Tag Archives: Yoga

RISHIKESH, INDIA — the home of yoga. Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

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Me and my good friend and teacher, Fran Gallo, just below the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, where the river Mother Ganga, splits the city of Rishikesh — connected by two narrow suspension  bridges. Here the Ganga is a rushing torrent of fresh clean mountain runoff.

River Ganga — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus


River Ganga — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

This is considered the home of yoga and has the greatest concentration of sadhu, who have renounced worldly life to spend their time in contemplation, meditation, and the practice of yoga. More wealthy devotees, who have families, occupations, and haven’t divorced  themselves from worldly concerns, donate money to support the temples that feed and shelter the renouncers. (males — sadaka, females — sadhika).

It can be a tempting thought, to renounce all worldly concerns, practice yoga and quietly sit in peaceful meditation — listening to the melodious eternal flow of this most spiritual river.

THE LOTUS AND YOGA

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LOTUS

From the conclusion of the meditation with the Morning Ritual presented as a way to start each day to receive the benefits offered in the introductory chapters of Weight loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus:

After eight exhales, inhales and pauses, consciousness floats above the head and the attention is focused on a beautiful THOUSAND PETAL LOTUS (water lilly) that is so strikingly pure white, it radiates all the colors of the spectrum.

Do a final eight cycles of pranayama. Realize the lotus starts in the mud at the bottom of the pond, grows up through the muddy water to the surface and opens, a beautiful unblemished white, basking in the sun.

A Thousand White Petal Lotus so pure and brilliant-it shines with all the colors of the spectrum-Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

A Thousand White Petal Lotus so pure and brilliant-it shines with all the colors of the spectrum-Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

Breathe normally and swing the arms overhead in a wide arc.

Bring the palms together capturing the purity. [Photo 22] Capture the radiant white in your palms.

Then slowly pull your hands down to rest on the crown of the head. [Photo 23] The radiant white mixes with the ultra violet. The elbows extend wide.

To have instruction on completing the entire Morning Ritual, see Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus. Chapter 3, pages 37 through 42.

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YOGA UNDERSTANDS: the Chemistry of Love

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Yoga doesn’t disagree with modern Western Science, but has deeper understanding of the natural world.

Yoga teaches the color of the fourth chakra, the Heart Center, is green.

Life on the physical plane, making higher levels of individual consciousness ( LOVE ) possible on earth, draws its energy from the sun. Chlorophyll is the molecule that absorbs sunlight and uses that energy to synthesize carbohydrates from CO2 and water — photosynthesis. The energy of sunlight is transformed into the energy of food. [ In Sanskrit of yoga: ‘anna’ means food, the physical body is the Annamaya Kosha.]

Chlorophyll, a photoreceptor found in the chloroplasts of green plants , obtains energy from red and blue parts of the spectrum and reflects the unused green wave lengths — making green plants green.

The chemistry is a reaction between carbon dioxide and water with sunlight as the catalyst. This produces glucose and a waste product — oxygen. The green plant can use the glucose sugar as energy or polymer it to store as starch.

6CO2 + 6H2O     > chlorophyll & sunlight >     C6 H12 O6     +     6O2      (glucose + oxygen)

The waste oxygen is used by plants and animals for respiration. All animals are dependent on plants, through the food chain, for sustenance.

weight loss through yoga, jewel in the lotus

weight loss through yoga, jewel in the lotus

 

 

YOGA AND REINCARNATION

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Yoga and early Gnostic Christians share the understanding that each individual comes to knowledge of God through direct experience. This is the very essence of the teachings. In Greek ‘Gnosis’ means knowledge. Both teachings also consider reincarnation an obvious truth. For 200 years after Jesus, it is estimated half of the followers of his teachings, Gnostic Christians, believed in reincarnation. The Roman Church, to consolidate power, systematically destroyed chapters of the Bible discussing reincarnation. The modern teaching of Christianity descended from this tradition. Many Christian’s practicing yoga are relearning a direct relationship with God and to only accept as truth what they learn through personal direct experience.

Mary Magdalene/Jesus Christ = Yin/ Yang

Mary Magdalene/Jesus Christ = Yin/ Yang

 

YOGA LOOKS AT THE MIND

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Our success as a species is largely due to our intelligence, out capacity for thought. The mind has become very good at what it does. Success has spurred it on to greater aspirations. Now it wonders if it would be better off on its own, and teases itself with notions of a virtual reality. The mind entertains itself with imaginings of ‘everything ‘ just being thought. It forgets the requisite coalescence that allows it to exist, making consciousness and thought possible. To state it mildly, the mind has thought itself into a state of imbalance. Yoga reveres balance.

Yoga Maintains Balance Over the Mind

Yoga Maintains Balance Over the Mind

Yoga reveres balance.

