My practice consists of daily Sat-Kriya (Kundalini) for a few years now, and a couple of months’ worth of Surya Namaskara-A and Om mantra meditation.
Although I feel good after each practice, I have yet to experience anything significant, such as opening of chakras. In particular, I was hopeful that the Om meditation would provide some pretty rapid results with regards to the 3rd eye chakra.
Do I just need to be more patient or should I have had some higher-level experiences by now?
This is a bit of a complicated question Matt. You’re asking about your practice and that asking has to fall within a Kundalini context.
One of the concepts often put forth in that context is the “more rapid” evolution or enlightenment of the practitioner from that particular practice. So it is not be unusual to find a practitioner who’s looking for a particular experience from their practice or Kriyas.
I first advise students from other practice to go to their teacher with such questions. If they do not have a teacher that begs the question of why and what are reasonable expectations for growth within yoga without one. If their teacher does not have an answer OR has an answer and that answer does not resonate with the student (in their heart not in the vital or mental force) then that begs the question of whether they’ve selected the appropriate teacher for them at this time.
While I realize students arrive at yoga’s doorstep for a variety of reasons I have not found much solid ground in coming to yoga specifically to open the subtle bodies, connect with the third eye, reach samadhi, or lose weight for that matter. I think it’s a pursuit rooted in Asmita and clouded by Avidya. Though everyone is welcome all ways.
Students have a myriad of experiences from their practices and we are merely the note takers or scribes. It is not to us to author the content but to merely record that which DOES happen. It may be very little - and that’s a worthy observance to have. It may be God and that too is a worthy experience to have BUT no more or less than the experience of nothing (fully felt).
So there are three things - one is the intention of the student for the practice such that there is a reasonable expectation rather than frustration and disappointment, two the appropriateness of the practice for the student at this point in her/his evolution, and three the utter bliss and joy of the practice no matter what it holds.
Thank you for your reply.
I am not fortunate enough to have a teacher; there are many things in fact that I would like to have a teacher for, yoga foremost I suppose, but being a single parent my options are limited. I think it is better to practice as possible rather than nothing at all.
I’ll fully admit to having randomly selected my practices myself, and am willing to entertain the possibility that they are not complimentary or in the right sequence for me. Although, I think they are each kind of a beginner’s “if you do nothing else, do this…” from different traditions (astanga, kundalini, and raja). Although, the Om mantra can reportedly carry one very far into the goal of experiencing unity.
Frustrated I think would be too strong of a word at this point; I will certainly keep at my practice. I was just looking for suggestions at what I might be doing wrong, since I DON’T have a teacher. Remember, in the yoga-sutra, Patanjali lists one of the obstacles on the path as “lack of progress”.
So noted…
Maybe we are here and have a certain path that is best suited for us. Maybe some of us where meant to be chanters, some were meant to focus on a silent mantra, and maybe some where meant to focus on breathing. I dont know if that is true I just think it might be a possibility. Many Gurus say, If you do ABC you will find what you seek but yet many people do not find it, why? maybe the seeker is thinking too much and wont let the mind go, I know I fall under this category. 
But maybe the path is not the one meant for that seeker. WHen I silently focus on mantra my mind has wondered, for me I have gone deepest in just breathing, so maybe that is my path. I have been to kundalini classes and I have had amazing experiences there, I also have the intention of going to their winter solstice in florida.
My favorite book, and one I would recomend to anyone doing kundalini, is Yogi Bhajans book titled, “Praana Praanee Praanayam” In it he gives multiple meditations on the breath. He also gives what he calls the best set of asanas. What I like is you can look through the book and choose, it is kind of like a buffet line of practices. So maybe you are at a phase where you need to mix it up. Maybe your practice does not match your hearts desires. But it is your path so you would know better.
Good luck
Neil
Namaste,
Patience. Yes, this is what we need if we want to make any progress on the spiritual/yoga path in life. One thing many westerners forget about the law of reincarnation is that all of a sudden things don’t have to happen anymore in one lifetime to you, now you have subjected yourself to the law and you will reincarnate until your evolution is completed on this planet. (And with this I don’t say you have subjected yourself to that law, fact is is, it is a law and it is fact, wether we like it or not). This also means that what we do now might now deliver any results in this incarnation, but it is recorded and will manifest in another incarnation.
So in short, nothing which we do is in vain, we might not see the tree bearing fruits immediately, but in a next incarnation that tree might bear the most wonderful fruits. Stick to what you are doing, don’t loose patience, one morning you will do your Om and at number 107 you might experience something and that might be enough. Patience is a test and we should never loose it.
Also remember that in the west we are taught to meassure everything by its physical results. the energy of the chakras are so subtle, that most people won’t feel or experience anything if something do happen.
May I ask you a question? why is it so important for you to have rapid results in the 3rd eye chakra?
Break your heart, and you’ll get a new one.
