Trevor Hall photo by Marina Chavez

Close your eyes and listen deeply to the lyrics of KALA, the latest album from beloved Trevor Hall. In Sanskrit, kala means time. Trevor’s 13-track album guides us along a transformative journey of lessons learned, of pain and healing, and of the love, passion, and gratitude which accompany our journeys here on Earth. He sings about time as being a healer and as something expansive, in contrast to deadlines and pressures. Trevor’s pacifying voice and beautiful guitar strums create a cocktail that can drown anyone into a meditative state.

Music on Kala

KALA contains an abundance of heart-opening tracks. My personal favorites are “Forgive” and “You Can’t Rush Your Healing.” He sings of compassion, forgiveness, and interconnectedness. Of course, Trevor’s music is no stranger to the yoga community. He is a devotee who has performed at festivals including both Wanderlust and Bhakti Fest. His music inspires, uplifts, and invokes a deep sense of gratitude and peace around the unity of all beings.

Trevor Hall on Self-Discovery

Trevor’s own journey of self-discovery, growth, and maturation is evident across his albums. He speaks lovingly about his frequent travels to India, where he has found much of his spiritual inspiration. The serenity of KALA demonstrates the humility, depth, and spiritual intelligence of an artist who is simply adored amongst his fans known as Villagers. Honorable mentions go out to the beautiful artists whose voices are heard on the album: Nahko Bear, Xavier Rudd, Tubby Love, and Luka Lesson. trevorhallmusic.com.

Serena Deeb

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Influenced by her world travels, Tina Malia’s Bridge to Vallabha, features a compilation of prayers, mantras, and songs sung in Sanskrit, Hebrew, Gurmukh, and English.

Malia plays guitar, vibraphone, charangon, lap steel guitar, cello and keyboards and is accompanied by Donna De Lory, Heather Wertheimer, Karnamrita Dasi, Jai-Jagdeesh, Peia, and Sasha Rose.

Malia’s angelic voice maintains a balance between lightness and a sincere presence. The track “Om Sarve“ reveals a clear mastery of vocal tracking and harmonies and a melody that feels like a familiar gypsy ballad. “Ima Adama” has a catchy, folk-pop style that would fit in on popular radio.

“Eck Ong Kar” has one of the most unique takes on this mantra with Malia’s a cappella approach: a simple vocal melody reminiscent of an indigenous African tune paired with hand claps. Listening to the way the mantra loops induces a state of trance. It is one of my personal favorites: I interpret it as a call to inspiration and truth.

“Oushadim” feels dreamy and experimental; the minimalist electronic synth pads feel mysterious, and the violin is so gorgeous and expressive, in the style of a Chinese Erhu. 

This album contains my current favorite rendition of “Long Time Sun.” I like how Malia did some interesting change-ups on the arrangement while keeping the integrity of the melody. Anyone should be exceedingly impressed at the broad skill and taste of Malia’s songwriting, arrangements, and production on Bridge to Vallabha. 

McKenna Rowe

McKenna caught the “yoga bug” as a little girl, watching Lilias Folan on PBS. She leads an active life hiking, running, sometimes snowboarding, and once was a nationally-ranked equestrian. After years of working in the digital industry for clients in entertainment, publishing and fashion, she took a sabbatical to acquire her yoga teacher certification. A desire to help people heal soon followed. Also a successful musician and composer, McKenna shares cutting-edge music during yoga classes, recruiting musicians and DJs to perform with her. She owned and operated East Hollywood’s Chakra 5 Yoga studio throughout 2011, creating a vibrant community on and offline, but decided to shift to a mobile model. Now Chakra 5 brings yoga classes on site and by appointment to businesses, schools and organizations throughout greater Los Angeles. McKenna was certified in Hatha/Kundalini at Karuna Yoga, and has additional teacher training in Restorative Yoga with Master Teacher Judith Lasater. She teaches yoga at Chakra 5 classes and international retreats.

www.chakra5.la

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It’s eight in the morning, and suddenly the desire for a beer pops into my consciousness. Wait, what? An image has just flashed in my awareness – a glass mug filled with an amber fluid. The mug is tilted slightly and dripping with condensation. As I start walking toward the kitchen, I wonder, “Why do I have such an intense desire for a beer right now? What am I wanting?” Then I get it: I have been standing here at my desk for four hours, chanting Sanskrit and decoding layers of meaning, and now I need water, carbs, and a feeling of celebration. A beer is all of that – or rather, a beer is a symbol of all of that.

Desires are designed to propel us into action. This particular desire managed to motivate me to go drink some water, eat a bowl of quinoa, and take a moment to rejoice in a good half-day’s work. In the midst of eating and drinking, I was entertained enough to notice that the image my brain used to get my attention looked just like an app on a phone – it was a cartoon-like, almost neon, the international bro-symbol for party time. When I “touched” the icon with my awareness, it opened and showed me what I needed in the moment.

You can do this with any desire. Any desire is an app—you touch it with your awareness and as it opens, notice what it is made of. You may find its elements are quite different from the little symbol used to get your attention. In Sutra 73 of The Radiance Sutras, Shiva sings to Shakti:

Just as a desire leaps up,
And you perceive the flash,
The sparkle,
Quit from its play.

