people. it is about Acceptance. it is ALL about Acceptance of ALL that IS. i didn't read that anywhere and nobody told me. that's just what i feel.

Tara

My amount is little, but my support is sincere.

Tara is a tantric meditation deity to develop inner qualities and understand outer and inner teachings about compassion and emptiness. Green Tara/Khadiravani is usually associated with protection from fear, pride, delusion/ignorance, hatred and anger, jealousy, fanatical views, avarice and miserliness, desire and attachment, and deluded doubts.

The Tara mantras here are immensely beautiful and healing just to listen to.

om tare tutare ture soha

7. Sahasrara

Without leaving his house, one can know everything that is necessary.
Without leaving himself one can grasp all wisdom.
- Lao Tzu

The crown chakra is located at the top of the head. It's the place of pure consciousness, sometimes called the void. This can be achieved through regular, deep meditation, where you let go of everything and find that all is peace. When imbalanced, you may experience depression, frustration, indecision and seek to be distant. When overactive it can cause people to become materialistic or act in a spiritually elite way.



om
sahasrara
ogum satyam om (repeated for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om





In gratefulness to the love of all my friends who helped me discover my own path to inner peace, and physical, emotional and spiritual health and growth.

6. Ajna

Ajna chakra is also known as the third eye. It's responsible for intuition, insight and clear thinking. A well balanced third eye will allow us to move beyond our immediate desires into the realm of knowledge and wisdom. It can be developed in dreams and through creativity and imagination. Some claim a well developed third eye can help in the visual perception of auras around other people and things and is responsible for precognition. An imbalanced third eye can lead to sleep disorders and headaches. The endocrine glands associated with this chakra are the pituitary and pineal glands. The pineal gland is stimulated by electromagnetic energy and it's thought that the increase in UV rays coming through the depleted ozone layer are beginning to have a profound effect on the raising of human consciousness.

68 seconds of pure thought -

5. Vishuddha

The throat chakra, Vishuddha means 'to purify'. It is the bridge between the heart and the two spiritual chakras that sit above it. It's the place from where we can speak or sing our love to people. When we use words of bitterness or hurt they turn the energies of this chakra inwards. Vishuddha is nourished by good words. Energy imbalances in Vishuddha manifest as ear, nose, throat and respiratory problems. A balanced throat chakra results in good communication, fluent thought, independence of emotional action, security of spiritual action and enables us to develop an appreciation of global matters as we are no longer fixated on our group, nationality or birthplace. Imbalance results in building walls, not communicating your needs or boundaries and seeking to keep people at a distance. Spirit voices of the om -

4. Anahata

A balanced heart chakra can help the physical heart if we release past traumas and emotional pain and don't try to judge others. It's also concerned with emotional issues of the heart. If we're thwarted in love, we may begin to doubt ourselves and if we don't deal with this will begin to hold in our emotional pain. If there is no input or output of love the ability to love can die. Unconditional love flowing through the heart chakra neutralises all negative energies and emotions. Our heart chakra needs this nourishment if we are to remain physically strong, capable of giving and receiving love and to be able to develop spiritually. Touch is very healing for the heart chakra.



om
anahata
yang (pronounced yung for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

3. Manipura

You cannot know fire from words alone.
Enter the fire if you want to know the truth.
- Rumi, 13th century muslim poet and mystic

The third chakra located at the solar plexus. The three chakras below the heart are concerned with our physical body and the senses; the three above the heart are concerned with the spirit. Digestive problems, diabetes and cancer are associated with Manipura, but above all it's associated with stress because it's located over one of the main regions of the body that reacts to stress. Since I've started finding ways to deal with stress I no longer feel my backache or experience excessive sweating any more.

In Manipura we also experience the emotions of others by becoming a mirror to them. It's vital to keep the mirror bright, as you don't want to act like a sponge for anyone's anger or negativity. Here we also learn to assimilate wisdom in our unconscious mind which enables us to heal our physical body and develop a good relationship with the wider world. It's sometimes called the body-mind connection.

