2024
13 Days of 2024.
How are you doing so far?
I started the new year with a high fever, congested upper respiratory & yes COVID! I made it through and am slowly recovering. I realised now as I am getting older, that recovering from an infection is an arduous task, the body is taking time to heal itself. The good thing about being sick is that one has no energy to do anything else EXCEPT resting. RESPECT! I was in Malta on holiday and was so occupied with feeling bad for my partner and he was just relieved that I got better each day and that I was still (not running around or working out).
I was leading a 40-day Kundalini meditation practice online and found it really hard to practice with a full-on high fever but I found myself in love with the closing prayer phrase and it kept me going each day.
MAY THE LONG-TIME SUN, SHINE UPON YOU
ALL LOVE SURROUND YOU AND THE PURE LIGHT WITHIN YOU
GUIDE YOUR WAY ON
In Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini yoga, the closing prayer was originally a snippet of an old Celtic lyric poem, it came into use as an Irish blessing and I think it was first heard in a lecture by Yogi Bhajan in 1985, click HERE to listen to the lecture.
I love listening to old teachers and sadly Yogi Bhajan was later exposed in 2020 and accused of rape and abuse and his teachings became less popular however I find his teachings and interpretations were legit and transformative. It changed my practice and I am very grateful for it therefore I consciously chose to practice Kundalini until today and I try to share information about the practice based on facts and my personal experience.
I am a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, and our lineage is based on Student to Guru, unlike other schools of thought we take refuge in Guru, Buddha, Dharma & Sangha whereas else other Buddhist traditions take refuge in Buddha, Dharma & Sangha. Why? Simply because Buddhism came to Tibet through Padmasambhava, he was a Tantra teacher from India. We rely on the interpretations of sutras and comments from previous teachers and that can only be clarified by a scholar. Tibetan Buddhism is based on spoken teachings or dharmas as most Tibetans were illiterate, communities or sangha are so important in spreading the teachings. We have very similar stories to Yogi Bhajan’s lineage of Kundalini Yoga, this happens because we were blinded by the effect of the practice and no longer wage over our worth. Sometimes when we experience transformative change we are overwhelmed and fearful of losing it (the feel-good feeling), you know like why do people give everything to a cult? It’s the FEAR of losing it all so we feed the beast and the later the beast ate us up.
The word REFUGE means to rely on not to submit ourselves to so if I swap the REFUGE IN to RELY ON, it sounds different, right?
I rely on my Guru
I rely on Buddha
I rely on Dharma
I rely on Sangha
When we rely on something or someone we sort of have an intelligence or judgement on the information shared with you meaning we don’t simply follow the information or simply forget that these teacher a human. Humans are smart & brilliant and at the same time are not exempted from greed, lust & power lest not forget no humans are free from suffering and causes of suffering.
With this said, cherry-pick your practice, don’t settle for less. Rely on your wisdom do not submit.
Question EVERYTHING.
xx
Nikki
