6th Chakra, Ajna Chakra

This Week (7): The Sixth Chakra, The Ajna Chakra. The Third Eye Chakra, The Perception & Command Chakra

Location: Behind Eyebrow Center in the Mid-brain
Basic Right: The Right to See
Bija Mantra: Hum Sa
Celestial Body: Neptune
Color: Indigo Blue
Developmentally: 7-12 Years
Element: Light
Goals: Psychic perception, imagination, ability to see patterns
Guna: Sattwa
Major Psychological Life Area: Imagination
Malfunction: Headaches, nightmares, hallucinations

Plane: Beyond mind, form, sense

Yoga Path:  Yantra Yoga

Yantra: White wings, a circle with  golden triangle

Ajna (Pronounced Ahg-knee-ya) Chakra is the home of your 3rd eye -- your inner sight, higher seeing.  This is how we clearly see the world and intuitively navigate it from connection to Brahma -- to source by cultivating a relationship to our higher Self through practices such as meditation.  Connection through meditation puts us in touch with possibility -- it is the realm where past, present and future all merge and anything is possible and all things can be imagined.  It is where we clearly perceive the world and also command our destiny in it through our capacity to project our consciousness into creation.

Ajna is the essence of sattwa -- of clarity and light.

We will build on last week's practice and focus on lateral poses (parsvakonasana and trikonasana with very bowed upper ribs and arm extended laterally); ardha matsyendrasana and bharadvajasana twists, back bends (supta virasana, up dog and pincha mayurasana; and extensions (baddha konasana, gomukhasana, virasana, tadaka mudra and maha mudra).  

Everything I said last week with sattwa is pertinent here, as well.

Be present with all that is coming up for you -- these chakra areas are opening and becoming more activated.  How is that manifesting for you?  Like me, you may find yourself being more direct, more forceful, more clear.  Just note the changes and reflect on them in the context of your practice.  These releases demonstrate your dominant guna and what practice you might need to do to move toward sattwa.

I look forward to seeing you this week and hearing your thoughts and reflections.

Love,

Kathy

5th chakra and Sattwa

This Week (6): The Fifth Chakra, The Vissudha Chakra. The Throat Chakra, The Meaning Chakra

Location: Throat -- Behind Larynx
Basic Right: The Right to Speak and Hear Truth
Bija Mantra: So Hum
Celestial Body: Mercury
Color: Bright Blue
Developmentally: 6 - 10 Years
Element: Space and Sound
Goals: Clear Communication, creativity, resonance
Guna: Sattwa
Major Psychological Life Area: Communication
Malfunction: Sore throats, stiff neck, poor communication
Plane: Total evolution in will-power and strength

Sense: Touch
Yoga Path:  Mantra Yoga

Yantra: Mauve petals with a dark Well, white shines up from the bottom

Wow, week 6 and the 5th Chakra -- we are more than halfway through and moving up to the higher realms.  Panditji says that if you get established in the first four you have a life well-lived.  Anything above the 4th chakra is rarified territory.  Well, let's talk about it and seek an experience of it.

We have been focusing on the 3 Gunas (Tamas, Rajas and Sattwa)-- the attributes; qualities that pervade our human experience.  They correspond to the chakras and Sattwa corresponds to the 5th and 6th chakras.  Sattwa is Being, Purity, Ease, & Light.  Sattwa is the Mission of Yoga -- to get a more clear and accurate perception of the world and what the world offers.  The goal of all spiritual traditions is to shine light so that we can see and be seen.

One way to look at these three gunas is that when mired in Tamas it is dark and we cannot see.  So we increase our light, do things to see more clearly through Rajas and finally, when we shine enough light into the darkness we can see -- resting in the purity and clarity of Sattwa.

Once you can see, you are awake and can see what's possible and take your destiny, your dharma into your own hands, realizing that, "I am the creator of my circumstances."  The reason we want to see more clearly is to have more choices and choose the more pleasant and joyful path.  You have to SEE the path first in order to choose it, of course.  Through Sattwa we choose the easy path that will make us happy in the long run.  

Emotionally, the three gunas play out very differently.  If you are in Tamas, you might withdraw and go into a state of paralyzed, inert, self-destructive behavior.  If in Rajas, you generally look outside yourself to place fault -- on the stock market or your partner, planning punishment or melodrama.  But when Sattwa reigns, common sense prevails and quickly the mind assesses, "What am I supposed to learn from this?  What do I need to do?"  You are able to examine the situation and react from a place of steady centeredness.

Whatever guna is dominant (activated) dictates our thoughts and reactions.  Our reaction is predetermined by whichever Guna is activated -- so how do we move into Sattwa -- establish ourselves in relation to Sattwa?

The practice this week to build Sattwa will focus on the Throat Chakra -- Vissudhi (which means pure).  In terms of asanas, a key piece is to do inversions to encourage the energy to move to the throat and head.  We'll also do laterals to lengthen the side body and effectively move the energy upwards; twists to balance all the energy; and extensions to create vertebral length and open the body and clear vision.  

