MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU APRIL 19TH AT 7PM

“When the breath of life becomes short, you become short-tempered. When the breath of life becomes long and deep, you understand who you are."-Yogi Bhajan

What is Prana? What is this Breath of Life? We talk a lot about it in Kundalini Yoga and this week we are working on the PRANIC BODY so I think it's only reasonable to discuss what it is, how to get it, and how to use it. The Eighth Body (since each week we systematically going over the ten bodies, body by body) is the Pranic Body; Prana being "the life force energy that interpenetrates every atom of your form and indeed the universe" (Yogi Bhajan) that is contained in the air we breathe.

"Praana comes through the air. Some people think it is oxygen. That is not true. Oxygen is always there. If you pump the body with oxygen, will a person live forever?"- Yogi Bhajan

You have an infinite supply of energy available to you at any given time and you can get it through your breath. YOUR BREATH. It is yours and yours alone and you have to care for it. If you breath shallowly, you'll feel old, even if you are not technically an "old" person. You are likely to be anxious, nervous, and worry some.

"When the breath is shallow, all problems come in. All this caffeine, nicotine, all these drugs are the problem of the shallow breath".-Yogi Bhajan

In this culture, we have also replaced our pranic consumption with food consumption; trying to get our energy from the food we eat instead of directly from the Infinite Cosmos. That's why there is such an epidemic of sugar and sweet addiction as well as overeating. Most of the overconsumption of sugar and food in general is by shallow breathers.

"If you do not breathe consciously for 11 minutes a day, you lose 40%

of the vitality of life. This 40% you cannot recapture by any medicine or any exercise. But if you do breathe consciously for 11 minutes and make it very long, deep and slow, that can do exactly what no miracle can do, because your life is based on the breath of life." - Yogi Bhajan

Pranic energy is what gives you fearlessness, self-confidence, security, boundless energy, mental mastery. When you are lacking in it, you may feel isolated and alone; maybe even abandoned...not to mention exhausted and worn out. Pranic energy is obtained mainly from breathing consciously. When you breathe in a shallow and unconscious manner, you are cheating yourself out of the most powerful force available to you.

"Praana is the most powerful and most creative thing God ever created because out of Praana came life"- Yogi Bhajan

Naturally, a class on The Pranic Body will give you an ENORMOUS amount of energy and this is what we will be up to this Thursday night. Remember the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th bodies? (The negative, positive, and neutral minds?). Well... the mastery of the Pranic Body will also give you mastery over the MIND. Have you ever heard that in order to change the mind, all you have to do is to change the breath? A simple mechanical breath pattern (pranayam) can transport you from a bad place to bliss.

Bring a blanket, yoga mat, cushion, friend, and anything else you need for yoga, deep breathing exercises, and long GONG meditation/relaxation. Classes are always by donation only ($15 suggested) and begin promptly at 7 although you will not be turned away if you are "late". Stay for Yogi Tea and conversation afterwards...and I hope to see you on April 19th at 7pm. If you have any questions, call 323-365-1109 OR visit the website.

Sat Nam,

Raghubir

PS. MANY OF THESE QUOTES BY YOGI BHAJAN CAME FROM A TERRIFIC BOOK PRAANA, PRAANEE, PRAANAYAM. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. If you are interested in purchasing this book, please visit the Kundalink website for this and other items to assist you in your Kundalini Yoga practice. Put EAGLEROCK in the discount code box and get 10% off applicable items, including this book.

Are You Tired, Listless.....Poop Out at Parties?

THE SEVENTH BODY-THE AURA

Well, the answer is NOT Vitamitavegamin!!!! That's for sure! If you are feeling tired and under the weather...if you can't focus and feel like you are "not yourself"..then you should get to know your AURA.

What is the AURA? It is the electromagnetic field that surrounds the body that includes the arc line, the radiant body and the subtle body. It's very much like the magnetic field that surrounds the earth protecting it's atmosphere. EVERYBODY has an Aura. It's somewhere between three and nine feet if you are a human and it extends out in every direction. It is a protective body and it gives you the ability to uplift yourself and others. When its strong it serves as a container for your life force. It can attract positivity and repel negativity from other people, from germs and illness, and protect you from dangerous or destructive situations.

The Auric Body is related to the Pineal Gland and the immune system. A healthy Pineal gland brings intelligence and intuition and a healthy immune system brings radiant good health!

If you want to increase your intuition or improve your health, strengthen the Aura. When you increase the flow of prana (life force energy) through the meridians in your body, you are boosting the electromagnetic energy in your Auric Body.

