Not for Sissies
KY when practiced with a Yogi Bhajans it is a yoga of action-male energy-and discipline. But at the heart of the matter the discipline was strict but the result produced was a devotee that was able to accept and give love. More on the navel point and anger-where do we hold anger? Work that Belly Button, Baby
Date: 3/24/2005 7:24:41 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1701 times Opening the Heart Center
When Yogi Bhajan came to the West and Los Angeles in 1969, the strengthening and balancing of the navel point was one of the main focuses of his classes. His yogic message was that in order to get and stay in the heart center we first had to cultivate a powerful and stable base or the "lower triangle." The lower triangle is the lower three chakras - root, sex and navel. The major theme of my first book Transitions of the Heart-Centered World (1988) is how to build the lower triangle as a base for moving into the heart chakra.
It is interesting to look back and observe the different spiritual paths in the 70's and 80's. The message of the flower children of the 60's was "All we need is love." Yogi Bhajan attracted many of these flower children to his classes. We certainly need more love. The question is how do we get it? Yogi Bhajan essentially said, "If you want love, you have to prepare your mind and body to give and receive it." So while other paths were concentrating on opening the upper chakras to receive universal Love, Yogi Bhajan was teaching us breath of fire, stretch pose and other strenuous abdominal exercises. There was no time to sit around and love each other.
We were instructed to get up at 3:00am, take a cold shower and do 2 1/2 hours of Kundalini yoga and meditation. And then there was the rest of the program, which included seva (selfless service), devotional chanting, and teaching, setting up restaurants and ashrams. Who had time for love? We were exhausted!
Yogi Bhajan is a "Saturn" teacher. He teaches through discipline, lessons and committed action. We don't contemplate our navels. We pump them until they are activated and our internal energy moves spontaneously and dynamically.
From Anger to Action
One of the reasons for following a spiritual path is our desire to be more spiritual. However, we can't be spiritual if we are filled with anger and fear. We have to clear out or transmute our anger and fear in order to make room for Spirit and Love.
Anger is navel chakra energy. I like to think of navel energy in terms of "anger into action." When our navel chakra is strong, we have the energy to take action and accomplish things. When it is weak, we have difficulty taking action for ourselves. When we can't act, we feel like victims of external forces, outside authorities and political or economic systems. And indeed, when we do not take action to get our needs met and do what we want and need to do, we usually are victims. Those with a weak will, or navel center, are easy prey to those who live off the manipulation, control and exploitation of others through personal intimidation, guilt trips, advertising, political, financial and brut power. Not taking action on our own behalf and falling prey to the manipulation of outside forces, breeds inner anger and rage.
With rare exceptions, we all carry unresolved anger in our body and psyche. Everyone has experienced some injustice or abuse, which when triggered or remembered, sets them off. Our goal is not to get rid of this reaction all together. Anger is a normal and useful emotion. Emotions are the way our Soul speaks to us. When we experience anger, we are receiving information from our Soul that we must translate into messages that pertain to the situation at hand. Some messages anger tells are-"This situation does not work for me." "Don't waste your energy. Gracefully leave." "I need to take action." "Something needs to be done, and I better do something about it."
The problem with all our "negative" emotions-anger, fear and sadness-is that these emotions are too often not evoked in response to a current situation. What typically happens is that current life situations evoke unprocessed abuse and reactions from the past. One of our major life goals is to process unresolved emotions, so that our responses, instead of being automatically controlled by our past, give us accurate information about moment to moment circumstances.
Unprocessed emotions are stored on our body. Kundalini yoga is a powerful tool to help dislodge these emotions from our body and transmute this energy into higher frequencies. Anger is eventually transmuted into Light.
One of the most powerful ways to move out of the state of disempowerment into empowerment is to cultivate our own internal power. Yogically, the navel center is the place to begin.
As we work on the navel point, we will also work on the first two chakras. Yogi Bhajan used to tell us that a cup without a bottom is not going to hold much tea. In building the lower triangle, we are building our foundation, or the bottom of our cup, so that we can hold the universal tea of Love. Creating a bottom for our cup and clearing out the past hurtful memories from our cup are two important steps in making our "Transitions to a Heart-Centered World."
http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/kyt09.html
Footnote, Gururattan Kaur Kalsa PHD, a.k.a. "The Turbaned One" is a highly trained practitioner of Kundalini Yoga, she give classes in teachers training for KY-and is a very "in touch" psychically.
She has several very good books on the practice of KY!
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