Maintain awareness
In that clear and shining place
From which all desire springs.

jhagit i?cca?m? samutpanna?m avalokya s?amam? nayet |
yata eva samudbhu?ta? tatas tatraiva li?yate

jhagit ichchhaam sam-ut-pannaam ava-lokya shamam nayet
yata eva sam-ud-bhoota tatah tatra eva leeyate

jhagit – a sparkle, flash
ichcham – desire, wish, hankering, longing, craving, urge, will
samutpatati – rise, ascend, spring up
avalok – to look upon or at, view, behold, see, notice, observe
shamam – equanimity, tranquility, to end
naya – prudent conduct, good management, wisdom
yata eva – verily, wherever
samudbhuta – sprung up, arisen, born, produced
tatas – from that place, thence, thereupon, after that, afterwards
tatra – in that place, there, in that case, under those circumstances
liyate – become dissolved, melt or vanish away, absorbed

In this practice, we allow ourselves to be entertained by a desire, and welcome its sparkling energy, without necessarily going into action with it. We allow the desire to play out in our inner world and study what the craving is composed of, and then we have choices. We can absorb the energy, the pranashakti of the desire, and put an end to it. We can redirect the desire from the package it came in, toward something more practical. We can accept the desire as it is and dedicate ourselves to good management. It takes a lot of good management and wisdom to manifest any desire.

With any desire, the basic internal moves are:

Welcome the craving, give it space in your inner world and in your body to express itself.
Look at it, see the imagery it is using, feel it, and notice the sensations in the body. Listen to whatever sounds are part of the desire, use all your senses.
Inquire into what the desire is really about, what gift the desire is giving you.
Use your management skills to absorb the energy of the desire and be in equanimity with it.

For example, say you are at work and your boss is being somewhat abusive and bullying. A desire flashes in your awareness to slap her face or walk out – just walk out the door, shouting, “I don’t have to take your #*@!” In this moment, the desire is giving you the gift of power, reminding your that you have choices, you don’t have to take this. Immediately some of the stress of the situation is lifted, because you are not trapped. And if your boss has a wit in her head, she will immediately recognize that look in your eyes and realize, “Uh-oh, I crossed a line.”

Desires can come from any part of your body, any chakra, any instinct. If you are at a party or on the street and you see an attractive person, you can savor the sparkle of desire, taste it like something delicious for a moment, and then let it dissolve into peaceful vitality. If you are in a restaurant and see an amazing-looking desert, but you don’t want all that sugar, you can imagine eating it, feel the flash of delight, and then feel lit up inside just at the thought of something so delicious.

Sometimes we have less than a second to notice a desire and explore what we are really craving. That’s part of what makes this area of practice so entertaining. Brains work rapidly, and we have to be on our game to catch what’s going on. As you are reading this article, you are probably recognizing several words every second. Third-grade students read about 150 words a minute, that’s 2.5 words a second; college students average about 450 words a minute, that is over 7 words per second. When we are involved in friendly conversation, the rate is often about 110 to 150 words per minute, or 1.8 to 2.5 words per second, and that can feel slow.

One of the purposes of our asana, pranayama, and meditation practices is to keep us tuned and intimate with the life force, so we can be at play with the gift of desire and find our way to be at peace in the midst of the passion.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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Music Review: Dreaming in Sanskrit by Marti Nikko and DJ Drez

The first time I heard Marti Nikko sing, I was in savasana. Micheline Berry was teaching and DJ Drez (Nikko’s husband and frequent collaborator) spinning.  I was struck by the resonance, melody, and powerful vibration of a voice that reached beyond the studio.  Every time I hear her (whether backing up MC YOGI in person or a guest vocalist on one of DJ Drez’s albums), I am transfixed.  Finally, she is releasing Dreaming in Sanskrit, the full album her fans have been eagerly waiting. Each one of the 13 unique tracks is a dance-along standout.

Music and Musicians on Dreaming in Sanskrit

Marti’s voice and Drez’s production are ably backed up by an all-star roster of musicians. These include Sheela Bringi, Eddie Young, Jim Beckwith, Demonic Dean Breaux, Marty Lieberman, Marty Williams, Vijay Krishna, and mantra expert Manoj Chalam.

“Om Mani Padme Hum” opens Dreaming in Sanskrit with alluring repetition setting up the trance-like qualities of the album.  The trance mixes and repetition expertly merge with contemporary world music melodies. This is seen in songs like the dub beat and remix of “Maha Yoga” and the reggae-influenced sound of “Maha Devi.” Marti and DJ Drez’ take on the “Maha Mantra” exemplifies the fusion of East-West and ancient-modern this album does so well.

On Dreaming in Sanskrit, the purity and sincerity of the Sanskirt mantras are intact. The combination of lyrical treatment with excellent musicianship offers a catchy and contemporary take on the sacred. The beauty of this work showcases the sincere spiritual practices and voice of DJ Drez and Marti Nikko. Any of the tracks on this album make a perfect addition to a practice playlist as well as spiritual support for a daily routine.

Preview tracks and Purchase:  Dreaming in Sanskrit

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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You are supposed to be hurt at these insults. You are supposed to get angry in return and have a bad day. But what if you don’t respond? What if you don’t give random people power over your inner emotional state?

In The Radiance Sutras, a new translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, Shiva says:

It’s always the same.

Barbarians and blockheads,

Rival queens and rival kings,

The drama rolls on and on.

When people honor you,

You are supposed to be glad.