The breath to focus on will be Sama Vritti (Equal Waves Breath-- the inhale and exhale the same length).  In the process of doing this breath, any areas that are out of balance reveal themselves -- if the inhale is longer than the exhale, if the beginning of the breath is catchy or flimsy, the breath will reveal it's tendencies and our job is to bring it mindfully even.  

The bandha that is new this week is Jolandhara Bandha at the throat -- you simply lengthen your neck with upper spine to keep energy from rising above the collar bones where it could activate your intellect (not the goal in yoga) -- or you can drop your chin to the breast bone -- either way you gently seal the energy at or below the throat.  

Meditation is all about the witness -- observing the mind.  Passively watch stream of thought and not get involved with what thinking (this is the essence of Sattwa).  A powerful way to anchor the mind is first to get established in circular breathing (sama vritti breath with no pauses) and then to begin Mantra - to hear the eternal vibration and align with the sounds -- the streams of Consciousness that point us to divine presence.

All this establishes us in Sattwa -- we practice aligning with Sattwa so that when the stuff of life inevitably hits the fan we can shift into Sattwa and navigate our way through it very mindfully and Consciously -- making the wisest most astute choices for all.

Hari Om.  Good night.

Kathy

The Gunas-- Governors' of Emotion

The Gunas are a powerful piece of the Tantric Yoga worldview to master and stay connected at all times to source.  Since I just got back from a fabulous Rod Stryker yoga weekend (and road trip with Anne O'Connor for her 41st birthday) where the theme of the weekend's 5 classes was the Gunas, it seems like an obvious thing to weave into the current session.

The Gunas (tamas, rajas and sattwa) are 3 inherent energies that influence everything that comes into being.  Before conception, the 3 gunas are balanced in us as Parusha (our infinite nature; our Soul) until they encounter Prakriti -- the energy that brings things into nature -- and the great, noble idea which is the seed of each of us gets kicked from the soul realm of perfection into the manifest realm of change (and suffering) as a unique ideal that is now part of the changing world (Prakriti).  When that happens, we necessarily drop out of balance, one guna actually predominates and we begin a continuous cycle of changing guna domination.  Whichever guna is dominating in a given moment governs our emotional experience and reaction to the world.  

First let's look more closely at what these terms (tamas, rajas and sattwa) mean and how exactly they show up in our world.  

We all come into embodiment with a level of Tamas which literally means dark, stagnant, inertia.  It also refers to ignorance, misapprehension of who we are, of suffering and not remembering our connection to source.  The very fact that we're embodied means there's a veil on our true nature (parusha) and an inability to see the patterns of behavior and thinking that keep parusha covered.   However underlying this is a deep desire to do better, be better and feel less ignorant -- an inherent sense that there is something beyond ourselves.  This sense is fueled by the second guna, rajas.

Rajas is related to the sanskrit word Rejatas (which means light; light of the heavenly bodies, of the the stars; light to aspire) and is the seed of our desire to embody this light.  Rajas also means activity and enlivenment and fuels this desire to bring light into our darkness.  Yoga practices connect us to this light by shining light into our darkness.

As we connect more to light we come to a third inherent quality, Sattwa, which means purity, ease, consciousness, freedom.  Sattwa is related to the sanskrit word Sat (Being, existence - soul is being).  When Sattwa energy is dominant we don't reject darkness, we understand it and gain access to higher understanding and perception.

In a nutshell, we come to yoga with Tamas (a little stuck in body and mind), add a little Rajas --activity, light and awareness and this leads us after some practice to Sattwa -- to more freedom, the ability to act more and more consciously and to remain steady in the face of change.

All three gunas are in everything in this earth realm (prakriti) and one of them is always dominant.  Every action has a dominant guna -- for instance:

What kind of movie to choose?  A scary movie is more Tamas; an adventure story has more Rajas and an inspiring movie based on the best of human nature has more Sattwa.  

The more we take in and surround ourselves with a specific guna, the more dominant that guna becomes in our life through the company that we keep, what we eat, what we watch and listen to, the work we do, how much time we spend in nature -- everything influences which guna is dominant and whatever guna is dominant directly influences our response.

Everyday, at some point, I experience dominance of Tamas, Rajas and Sattwa.  It's a rare day that is dominated by Tamas at this point, but in my twenties when I had a severe case of clinical depression, I was definitely mired in Tamas and it was a good thing I got help when I did through therapy and a 6-year Wellbutrin prescription.  It was two years of yoga practice that increased my rajas (my connection to light) enough that I could wean off the anti-depressant.  Now, another 5 years later (and a heck of a trip to India) I sometimes need sunglasses the world inside and outside feels so bright.  

Plenty of people spend most of their time in one guna -- Tamas depressed couch potatoes; Rajas Type A Personalities; or Sattwa enlightened ones -- The Dalai Lama, Jesus, Budda, Rumi.   

For most of us, the goal is to minimize tamas, have a sane amount of rajas and be in sattwa for all the important parts of your day, as much as possible.  This is the practice.  Practice, practice, practice.  And the questions to ask to see if you are doing the right practice: "Am I more joyful and do I have less fear?" 

Swami Rama, my great-grand guru said this (and I really pay attention to this for Sattwa), "You are the company that you keep -- so keep good company."  

To the company that we keep, I salute you!

Blessings...