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maverick angel
France
42 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 10:27:31 AM
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Hi,
This is my first post on the forums. My kundalini awakened last August. It was a smooth and wonderful experience with no major problems. I had been doing Kundalni yoga in combination with AYP for about a year. Nothing much happened and I'm not sure I actually believed anything would,I thought kundalini was just for the saints which I certainly am not! Anyway I was focusing on a meditation called Sodarshan Chakra Kriya, when I first felt Shakti coming up my spine. For about a week, every time I did my yoga, the energy would come up and get stuck around my left shoulder blade, which was a bit sore. One day when I sat down to meditate the Shakti suddenly broke through and shot up the back of my neck. This was of a different quality to the energy I had felt up to this point, it was much sharper clearer and very strong. In fact it was a real shock, my eyes flew open, my heart went like the clappers and I willed it to stop. I'm a musician and I was going on tour in a couple of days and was worried I might be incapacitated. So once I'd calmed down I went to work, but all day the pressure was there at the back of the neck. Later on I couldn't resist anymore and I sat down again to meditate. This time I had no control, the Shakti went straight up my neck into my brain. It went round and round inside, I perceived it as light and had the distinct feeling it was searching. My whole forhead was totally ecstatic and then the whole of the top of my head as well as inside my brain. Eventually I felt the crown open and the energy go out of it. At this point I distinctly felt my consciousness expand beyond the physical. Then Shakti met Shiva(probably helped by the spinal breathing)and the energy came back down again in a sort of fountain. This was quite scary as it formed a circle of heat at the crown, which expanded to cover my whole head in a helmet of heat. It wasn't painful but shocking, then the energy dripped down my body in droplets of light. Since then Kundalini Shakti has been with me permanently whether I do yoga or not, which I'm very happy about. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to procede as one hears so many different opinions. Some say stop doing physical yoga, others just say meditate ect. What do you all think?
PS Sorry the post is so long |
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 3:42:13 PM
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Hi Maverick Angel :)
Welcome to the forum :)
Congratulations on your kundalini awakening! And thank you for posting your experience here. It sounds like you have had a truly wonderful experience.
Reading your post has brought up a million questions but I will try to keep it down to a few..
Is the Sodarshan Chakra Kriya that you were practicing described acurately in this link? :
http://www.3ho.org/kundalini-yoga/k...kraKriya.pdf
If so, do the instructions really say to focus the gaze on the tip of the nose, not the top of the nose between the brows?
The kundalini yoga that you were practicing, was it similar to the Gurmukh kundalini DVD here
http://www.yogatech.com/go/start.cg...1PgwodRC2dzA
Did you practice celibacy? Are you vegetarian? Do you experience ecstatic conductivity or did you when kundalini arose?
How old are you? Are you male or female?
Do you experience deep silence during meditation?
Sorry, I have no advice for your future steps, only questions..
Thank you
:)
TI
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 4:31:45 PM
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Hi Maverick angel,
That's a beautiful experience, thanks for sharing it with us. It is almost the same as the awakening experience I went through about 5 years ago. As to what to do next it is important that you continue with your yoga practices, otherwise the kundalini may fall asleep again. Often, after an experience of this kind, the kundalini will withdraw to one of lower chakras (one of the six below the crown) and will need to be brought back up again, gradually, through one chakra at a time. This process can take several years to complete (there is no end to it really) depending on your state of awakening.
As to what practices you should be doing, that is a more difficult question to answer. We are not experts here on every system of yoga, and so are not qualified to say what combination of practices are safe and what are not. What I can vouch for is the safety and effectiveness of the AYP practices as I have used them for 5 years now.
There is certainly no reason why you should not do any spiritual practices (including asana practice), which are safe, now that your kundalini is awakened. After an awakening it is even more important for you to learn about self pacing, and let that be a guiding principle for regulating your practices. Before a kundalini awakening, we are in charge of our own awakening; afterwards, we are working in partnership with the energy of kundalini and need to pace ourselves according to how that unfolds.
Christi |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 4:35:06 PM
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p.s.
Welcome to the forum.  |
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Kirtanman
USA
1651 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 8:08:49 PM
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Hi Maverick Angel,
First - Welcome to the AYP Forum!
I'd suggest looking through the AYP Lessons, while remaining open to any intuitive hits, as to which information and/or practices feel like they may be useful for you. Alternately, maybe approach Yogani's books with that same attitude, and see what resonates.
Many of us here have experienced powerful and ongoing openings, while at the same time experiencing the benefits of smooth integration, over time; AYP seems to be particularly well-suited to both those aspects of kundalini/awakening.
Which, by the way, is the reason I'm recommending the AYP material; not only have many of us found great benefit from it, but it's also a great set of baseline information on all facets of yoga, presented in a very even-keel and straightforward manner, by someone who has lived and is living the results of ongoing daily practice.