Those with an undeveloped Manipura will dominate with their ego; they will not be happy with their situation in life, will shut down their inner fire and the whole chakra system could be compromised. They will feel extremely edgy and depleted in energy, become depressed, insecure and fearful. When you work on balancing your solar plexus chakra, depression turns into joy, insecurity turns into love and fearfulness turns into confidence.

om
manipura
rang (pronounced rung for several minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

2. Svadisthana

The second chakra, located on the upper part of the sacrum below the navel. Closely linked to the adrenal glands, this is where stress, anger and fear can gather and eventually cause illness. When this happens, we should take it as a warning to change patterns of behaviour to avoid or deal with stress and fear. I found that a way to transform fear was by sending everyone unconditional love and this is quite common with people who feel threatened. When I did this my lower back pain disappeared. This is also the pleasure chakra that is deeply concerned with our relationship to others and the place of imprinting of feelings experienced in childhood.

Stress to this chakra causes us to put up defences to avoid our true feelings, especially concerning someone of the opposite sex. It may cause promiscuity, seeking satisfaction and a deep longing to unite with the other half of our soul. Alternatively, we may provide a 'phantom lover' for ourselves or for our sexual fantasies.

When the radiance of Svadisthana begins to flow more freely, the ability to feel both pain and pleasure increases - sometimes in bitter-sweet love affairs. This can make it a real test of courage to move beyond our defences, regain our true self and experience loving intimacy. It is necessary to let go of past fears, disillusionments and disappointed romantic expectations - all unneeded energy imprints held in this chakra.

If we are unaware of our sacral chakra energies, we unwittingly fuel feelings of rigid control, overprotectiveness, jealousy, anger and the inability to receive love. Svadisthana is associated with addictions of all kinds, and with a desperate need for approval.

Conversely, when we are fully aware of the positive energies of Svadisthana, we create the right conditions to unite with another person. This can take us into a flowering of the soul on a path of enlightenment. Such a state requires a beautiful, tender type of love that we give and receive unconditionally.

om
svadisthana
vam (pronounced vwam) repeated for several minutes
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

1. Muladhara

muladhara is the first of the seven major chakras. it's situated between the anus and the genitals, faces towards the ground and has the function of 'grounding' or 'rooting' us. if it's balanced, we feel a sympathetic vibration with the earth's electromagnetic frequency. this connection allows us to be at one with the earth, be part of the earth cycle, feel stability and security and get rid of negative emotional energy which is transformed in the earth cycle into positive energy (sometimes described as feelings of power/light/goodness) which we can then take up. if it's not balanced, we feel disconnected, unstable, insecure and these negative emotions remain trapped inside us. another way of balancing muladhara is to go out for a walk and be at one with nature. i think the top of a mountain would be a perfect place to meditate and chant.

om muladhara
lang (repeat for a few minutes)
om
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
kundalini arohanam
om

the 7 chakras

four years ago, while studying foundation science, i became intrigued by quantum mechanics and attempted to deepen my knowledge by reading books and articles on the subject for personal pleasure and discovery. the blueprint for reality that quantum mechanics presents has philosophical implications that i took to discussing in a philosophy conference. it became apparent that some of the ideas in quantum mechanics seemed to be expressed in eastern mysticism. these connections were explored by Fritjof Capra in his Tao of Physics. i found the book entertaining but, owing to the sheer breadth of interpretation of eastern mysticism, and the ease with which it's possible to extrapolate myriad possibilities from quantum mechanics, remain to be convinced that quantum mechanics is a scientific explanation of spiritual phenomena in eastern mysticism. but none of that took away the intrigue of eastern mysticism, in particular the practical wisdom of the Vedas and the Tao, which has become the spiritual homeland that i visit in troubled times. and each time i do visit that homeland, my knowledge and experience widens.

up until now, my path has been based on jnana yoga - this is the pursuit of enlightenment via knowledge - and yoga is simply a word for path. i get some benefit from hatha yoga - this is the yoga most widely practised in the west with physical postures and breathing exercises - but if it's done too fast, which it is in most of the classes i've been to, i can actually feel somewhat damaged by it, both physically and mentally! the best part of any yoga class for me has always been the om mantra chanted at the end, which never goes on for as long as i'd like.

it was my neighbour who first brought my attention to the fact that i was chanting a lot recently when he said that he didn't mind what music i played, but did i have to play it over and over again? so i plugged in my headphones. i was going through a lot of stress at the time and began feeling, not so much pain, but emptiness or over-activeness in certain parts of my body, mainly in the solar plexus and gut areas. i don't quite know how i came across the concept of the chakras from there - all i can think is that, in times of trouble, i'm guided back, naturally and unconsciously, towards the Vedas and the Tao. the Tao seems to provide the context for the practical wisdom of the Vedas to flourish. the chakras come from the Upanishads, which are part of the Vedic texts.

in peace and lovingkindness, enjoy. :-)