Raja Yoga: Preparing the Body-Mind for Divine Grace

In the last few posts, I have attempted to explain the different kinds of yoga practices for achieving union with the absolute. The series began with an explanation of Integral Yoga and a deeper analysis of the different forms of yoga that can be integrated into our daily practice, namely Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. This is the final post in the Yoga series.

As mentioned here, awakening kundalini can be a trigger for an ecstatic experience, a brief glimpse of the absolute when the mental barriers of limited individuality fall away temporarily. All spiritual methods are different ways of stilling the mind to get back to that state of emptiness. As defined by Patanjali, Cessation of the mind is Yoga. Probably the most simple and elegant definition of Yoga. When the mind stops, reality is experienced. The ego, a collection of selective memories that form our self-image, our ideas about social status and our place in that hierarchy, are all mental projections. Once they drop, along with the constant mental chatter, Yoga is achieved.

I have been asked about methods for awakening the kundalini and these last few posts are my attempt to answer those questions. I personally awakened mine accidentally, without following a set of practices. However, the awakening leads to insights about the nature of the mind and how one attains the state of emptiness or samadhi. A kundalini awakening takes the mind out of its conditioned state and returns it to a state of child-like innocence, receptive to divine grace.

Awakening kundalini is not in our hands entirely; Karma is an essential factor in the equation. Although not everyone is chosen to receive this blessing, no one is excluded from putting practices in place to create the right circumstances for an awakening.

The Heavens

By practicing methods that ingrain positive habits, you allow illusions to drop, the mind to cease, karmic loops to close. An intellectual understanding of the process will not achieve this. If the power of all your actions and thoughts is harnessed and directed towards an awakening, only then can you make progress. It's the purpose of Integral Yoga. Regardless of whether these practices culminate in a kundalini awakening or not, the methods will help you achieve inner peace, release stress and create a balanced, better adjusted human being.

There is significant overlap in all these methods. Choosing the right action requires mindful awareness. It combines Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Surrender to the divine, knowing that each action is an offering to Him allows me to work at my passion with total devotion. When I take a photograph, I become one with that moment. I am completely absorbed in that moment of zen where the object, the observer and the act of taking the photograph are one indivisible whole. The devotion to the task at hand IS devotion to the almighty. This is both Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga. This is the goal behind the practice of Integral Yoga. To bring the mind to a stillness, to realize the union with the absolute that already exists, using every action, every thought, every moment in the service of this goal.

Once these practices are put in place, every action achieves a greater significance. Nothing is mundane. Everything is sacred. Every day is a holy day. Naturally, one elevates his or her vibration. Life is seen with a feeling of awe. It is lived as art, as poetry. Each moment is lived for its own sake, knowing that each moment carries the potential for samadhi, for union with the absolute. 

The ego-driven human being is a jumble of contradictions, frustrations and misery. The misery comes from pursuing fantasies. Buy this car and it will make you happy. Drink this beer and you will be attractive to women. Oh, you MUST buy this phone if you want to hang with the "in crowd," scream the commercials. 

The ego responds, luring you further and further into illusion, away from the stillness within. Happiness is not outside. It is within. Craving breeds more craving. Each material acquisition only whets the appetite for more. Once you fulfill your desire, you are happy for one moment, before once again craving the next shiny object. Mindfulness makes you aware of the incessant craving and the underlying misery. This awareness rises, the more you observe each moment, the more you meditate. The less you are affected by external temptations, the less stress, misery and frustration you accumulate.

Barriers

So far, in these posts, I have talked about Yoga without a single mention of asanas or poses — most people's definition of Yoga. Raja Yoga addresses that. Commonly, the asanas or poses are performed for health reasons, rendering you fit and free from disease.

However, the real purpose of performing the poses, as I discovered after my awakening, is getting the body ready once kundalini awakens. The kriyas that occur afterwards are involuntary and require a limber body, able to perform difficult postures as the energy clears blockages. Being unable to bend and stretch as needed is very painful and potentially damaging to the body. 

In fact, all three practices: breath control, poses and meditation are equally important in preparing for an awakening:

1. Not knowing the proper breathing exercises prevents the release of blockages in a safe and efficient manner.
2. Being in good shape, as opposed to being over-weight, out of shape and reluctant to perform physical exercise, is crucial to avoiding disaster during or after awakening. 
3. Performing only the poses may make you extremely fit, but your mind will not be ready for the trauma an awakening brings. Being a meditator with an unfit body may allow you to cope with the psychic challenges associated with states of higher vibration, but the body needs conditioning to avoid the agony of bending into difficult poses. That's why working all three together is necessary.

Raja Yoga cultivates this by preparing the body and mind in a systematic fashion so one can ease into an awakening gently. 

If there is a lot of accumulated trauma and negative karma for the energy to clear, if the ego has been inflated and deluded, additional barriers and mental torment must be overcome when the clearing begins. My "spontaneous awakening" gave me a chance to realize why each one of the practices is important, albeit, as I was not prepared, I learned the hard way. A very negative and agonizing way.

