BARAKA BASHMENT

1.
“…kundalini yoga as taught by the Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan”

Most practitioners I have come across respect the diversity of the tradition enough to make this disclaimer when talking about their yoga practice. This specificity pleases me, because I realize it must be an insatiable drive to want to consume the entire history of kundalini yoga, in all its complexity, and represent it back to the public as a singularity conveniently encompassed by their specific teacher. Anyone who’s studied Islam for five minutes can attest to the many “One True Islam”s that are really store-fronts for a specific teacher, lineage, and ideology. The same goes for all the great traditions. Behind EVERY pamphlet is an organization. Behind every “Pure Religion” is a guy writing books cutting down someone else to build himself up. And behind every translation is a fund.

Yogi Bhajan’s take on the practices of kundalini rising are very specific to YB, and yet in essence his methods are all based on the traditional sources. I know this because I have made it an almost part-time job “checking up” on YB. All the great traditions demand that you see for yourself the validity of the teachings. I appreciate this and take advantage of the request at every turn. Truly nothing is sacred until it is sacred. This is important, since there have been many times where I have been in a yoga class singing “Happy am I. Healthy am I. Holy am I.” while thinking to myself: this CAN’T be right!!! So, I look around. I check up on YB to make sure I’m not being taken. I can honestly say that what I have found has pleased me.

2.
YB’s lineage is a Sikh one (I believe he was actually raised Christian and converted at a young age, I THINK), which differs in some ways from the Hindu tradition. Admittedly, kundalini yoga as it comes from the Hindu tradition does not seem to incorporate “happy songs” (at least not in the books I have read), and these traditions also seem very skeptical, almost paranoid, about facilitating these practices in group form. For example, the Sivanada/Satyananda tradition doesn’t even allow people to engage the kriyas (complete “sets” of practice including mantra, pranayam, and movement simultaneously. For example, sitting in rock pose with hands on shoulders turning left to right, while breathing in to the left and out to the right silently chanting Sat Nam [True Name, or “Truth is your identity” as the teachers translate]) before years of traditional hatha yoga, dietary changes, stints of celibacy, retreats, courses, seminars, which add up to roughly five years or more of study (at least according to one woman I spoke to on the phone recently). YB’s approach is much different.

KY as per the SSS is a system that puts the practitioner directly in the center of the practices. While there are a few levels of in-depth study (where you become a teacher, YB is quoted as saying he was not teaching students but future teachers) on the whole the classes are for all levels of experience, since in the end KY is about you versus you. KY as per the SSS is a system that immediately works the body over. And by that I mean completely changes the physicality of your body. It tones it. It stretches it. It shapes it. It cleans out the cobwebs and dissolves the knots in the different spots. After all, it’s yoga. My understanding is that through this freeing up of the body through the body itself, one makes room for the kundalini, the latent clarity or potential in all people, to move up the spine through the shushumna (central nadi). (You know that feeling of “I feel more whole and complete. I can take on the world.” when your body is “in shape?” That’s in a way the latent potential, only slightly different in make-up). So in a way this is no different from the Satyananda tradition where the body is “prepped” for kundalini practice. However, my understanding is that YB felt that regardless of where you were at emotionally, physically, spiritually, the practices he gave (and there are literally thousands) would have a positive effect on you because the practices themselves had an effect on you. Kind of like the way you’re going to get some what of a better vocabulary if you read a lot, even if your hearts not in it. And similar to Chogyam Trungpa’s take on Ati Yoga, or Maha Ati/Dzogchen, if you aren’t ready, you won’t hurt yourself since the important stuff will simply float by. One cannot see what one has no reference to see.

The quote goes something more like “Man’s first acheivement of the day” but A. I don’t use the term “man” as a designation for all genders. And B. I consider any action that is a deliberate attempt to reengage the body/mind etc. as a rebellious act. As far as the cold shower goes, there are many ways to do this. Kundalini Yoga as per the SSS suggests a more or less specific way as well. This is the way I do it.

PRECAUTIONS: Consult the doc and all that. Always take cold showers in a warm bathroom. Never exit the cold water into a cold room. Be smart, not a martyr.

Life begins and ends with a cold shower and a foot massage.
Here is a guide to the former:

First: Turn on only the hot water so as to make sure it’s up to speed
This serves two puposes. 1. It allows me to regulate the temperature more easily. 2. If I need to bale, I’ve got a quick out.

Second: Hang towel against the hot water pipe so as to warm it up while I’m showering
Cold showers are not masochisms. They serve a physiological purpose, so there’s no need to punish myself. That warm towel feels good after ANY type of shower!