I hope this is helpful.
Wholeheartedly,
Kirtanman
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Akasha
421 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 12:53:50 AM
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For those that are wondering about Sudarshan chakra kriya practice as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
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maverick angel
France
42 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 03:53:09 AM
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Hi Akasha, Kirtanman(love Ragani and Krishna Das!),Christi Akasha(the name of my cat!) and Tibetan Ice, and thanks for your replies and advice. Tibetan Ice, to answer your various questions I am male and I am 42 years old. The links posted are the same Sodarshan Chakra Kriya that I did. I found it initially on Anmol Mehtas site on kundalini yoga and Zen. I practised it regularly for about a year. You focus on the tip of your nose with the eyes one tenth open, I think this stimulates the pituitary gland. Yes, the Gurmukh DVD is similar but it's quite an aerobic set. I started with Caroline Cowans DVD's, you can get them from her website Devotion. These contain hard serious sets, less aerobic than Gurmukh but far more intense. My favourite DVD's however are Maya Fiennes Journey Through the Chakras. The teaching style is authentic and beautiful and the music and meditations are wonderful. As for ecstactic conductivity I thought that was just another way to express kundalini activity, perhaps I'm wrong, I have the book of the complete AYP lessons and that's the impression I got.( I was drawn to AYP because of the incredible knowledge presented so clearly by Yogani in a way I hadn't encountered before) Before I started the Kriya I had stengthened my body with a month or so of tough kundalini yoga sets. After this I just did the Kriya, I worked up to 31 minutes. For a couple of months absolutely nothing happened, then one day I felt energy rising up all across my lower back. It was generalised, not focused like I experience now, it also felt very sexual. This gave me the impetus to carry on. However, nothing at all happened after this until the actual rising, no hint of ecstatic conductivity or anything for months. But obviously something was happening behind the scenes. When I was too weak to do the kriya I did spinal breathing and deep meditation. As for inner silence I'm not sure. I experience a lot of kundalini activity during meditation particularly in th spine , face and crown. I also get a lot of light going on in the third eye region. So I think all this is probably distracting from inner silence at the moment. At the time I was not vegetarian, not celibate. Now I eat far less meat and retain semen as much as possible.
Well, I'll just follow the inner guru, which is sending me more towards meditation than asanas right now. I've recently started Sadhana as recommended by Yogi Bhajan. So I get up at 4.30 am and do my stuff. It's a very powerful experience and really sets you up for the rest of the day!
many thanks for the warm welcome
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 07:36:18 AM
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Hi maverick angel
Thanks much for sharing your experiences and welcome to the forum
You've got good advise from everyone here, just wanted to add that Spinal Breathing Pranayama is very important for stabilizing the ecstatic conductivity (Kundalini) along the safe route between root and brow (Ajna). This will also see to it that inner silence can be cultivated in Deep Meditation without too much distraction from the inner ecstacies. They are there...but we gently favour the mantra instead. This is not so easy when the energy is "running wild" inside. Hence the importance of Spinal Breathing Pranayama....it is a gentle "coaxing" over days, months and years that sets a safe route. It also sees to it that the purification is happening where it is most needed.....the spinal nerve is the centre of our nervous system.....and it is the nervous system that is the crux of perception......it is through its ability to be a vehicle for the light of inner silence that we expand all ways. The marriage of Shiva (inner silence) and Shakti (ecstatic conductivity/Kundalini) happens deep within the nervous system. This is the fact of embodyment.
5 minutes will do the trick if 10 minutes is too much. At times over the years I had to reduce it to just 2 breaths (because of overload), but even this would "tame" the energy in the right direction. And even 5 minutes of Deep Meditation is amazingly effective when you are sensitive like is the case here.
Also keep in mind that a stable (doing the same things every day) practice over the long term is what generates most success.....meaning deep inner peace, clarity and sweetness that cannot help but radiate outwards in beneficial ways. And there is always room for more :) Deep Meditation comes first in AYP...simply because inner silence is before everything else is Second comes Spinal Breathing Pranayama...for the reasons mentioned above.
So it is well worth it.....to spend some time finding out what works for you. To gauge what works....look at how much calmness, clarity and peaceful joy there is between meditation times. Wonderful experiences...be it energy or anything else....comes secondary to this quality of living. And it is the stable, long term practice that sustains and enhances this quality of life.
Also remember: To mix powerful practices from different systems and switching back and forth between these is not reccomended. In fact switching back and forth within one system is not reccomended either. We go slow. Since in the context we are in..... less is often more. So...much better to stay with one stable set of routines, go slow in adding on, and always self-pace as needed.