Burst the bubble of your beliefs, and you will know.
Let die what you think you are, and you will really be someone.
Let go of your attachment to your practice. Don’t care about your bodies, health. The body is subject of karma. It becomes ill, it dies. Go all the way. Don’t let death rob you of it, give it to him freely. Than, it will not be interested anymore, and you will be free.
I perfectly agree with Pandara.
Sticking to any practice is only good for evolving your willpower and patience. And this is what counts. It does not really matter what you do. It might be sweeping up the courtyard every day, always the same time. No breaks, day outs, no expectation that one day the courtyard will not be dirty by some miracle.
Also, one must love the practice. Not the practice is what gives you the achievement, but the love you are performing it with.
Any practice done for some ulterior result or benefit is against the principle of karma yoga. Practice should be done for the sake of the practice. Attention should be on the process, not on the end result.
The mindset: I do this so I get that, is not appropriate for spiritual development. I am not saying we cannot speculate or have expectations, but we must know, that the results, or the places where the path takes us, are beyond what our minds can imagine now.
Patience, as Panadara said is very important. This is not patience of the kind: Ok, I am waiting anxiously that it can happen any minute from now. It is the kind of patience: I am doing what I have come to understand to be the best I am capable of doing, and I am respectfully expecting patiently the time when I am found worthy for grace to be manifested in my life. This patience includes the attitude, that I accept the very fact that it might never happen in this life. Am I strong enough, do I believe enough in myself, my path, my master, my fate that I am ready to stick to my practice no matter what ? Is my practice really the fulfillment my own destiny ? Is it really my way ?
Spriritual development is the same as any other development. An effort is done to face, and surpass some resistance. Identify the resisting thoughts, attitudes, conditionings of your life. Advancment is often sudden, and is preceeded by some form of crysis, where the readiness, strenght, morality, patience, awarness of man are tested.
PS. Knowing yourself is knowing your karma. Who are you ? How is your life ? Why is it like it is ? What were the main events of this life ? What were the conditioning circumstances ? What is your hearts’s desire ? What was your path until now ? The more you ask these, the more deep the answers will get … until the ceirtanty of your fate will dawn on you.
A lot of really good thoughts were already said in this thread. I would just like to say that
since yoga came into my life I have a feeling that my life is going the right direction and that is already such a satisfying feeling, a big relief actually. So that is already a big gift. And than I think it is important to see the small changes that are happening, it can be that you change something in your life style for better, or you find yourself that you’ve changed some attitude, or you feel some subtle changes in your body when you practice etc. Changes are anyway happening all the time, it is just that with our practice we take care for the quality of them. Can you see what keeps you going on already for a few years?
[quote=333Matt;12470]Thank you for your reply.
I am not fortunate enough to have a teacher; there are many things in fact that I would like to have a teacher for, yoga foremost I suppose, but being a single parent my options are limited. I think it is better to practice as possible rather than nothing at all.
I’ll fully admit to having randomly selected my practices myself, and am willing to entertain the possibility that they are not complimentary or in the right sequence for me. Although, I think they are each kind of a beginner’s “if you do nothing else, do this…” from different traditions (astanga, kundalini, and raja). Although, the Om mantra can reportedly carry one very far into the goal of experiencing unity.
Frustrated I think would be too strong of a word at this point; I will certainly keep at my practice. I was just looking for suggestions at what I might be doing wrong, since I DON’T have a teacher. Remember, in the yoga-sutra, Patanjali lists one of the obstacles on the path as “lack of progress”.[/quote]
Namaste 333matt,
very good that you persist in your practice.
if you think you have no results at all, what makes you go on? what is helping you?
The yoga sutra’s you mentioned of Patanjali, can you tell me to which sutra’s you are referring to?
warm greetings Louise
How can the same practice effect everyone in the same way? As with medicine- for some it will work and for others it won’t. One massage technique will work wonders for one person and not do much for another. However I can recommend YogaDo. A Yoga style where you will feel improvements in every class. Thats why in nearly every thread I have posted, I mention it. So much so that the website moderators were concerned I am selling a YogaDo product. I wish I was. There isn’t even a YogaDo website. I hope there will be one day. Yoga traditionally should be like a river -constantly flowing and changing, not like a stagnant pond.
Wish you good vibes
I certainly didn’t mean to abandon this thread, I thought I would have been subscribed… I am so glad I checked back on it!
The words some of you have given me to frame my experience in a different way seem a little dangerous to absorb, but I guess it’s the same thing that leads me to practice yoga itself - you just have an intuition that its true.
You see, how many teachers have said “Faith is not required. Don’t blindly believe anything. Test it.” For me, this resonates so deeply I don’t think I really even needed to hear it. No disrespect, and I don’t want to get into a discussion about it, but this is why I abandoned my Christian upbringing.
