YOGA – Page 4 – Jamila Starwater

some all time favorite mantra albums

I love music. All kinds. I grew up on Peter Tosh and Chopin, my teen years were filled with Goodie Mob and Metallica, and I’ve spent a lot of time since with a whole range of greats in all genres- country, soul, folk etc etc.. But in the last 7 or so years I started to fill my ears and mind with mantra music of all kinds. I love how listening to mantra music makes me feel. We play mantras around the house continually so that the space has the benefits of the mantras infused within them. When you walk in to environments that have mantras playing continuously you can feel the peaceful vibrations that have settled into the walls and the furniture. If you’re skeptical , try it out for yourself. It’s so easy and it works on so many levels. And read this post on how and why mantra works here. also this.

Since I’ve been listening to mantra music almost exclusively for a while I have a lot of recommendations for you!

Here are some of my favorite classic mantra albums –

Snatam Kaur – Grace

This is a modern day kundalini classic that is so beautiful and soothing , you almost can’t believe it. Pretty much anything that comes out of Snatam’s mouth is transcendent, so all of her albums are gorgeous. If you don’t believe me, go to youtube, type in Snatam Kaur and be transported by every. single. thing. you click on. It will be hard to not let this list be dominated by her.

Nirinjan Kaur – Adhara

I recently read that this is Russell Brand’s one album he would take to a desert island or something. Whatever you think about the guy, he pretty much nailed it with his selection. This album is SUBLIME. Actually everything I have ever heard her sing is completely gorgeous. I mean I walked down the aisle to this after all.

Singh Kaur – Peace Lagoon

Singh Kaur is old school. She is another angel singing in your ear. This album is a 70’s mantra music masterpiece. Kind of a Joni Mitchell in heaven feeling.. The lyrics are mostly in english. The words come from a very sacred book called Peace Lagoon which are the english translations of Sikh poems. I also heartily recommend all of the Crimson Collection volumes, especially 6 (Ardas) +7 (Blessings) .

Gurunam Singh – Change

This guy is real good. I play the Har Ji track a lot in class. The album is great. Smooth, upbeat, and the only dude on this list. Good stuff.

Snatam Kaur – Live in Concert

Ok this is the best live album I have EVER heard, of all genres. It is sooooo beautiful and will make you feel so good when you listen to it. I can not recommend this one enough. When you listen to the Azure Salver track you may weep, it’s so gorgeous.

Ok next time I will post on some of the newer artists and albums I am loving. Until then– enjoy!!

image source: wikipedia : sound

YOGA

Mantras : helpful energy currents

There seems to be a lot of mystery and intrigue around the idea of mantras. The very word mantra seems exotic and kind of religious or something. The reality is that mantras are extremely practical tools. They can be used by anyone regardless of religious philosophy to improve the experience of living on this planet. It’s a scientific sound current that can change the way your cells vibrate which in turn changes how everything vibrates around you. We know from quantum physics that the idea of truly empty space is controversial, and that everything is connected to everything else. We are all just vibrating balls of energy interacting and effecting every other pulsing, glowing ball of energy. In a sense, every word we speak is a mantra. Mantra means mind vibration. Man= mind, Tra = Heat which is caused by vibratory speed. When we say or even think something it produces a vibration. Even thoughts have a weight, a network of synaptic connections vibrating around your brain… and then when we speak it is even more powerful – the vibration of our words enter our own ears and sometimes the ears of others, causing even more brain wave patterns to blossom outward , as well as the air molecules that have moved to get the word from one part of the room to another. The mantras that come from the Kundalini yoga tradition are very powerful because they were created for the times we are living in now. Kundalini mantras are extremely potent sound currents that can go into your energy field and environments and re-arrange things to your benefit. They don’t require belief to work. They don’t require subscribing to any kind of dogma. You don’t need to believe in the shower to get wet when you step in. To get results from these mantras, you only have to use them in some form – you can play them, hear them, speak them, sing them , chant them. To get a benefit it is as simple as turning on your ipod and listening .. you don’t need to know the words or the meaning for the mantras to be effective. ( let me repeat- all you have to do is PLAY them !) The sound current is an intelligent life force that will work to your benefit regardless of the details. But don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. There are many options for mantra music these days (here are some of my picks) and it really is as simple as pressing play. My teacher Harijiwan half jokes that the most powerful mudra (hand position in meditation) is your index finger turning on the music player. We are so lucky in this era to have the ability to play any music , any time, anywhere — so use it to your advantage! Ok so lets do an experiment. Use your index finger and press play. Then close your eyes ( you don’t want to see the dude just sitting there anyway) and just listen for a few minutes. See what happens, how you feel. This mantra is called Re Man Shabd, and its said to bring a Golden Buddha energy. The words are in a language called Gurmukhi, which means “from the mouth of the Guru” . It is related to the Punjabi language , which has its roots in Sanskrit. It is very old, very powerful, and completely relevant to our lives right here and now because it can very easily and effectively bring us peace and power. The translation of this mantra is extremely beautiful and pertains to this discussion:

Oh my mind practice Yoga in this way:

Let Truth be your horn, sincerity your necklace, and meditation the ashes you apply on your body.

Catch your burning soul (self) and stop the flames. Let the soul (self) be the alms bowl in which you collect the sweet Naam and this will be the only support you will ever need.

The Universe plays its divine music. The sound of reality is shrill, but this is where God is.

When you listen to the reality from this place of awareness the sweet essence of Raag arises.

Waves of melodies, emotions, and passions arise and flow through you. Bind yourself with the song of God.

The Universe spins like a potter’s wheel and from it fly demons and angels. The sage listens to this and instead of getting caught in either one, the sage drinks in the nectar of the heavens and is carried to the heavens in a divine chariot.

Instruct and clothe yourself with self control. Meditate unto infinity until you are meditating without meditating.

In this way, your body shall remain forever golden, and death shall never approach you.

Read more about the Re Man Shabd, discover and download lots of mantra music here at Spirit Voyage . image credit : marine bio.org

YOGA

Butter + Daily Practice

Calla Lilies on the most magical path in Big Sur

In April 2006 one of my best friends and I went on a a road trip up to a place called Heartwood Institute in Northern California. Jenny was checking out nutrition programs and had heard about Heartwood because this very well known author Paul Pitchford was teaching there. Pitchford wrote this book called Healing with Whole Foods and it is like a bible for holistic nutritionists. So off we went and had an adventure. While we were there we met Mr Pitchford and had in depth consultations with his students. I was on a quest to heal hypoglycemia naturally and so I had lots of questions for them and got a lot of very helpful ideas. The two pieces of advice that stuck out in my mind and ended up changing my life forever were these – make sure the butter I eat comes from grass fed cows, and to establish a daily meditation practice. I am a big fan of butter so the grass fed emphasis was a welcome idea, but the daily meditation idea seemed pretty mysterious. It seemed to make sense that doing something to help me relax every single day would effect my health for the better, so I made the decision to to try it out. The thing is that I didn’t really know what meditation was so I just started with sitting down and watching my thoughts for 5 minutes every day. That alone seems to be the entire practice of Zen Buddhism (I’m no expert) but thank God I found Kundalini yoga literally a few days after I made the decision. Or maybe Kundalini yoga found me.. regardless. We drove down the coast through the magical realms of Big Sur on the way back to Los Angeles. I was super stressed when we had started out on our road trip but by the time we were heading back down the 1 , the MOST beautiful road EVER, I was feeling a new freedom opening through me.

Jenny on the path to the most beautiful beach ever!

Jenny had heard about this place called Golden Bridge Yoga and really wanted to check it out. She just a had a day to spend with me in LA before she had to leave to go back to Brooklyn so of course I wanted to oblige. I remember that I didn’t really want to go even though I was curious about Kundalini Yoga. I had passed by the place a few times because at the time there was a Big Lots store around the corner that I used to walk to from my first apt in Hollywood. (We called that Big Lots “Big Dump” ! Classy I know but if you ever went in that location on Vine and Delongpre you know what I mean) I had even stopped in to Golden Bridge to get a schedule one time and I remember thinking that there was a lot of light coming out of the girl’s eyes behind the counter. I wanted that light to come out of my eyes too, but I was too shy to go to a class by myself. The thought was actually terrifying. So anyways, we went to a 9 am class by a woman named Tej– a teacher that went on to have a huge impact on my life. I didn’t really know what to think about the experience. It was so different from anything I had ever tried before. I knew that I felt good afterwards and that I should buy a class pass there instead of the YMCA membership I was considering, because I could not afford both.