All the best in finding what works for you |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 07:50:52 AM
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Hi Maverick angel,
quote:
As for inner silence I'm not sure. I experience a lot of kundalini activity during meditation particularly in th spine , face and crown. I also get a lot of light going on in the third eye region. So I think all this is probably distracting from inner silence at the moment.
Overall, inner silence is a lot more important than any of the energetic aspects of yoga. So if you feel that the energetic side of things is destracting from the cultivation of inner silence, then it can be useful to cut down on the energy practices, and concentrate more on meditation. Eventually the inner silence is not disturbed by any movement on an energetic level.
quote:
As for ecstactic conductivity I thought that was just another way to express kundalini activity, perhaps I'm wrong, I have the book of the complete AYP lessons and that's the impression I got.
As I understand it (and I'm sure Yogani will correct me if I'm wrong), the term "ecstatic conductivity" in the lessons and books describes the actual experience of ecstasy moving in the body. So it refers to a certain stage in the development of kundalini. Somewhere in this forum Yogani wrote that the term "kundalini" refers to every stage in the awakening of energy in the body. In my own experience, I had a lot of kundalini activity for many years before I ever experienced something that I could call "ecstatic conductivity".
Christi |
Edited by - Christi on Mar 24 2010 07:56:43 AM |
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 08:42:39 AM
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Hi maverick angel and Christi
quote:
As I understand it (and I'm sure Yogani will correct me if I'm wrong), the term "ecstatic conductivity" in the lessons and books describes the actual experience of ecstasy moving in the body. So it refers to a certain stage in the development of kundalini. Somewhere in this forum Yogani wrote that the term "kundalini" refers to every stage in the awakening of energy in the body. In my own experience, I had a lot of kundalini activity for many years before I ever experienced something that I could call "ecstatic conductivity".
Yes. Thanks for that clarification Christi, this is how I experience it too.
When the process of purification reaches a certain stage....when the nervous system has less resistance inside itself.....the Kundalini refines..... and the coarser energy symptoms transforms and have the quality of ecstacy instead. Some peoples first encounter with Kundalini can also be ecstatic in quality. Since we are born with different levels of.....obstructions in our nervous system.
In my own case the hands were activated 13 years ago (a year after a cancer diagnosis). Tingling and heat. And also a sweetness in heart. This was my first experience with Kundalini (I had no name for it back then)....after about 13 years of daily meditations at home among raising a family and just normal daily living...... and nothing much happened other than this ongoing hands/heart thing for a long time.
About 6 years ago the Kundalini manifested as ecstacy in the rest of the body. One morning i woke up with swollen and burned eyelids....looked like i had been lying in the sun for hours. I had never heard of Kundalini then..and because of being in so much ecstacy and noone to talk to about it.....I googled my symptoms...and up popped the AYP website :) Here everything was explained...and so I could implement self-pacing.
And meet all you kindered spirits
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maverick angel
France
42 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 08:43:06 AM
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Hi Thanks for the advice everyone
I have been torn for a long time between kundalini yoga and AYP; I think I read that Yogani said that AYP techniques could be used to supplement another path, but your probably right, I should choose one and stick to it. Katrine, I do feel calm and peaceful between meditation. Christi, thanks for clearing up the meaning of ecstatic conductivity for me , I hope I get there eventually |
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 09:03:30 AM
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Hi maverick angel
quote:
I have been torn for a long time between kundalini yoga and AYP; I think I read that Yogani said that AYP techniques could be used to supplement another path, but your probably right, I should choose one and stick to it.
AYP is very flexible....it is a resource that also can be successfully combined with other practices. It is itself a combination of practices. But...when combining....we have to be wise about it. AYP is already such a wise combination.
AYP never claims to be the only way. There are other balanced systems too. It is important to know that each practice is powerful in and of itself, and that balance is the key to long term consistency.
And consistency is everything.
Here self-pacing is a practice of itself. It is what makes consitency possible. Self-pacing can be applied no matter what system you are using. It is an example of how AYP can enhance any practice :)
So - whatever you stick to, if it is balanced and engenders calm, happiness and clarity between meditation times - then you are good.
quote:
Katrine, I do feel calm and peaceful between meditation. Christi, thanks for clearing up the meaning of ecstatic conductivity for me , I hope I get there eventually
The beautiful thing is that when you are calm and peaceful....you are already very much here 
Good luck with everything |
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maverick angel
France
42 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 09:34:42 AM
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| thanks Katrine |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 10:41:08 AM
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Hi Maverik angel,
AYP can be successfully integrated with other systems of spiritual practice. Personally I integrated AYP with a Buddhist practice. You just have to be aware of the potential "doubling up effect" when using more than one system. As Katrine says, it is all down to pacing yourself carefully. |
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my first post and kundalini