And haven’t we all heard a spiritual teacher - I’m thinking Buddhism here, maybe - talk about a “sense of urgency” and how this human incarnation is a precious gift, not to be wasted.
I just want to nail it, you know. Make the best decisions I can because I - the small i, that is - am not going to last forever.
When I’m happy I want to be filled with unlimited energy, and when I’m not happy I want to escape existence into ishvara. Anyone else grapple with these seeming opposites?
P.S. Louise, I’ve always just heard it called “The Yoga Sutras” - a very short text whose particular translation I read in Appendix A of “The Wisdom of Yoga” - that whole text completely reeled me in - I made up my mind that I was buying a dancing Shiva statue when I finished it on the plane - but those 8-or-so pages just spoke to some tiny part of me that was like “yes, yes - THIS is the key that unravels everything!”
[quote=333Matt;12944]I
When I’m happy I want to be filled with unlimited energy, and when I’m not happy I want to escape existence into ishvara. Anyone else grapple with these seeming opposites?
P.S. Louise, I’ve always just heard it called “The Yoga Sutras” - a very short text whose particular translation I read in Appendix A of “The Wisdom of Yoga” - that whole text completely reeled me in - I made up my mind that I was buying a dancing Shiva statue when I finished it on the plane - but those 8-or-so pages just spoke to some tiny part of me that was like “yes, yes - THIS is the key that unravels everything!”[/quote]
Hi 333matt,
Yes i experience this also the struggling with opposites. When we are unhappy we turn to Ishvara, when we are happy it is so easy to forget.
Yoga is practised for becoming firmly established in de stable state of the True Self.
There are many translations of the yoga sutra’s ( some with explanations as well) I thought you were referring to a particular sutra. I see you mean the whole text. And you are right ;yoga sutra is the key to yoga paths for different types of students who want to transform themself by yoga.
Keys can open doors and close them, but it is you who has to go in.
I do think that it is preceded by faith ( the teachings were given to us) and when you consistently practise you will see it is true.
greetings Louise
Hello friend…Matt
I hope you read this …
Room Dark
Go to bed
Lie on your back
Relax as normal
close your eyes
draw your eyes in very slightly as if going boss eyed (at first this may use eye muscles that you are not used to using, so if you feel a strain, relax your eyes a while, still closed and looking straight ahead. then revert to slightly drawn in again, only very slightly drawn in)
Look into the darkness ahead
Look for a tiny light in the darkness
You will see a little light, it will come and go, keep looking for it
it may get bigger, keep looking at it or looking for it if it disappears
Keep looking and looking.
Don’t worry if during all this you get an itch. just scratch it and get back to looking for the little light…dont worry if you can hear a noise in the background, just keep looking for the little light
One of two things will happen…1. You may fall asleep…dont worry do it again another night.
your sight will be travelling down what seems like a tunnel of light at high speed, eventually slowing down to a “scene”
Your images may be in greyscale, people, places etc
They may be in colour
If you see something that you don’t know exactly what it is, the answer will automatically come to you what it is.
You will see streaks of red intermingling with black at a nice even steady pace. keep looking, you may see someone seated cross legged. this is very beneficial…(I can give you more on this particular event)
It is possible to direct your sight to where ever you wish to go…but I do not do this despite how tempting the notion. I only allow what naturally unfolds/reveals itself and occurs to me on route
I could go on and on but this is enough I think.
These are things I practice on everyday plus a few more I haven’t mentioned all
Practice before the Sun sets and as it rises occasionally. It strengthens the ability.
A full moon helps and when Jupiter is close to the moon
Do some physical activity that tires your body out. (I sometimes do heavy gardening) This allows mind to disconnect more easily from thoughts of the body subliminal as well.
Have a bath/shower before you do this.
Do not eat garlic, ginger or any strong smelling stuff
Make sure stomach is not heavy from food. Lighter the better
Don’t do this if you are unhappy or have had an argument or upset.
On an everyday basis develop personal happiness by learning to forgive others silently in your mind. When things irritate you understand why and dismiss them
I f you have issues unresolved, take time out to consider them and understand them, you will them be able to release them
Develop a strong unshifting resolute mind to not weaken on these points
If people try to upset you with something, steer them away cleverly distract them from their troublemaking pleasantly
If there is a bad vibe around you, you attempt to clear it with humour or some way. Look after your appearance in a way that does not involve ego, just a clean healthy respect and love for who you are.
Help people if they need your help
Develop these things at work as well
Don’t lie unless it saves a worse situation developing
SMILE
All of these things will develop the right environment to bring about divine experiences.
Most of the above, people do a lot of the time in any case but most people weaken on these as well, so develop a strong mind on these principals.
The more you master the principals the brighter your light becomes in the stream of meditation. This makes you prone to temptations of all sorts so you must develop strength to not allow the mind to temptations.
Kind Regards Kareng