A few email thought to remember from the 40 Sadhana on the theme of prana. Pavan Guru mantra.
Sometimes our Prana is low. We feel tired and sensitive. Feelings suddenly seem bigger and more intense, and our capacity to handle them with neutrality dwindles ? . It is important as a yogi to realize when this is the case. This is the time for compassion. For yourself, and for those around you. It’s a time for softness and self care. Sometimes life doesn’t allow us the time and space for that when we need it. But even then, even just having that awareness of low Prana, and imploring compassion while you do what you need to do, can make all the difference. When we relax, we allow the Apana to move through us, to create space for more Prana to come. That is rejuvenation. Be kind to yourself, friends
“Conquer your own mind, and you will conquer the world”- Guru Nanak. And through yogic technology, we learn that if we conquer our breath, we can conquer our mind. We talk a lot about the mind in Kundalini Yoga… mostly as this annoying thing that likes to make stuff up and gets in the way ?. But it can be easy to forget that the mind is actually an extremely powerful and necessary tool. You know when you were a kid and you put a magnifying glass under the sun and it burned a little black whole in the ground? Maybe you etched your name in the dirt? That’s the mind. The magnifying glass. It’s not the sun, not the air, and not the fire. But it harnesses, focuses, and directs those energies, creating an impact!But we have to TRAIN our mind to make it work FOR us, instead of letting it run amok and run the show ?. The word mantra: “man= mind, tra= projection”. The focus of your mind is what makes the mantra effect your being when you chant. Imagine that your breath is what’s holding the magnifying glass steady in position, and your spirit, your love, and the mantra, are like the sun. What would kind of impact would you etch into your life?
Ok folks. It’s time to talk about Wim Hof. Have you heard of him? If not, look him up! Using only the power of his Pranic body, he climbed Mount Everest in shorts. With no oxygen tank or anything either. Not in a legend thousands of years ago. Like, 2007. Yup. He’s for real. He can control his body temperature, and oxygen in his body, through his breath. There are also people who don’t eat, EVER. I don’t know any of them myself… but somehow they survive using only their breath also! Yogis have been doing things like this for centuries, but somehow it can be easy to say “no… that’s just a myth”. Well, it’s not. Yogic technology is for real. Next time you’re 7 minutes into your Pran Bandha meditation and your mind says “nah, this isn’t a thing… nothing’s actually happening ?”. Tell it to think of Wim Hof for a second. Maybe take a few deep and complete breaths while you listen…Then go back to your mantra!
Pavan Guru is not only the great neutralizer, but the great equalizer. It shows us that the same Life Force is alive in everything. Not “good Life Force” or “bad life force”, the SAME. We are all equal. All living things. And for us humans- Yogi Bhajan taught that we are not human beings here to have a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings here to have a HUMAN experience. We all have a responsibility to hold our own space, and manage our own Prana. No one can do that for us. We are each on our own journey that no one else could possibly fully understand. But even though our journeys are separate, we are also still deeply connected, and woven together. As if we are all distinct facets of the same diamond. What I’m saying is, remember that you are just as Sacred as the highest thing that you revere. So is everyone else. Your breath of life is the same breath, cut from the same fabric of creation. Your value is definite, distinct, and of intrinsic Sacredness. Your pranic body can teach you exactly what that is. It can help you feel it.