When they disrespect you,

You are supposed to sulk in indignation.

One minute you are cruising on a throne in the sky,

The next you are standing on some bleak patch of dirt.

I say, the Sun regards all with a steady eye.

The force sustaining Earth and Sky

Calls everyone to awaken from this trance.

This whole world revolves around an axis, and I am that.

When you are friends with the Friend to All Beings

Nothing is the same.

Rich beyond measure, abundant beyond counting,

You can move through this life laughing.

Opinions of others have no rulership over you.

samah shatrau cha mitre cha samah maana–ava-maanayoh

brahmanah pari–poornatvaat iti jnaatvaa sukhee bhavet

The Sanskrit here sounds like the plot of a daytime soap opera: m?na means “opinion, arrogance, indignation excited by jealousy, sulking, blockhead, an agent, a barbarian.”

• sama – smooth, flat. Same, always the same, equal, like to or identical. impartial towards. Easy. Peace. In music, a kind of time. “On level ground”
• ?atru – an enemy, rival, a hostile king. The sixth astrological mansion.
• ca – also
• mitra – a friend, companion. In the Rig Veda, Mitra is described as calling men to activity, sustaining Earth and Sky and beholding all creatures with unwinking eye.
• m?na – opinion, notion. Self-conceit, arrogance, pride, a wounded sense of honor, anger or indignation excited by jealousy (esp. in women), sulking. In astronomy, the name of the tenth house.  Also a “blockhead; an agent; a barbarian.”
• vim?na – devoid of honor, disgraced. Disrespect, dishonor. Traversing. A car or chariot of the gods , any mythical self-moving aerial car.
• brahmahmanah – supreme consciousness.
• pari – round, around, abundantly, richly.
• p?r?a – filled, full, filled with or full of, abundant, rich, fulfilled, finished, accomplished, ended, past, concluded (as a treaty), contented, drawn (in augury). Full-sounding, sonorous and auspicious, said of the cry of birds and beasts.
• jñ? – to know, have knowledge,  perceive , understand  experience, recognize. To recognize as one’s own, take possession of, intelligent, having a soul, wise.
• sukha – ease, easiness, comfort, pleasure, happiness, pleasant, agreeable, gentle, comfortable, prosperous. Originally, “having a good axle-hole,” running swiftly or easily. In music, a partic, m?rchan?, of one of the 9 ?aktis of ?iva. In astrology, the name of the fourth house. Joyfully, willingly.
• bhavet – becomes. (representing a possibility, a hoped-for state, a potential “It could become.” From bhava – becoming, being, turning or transition into, true condition, temperament, any state of mind or body, way of thinking or feeling, intention, love, affection, attachment; the seat of the feelings or affections, heart, soul, mind.

This sutra points to a daring level of equanimity that any of us can inhabit, spontaneously or intentionally. Sometimes we find ourselves full of our own sukhi, our own pleasure, and just don’t have time to join other people in their bad moods. We can also set an intention to explore equanimity. A good time to set an aim is at the end of your meditation time in the morning. Take fifteen seconds and say to yourself, “Just for today, I am not going to let other people control my inner life. Other people can have whatever mood they are in. I am going to be in mine.” Say it in your own language, in a way that is intriguing to you: “I am interested in learning about equanimity.” Or even, “God, Great Spirit, teach me about joy and emotional freedom.” Rest your attention on this thought at the end of your morning meditation practice. Then prepare yourself for interesting changes in your emotional reactiveness during the day. You might find that you suddenly step into a new kind of internal stability.

Whenever we set any such intention, we embark on a road of adventure in which we remember, and forget, and remember again. In the morning, we are all set with our emotional freedom, and by noon, we have been jostled and impinged upon and we forget. Setting an intention never means we are perfect, it just means we are asking life to teach us about a topic – we have signed up for that class. No one comes to yoga because they are already perfect.

You also might find interesting challenges – Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House advisor, said recently, “If somebody’s trying to get you angry, the calmer you get, the angrier they’ll get.”

This sutra is a hint that after meditation, you can keep favoring the inner happiness and fullness percolating up from your deepest bhava (becoming, existing, transition into.) Let the soap opera continue on its own, without you – all the other actors will be fine. And why not give everyone a free pass to be a blockhead once in awhile?

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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Chanting, yoga therapy, and must-have qualities for a yoga therapist

A teacher of Yoga and Vedic Chant for over twenty-five years, Sonia Nelson has been a student of T.K.V. Desikachar since 1975 and serves as Director of the Vedic Chant Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sonia gives seminars and workshops nationwide and has released a number of CDs, including tutorials for learning Vedic Chant and the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. She will be one of the keynote speakers in at the fifth Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR) held in Boston, Massachusetts in June, 2013.

LA YOGA: In your opinion, what makes yoga therapeutic?

Sonia Nelson: When the tools of yoga are applied to a situation where healing is the primary goal, yoga becomes therapy.

LA YOGA: Chanting can be a powerful form of sound therapy. What are some of the most recognizable health benefits from this kind of practice?

SN: Mental focus, lengthening of the breath, pacifying  emotions, stimulating or calming energy, and confident communication are some of the benefits.

Chanting can be taught as a primary tool, or using asana or pranayama that supports chanting–especially Vedic chanting–as its own discipline and art. In a group yoga class, I would introduce more pure sounds, and very gradually introduce sounds from the Sanskrit language or sounds that come from the Vedas. We can also introduce the sound through movement; I often combine some asana practice with sound.

