easy practices for mooladhara chakra:
You can add a couple of asanas to your daily practice:
wide-legged standing forward bend. Hold for 10-20 seconds with eyes 1/2 closed and gaze gently at the nose tip. This posture done this way will energise mooladhara. When mooladhara energy is lifted, we are happier. This pose helps with rejuvenation of the physical body, which mooladhara is very much responsible for. ps legs don't have to be so wide that it feels horrid but you do need that opening between the buttocks. Head doesn't have to touch floor, and if you can't reach the ankles, you can just hang the arms. Do yoga poses for the glandular, and nervous system affects, rather than stretch and extend, and you will progress quickly. And you will look and feel great.
Butterfly forward bend: sit with soles of feet touching, knees bent out to sides, fingers around toes. Feet a little bit forwards of the groin. Exhale and bend forwards, aiming elbows to the floor in front of calves. Hold pose, gazing at the nose tip as above. This is calming and also affects mooladhara this way, with a gentle, blissful energy which we experience in the brain/mind complex.
Chakra meditation: visualise a ball of ruby red, held down by 4 crisscrossed black lines, holding the chakra tight and still. Imagine that you cut these ties with a light sabre, causing the ruby red ball to be freed: it spins, fast, clockwise. Then sit and experience the energy from the chakra rising up (it's quite gentle). Watch the inner space after.
more mooladhara chakra:
In the aura, and also within the Inner Realms, one can come to realise that this is the chakra which dictates, & reveals, how we are 'walking' through life, our physical stance, attitude, what we see/don't see, on our journey. Usually we are really unaware of how these aspects are truly manifesting, as we are dealing here with unconscious behaviour, meaning that we are unconscious of the drives and hidden causes of that behaviour. And, this makes some serious unconscious destructive behaviours and responses, difficult to manage. Mooladhara is houses our instinctive responses and they manifest physically, ie behaviour.
These behaviours are due to deeply ingrained reactions from trauma: from this life, past lives. And, we develop some sort of instinctive behavioural response. This is not something that we can sort out logically, especially if it's buried deep as a result of past life trauma. But.......there are some wonderful happenings, therapies, techniques, these days which can effect great healing for lesser trauma.
And when we talk about trauma, it's not something silly like not getting what you want, or someone being mean to you. No, it's physical abuse, sexual abuse, war, living in terror, awful things happening to oneself or our children. If your previous life was filled with terror and violence, and you are now always depressed, or have something like fear of going out, repeated nightmares...but you have no idea of that previous life, how would psycho-analysis or behavioural therapy, or counselling, nlp,...... the last goes on.......how would these resolve the natural reactions within your psyche??
So, what can we do?? Part of our Dharma, our destiny, is to deal with these deep seated behaviours and responses. But how??
I recommend Yoga Nidra, an ancient tantric technique. Nidra means sleep. Ideally, the consciousness remains alert while the body sleeps. but what really happens is that one is moving freely through and between conscious, subconscious,and unconscious areas of mind.
Whilst doing yoga nidra, the aura vibrates exactly the same as when healing is done in the aura, so it is an healing modality. Deep seated tensions and issues seem to leave the psyche. As this happens, one's energy is gently released, the consciousness expands, allowing those 'issues' buried deep within us to gently depart. Usually it doesn't happen in one go!!
Daily tensions, cares and worries disappear. Subconscious influences from this life and others, leave us. When symbols or chakra related experiences emerge, briefly, an indeterminate amount of karma leaves: this is from the unconscious realms.
This technique is best done regularly, listening to a recording. It can take a long time to train oneself to delve deep into the different areas of mind whilst lying down, so a tape is good.
After my Ashram years I came back into society. I was acutely aware that the Satyananda Yoga system had given me a wealth of experiential knowledge in the field of chakras, kundalini, the pranas, 5 koshas (sheaths eg physical body & others), tattwas (elements), and the differing akashas, or internal spiritual spaces. Up to a very good level.