Third: When water is hot turn it way down and add the cold making the water a “cold-chilly” temperature
Yogi Bhajan is an extreme teacher in many ways. Very much an “Oh the water in your town is freezing? You’re lucky!” sort of teacher. I myself am much more “Do what works for you, but let’s not lie to ourselves” in my approach to this. My belief is that if the water isn’t cold enough you just end up shivering since the blood isn’t rushing to your skin cooling you off. However, if the water is icy (which it is in Brooklyn this time of year) my heart feels like it’s going to stop and it’s just painful. So I make sure the water’s right in that cold, but not icy spot.

Fourth: Put one leg in. Chant “Wahe Guru” over and over again as I place my other leg under the water followed by the rest of my body.
“Wahe Guru” is kind of the Sikh form of God is Great! No two things are the same, so I’ll leave it at that. Chanting Allah is also recommended, however I have stuck with Wahe Guru. I liek to follow a system for a little while until I get the ego-bugs out. As far as the parts are concerned, the belly and back are the hardest to love in cold water. With time these dips get a little easier though.

Fifth: Suds up! And keep the water cold
As I shower in this chilly blue, my body temperature seems to rise. Not sure if this is possible, but there is definitely a sensation of heating from the inside. This is a sensation that many people report. It has something to do with the blood rushing to the skin. So as this happens I continue to turn down any last remaining hot water and up the cold, making sure the physiological effects of cold showering maintain.

Sixth: Turn off the water when done and reap the benefits!
The pleasure begins immediately after the water is turned off and the warm towel hits the body. Muhammad is said to have commented that part of the beauty of the fast is in the breaking of it. This is also true of the cold shower. While there is no doubt a pleasure in feeling your body heat up in cold water, there is an even more exhilerating sensation when your body leaves the water and enters the air temperature with all that blood flowing. So far (and I have been doing this style of showering on and off for only a month or so) I have had experiences of euphoria for up to an hour after showering. This is followed by a nice calm and clear-headedness throughout the day.

BENES LISTED FROM THIS SITE

*Brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body.

*Cleans the circulatory system.

*Reduces blood pressure on internal organs.

*Provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood.

*Strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

*Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.

*Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.

Many health problems are reduced or even eliminated over time by providing proper circulation of the blood to the affected area using the cold shower massage.

“Ishnan” is the term used in the old days when people in India referred to cold showers (very cold showers). “Ishnan” is the point at which the body, by its own virtue, creates the temperature that it can beat off the coldness of the water. This happens when the capillaries open with the onset of the cold water. They close again during the course of the cold shower and it is at that point that all the blood rushes back to flush the organs and the glands. This process allows the glands to renew their secretions and “youth” (i.e. young glands) again returns to the body. “

It’s been about a year now since I began studying and practicing kundalini yoga as taught by the Siri Singh Sahib, otherwise known as Yogi Bhajan.

As far as I’m concerned, this society has taken every effort to separate the human from it’s body, while simultaneously conditioning this same human to obssess over the representation of the body (AKA I hate my body and yet am addicted to its appearance). So for me, any method that brings the consciousness back into the body, interweaving the two, is a method I am interested in.

There are any number of methods that accomplish this. Sport, martial arts, etc. Yoga is an obvious one, but one whose very name sends latte-induced shivers down the backs of otherwise strong people. I leave it up to you to be discerning and separate out the minerals. Lambasting yoga for being materialistic cause it’s in the West is fun and all, but asumes that it wasn’t materialistic in the East. (Head check: look at any spiritual tome from ancient India and you’ll find any number of warnings against false gurus, so….)

Here’s it is. I’m going to be putting up some posts regarding what I have find out through direct experience and experimenting with my body. “What does it feel like to do this?” As the SSS has said, this new age will be the age of experience, where previously we were in the age of knowledge.I will write as much as I can on that in a few. Think: knowing about, versus, embodying the knowledge of.

I will also try and touch upon these fun topics:

How a cold shower in the morning will change your life (AKA heating your body from the inside-out)
Anarchism as the lens through which to view the world, not as a society of the like-minded

How when we see our religious garb (AKA costumes) as just that: costumes, we can finally wear them for the first time

Kundalini yoga as “working class yoga” (sayeth Sat Hari Singh)

Experimentation with body as radical rebellion

Osho’s take on religious dogma as the bandage for a weak and scared audience. GOD IS UNCERTAINTY!