LA YOGA: What is the largest change you have seen related to the increased acceptance in the medical community of yoga’s therapeutic value? And what is the greatest change that you have seen in yoga therapy?

SN: As more individuals have turned to practices such as yoga to deal with chronic conditions that were not relieved through Western medicine, the medical community has become aware of the validity of yoga–not to supplant allopathic medicine, but to complement it. However, at this stage of acceptance, they need to see a certain level of education implemented in the training of yoga therapists before they will have confidence and whole-hearted acceptance of yoga as a complementary tool.

LA YOGA: There has been more and more evidence of yoga’s positive health effects, and people are also noticing the healthful benefits…do you agree?

SN: People who practice yoga over time have always noticed the benefits. Now that more people are using yoga as a therapeutic tool, there is the possibility for evidence-based research to provide the documentation that the medical, educational, and business communities will require before yoga therapy can truly become integrated into those areas.

LA YOGA: What are the three must-have qualities that a yoga teacher or yoga therapist should cultivate in order to create the right atmosphere for healing and developing a positive student/teacher relationship?

SN: An ability to listen and observe, an interest in the student/client, and an awareness of the possibilities and limitations of yoga practice in our culture. I believe there needs to be a real distinction between group classes and private work. I also think a lot more education is required than a 200-hour program if one is going to really devote themselves to being a yoga therapist.

LA YOGA: Are there any other things that you feel are important qualities of a good yoga therapist?

SN: Care for the student/client,  the ability to approach the student without an agenda, to know when you can and cannot help someone, and an ability to refer the care seeker to another practitioner.

LA YOGA: Do you think that it’s important to have a certification process to become yoga therapists?

SN: In order to use the term “yoga therapist,” it will soon become a necessity to be certified by an accredited program. This is why IAYT is currently using a significant amount of energy and resources to address this question.

LA YOGA: Where do you think yoga is most beneficial in a person’s healing process?

SN: Actually, I feel yoga is most beneficial as a preventive tool, applied to healing the small discomforts that arise in the course of a day. This is best expressed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2.16 Heyam duhkham anagatam: The pain which is to come, can and should be anticipated, and avoided.

LA YOGA: What do you do in your own practice to help stay in balance?

SN: I do a practice that includes some form of asana, pranayama, meditation, and chanting.The content, sequence, and initial instruction were given to me by my teacher. Over the years, they have been adapted and refined by him and by me to remain effective and respectful of the changes and events that occur in my life.

LA YOGA: If someone wants to begin using yoga therapeutically, where would be a good place to begin?

SN: The practice of yoga helps cultivate awareness. When students have that awareness they will start noticing when they feel out of balance and can use that as a reference point. When the practitioner becomes aware that some change needs to happen, they act on it. Without that, we are teachers without students. We are therapists without clients. The orientation is the self-empowerment of the person so that they can carry on their lives in a balanced way, but that motivation has to come from them.

For more infomration about Sonia Nelson, please visit: vedicchantcenter.org.

For more information about the Symposium on Yoga Research (SYR) June 11-13, and the Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR), June 13-16, both held in Boston, Massachusetts, visit: sytar.org.

Rita Trieger is a contributing editor of Find Bliss, and the author of Yoga Heals Your Back (Fairwinds, 2005). She teaches yoga therapy for both cancer and heart patients at Stamford Hospital, in Stamford, Connecticut. Ritatude.blogspot.com

Rita Trieger

Rita Trieger is a yoga therapist working in New York and Connecticut.

The post Sitting Down with Sonia Nelson appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Yoga As Your Box of Toys

Come on kids!

Let’s meditate on the outward appearance of the body (rupa) and give ourselves the power of invisibility. (Yoga Sutras 3.21) We can be like Invisible Woman and sneak around — no one will see us!

Let’s meditate on elephants (hasti) and become strong as the Hulk! (YS 3.25).

Let’s meditate on the impressions in the mind, (samskaras) and have knowledge of our past lives! (YS 3.18). I was a pirate in the Indian Ocean! ARRRR!

Let’s meditate on the pit of the throat (YS 3.31) and conquer hunger. . . .UH OH, must have done it wrong, I am totally craving hamburgers. Off to Smashburger!

These and thousands of other yoga techniques utilize the power of make-believe to explore inner and outer space, and liberate ourselves from the strict confines of daily life. Make-believe or pretend are one element of play. Another is free choice and self-regulation. In the realm of meditation, exploring our inner worlds, the time we spend playing allows us to develop a healthy relationship with the energies and elements we encounter.

The yoga lineage playground includes every area of your body — from the areas around the base of your spine all the way to the top of your head, including your feet and hands — not just your physical body. You have many subtle bodies, of subtler and subtler dimensions along the matter/energy continuum. Each body has many senses: outer and inner vision, outer and inner hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. All of your bodies and all of your senses engage and play around with fire, swim in the water, walk on the earth, fly through the air, and travel through space. The combinations are infinite.

You could meditate every day for a lifetime and never experience the same thing twice. As a matter of fact, if you are meditating in a way that suits your nature—that is the way it will tend to be. There is so much to explore that you are continually experiencing new combinations and sensations. When we enter any new world, we are children again. As new vistas open up inside ourselves, we need to give ourselves several years to playfully explore these new domains and map them out. I think it is essential for our emotional health that we do so.