TARA — Yoga Symbol

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YOGA MYTHOLOGY    Said to have appeared when the Buddha of Compassion shed a tear overwhelmed by all the suffering he saw humanity experiencing. The tear became Tara who offered to aid in the task of relieving misery. She represents all the positive feminine attributes and feels special empathy towards her sisters. Buddha represented in her feminine form, Tara translates ‘star’ and ‘sister’ from the Sanskrit. Coming in many forms symbolized by different colors signifying emphasis on varying traits, she is always shown with six eyes on different parts of her anatomy. Prominent Goddess of left-hand  yoga Tantric practice.

White Tara — Weight Loss Through Yoga

HOW THE PYRAMIDS WORK — Esoteric Yoga

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The Light Energy Matrix reveals properties common to other energy matrixes. As most easily understood, exemplified by the Sound Energy Matrix—an octave. The seven colors of the spectrum plus the half-notes at the base and top of the range, straddling. The prism separates the essence of the white light into the different wave lengths. The pyramid can be thought of as two prisms, occupying the same space, perpendicular, focusing the mid-range where the yellow sun energy (apogee of the physical) meets the green love energy — the beginning of the Spiritual.

Leaded stained glass by Don Bothell — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

Leaded stained glass by Don Bothell — Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus

If you have read your WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS, you know the quality that is the nature of the mid-point of the octave. The pyramid is a perfect machine, with no moving parts, filtering for and focusing this quality in perpetuity.

YOGA AND SELF REALIZATION

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Just as the term implies, self realization is an operation performed by the ‘self’. There is a human tendency to hope for answers and solutions to life’s big questions from the outside. People look to religions, philosophies, science, teachers, and even alien intervention for answers, often hoping for intervention with solutions provided by others. This is a diversion because all the wisdom and answers are within. It is our duty as individuals to sort our experience in the light radiating from our individual being, to organize it into a system of understanding as personal as each of our unique spirits.

Yoga provides the tools to accomplish this most sacred task. To place your understanding in the hands of others is to forfeit your very soul. Your soul can’t be destroyed, but it can be delayed on its journey to the self realization that will be the joyous expression of your complete self wrapped in unimaginable bliss.

Learn yoga, allowing you to do that most pleasurable task — self realization. This is the only true ‘work’, the fruits of which will empower you personally, those you love, and all humankind.

LOOK WITHIN

LOOK WITHIN

YOGA AND PARADOX

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A yoga myth, the Bhagavad Gita lays out the yogic world view, and explains paradox, in the form of a tale of a prince, Arjuna, reluctantly facing battle. A manifestation of the godhead in the form of Krishna, acting as Arjuna’s chariot driver, explains why things appear as they do. Arjuna says to Krishna, “My mind is in confusion because in thy words I find contradictions.”

Yogic understanding of 'paradox' explained in 'Bhagavad Gita' through Krishna and Arjuna

Yogic understanding of ‘paradox’ explained in ‘Bhagavad Gita’ through Krishna and Arjuna

As you become more your self and see through your own eyes, the phenomenon of paradox becomes more prevalent. You exercise free will, but recognize a grand design and destiny. Things are the way they are supposed to be this moment, but they should be better.

This is yoga’s higher level of understanding —paradox. The world is trying to pin things down, but you perceive different strata of reality. Light can be both a wave and a pulse. Yoga reveals different dimensions have different rules. We can live in the same world, the physical universe, but, depending on our level of spiritual development, we experience different realities. Many teachers, Jesus as an example, perform what seem miracles, manifestations of a deeper awareness of the natural order. They tell us this is our birthright, to gain this greater awareness.

YOGA’S KUNDALINI METAPHOR

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Latent Kundalini energy, potent negatively charged apana, reposes in the lowest esoteric center of the body. Pictured as a serpent coiled in the area analogous to the tailbone, it blocks the portal to liberation, the Sushumna.

The yogi entices Kundalini energy up the spine

The yogi entices Kundalini energy up the spine

The sleeping coiled serpent is awakened by the tapas (heat of devotion) of the yogi. The female goddess, in her serpent form, then begins to uncoil opening the door of the channel to the Absolute. The yogi, utilizing the skills learned through much sincere and diligent practice, entices the Kundalini energy up the spine through the Sushumna. Each successive chakra is entered and aroused, provoking full expression of each chakra’s distinctive attributes and further encouraging the ascent, until the crown of the head is pierced and the thousand petal lotus is entered. This is the locus of the static point of the positive, masculine psycho-spiritual energy, the male god, Shiva. This is complete union, the fullest expression of yoga, perfect and unique to yoga. Unlike other spiritual practices, it includes the body. Not only is the mind transcended, the body is illuminated and experienced as the body of the divine. The physical plane is entwined in the higher realms. The ideal of liberation combines with worldly enjoyment.