If you feel paranoid and don't trust yourself, you definitely need to strengthen your Seventh Body. Insecurity is a sure sign that your Aura needs some work. If you feel threatened by crowds or by the energy of others, you need to expand and strengthen your Aura. If it is weak, then you'll easily get sick because all illness goes into the Aura first. Conversely, if your auric body is strong, you can repel illness and negativity...so a strong Auric Body will keep you very healthy of body and mind.A person with a strong seventh body knows exactly who they are. They can make up their own minds.

In your travels through the world of Kundalini Yoga, you may have wondered why Kundalini Yogis (and Yoginis) wear white. This is the explanation that Yogi Bhajan gave as an answer to a question about the wearing of white natural fiber clothing taken from The Beads of Truth from Spring 1981:

"We wear white because it's a simple scientific fact that every piece of matter or material has a foot and a half aura. Every animal has a three and a half foot aura. Every human has a nine foot aura. And if we wear the cotton and we wear the white, this color therapy gives us one extra foot of aura. So, I trust my students will behave right, but in case they behave like animals, they will still have a margin, an edge. And that is what it's all about. You have to wear a natural fiber and you have to wear white. It's a pure color therapy and it's called auric color therapy"

Three ways to expand and balance your aura: 1)Wear white 2)Meditate and 3) take a cold shower. A cold shower can completely clean and energize your auric field in a few minutes.

If you are in a profession where you help others, keeping the Auric field strong is essential so you don't get worn out and depleted. If you have ever met someone that you would describe as charismatic, what you are feeling is their large Aura. People who have charisma make you feel uplifted by their presence. They generally exude a warmth that makes you want to be with them.

Tonight at 7:00 pm we are working on the Auric Body through exercises and meditations that will increase your pranic energy and expand your electromagnetic field. We are in the midst of our series on the Ten Bodies....7 down, 3 to go! Come prepared to do some yoga, meditate and relax deeply with the Gong. Mats, cushions and blankets; bring what you need to be comfortable. I'll serve Yogi Tea afterwards. Donation only ($15 suggested) and all proceeds go back into the teachings. Working on the Seventh Body makes you feel really great; expanded and relaxed...ready to face the week ahead. I look forward to seeing you later....for more info visit the website. Bring a friend and a desire to feel better!

Sat Nam,

Raghubir

for more information, call 323-365-1109

BUMP IT UP A NOTCH - POWER UP YOUR ARC LINE

As you may or may not know, we are going through the ten bodies week by week. We are up to the sixth body....your PERSONAL PROTECTIVE SHIELD.

This Thursday night, the eve of the full moon, April 5 is all about the Arcline. Have you ever seen saints depicted with a halo around their heads? Well, that is the Arcline- a band of energy that runs across the top of the head from ear to ear in both men and women. Women have an extra arc line that goes from nipple to nipple. If it's strong, it can be an inch and a half thick. If it's weak, it can be broken and very thin. The arcline is the nucleus of the Aura. The arc line is your radiance and your projection.

"You are a human being: HU means halo, light. MAN means mind. mental. BEING means now."- Yogi Bhajan

The arc line protects you from physical harm, accidents and sickness. That's because it's associated with the pituitary gland which regulates your nervous system and glandular balance and is also home to your intuition. The arc line keeps negativity at bay from yourself and others. It's projective nature radiates through time and space. One way to make the arc line strong is to speak nothing but truth for 40 days. If you open yourself up to your own truth for 40 days, you'd be amazed at how strong and bright your arc line will be. Another way is to awaken the pituitary gland....the third eye.

The projection of the arc line helps you to manifest what you want in your life. Are you overprotective? Easily influenced? Inconsistent in your moods and behavior? Are you unfocused? Then maybe you should consider working to strengthen your arc line.

One way to think about the arc line is that it's your personal integrity. What is personal integrity? It's when your inner truth merges with your outer projection. That means that YOU are YOU, in and out. The arc line's motto is "I am, I am".

In class we are going to do strengthen and balance the arc line with a breath meditation, a short kriya, and a long meditation which will do just that. The meditation will allow you to speak inspiringly and to represent the truth at all times, project your bodily sensations at any time and "feel" what's going on, will give you the power to heal with your eyes and hands, AND activates the intuition BIG TIME. This meditation is called Dhrib Drishti Lochina Karma Kriya and was first taught in the early 1970's on the eve of the full moon. This is a particularly powerful time to do this meditation.

So if you are in the market for a class that will bump it up a notch and allow you to really change your perception, projection, and protection...then come on over at 7 pm with a blanket, mat , cushion or whatever you need to do yoga and meditation. We'll have a long gong relaxation and Yogi Tea afterwards. For more information visit our website. Donation only ($15) and goes back to the teachings. I'm looking forward to seeing you...

