COME MEDITATE IN CONNECTICUT
The Way to Self-Realisation – the Knowledge of the Spirit
In Memory Of Shri Mataji
Dear All,
yesterday, on February 23, exactly one year ago Shri Mataji, the founder of Sahaja Meditation, passed away. In memory of her life and work I would like to share a short video about Shri Matajis life and what Claus Nobel, the nephew of the great Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize, said about her.
I hope you enjoy it!
Yours, Angi
Manchester, ReminderNews – An Article About the Sahaja Meditation Classes
Dear All,
here is a beautiful article about our Sahaja Meditation Class in Manchester. I hope you enjoy it.
Yours, Angi
remindernews.com
http://www.remindernews.com/article/2012/02/17/sahaja-yoga-is-catching-on-in-manchester
Sahaja Yoga is catching on in Manchester 
By Kyle Kernan – Staff Writer
Manchester – posted Fri., Feb. 17, 2012
Up the stairs at the Whiton Memorial Branch Library, 100 North Main St., in Manchester, on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., a transcendental experience awaits you through Sahaja Yoga. Tony O’Rourke, of New Haven, teaches the Sahaja meditation technique. The calm-mannered O’Rourke learned Sahaja Yoga while studying abroad in Russia in 1990, and has been practicing and teaching it ever since.
“It has had a profound effect on my psyche, I feel more calm and it has brought joy to my everyday life. I want other people to know about this and get exposed,” said Mike Kastellorizios, who is a graduate student at UConn in pharmaceuticals and has been practicing the yoga discipline for seven years.
The goal of the Sahaja is to shape one to be a moral, united, integrated and balanced person, according to Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, who created the Sahaja Yoga technique in India in 1970. Devi died about a year ago, but her technique and philosophy is catching on.
O’Rourke instructs his guests every Tuesday on how to awaken and raise their chakras, or energy levels. Chakra means “wheel” in Sanskrit. Chakras are located throughout the body and denote different aspects of our being. For example, the Mooladhara (moo-la-dhara) Chakra is located on the lower center of one’s abdomen, the outside ring of one’s palm and at one’s knees.
According to the philosophy, when this chakra is awakened, it becomes a magnetic force within the human body and is the foundation of our channels. The awakening process of all channels balances one’s entire system and enlightens the pure qualities of the chakras within us. This awakening process is the Kundalini, or self realization, according to the Sahaja Yoga website at http://www.sahajayoga.org/.
Sahaja meditation is meant to be a collective process, as everyone’s energies feed off each other, says O’Rourke.
“No matter what you’re looking for, you will find something here,” said Alin Tomoroga, owner of Propaganda Tattoo Studio on Main Street in Manchester. Tomoroga regularly attends the Tuesday sessions and has been practicing Sahaja Yoga for four years.
O’Rourke leads the awakening process through a series of affirmations which are directed to each energy center. These affirmations are meant for the person to push away their sense of self and be in a state of thoughtless awareness. In this state, a person can recognize the energy within them. These affirmations include, “I forgive myself,” “I am not this mind,” “I am not this body,” and “I am not these emotions.” The main energy circuit of a person runs from their heads down to their lower abdomen, said O’Rourke. If an energy center is warm or in pain, then one can focus the attention on clearing the negative energy out.
The difficult part of the Sahaja meditation process is learning to be in the state of thoughtless awareness that is needed to be in tune with one’s chakras.
“It is not simple and it takes a while to master, but you really need to desire it [the state of thoughtless awareness] from your heart,” said Tomoroga.
O’Rourke makes it easier for new guests to feel their own energies by conducting an energy clearing workshop. As a person sits idly in a chair without thought, O’Rourke has someone else raise their energy.
“Through this technique, it makes you aware of the vibrations and energies of others. You begin to
understand how these different energy centers are linked to our personalities, and it gives you a better idea on how to relate to others,” said Angi O’Rourke, Tony’s wife.
Angi said she has experienced people with hot or tense energies, and this tells her that these people are
angry or in trouble.