To my surprise, the internal experiences continued. Even though I'd accepted that maybe they wouldn't. I learnt that it didn't take much for the spiritual life to keep moving.... onto the next chakra, the next level, the next realm. And, that some of these experiences needed help from someone else. That someone else is one's Guru. A couple of very profound jumps in energy/consciousness, to do with chakras, are done internally, by the Guru. It is said that the Guru leads one to the Inner Light, and what a surprise it is when this happens!! There is also a very important chakra which is awakened by Guru.
All of this is tremendous, and very special. One becomes very grateful. Every single day. How could you not be??
Of course we need to do some of the work ourselves, and it does seem that this is where the yamas (social development) & niyamas (individual development) come in. They are guidelines for conduct, ethical behaviour, & really it helps to incorporate them into your life, as a way of life. They aren't hard to do, & they need to be the way that one always is, not just outwardly going through the motions. When one misrepresents oneself by acting out the yamas and niyamas in public, by word and behaviour, but privately & internally disregard them, the spiritual life doesn't progress.
One really needs to become the Inner Knowledge, with integrity and gratitude. Internally keeping on the Path, and being true to the finer nature which each of us has inside of us. We can do this anywhere, but, I truly feel that it's easier to live in an Ashram to do it!!
Paramahansa Satyananda
bio....and how I came to enter the realms of the chakras:
In the early 1970s I had a debilitating muscle/organ problem, and in desperation I tried 'keep fit' to help correct it....hated it. My mother, a very intuitive woman, suggested I went to yoga (the condition became corrected within 6 weeks of yoga). Neither of us knew what yoga was, but off I trotted.
Stood in the doorway of a hall, and felt that whatever yoga was, this was 'it' for life. And so it has been. Lucky for me, the teacher, Swami Karmayogi Saraswati was a western swami (whatever that was!!), who taught asanas, pranayamas, yoga nidra, kriyas. It was most fortunate to meet and learn from him. At the end of that 1st year, I had my first chakra experience, but of course didn't know what it all meant, nor did I realise what had actually happened, but, I was acutely aware that I was never the same after. Nor were the people close to me.
A couple of years later, I went on to study with a wonderful woman, Melissa Jones (nee Carven), who was probably the first Satyananda disciple in New Zealand. I knew without a doubt that I had been lead to the person whom I had waited my whole life to meet, whom I'd had many visions of as a child: Paramahansa Satyananda, through Karmayogi who taught Satyananda's Yoga Nidra, and then through Melissa
Life took it's twists and turns, another massive experience happened: I was still totally ignorant of what was happening to me. Later on, my life fell apart about 7 years after starting yoga, a very bad marriage collapsed, and 5 months later I came across a new Satyananda Centre in Auckland. Seven months later I went to the large Australian Ashram at Mangrove Mountain, and was given, yes, given!! full Sannyasa initiation!!
I lived in the NZ Centre, taught there and in a residential countryside ashram, for 7 years, where I lived Satyananda's teachings 24/7. Throughout this time, the internal experiences were fast and furious, however it took many years before I completely understood what had been going on: I read Satyananda's Kundalini Yoga book, the most definitive and accurate book of this type, ever.
What I did learn during those ashram years was a wealth of deep inner spiritual experience, what it all meant.....up to the level that I was at, of course. And something very important: what to do to have those same experiences. Because Yoga is a science, and. doing specific techniques produces definite results.
I truly feel that what you need to do, depending where you are at, to progress spiritually, is one of the hidden keys of spiritual life. Anyone can get hold of the teachings, but it requires experiential knowledge to know how to apply them.
It is so amazing that there are hundreds of Satyananda disciples around the globe who have lived, breathed, kundalini yoga, and who in turn are able to pass on this knowledge, not as a Guru (which one does need for kundalini) but as a teacher.
(1984 with my son, Ali)
At the start of a new year, we often set up goals...which often don't manifest. We tend to use "should do", 'determination', or 'want' to decide our goals, and none of these have staying power, because they are not in alignment with our destiny, nor with how our psyche actually works.
1st choose something close to your heart. In the heart space, is the heart chakra (anahata) which has strong will, and a smaller chakra attached to anahata, sitting over the pancreas and stomach. It's about wishes, and destiny. When we start to do things which our heart is telling us to do, we are more in touch with our path, and many obstacles will disappear, whilst many opportunities will suddenly appear. Like magic. We are in sync with our destiny.