Pretend play involves the imagination and leads to immersion in experience, or ananyacetas– “giving one’s undivided thought to.” What makes something playful is that it is intrinsically or instinctively motivated. The urge comes from within; we are totally immersed in our field of play. When you meditate with breath, your body becomes a musical instrument that the breath of life is playing. Spirit is playing with the flesh. When you meditate with a mantra you go deeper, allowing a spirit to play and improvise with the sound. You never tire of a mantra because you are hearing it new and fresh in every moment. You are playing with it because you love it.

I have mantras I have used every day for 45 years and they still seem totally new each second. The mantra carries me into the wave forms of the inner universe – that’s what they are for. And yet most mantras are simple euphonic sounds similar to what children make up when they are playing.

Last year, I went through lots of comic books of many genres, including manga, and found they contain the basic seed syllable mantras. The cartoonists use them as sound effects for the action happening in each frame. In a comic book, the sound effect for the bell at the desk in a hotel is BING – a guest is here, pay attention. In meditation, one of the seed sounds is ING and variations on that basic sound, and the meaning is the same: pay attention, listen up. The artists who drew the comics and made up the sounds were truly gifted. They must have meditated in their own way to discover what works.

In the yoga lineage, we have thousands of mantras available to us. Their perfection becomes available if we play with them. The people I know who are dead serious about mantras often create a stultifying and oppressive atmosphere in themselves. This is the dark side of tradition, like becoming a walking museum piece. The playground of yoga meditation is vast, inviting us into multiple universes for sport. Even the elements that you would think are serious — ritual worship, for example — have strong elements of play. In a puja, you might dress up the goddess or god as a doll, talk to her and give her little bits of food. Ullas, used in the context of consuming ritual offerings, means “to radiate, be brilliant, to come forth, to sport, play, dance, be wanton or joyful. To divert, delight. To cause to dance or jump.” Look at the definition of bh?va: “Any state of mind or body, opinion, intention, love, affection, attachment. . . Wanton sport, dalliance… contemplation, meditation.”

The word lila (pronounced leela) is Sanskrit for play and amusement, and the sense that all of manifestation is an act of play by the divine. When you take a playful approach to meditation, a surprising benefit is that you get to witness the soap opera of your own life with greater amusement. Everyone reviews their daily life during meditation – the mental movies just come in and won’t be denied. God did not build the universe to be an obstacle to meditation. Our inner lives are not an obstacle to meditation, they are the pathway. Anything you can think of or perceive, the ancient yogis had an app for that.

Around our house, meditation time is play time. Inside, the world’s best music is playing; a subtle light show illuminates the unlimited sky, prana is giving the best bodywork. On the outside, it looks like Camille and I are just sitting in the living room. No candles, no music, no incense, no props. Just the miracle of meditation. There is no effort whatsoever. The flow of pranashakti is so entertaining that we are enraptured. The life force never tires of restoring our tired nerves.

If you have been working at meditation, explore what happens if you put yourself in a playful bhav before you meditate – indulge in some “wanton sport” or pastime you love. Play cards, ping pong, watch a comedy show, sing karaoke, just to loosen up. Then pretend to meditate, with the joyous curiosity of a child. Through play, find your way.

Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 and it has been a love affair ever since. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras, Meditation Made Easy, and Meditation Secrets for Women (written with his wild Shakti wife Camille Maurine). He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine in Social Science, where he studied the language yogis and meditators develop to describe their inner experiences. Lorin does one-to-one coaching and trains meditation teachers. Visit lorinroche.com to order copies of The Radiance Sutras.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

The post The Cosmic Playground appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

A meditation on lust, anger, bewilderment, and intoxication

From The Radiance Sutras, a new version of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

By Dr. Lorin Roche

She drives you wild, out of your mind. You are crazy over him. She cast her spell over you. You’re thinking with the brain in your pants, not the one in your head. There you are, talking to someone, when suddenly a sweet erotic tingle begins taking over your attention. Or an obstacle appears and you are mad, aflame with anger. Your blood boils, you want to blow your top. A conversation goes south and your mind swirls with confusion. Now you are missing your loved one, with a palpable tug of yearning on your heart. You don’t know WTF is going on, but you know you have chakras, because they are spinning.

We have an app for that, says Shiva. Welcome to the Yoga of Passion. Game on.

Desire, lust, longing –

Anger humming in your blood.

Confusion, jealousy, bewilderment,

Swirling in your head.

Catch the first hint as passion rises,

The first quickening heartbeat.

Embrace that vibrancy

With a mind vast as the sky.

Witness the elemental motion of emotion –

Fire burning, illuminating,

Water gushing, cleansing,

Air inspiring, soothing,

Earth supporting, holding,

Space expanding, embracing.