The Life Force is always moving. Whether we see it or not, or are consciously aware of it or not, it is still doing it. Like a current. You’ve felt that before, I’m sure! You start moving, or you start putting your mind into something inspiring, and you just get caught up in that current. There is little pushing or trying anymore, just moving… creating the experience in that moment… it is blissful. Doing yoga, exercising, in any form of art and creativity, the experience can be felt in many ways. It is new Life every single time. We tune into it and ride the wave… we ride the flow of Prana. Though sometimes if we are sick or heavily grieving, or down because of some other extenuating circumstance, we are not able to be swept up in the current in the same way. We feel blocked. Our Prana is having to be used in deeper more unseen ways. But what I have found is that even in those moments deep in sickness or even when feeling grief… there can be a moment of breaking. When something shifts, or cracks, and then all we can do is release. The current is pouring out, rather than in. In sickness it can be a fever breaking, and the body just sweating and sweating. When experiencing grief, new or old, something feels like it cracks in the heart, and crying overtakes us. There is nothing to be done, except surrender to the impossibly big feeling of love and pain. To the beautiful exodus of energy from within. Apana creating space for Prana. Whether we are riding that wave in inspiration and joy, or in pain and suffering, it is worth it to surrender. Prana and Apana transform us. After we are swept off our feet by those currents, we are not the same after. We can’t go back. New Life comes that we couldn’t possibly have imagined. We have to live it forward with love… it’s the only way.
Ego is SO SNEAKY. It’s truly amazing.
Remember, ego is in charge of separation. The opposite of the experience of oneness. We need it though! Healthy ego is how we create boundaries! But when it holds too much power over you, it runs amok.
Ego is most commonly known as “being full of yourself”. But the other side of that is also true. You are also being egotistical when you feel not good enough and less than everyone else. Or you are beating yourself up way more than necessary.
Both states are keeping you small.
If you are feeling negatively about yourself, or negatively towards someone else, chances are your ego is involved. It can be very conspiratorial and manipulative. SO sneaky. It is a shapeshifter and it can be almost impossible to recognize! But as a yogi, it is our constant learning journey to recognize it. To look it in the face and say, “stand down please. I have more important work to do now.”
Let’s put our Prana where is actually helpful. Into love.
Let it set healthy boundaries for you and hold you in your own excellence!!
But you hold the reigns. Use your Prana wisely. Let your heart and intuition run the show.
With all this talk of Prana, it is important to remember it’s opposite, called Apana. Simply put: if Prana is what’s coming in, then Apana is what’s going out.
Even in the breath, the inhale is Prana, and the exhale is Apana.
For me, my most concrete way to understand the importance of Apana is when I meditate on my breath: when my exhale is totally complete and my lungs are all the way empty, then my inhale is that much longer and deeper and more complete.
Your exhale is as important as your inhale. It creates the space for it.
To me this applies to Apana in all forms.
Not to be crude or anything, but we all know how awkward it feels to eat while we need to go to the bathroom really badly ?! Our body says “nope, we have to deal with the Apana first, thank you very much!”
Wherever there is Prana, there is Apana.
The only way to move forward is to create space for the new Life that the universe is bringing us. We have to let go of what is no longer relevant.
I’ve learned that guilt and shame are some of the most toxic of emotions. They make us stuck in our old pain, and even cause us to play out that pain again and again in our life. Like emotional constipation!
We don’t like eating when we have to go to the bathroom. So why do we hold on to these yucky emotions that keep us in pain? If we’re doing this Sadhana, then we obviously want to bring in more Life. We obviously want to choose love over pain.
We have to let go of the feelings that no longer serve us, in order to bring in feelings that do. The Apana will create space for the Prana.
Our higher power, with unconditional love, only wants us to move forward. Forgiveness is that release. We must forgive forward, backwards, and sideways. Forgive in, and forgive out. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let the love in, let the love in, let the love in.
Yogi Bhajan taught that Prana is the absolute best healer.
It is believed in many ancient healing modalities that the human body is capable of healing itself from any ailment, if it is brought into complete balance physically, mentally, and spiritually.
It is believed by many, that we have the complete capacity to heal ourselves, within us. I believe it too. And I believe that it is our own Prana that does this.
I mean, how many incredible and seemingly unbelievable miracle healing stories have you heard of? Lots, right? It’s a real thing that happens.
Remember, Prana is the actual LIFE FORCE –
Coming into your body as if being pulled from the earth the way a tree does with its roots. It is infinite, limitless, and unknowable.
We can ask this Prana to heal us from anything and everything. To help us make way for love… wherever that way may be blocked. It will do it, if you let it.