Sat Nam,

Raghubir

LET'S GET PHYSICAL

THE FIFTH BODY - TONIGHT AT 7 - PHYSICAL BODY

It is such a blessing that we are in a physical body. Many of us take it for granted, but it is a real gift on so many different levels. Each of our physical bodies is different and teaches us the lessons we have to learn. It's a vehicle for our spiritual growth and it enables us to do good deeds to uplift humanity. That being said, why do so many of us abuse our physical bodies and ignore them as if they didn't matter?

Just ask anyone who has had a grave illness and has survived, how precious is the human body. Many individuals who have endured physical hardship and pain know the true gift of the human spirit and even more so, the blessing of the physical body.

According to Yogi Bhajan, (the yogic point of view) to get here in this physical form, you have had to have had at least 8.4 million incarnations. Imagine....8.4 million incarnations equals one light year and in order to be a physical body capable of self-realization, you would have had to travel 100,000 light years. That's a long, long time.

So from a purely practical point of view, its a big deal to be here in the physical body. The physical body is the TEMPLE where all the other bodies play out their parts. One of the big jobs of the physical body is the POWER TO SACRIFICE. Another big job is that it give you the POWER TO TEACH, to uplift. It enables you to take esoteric abstract concepts and break them down for others so that they are understood. Having the POWER TO SACRIFICE means that you use this body in this lifetime to work out your incarnation as well as serving those around you. To sacrifice is also to teach because when you sacrifice, you are going outside of yourself to assist others.

Work out this incarnation....what does this mean? Well, here we have to discuss Karma and Dharma...because with the Fifth Body, you have the strength and discipline to choose Dharma over Karma.

"In Kundalini Yoga we don't worry about the effect, we worry about the cause, because cause has an effect. Effect can never happen without cause; consequences shall never happen without sequence. If a person can be aware enough to know the trend of the sequences, he can control the consequences".- Yogi Bhajan

Karma is almost a household word yet not everybody knows what it means. The Law of Karma means that every action has a reaction and this is an absolute rule of nature. (It is Newton's third law of motion "Every action has a reaction, equal and opposite"). It does not mean "fate".

The idea is not to perform tasks that have a negative effect or backlash. Everything we do or say is a seed planted for the future. Sometimes we inherit the karmic energy of the past and we have to work it out in our incarnation so we can be liberated. If we are slaves to the ego attachments to objects, feelings, and thoughts, then we are biased toward certain behavior. We aim to balance these tendencies through the practice of Kundalini Yoga and the karmas are the conditions required in order to complete these tendencies.

Dharma is the path of life ABOVE the wheel of karma. It is a life aligned with our souls and destiny. It is a life of action without reaction because all actions are aimed toward the Infinate. If Karma is having a balance that you owe, Dharma is having the account cleared. WHEN YOU LIVE A DHARMIC LIFE, YOU ARE POSITIVE AND GRACEFUL AND YOU UPLIFT ALL THOSE AROUND YOU.

Your physical body can teach you a lot. If you experience an emotional stress, maybe you're the kind of person who tightens up your neck. And every time you have a similar emotional stress, even if its just a "hint" of the issue, your neck does the same thing. Your body is signaling you to pay attention to the source of the emotional pain so that you can resolve those issues. Your body is what it is today because it's a representation of all that you are; all your experiences and everything stored in your muscles and nervous system. What you did in the past not only has shaped who you are now but it informs where you are going in the future.

If you find that you are greedy, angry, jealous, competitive, or ungrateful or that you have trouble expressing yourself verbally, then balancing the physical body is your key to happiness and free expression. If you want to create a healthy environment in which your spirit can dwell, then working on the physical body can give you an advantage. If you want to serve humanity, teach and uplift others, then developing the FIFTH BODY will give you the strength and endurance to SACRIFICE and to mentor others.

Tonight's 7:00 pm class will be all about this PHYSICAL BODY. Please bring a mat, a cushion, a blanket or anything else you need to do yoga and relax deeply. If you eat, please eat something light before class as we will be doing a fairly physical set. A powerful PROSPERITY meditation will follow the yoga set as will a deep relaxation with the Gong. Tea served after class and you are all welcome to stay and enjoy the company of like souls. For more information, visit the website. Class by donation only ($15 recommended).

See you later!

Sat Nam,

Raghubir Kaur

How do you get to the Neutral Mind? Meditate, Meditate, Meditate!

Thursday March 22

The Fourth Body

The Neutral Mind

How do you balance the Neutral Mind? Plain and simple.....meditate! That's why it's called the Meditative Mind. It is the place from which you want to live. You might divide people's predominant mind (negative vs. positive) as glasses either being "Half-empty" or "Half-full" but the the Neutral Mind is neither of those things....its a FULL GLASS!