So I started doing a little yoga every day, just moves I picked up from class. I didn’t know anything. I just knew I should do something every day to help me heal and relax. The combination of going to a Kundalini yoga class once or twice a week, and doing some kind of meditation practice , a little bit every day, changed my life completely. If someone wants to change their life, and happens to ask me what to do, the absolutely best advice I could give would be to do some kind of meditation every day. It can be any kind of energizing routine that helps you relax and feel better. The key is to really DO IT EVERY DAY, even for 5 minutes. The consistency will produce results. You will amaze yourself. You can open up the channels of energy that run through you and around you, wider and wider, so that you just enjoy your life more. It’s very simple.

Jumping for joy in Big Sur , on our way back to Los Angeles.

YOGA

Neuron Voltage: The Point of Yoga

“We’re in the business of increasing the voltage of the neurons”

Harijiwan , Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training 2013, Santa Monica, CA, first day, weekend one.

“As human beings we have fiber, we have an electromagnetic field, we have emotions, we have feelings – it’s a circuitry of life. It’s a dance of ten trillion cells and the beauty of it is that we are dancing in such harmony. “

Yogi Bhajan

The point of all yoga is to increase awareness of your own power and merge with it. Kundalini yoga is known as “the yoga of awareness”. According to wikipedia, a “neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information through electrical and chemical signals.” Voltage is the rate at which energy is drawn from a source that produces a flow of electricity in a circuit. In this case, your body in relation to the entire cosmos is the circuit, and Kundalini yoga is the technology of becoming aware of this relationship.

If you took a random poll, most people would say the point of yoga in general is to relax or to be flexible. These are just nice side effects. Most people think yoga is all about stretching. SO boring!! At least to me anyway. I mean those are really nice things, being flexible and relaxed, everyone wants that. The fact is that Kundalini yoga is a vast multi dimensional system that has been practiced for centuries in total secrecy by an elite few until 1968. Stands to reason there is more to it than relaxation and flexibility.

If we have read any article on yoga – ever – we have surely heard that the word yoga itself means “union”. We walk around thinking we are separate from everything else. and that causes a lot of problems. Pretty much every problem I can think of but especially the big ones — like environmental destruction and wars. Through the practice of yoga we can remember and feel that we are actually all connected and that experience one by one changes lives, communities, cultures and planets.

So yoga as a whole — Kundalini yoga, hatha yoga, Ashtanga yoga, bhakti yoga, etc — all are opening the body mind spirit connection. They are all working on opening the Kundalini force within the human. The Kundalini is the usually dormant creative power of the soul contained within the body, near the base of the spine. Each type of yoga has a different way of going about this. Hatha and Ashtanga yoga are very physical routes that emphasize the perfection of postures over many years (I have heard it takes around 20 years of perfect practice to raise the Kundalini via this route). Eventually you open the energetic locks in the body and the Kundalini energy is raised. The nervous system of the body is an electrical system. That released Kundalini force causes an increase of your vibratory speed – the electrical voltage- and a feeling of unity with every part of your world is the result. The increased voltage means you have more energy to work with in your life.

So let me just be clear. I teach Kundalini yoga so I am biased. Regardless, Kundalini yoga (as taught by Yogi Bhajan) is a complete system of yoga (many yoga systems out there are diluted FYI) and it works really fast to raise the frequency of the human system. You can probably guess as much from the name alone. It is KUNDALINI yoga after all. There are rumors that Kundalini yoga is dangerous because it’s so powerful. When practiced properly (which is not hard to do) Kundalini yoga is only dangerous to the control systems in place that are not interested in humans being empowered.

Kundalini yoga works fast to increase your neuron voltage. It is a scientific technology that is many thousands of years old. I like it because it’s very practical and it works. When you practice it the experience teaches you more than reading about it ever will. The postures, breath patterns, and sounds we do all work in harmony to open the energy locks allowing the soul force contained in the body to open. It’s a system that emphasizes experience over theory. You can feel the energy open in your body and mind in your very first class. The words “neuron voltage” take on a new , personal meaning. You have the energy to do what you came here to do. You are thinking faster, with more clarity because previously blocked energy is flowing. Every area of your life is effected. With each breath we learn how to increase the speed of our energy fields, so our very presence does the work.

Kundalini yoga is a subject I look forward to going into depth with you on this blog as I have been a student and teacher of it since 2007. I was changed for the better from my very first class but still I am just beginning to scratch the surface of whats possible and available to explore.

image source: Biology Reference

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some all time favorite mantra albums

Mantras : helpful energy currents

Butter + Daily Practice

Neuron Voltage: The Point of Yoga

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