As the energy passed through me, I spent many hours writhing and contorting in the wheel pose and other physically challenging poses. I have always been physically fit, am a bodybuilder, golfer and martial artist. I even dabbled in yoga. Still, I was NOT completely prepared for the shock of involuntary kriyas. I had to get in better shape to withstand the onslaught.

The eight-fold path of Raja Yoga or "The Royal path to Yoga" consists of eight steps:

1. Yamas (Abstentions): Ahimsa (non-injury), Satya (truth), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (chastity), Apragraha (non-greed).
2. Niyamas (Moral Observations): Shaucha (purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (austerity), Svadhyaya (study of the scriptures), Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender to God).
3. Asana: Steady pose, posture or seat. Yogic poses.
4. Pranayama: control of vital energy through breathwork.
5. Pratyahara: Withdrawal of the senses.
6. Dharana: concentration of the mind.
7. Dhyana: Meditation.
8. Samadhi: Enlightenment, union with the Divine.

We can divide these into three categories. In a category by itself is Samadhi, the seeker's final goal, achieved through practices that awaken the kundalini. The other practices, therefore, fall under two categories, preparatory and causative.

Of the eight steps, the first two, Yama and Niyama, can be termed preparatory. In and of themselves, they are insufficient to trigger a kundalini awakening. Yamas overlap with methods mentioned in my post on Karma Yoga. These practices tie up karmic loose ends and prevent the creation of new negative karma impeding spiritual progress. Niyamas overlap with Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, creating a mental state conducive to divine grace: dropping illusions, studying scripture and creating positive patterns in the brain, staying in a positive and ego-free mental state. 

Steps 3 through 7 are termed causative. These practices may trigger a kundalini awakening as you perform them, provided your karma allows for it.

Asana: There are several cases of yogis awakening kundalini due to a regular practice of physical yoga poses. We can add tantric sexual practices, martial arts such as Tai Chi and Aikido to this list of physical practices that may cause an awakening.

Pranayama: JJ Semple awakened his kundalini through a practice of breathwork. He has described it in his wonderful book, Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time. Whether it is traditional practices of pranayama described in ancient texts or newer methods of breath control, this is a powerful trigger for an awakening.

Steps 5, 6 and 7 can be grouped together into one easy to understand term: Meditation. Gopi Krishna awakened his kundalini during meditation. Several others have awakened it during some form of mental concentration or visualization practice.

A regular practice of any one of the causative steps of Raja Yoga may be enough to trigger an awakening. All three performed systematically, along with the preparatory steps increases your chances and more important, removes obstacles and potential hindrances once the energy is awakened and starts its work. A systematic overhaul of the ego-mind and body codified in a step-by-step set of instructions. Hence its designation as the Royal path.

To reinforce my earlier statements and what JJ Semple wrote in his previous blog post, a kundalini awakening is not a paint-by-numbers activity like learning to drive a car. Follow instructions, perform the necessary steps, and boom, awakening ensues. Sorry. Ain't gonna happen. Expectation leads to disappointment. The better approach is to perform each step for its own sake, expecting only to uncover more and more of one's true self, a transformation into a healthier individual, both mentally and physically, better balanced and capable of living each moment in a state of contentment and inner peace. As a bonus, you may receive a kundalini awakening. Craving an outcome will almost guarantee you will not awaken anything because it is the craving and the competitive ego that causes craving needs to be eliminated in order to receive an awakening.

This completes my Yoga series of blog posts. I hope that this has been a helpful series.

Integral Yoga – Every Moment is Prayer

The word Yoga simply means union. The moment of oneness with the absolute. In common parlance currently in vogue, the term has come to represent physical practices, asanas or poses and nothing more. The poses assumed by Yogis to gain control of the body are simply one small aspect of the vast number of spiritual practices called Yoga. The poses are from the branch of Yoga called Hatha Yoga.

Throughout history, humanity has experienced leaps in consciousness through revelation. Whether it is the prophet Moses, Jesus, Buddha or the founders of various other religions, awakening of the kundalini and subsequent ascension of the individual to a state of illumination is accompanied by revelations that then gather a following, become part of religious practices.

Depending on the era of birth, the geography of the individual, his level of education and creative abilities, there are wide variations in the resulting revelations. They all point to the same reality but they are all expressed differently. As mentioned in my previous post, these methods are ours to use as we see fit and the path taken towards self-realization which works for one most likely will not work the same way for anyone else. This needs to be understood before accepting a rigid set of techniques and before proselytizing others.

Tied at Mooring – Tranquil Summer Days

A better approach is to figure out what path best allows you to find inner peace and drop the external mask, the persona that obscures your inner reality for the sake of fitting in with the outside world. Sri Aurobindo, the Indian mystic and Ken Wilber, the modern day mystic whose ideas are the inspiration for the ''Matrix" movies are two proponents of an integral yoga. A collection of practices that address every aspect of the human state and approach the quest for self-realization as an incessant stream to be lived each moment rather than a set of rituals performed at a certain hour.