Go deeper still and rest in essence,

Awake to infinite spiritual energy

Surging into form.

kamakrodhalobhamohamada

matsaryagocare

buddhim nistimitam krtva

tattattvamavasisyate

kama – wish, desire, longing, love, affection, pleasure, enjoyment, sexual love, sensuality, The God of Love (the god who grants all desires), a stake in gambling, a species of mango tree, a kind of temple.

krodha – anger, wrath, passion, a name of the mystic syllable hum or hrum, the name of a sruti in music.

lobha – perplexity, confusion, impatience, eager desire for or longing after, covetousness, cupidity, avarice, greed.

moha – loss of consciousness, bewilderment, perplexity, distraction, infatuation, delusion, error, folly, fainting, stupefaction, a swoon, darkness or delusion of mind, a magical art employed to bewilder an enemy, wonder, amazement.

mada – hilarity, rapture, excitement, inspiration, intoxication, ardent passion for.

matsarya – envy, jealousy, displeasure, dissatisfaction.

gochare – pasture ground for cattle, range, field for action, abode, dwelling-place, district, offering range or field or scope for action, within range of, accessible, attainable, within the power, the range of the organs of sense, anything perceptible by the senses.

buddhi – the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general notions, intelligence, reason, intellect, mind, discernment, judgment; perception – of which 5 kinds are enumerated, comprehension, apprehension, understanding, presence of mind, ready wit, an opinion, view, idea, conjecture, thought about or meditation on, intention.

nistimitam – motionless, without agitation.

kritva – having done this.

tattva – true or real state, reality, element or elementary property, essence of substance of anything.

avashishyate – remains.

The Sanskrit here is amazingly condensed. This one word, kama, represents desire, love, sex and sensuality in all forms. Kama also hints at that reckless gambling impulse, the urge to risk it all, to go for it, throw away the life you know and follow your heart. The verse rocks on from there. In sixteen syllables, the first line lists a whole range of passion and wildness, inviting us to notice whenever any of these become perceptible, come into the range of the organs of sensing.

The second line says: bring your ready wit, your best intentions. Call upon your intelligence. Use your mentality and wake up to the Great Reality.

Passions are activated when we care deeply, when we are committed, when we connect intimately with someone or something. Inside every passion is a blessing, an impulse of life evolving itself. Love is a force of connection; lust makes the hooking up of bodies feel sacred, delicious, delirious. Anger is a hum and hruumm of mighty power whose job is to blast through any obstacles in the way. The ache of longing calls us to meditate on whatever or whoever we are missing. Infatuation and wonder take us beyond our narrow scope and make us feel we are in the presence of something amazing. There is a rapture to hilarity and even intoxication that loosens the tight hold of everyday consciousness and makes us forget who we are, so we can discover ourselves anew.

Shiva gives 112 yoga practices (yuktis) in the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, and this one is saying, use every bit of your skill in yoga to perceive the magic of passion. Use your appreciation of breath (prana), the centers along the spine (chakras), bring your awareness of the song of life (mantra), and savor your passion in the moment that it first becomes a tingle in your senses.

When we notice passion in its initial rising, in the first couple of heartbeats as the juice begins to flow, we have freedom in how to shape our expression. Lust, anger, greed, amazement, hilarity – we must choose a way to express these intense energies of life in a way that is appropriate, ethical, and beneficial to us and everyone around. Much of the time it is not about acting out – but rather going in and savoring the elemental movement of the life force. If we do find it necessary to blow things up – leave that job or relationship, make dramatic changes in our life, we try to minimize the damage. This is intensely challenging. Yogic awareness raises the stakes and more discernment is required. We can get slapped harder by karma when we make mistakes. Human beings are multiple amphibians – we live simultaneously in the physical, emotional, technological, ethical, mental, and spiritual worlds. However we live our passions has an impact on all these levels. If we do not live our passions, do not give our gifts to the world; that also has an impact.

Lust is a life-giving, creative energy – without it, you wouldn’t be here; the human race would have died out long ago. Every surge of passion is created out of the divine Shakti in action, the energy of life that is sublime in its essence. In the intensity of desire, the fireworks of sex, wrath or intoxication, your inner world becomes a physics experiment, a Particle Accelerator, displaying the elements of life, so enjoy the show. In this yoga practice, find your deepest serenity and bring it to embrace and penetrate your wildest passion.  This is the mating dance of life and consciousness.

Dr. Lorin Roche has been practicing and teaching from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra since 1968. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. The Radiance Sutras, a new version of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, is available from Lorin’s website: lorinroche.com. Email comments and questions to lorin@lorinroche.com. Become a fan of The Radiance Sutras on Facebook.

The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra describes 112 Yogas of wonder and delight for touching the divine in the midst of daily life. Dr. Roche does one-to-one coaching with individuals wishing to evolve their daily meditation practice and trains yoga teachers in how to teach meditation. Call (310) 821-0620 for more information.

Lorin is presenting at Shakti Fest this May, in Joshua Tree. And at Esalen May 13-18, 2012, for a week of immersion in The Radiance Sutras, with his dancing Dakini wife, Camille Maurine. On May 22, Lorin will be presenting a workshop on tea and meditation during the Tea Festival.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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bharita: nourished, full, filled with

Beloved, show us how incarnate beings can know infinity. This is the request of Devi, The Goddess who is The Energy of Life, to Shiva, her eternal and inseparable partner.

Shiva – In case you have forgotten all those lifetimes you had in India – is short for The One in Whom We All Dwell. Devi is definitely Shiva’s better half. She loves bodies, and sometimes places herself in the position of a yogi, to evoke teachings from Shiva for the benefit of those of us in bodies. The songs they sing together, of love and of life, are always resonating in our hearts. The vijnana bhairava tantra is the lyrics to one of their songs.
Devi adds with a smile, “How can I know you, be filled with your nourishing essence?”
Shiva begins his reply:
“Your questions require the answers that come
Through direct living experience.

