Wednesday January 31
A smaller group this evening, welcome and intimate and peaceful, and lovely to have a few new attendees. Most grateful for Brittany coming to join our group and sharing her recent initiation in to Isha yoga practices. Another Isha person!
This evening we were called again to a meditation technique from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. I learned this technique from Dhyanse, #7 in his exposition on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, found on Youtube. Here are a few translations of the original sanskrit description of the technique:
- Meditate on the rising energy as lightning ascending from one chakra to the other until it reaches Sahasrara, leading to the great awakening. (Source at Youtube)
- Consider your essence as light rays rising from center to center up the vertebrae, and so rises “livingness” in you. Or in the spaces between, feel this as lightning. (source)
We’re openly recording notes on our sessions, and there are no secrets in these sessions. But with all the 112 techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra and most of the techniques of classical yoga, it’s best to have a teacher as a guide and introduction to the techniques. The written word does not go far enough at introducing these techniques as new ideas and processes.
Wednesday January 24
This week brought a simple breathing exercise taken from the ancient techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. #5 in Dhyanse’s sequence, a translation of the technique is “WHEN THE ENERGY OF BREATH IS RETAINED EITHER OUTSIDE OR INSIDE, EXPERIENCE PEACE AND REMEMBER IT.”
Basically the technique is to concentrate the awareness on that instant, the point in time between exhaling and inhaling, between inhaling and exhaling. Focus all your attention on that moment. Breathing normally and gently, only focusing the awareness.
I gave minimal instruction past that, allowing experiences to come without expectation and structure. We had a surprising variety of experiences shared after the session. Of interest was responses to guidance on a variation of dhyana mudra that may optionally be used by ladies. Several ladies reported strong responses to adopting this variation of simply placing the hands in the lap. I was taught this variation during yoga training, but I can find no documentation of it.
Wednesday January 17
Simple watching the breath.
Wednesday January 10
Chanting! We chanted “OM Namo Narayananaya”, the peace mantra. This mantra was passed to me by Swami Shankarananda, the peace swami. There were suprisingly powerful experiences among the group this evening. We’ll be repeating this!
Wednesday January 3
This week brought a guided meditation, grounded in the element of water. We merged with water and through this merged with all live, losing our individuality as the river loses its individual nature when meeting with the sea.