Classical yoga divides spiritual practices into four kinds of yoga. This classification is exhaustive. Nearly all practices and states of being, and methods of worship fall into one of the four categories, regardless of the religion of the practitioner.

The four paths of Yoga: There are four traditional schools of Yoga, and these are: Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Raja Yoga. While a Yogi or Yogini may focus exclusively on one of these approaches to Yoga, that is quite uncommon. For the vast majority of Yoga practitioners, a blending of the four traditional types of Yoga is most appropriate. One follows his or her own predisposition in balancing these different forms of Yoga:

Jnana Yoga: Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge, wisdom, introspection and contemplation. It involves deep exploration of the nature of our being by systematically exploring and setting aside false identities.

Bhakti Yoga: Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion, emotion, love, compassion, and service to God and others. All actions are done in the context of remembering the Divine.

Karma Yoga: Karma Yoga is the path of action, service to others, mindfulness, and remembering the levels of our being while fulfilling our actions or karma in the world.

Raja Yoga: Raja Yoga is a comprehensive method that emphasizes meditation, while encompassing the whole of Yoga. It directly deals with the encountering and transcending thoughts of the mind.

The most common is the path of devotion, known as bhakti yoga. Praying twice a day, attending mass on Sunday, reciting the Lord's Prayer are all forms of bhakti yoga. This path, of faith, of absolute surrender to the divine is the most common form of worship. This may suffice for the average individual that worships out of a sense of social obligation, but not for the seeker on the path. Praying or meditating for an hour still leaves about 15 waking hours in the day that are not devoted to the quest. It is not just impractical to meditate or pray for hours on end while ignoring worldly duties, it is also unnecessary.

The Rising and the Falling

We need to remember the underlying goal of all this effort. The final stage, commonly called enlightenment, is beyond understanding. One can't aim for it and set course like a ship sails to a port. However, we know that the way to this destination goes through a constant process of awakening the true self and staying awake. Constant mindful awareness to each action, constantly breaking thought patterns that take us away from the here and now. By becoming aware of the mental agitation, by becoming cognizant of the constant unrest within us, we learn to witness it. To separate, for the first time ever, the mental apparatus that thinks, from the true self that is the witness. It is not I that does the thinking. I witness the mind as it creates the thoughts. Each time I step back and witness the mental machinery, it is also a process of detaching oneself from that mental chatter.

Essentially, it is a process of removing conditioned responses and ingrained patterns that have long kept us enslaved. For the first time, we taste true freedom. A freedom from the human robot bound by those repetitive patterns and conditioned responses. A freedom to be spontaneous and "in the moment," seeing, for the first time, the world as it is, without the baggage of preconceived ideas, labels and notions of how the world should be. 

Integral Yoga understands the need to incorporate the different forms of yoga and devote each waking hour to the contemplation, service and realization of oneness with the absolute. Expressed differently, to know that one is a creation of that almighty intelligence, and can never be separate from it, one needs to provide methods that constantly awaken the consciousness from the slumber induced by our mundane "reality."

Motor Highway Fest

A kundalini awakening is simply an automated mechanism that takes over the psyche and goes about cleansing the soul of past conditionings and shows the individual how to proceed on the journey of realizing one's true self and union with the absolute. Some aspects of this process, such as revelation, are governed by the energy and require no assitance from the individual. Others require the ego to co-operate and surrender itself to the greater work being performed, knowing it will be completely dissolved at the end of the process. 

Knowing this, the various forms of yoga and techniques associated with them can be seen as methods of helping the individual see beyond the ego, to align the ego with the path of spiritual progress until it realizes its role as an interface with the outside world and not as the true self. At their most basic, methods of worship inculcate positive patterns into the psyche. A lifetime spent reciting a mantra and activating a state of surrender to the divine molds the brain, creating neuronal pathways that eventually allow the self to see itself clearly.

The best way to remove an ingrained pattern that leads us towards robotic behavior and prolongs the state of ignorance is to replace it with one that causes an upward spiral towards freedom. A pattern of repetitive behavior that eventually removes all patterns and conditioning. This is the true purpose of any method of worship. If a chosen method does not serve that purpose, it should be replaced by another, more effective one or augmented with other methods that achieve this goal.

It may seem like a contradiction in terms to advocate the use of ritual, repetition and conditioning if our final goal is to remove all such shackles, but it is not. It depends on the patterns we choose, how we practice, and why we practice a ritual.

It is important to have control over who programs your mind and what it is being programmed with. If I am doing it myself, aware of the effect of that course of action, I have a better chance of reaching my true self. If I allow friends, social groups, or worse, television commercials and the approval-disapproval control mechanism, high-school popularity contest that is the Facebook "Like" button, I remain stuck in the realm of ego, bound by the senses and the ego's craving for comfort and its tendency to create a false reality favoring a selective image of itself.

In future posts, I intend to write in detail about each path and how almost every action or thought can be a method towards the realization of the absolute.