The way of experience begins with a breath
Such as the breath you are breathing now.
Awakening into luminous reality
May dawn in the momentary throb
Between any two breaths.
As the breath is released and flows out,
There is a pulse as it turns to flow in.
In that turn, you are empty.
Enter that emptiness as the source of all life.

The breath flows in and just as it turns
To flow out, there is a flash of pure joy —
Life is renewed.
Awaken into this.”

urdhve prano hy adho jivo visargatma paroccaret |
utpattidvitayasthane bharanad bharita sthitih |

There is always more to Sanskrit than the surface meaning of individual words: the resonance and cadence of the sounds, plus grammar, puns, and alliteration. The Bhairava Tantra is a manual of practices, so each word alludes to a series of meditation practices. You have to start somewhere, though, so here are shortened definitions from the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English dictionary. Terms marked with an * asterisk are summarized from technique-oriented Tantric literature.

Urdhve – upward moving, rising or tending upwards; raised, elevated, erected, erect, upright, high, above, height, elevation; anything placed above or higher, to go upwards or into heaven.

Prana – the life-force, filled, full, the breath of life, respiration, spirit, vitality, life, a vital organ, vital air (three or five in number – prana, apana, vyana, samana, udana), breath (as a sign of strength), vigor, energy, power, (in Ved?nta) the spirit identified with the totality of dreaming spirits, poetical inspiration.

Adhah – downward movement.

Jiva – the principle of life, the breath, vital breath, living, alive, healthy, causing to live, vivifying; any living being, existence, individual soul, the living or personal soul (as distinguished from the universal soul; one of the eight Maruts (the storm gods, wind gods, children of the ocean), the earth; a bow-string, and in geometry, the chord of an arc.

Visarga – creation, birth, sending forth, letting go, liberation, emission, discharge, voiding, evacuation (of excrement), opening (of the closed hand), getting rid of, sending away, driving out the cows, dismissal, letting loose,, giving, granting, bestowal, scattering, hurling, throwing, shooting, casting glances, producing, creation (in the concrete sense), product, offspring, membrum virile (penis).

Atman – to breathe, to move, to blow; the breath, the soul, principle of life and sensation, the individual soul, self, essence, nature, character, peculiarity; the person or whole body considered as one and opposed to the separate members of the body.

Paroccharet – the manifestation of the Supreme Goddess, the transcendental utterance of the breath mantra, upward thrust of the breath, buoyancy, upward rising. *

Utpatti – origin, creation, generation.

Dvitayasthane – at the two places. *

Bharanat – attentive awareness, close observation, *

Bharita – nourished, full, filled with nourishment.

Sthitih – state, situation.

This sutra suggests hundreds of breath meditations. Here are a few ways in to practice:
“Exhale and release yourself into the ocean of air in which we live and breathe. As you become empty, savor that emptiness. Merge with it. When you breathe in, AH! What a wonder, a delight, to become filled again with the nourishing surge of life.”
“Revel in the flow of the exhalation up through the throat, and out into the infinity above. Dissolve into the vastness of prana. Then there is a turning, and as the breath flows in you condense again into individuality again, your jiva.”
– As you exhale, think prana, and just to add texture, tilt your head upwards slightly, turn your face to the sky and be grateful for the infinity of air above and all around you. As you inhale, tilt your head downward slightly and think jiva, I am a living soul.
– As you breathe out, think the word purifying. As you breathe in, think nourishing. In each of the turning points, think pulsation (or rhythm or turning). So through the four parts of breath it would be, “Purifying . . . pulsation . . . nourishing . . . pulsation.”
– Exhale with the inner sound sah. In the turning, mmm. Inhale with the sound ha, then mmm again in the turning.
Pick one of these practices, and for three to five minutes, be lightly aware of the technique Think the words gently in your inner world. Then let go and just enjoy the flow of breath. Feel the magic of it, as you are renewed and rejuvenated by the energy of prana, breath by breath. Meditation is not pranayama, so do not use any effort at all. Discover your love of breath and let that be the power source of your practice.
We breathe in and out every few seconds, an ever-present way for an individual to feel nourished by infinity. This is the ongoing rhythm of life. With each breath, we have the freedom to receive this ambrosia we call breath.

The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra describes 112 Yogas of wonder and delight touching the divine in the midst of daily life. Dr. Roche does one-to-one coaching with individuals wishing to evolve their daily meditation practice and trains Yoga teachers how to teach meditation. For more information call (310) 570-2803.

Dr. Lorin Roche has been practicing and teaching from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra since 1968. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. The Radiance Sutras, a new version of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, is available from Lorin’s website: lorinroche.com or email questions/comments to: lorin@lorinroche.com.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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A meditation on satisfaction and dissatisfaction inspired by The Radiance Sutras, a new translation of the vijnana bhairava tantra
Tripti-yoga – “satisfaction” – (Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p 454)

Keith Richards said something the other day on the radio that really struck a chord in my heart. He was talking about growing up in a bleak London suburb, in soul-destroying concrete housing. When he heard the music of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Elvis that was just starting to pulse through England, his world turned from dull grey to Technicolor. It is still that way for him, he said, the music still thrills him. He is still that hungry teenager craving redemption through rock ‘n roll.