You can see by this analogy that this is THE place to be! As a person who operates from the neutral mind, you will tend to be a good listener as well as a person who can interact in a natural and flowing way. When you are in the presence of someone who in in the neutral mind you WANT to be with them; its very easy. They generally have good timing, good intuition, and an even disposition. You can criticize such a person and they won't freak out on you....and if they are criticizing you, their comments tend to be wise and intelligent.

When we speak of strength in Kundalini Yoga, we not only mean physical strength; we mean mental strength. We mean the ability to confront your demons, your demoting habits, and resisting the temptation to go on auto-pilot. Staying conscious. Keeping up in spite of the circumstances or obstacles that fall in your path. We do this through meditation which strengthens and balances the neutral mind.

The neutral mind is also the HEART SPACE. A place of compassion and inner wisdom. Guru Ram Das resides in this energetic place in us which is why his picture sits on the top of this blog. He is the 4th Sikh Guru and in Kundalini Yoga we all connect with Guru Ram Das every time we tune into the Golden Chain with the Adi Mantra (Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo).

Tonight's class is all about balancing the Neutral Mind...the combination of the negative and positive mental processes. Do you have a hard time making decisions? Do you ever feel victimized by life and not know how to integrate your experiences into your own personal education? Do you have difficulty tuning into the great cosmic flow? Well then....this is the CLASS FOR YOU!

We'll be working on balancing the heart and the head, opening the heart with breath and mantra....and of course, MEDITATING! Bring a blanket, mat, cushion, a friend, and anything else you might need for yoga practice. Donation only (and $15 recommended). All proceeds go back into the teachings. Yogi tea always served...and long Gong relaxation concludes every class. For more info visit the website. See you at 7:00pm

Sat Nam,

Raghubir

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Tonight's class is all about the POSITIVE MIND aka THE THIRD BODY. If you are new to this blog/class, just so you know, we are working on the TEN BODIES one by one. What are the ten bodies? The human body is made up of ten bodies---the physical body, three mental bodies (we're working on them right now) and six energy bodies.

"If you understand that you are Ten Bodies, and you are aware of those Ten Bodies, and you keep them in balance, the whole universe will be in balance with you." ~ Yogi Bhajan

If you want to turn on your THIRD BODY, the positive or projective mind, you need to eliminate the negative. We all have an easy time of it when it comes to negative thinking....having negative self imaging, excuses for why we CAN'T do something, and falling back into old self-sabotaging patterns of behavior. What is challenging is rewriting your script so that you have a hopeful and cheerful attitude about almost everything. It doesn't mean you're a blind optimist either. It means that you employ a sense of humor about your life and have a fearlessness about proceeding into the future. It means that you are calculating the risk of any given situation (thank you negative/protective mind!) and using your intuition and intelligence to guide you.

A strong third body will provide you with that sense of humor and hope. A weak third body will guide you into troublesome situations or throw you into the pit of despair and hopelessness. Either way, it's not a good place to be. Strengthening and balancing the THIRD BODY (POSITIVE/PROJECTIVE MIND) does double duty because it will, in turn, balance your second body (NEGATIVE/PROTECTIVE MIND).

The "key phrase" of the third body is DEVIL or DIVINE. What does that mean? The Devil part means that if you don't calculate the risks, you'll end up in trouble. If you are only seeing the PROs in a given situation and not the CONs...it means to look deeper. Be your own devil's advocate...especially when someone is trying to sell you a bill of goods. Whether its a product or in a personal relationship, be sure to pay attention to the red flags and to what is NOT being presented. The Divine part of the equation is when you PROJECT your will into the DIVINE will at the right place and at the right time, only good can come of it. And mastery of the third body will give you a strong will.

What are some ways we can balance and strengthen the Third Body? One way is to strengthen the navel center (third chakra). Another way is to use positive affirmations and replace negative thinking with positive thinking. If you positive mind is overdeveloped (can't see the whole picture, ignoring red flags, blind optimism) then you can work on strengthening the Negative Mind for balance.

So in tonight's class, we will be working primarily on an area of the brain that helps you to hold on to negative self imaging and over protectiveness. We're going to listen to mantras for protection that will lift your spirits and make you feel very light and positive. In our exercises, we'll be working a lot with the nervous system. We'll also be doing a short rebirthing meditation that will burn out negativity from the past.

Please come with a mat, a blanket or cushion and feel free to bring a friend! Our class is by donation only ($15 recommended). All proceeds go back into the teachings. Gong relaxation always....and yogi tea served afterwards. See you later at 7:00pm. For more information visit the website.

Sat Nam,

Raghubir

MARCH 8 CANCELLED

Sat Nam Everyone....I think I have a bit of the flu and I am down for the count. So.....tonight's class is cancelled. I look forward to seeing everyone next week, March 15th for an exploration into the POSITIVE MIND....the third body.

much love,

Raghubir