Have a goal which also incites your passion, which is from the 2nd chakra, swadisthana. Swadisthana also has unconscious mind. We cannot force things by fighting with our deeper layers of mind: unconscious forces usually win. But, we can use the energy and excitement of passion to propel us to achieve our goal, and, make sure that this goal is not threatening to you.
Muladhara (base chakra) is about preservation, instinct, unconscious behaviour. If we feel at all threatened, we will behave our way out of achieving our goal. This chakra is connected to Anahata so we are likely to feel secure about doing things which are in accordance with our destiny, our Path.
Energy, prana, is a bit different from passion for something, it's more like having fuel to do what we need to do, and it's found at the navel chakra, Manipura.
Each of the chakras 'brings something to the party' when we are moving in accordance with our destiny. Mysteriously, when we are not flowing in sync with our path, we don't have the energy to continue with our choices.
When the goal is close to the heart, fuels passion, is non-threatening, we can then use the power of mind: ajna chakra (3rd eye) to visualise the desired outcome. Add this visualisation to your yoga nidra practice and you will be well on the way.
so....more secrets of mooladhara. The outer petals are more to do with energy, although, as previously noted, the karma for this lifetime is contained within 1 of the 4 petals...near the feet. When you consider how mooladhara is to do with security...if we have a healthy sense of this, when chased by something dangerous...what would be the most secure, unconscious behavioural thing to do?? Run, of course. Use those feet! When we feel threatened on any level including mental/emotional, we can deal with the hormonal stress effects (cortisol in particular) by walking quickly for a couple of minutes. Practice Antar (inner) Mauna (silence) at the same time...Antar Mauna is a very specific meditation practice. It's invaluable for dealing with the deeper urges within us, the ones which we feel so personally about, they obscure the inner beauty which is inherent in us all. Part of Antar Mauna technique is to deliberately think 'bad' (very bad!!) thoughts about what/who ever is bothering you. Do this whilst walking very fast and hard. Doesn't have to be for long. Then, push those thoughts away, deliberately. Imagine pushing each problem into the ocean/rubbish tip/fire etc. Then have a bit of an amble. Always finish on a positive note. You can do this before meditation too, just get those negative aspects out, then push them away. It's a great way to lower blood pressure. Don't make it a 24/7 thing or you'll end up stuck in a cycle of venom. Practising Antar Mauna for a period of time changes us, very positively. We become lighter inside. I recommend learning off a cd as it's quite hard to do it on one's own if you're a beginner.
Tuesday 21st sept,4.30pm, kfm 106.9. Also known as the base, or root, chakra. Most people don't want to be active here, we all seem to want to be heart or 3rd eye people, but any spiritual activity at muladhara is true spiritual evolvement, for most of us it's the start of our spiritual journey. We need muladhara, it controls many unconscious and automatic body functions, when it's activated, rejuvenation starts, no doubt that's why so many spiritual yoga teachers look so young. If energy left this chakra, we would not be able to function, we wouldn't know if we had eaten, slept, urinated etc. It's very important to have strong energy here. Energy here in the aura comes up between the legs into the perineum (men)/near the opening of the cervix (women), with 4 red petals, the karma for this lifetime being contained within 1 of the petals......and this can be found quite easily. Being between the legs, the yoga deep squats and warriors stimulate this chakra, and generally we need to keep our legs moving to keep the auric part of it spinning! We need to walk, run, etc!! Our instinctive drives are found in muladhara: and unconscious behaviour...usually reactive. Like the difficult reactive behaviours of tantrums, rage, crying, bad behaviours which which we do not seem to be able to control; they happen quickly and can cause destruction in our lives. We need to keep our muladhara energy "up' so that our destructive responses are minimised. When the energy here is blocked, not moving, that is when we are reactive. Trigger point for muladhara is the nosetip (round end of nose), which contains many nerve endings; this point induces bliss, with an exquisite bliss inducing smell. Inside the centre (circle), is a yellow square. There is also a beautiful little snake, red or sometimes green, and something which looks like a pimple. There is a secret regarding these two which I'll tell you about next week.