Think of the wild joy we feel when we rock out to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” It feels like total rebellion, and at the same time it speaks to something primal in the human heart, beyond the song itself into the realm of spiritual teachings. It’s one of the all-time great rock songs. Simultaneously it is something Buddha could have said: Suffering exists; Suffering arises from craving for existence.

(The song came to Keith in the middle of the night and woke him up. He recorded the guitar riff and a few words, then went back to sleep. The tape, he says, had two minutes of the song and forty minutes of him snoring.)
For me, the experience of the world turning to Technicolor came through listening to mantras. On the surface, you may think this is a different path, but maybe not. Maybe I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor listening to the rock ‘n roll of the universe in the Song of God. Surely, I am as desperate and as broken as Keith – it is just that I received intense deep training, in that Tantra Yoga way, in how to slip into the vibrant silence at the basis of a mantra and find a stunning amount of healing. If I hadn’t had that as a teenager, I am sure I would have found heroin. In Yoga, I learned to ride the waves of dissatisfaction into the realm beyond, satisfaction itself. Every mantra is a statement of the possibility of satisfaction: “Dissolve into me and I will take you there.” The I AM presence at the center of each mantra is the wholeness beyond all these parts. Every mantra says, “You can sip of this elixir even while here in a mortal body.”

When I encountered the teachings of the vijnana bhairava tantra, (VBT) I learned to melt into a mantra and dissolve with it into the spacious silence that music emerges from. I still need it. I am still electrified by the juicy power of silence that floods my body after a mantra fades away.

In Yoga, the world is sound and reality is a four-stringed guitar:
–The outer sound, that which we hear with our ears. Vaikhari. This is the least powerful level of sound, even though it is great.
– The inner sound that we hear in our minds. Madhyama. This is more powerful, because it is inside you.
–The vibration just before it becomes audible to inner hearing; a luminous pulsation of energy. Pashyanti. More powerful still.
–The beyond–space, the potentiality of resonance. The ocean of silence. Para.
Secretly, I think the Lord of Music has added more strings in the past few thousand years – who is to say that God cannot innovate? But let’s go with these four for the sake of discussion.

Meditating with a mantra is the skill of listening to sound on all these levels. You don’t just say the mantra out loud. You listen to the subtler strings and allow the beauty to carry you away into the silence. This is a profound dissolution, which has echoes of orgasm, that little-death, sleep, and something more – the utterly refreshing sense of an individual body renewing its contact with the universal body of love. A fresh start, a new breath, a rebirth, and you get a new astrological chart. We crave the same thing in music: carry me away, cleanse me, save my life. The energy that carries us into the ecstasy of a good concert, or the sublime bliss of a good meditation, is the same: the desire for oneness, to become one with the music of life, to merge with the fundamental pulsation of creation.

People seem to think that mantras are peaceful, that they are the transcendental song of life, always vibrating everywhere. Of course this is true, but the mantras we use are also saturated with despair and broken-heartedness, if we look up the stories associated with the major mantras: Shiva and Shakti; Rama and Sita; Krishna and Radha; Their lives are a combination of occasional bliss and incandescent terror. Shiva and Shakti were in love and wanted to marry, but her father refused, so she threw herself into the sacrificial fire and burned to death. Rama and Sita were married, but Ravana captured her and kept her hostage. With the help of Hanuman Sita was returned, but people were gossiping – maybe she had sex with Ravana, the demon-king. And maybe, therefore, it is Sita’s fault that there was a miscarriage in the village. So they tested Sita by making her walk through fire. Krishna and Radha were in love, but Krishna was a player, and the astrologers said they did not match up for long-term happiness. Also, in some versions, Radha was already married, with no possibility of divorce, so their love was condemned to be unfulfilled except in the hot nights down by the river. It was a passionate, illicit love; heartbreak from one end to the other. The stories embedded in the mantras are as raw and primordial as any rock song blasting out its endless ache of lust and longing.

Arati is Sanskrit for dissatisfaction, so we could say the plot of these mantras is propelled by arati-shakti, the power of divine discontent. It’s what makes us search and it is what propels us on our journey through the universe. These stories point to eternal yearning for union, everlasting bliss, and the risky adventure of being incarnate in a body. Even the gods, when they take on bodies, are in for the ride. This is because divinity meets us where we are. By chanting the names of the gods , doing mantra Yoga and listening to all four strings of God’s guitar, we make the voyage from yearning to fulfillment.

The teaching in the VBT is: Throw yourself in to your practice; don’t hold back. Let everything you are, all your desires, give power to your meditation. Every ache in your heart adds to the arati-shakti of your sadhana, your personal practice. Anything you think is unworthy in yourself, the gods suffer also. Bring your rebel rocker, bring your loneliness, bring your exuberance, bring it all, and let your meditation be the inner music of your dance with life.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

The post Can’t Get No Satisfaction appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil is an Ayurvedic practitioner and licensed acupuncturist. She completed her degree in Ayurvedic Medicine from the University of Mangalore, India. She is teaching and practicing Ayurveda over decade. She earned a Masters Degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from Southern California University of Health Science and is currently pursuing PhD in public health. She has presented papers in national and international conference. Currently she is working as an Assistant Professor and the lead instructor for the Ayurvedic program at SCUHS: scuhs.edu. For appointments please call (562) 943 – 7125.

scuhs.edu

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