The Long Time Sun

Thought while meditating this morning: The sun shines on us all equally. It warms us equally. It casts our shadows equally. We should light upon all we meet like the sun in the heavens, equally and without care or judgement. After thinking about that, it gave me new understanding of the song "Long Time Sunshine," an Irish Folk Song which is used to close most Kundalini Yoga classes. May the long time sun shine upon you. All love surround you. And the pure light, within you. Guide your way on... Guide your way on... Guide your way on.

Experiencing the Vacuum

Thanks and Welcome to Hariavtar who will now be sharing this blog. You might see a few more new faces as time goes on. Anyway, I've started officially teaching Kundalini yoga at a place called Le Studio in Hollywood. The teachers I've studied with have all spoken of this feeling that comes through you when you teach. It's all a part of that selfless vacuum I was talking about a while ago. You become a conduit for the energy of people bringing themselves to a better place. The energy of the golden chain of teachers that practiced and mastered this yoga literally comes through you as the class practices the various kriyas and meditations. This sounds really esoteric but it's really no so much. Teaching is somewhat of a selfless act. As I write this I get wrapped around the axle. So let me just put it this way... I got really freaking high from teaching these past couple of weeks. The entire rest of the day I had this bubble around me where nothing could go wrong. And it wasn't "just having a good day." I tried to explain it to a friend of mine who doesn't teach yoga and she just said, "I get it, I know the feeling of having a success. You got a teaching job, that's great." But that isn't it at all! It's an inexplicable feeling that everything is going to be okay no matter what. It has nothing to do with feeling success or triumph or getting a job. Talking about this feels like spilling sugar at the beach. I think simply that this feeling is the real time experience of the vacuum I was speaking about. Yogi Bhajan has said this many times about Kundalini Yoga and I'm really glad to have now experienced it. I wish this feeling on the entire world. Imagine?

Selfless Vacuum?

So I was re-reading some of these posts and I realized they're really long and quite a bit heavy.  Not to mention they're two months old.  (I can mention it, you probably shouldn't)  So I thought I would put some things down in more raw form as they come to me.  For example, this morning during Sadhana-meditation some stuff occurred to me.  Yogi Bhajan saying (and I can't reference the quote directly but...) basically when you serve others, The Creator serves you.  I understood it as it came to me in meditation, but explaining what I think it is, is a whole other thing.  

Here goes. When you do something self-less, meaning you forget about your own needs and concerns for a moment and serve another, your ego is suppressed.  That creates an imbalance because he whole world is duality-- pairs of opposites and when everything you see is in terms of "us and them," then it's in balance, because that's our world.  When you act in selflessness, a vacuum is created and the divine has no choice but to serve you.  I guess this is what's known as Karma Yoga.  Selfless acts are said to take you out of the wheel of karma, the push-pull of cause and effect.  So when an individual acts without regard to self, all focus is on the other and for that time there's just the one rather than the dual focus of me and mine, theirs and them.  

I think what he meant, and what seemed to come to me this morning is: that vacuum must be filled and since you're focused on another in selflessness, The Creator focuses on you to fill that void or bring nature back into balance.  It's as if helping another is helping yourself since all are one.  So give till it hurts… or rather give until someone else doesn’t hurt anymore.  

Another thing I thought was interesting is the word INDIVIDUAL.  In-Divi-Dual

In=not divi=divisible dual=a duad or pair

So the word individual essentially means (to me) one not divisible by dual(ity) or perhaps one living in duality?  

The dictionary has an interesting take on it: I always thought you weren’t supposed to use the actual word in its definition.  At least that's what I was taught.  Anyway you can see for yourself but the dictionary pretty much defines individual as person or personality set apart from society or a group.  I think it actually has much more power and meaning than that.  I think an individual being is one (indivisible) in duality.  Or One living in duality.  This is definitely hair-splitting, but it's cool when you think about it because everyone wants to be a distinct individual-- especially in this age of reality TV and instant, talentless fame.  

So what does being an individual truly mean?  Different from the rest?  One person just living in a dual world?  One apart from the society?  One in contrast to two?  By virtue of that, when an individual acts selfless, then they drop part of their duality and become one with that which they are serving.  I guess that's a lot of words to say selflessness is like godliness.  Anyway, it gets tricky no matter how you slice it, because if you're standing around stroking your hair, going, "I'm soo selfless." then it's not gonna work.  The trick is to really be truly selfless and that takes a lot of work because there are greater and greater degrees of it.  For example, your mom... and let’s say, Mother Theresa.

Selfishness? Sorry I don't have time to explore that one right now.