“There is so much we do not understand about ourselves. Sahaja Yoga helps me see how unique we are
and the beauty that is in every human being. When I identify that someone’s energy might be negative, I can
focus on that person’s energy, and in minutes they seem to calm down,” said Angi O’Rourke.
Sahaja Yoga is practiced and sponsored by the Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, a non-profit foundation in more
than 90 countries worldwide, and it is catching on across Connecticut.
Devi believed that spirituality is something one should not pay for, thus O’Rourke makes the Sahaja Yoga sessions free to the public. “This technique helps us to better know ourselves. On a subtle level we are all just energy,” said Tomoroga.
To learn more, visit http://www.sahajayoga.org/default.asp, or visit the next Sahaja meditation session at the Whiton Memorial Branch Library on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
The Stars Are Our Ancestors
Sometimes we are so trapped in our day-to-day life and worries that we often forget to remember from where we came. Or maybe we have never really thought about it? Then sit back comfortably and look back along your family line – where does it begin? It’s not with our grand-grand-grand-parents, not with the first human beings, nor the apes or reptiles, nor the amoebas… our family line starts at the very beginning, the Big Bang. Out of nothing everything came into being. And first it was billions and trillions of molecules that later on gathered together, forming planets, galaxies, imploding, exploding, always on the move. The molecules of our bodies are as old as the universe itself, and they once flew through space together with all the other stars until they started to form earth.
If you think of it – how high was the probability that life could start to exist? Thousands and thousands of different factors were necessary to create life, and they all happened perfectly at the right time in the right way. Just to mention some of them – the right distance between earth and sun that was needed to create the atmosphere (if earth would have been closer or more far away there would be no life), all the processes of cooling down the planet to the right temperature, all the different elements that had to be brought together in a specific way under specific circumstances so that life could be created, and the fact that out of single cells at the very beginning this abundance of life forms was created… this all – according to universal timings – in the blink of an eye.
‘Ok, that’s all really interesting, but what has it to do with us and our lives?’ one may ask. Maybe just this one thing: if we can see with how much care everything has been created, how everything in nature has its own purpose and gives a balance to something else, then it might make us aware that our life is not meaningless. In fact, each and every one of us is a masterpiece of art, of a long line of evolutionary processes. A lot of work has been put into what we are today. And this evolution is still going on, inside of us.
Maybe if we can see how special we are then we can also see how special the other is. Maybe, if we understand how billions and billions of years were put into creating just this very body we have, it may allow us to see ourselves as well as the others in a new light, maybe with more respect, maybe with more awe. And maybe all this gives us a hint that life is far more than we are aware of, and that there is nothing without a meaning, nothing without a purpose.
And there is something more to read between the lines of history – at the beginning everything was pure energy and this energy formed matter. So what is this energy? Nobody could ever touch the life force but we know for certain that it is there – isn’t it? – because if it is gone there is also no life anymore. So who is this life force that is coming and going? We are by far much more than just a simple piece of meat that was somehow put together and is now walking through the world as a result of some totally coincidental chemical and physical phenomenons.
Maybe all the stress we feel sometimes, maybe all the depressions, all the anger and other negative feelings are just there because we have forgotten who we really are? Because we have forgotten that life itself is such a miracle? And each and everyone is a walking miracle?
“You cannot know the meaning of life until you are connected to the power that created you,” Shri Mataji has said.
It was one of Shri Matajis visions that we all come to know who we really are. She worked very hard to find a way how to connect people with the very life force and on May 5th, 1970 she succeeded. Since then she was giving this knowledge for free to as many as possible, awakening their own inner energy so that it can connect to the allpervading-power around us. And when we sit connected like this, 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, we will touch the mysteries of life inside ourselves… and that is the beginning of a very personal and unique journey to inside, to meet ourselves, that what we really are…
A 10-Minutes Meditation To Just Be…
(sit wherever you like, the most important thing is to feel comfortable)
- Awaken Your Inner Energy
Please note that the meditation will only work deeply when you have awakened your Inner Energy! This is done just once and takes about 10 minutes. Here is a guided meditation to awaken your Inner Energy by the founder of Sahaja Meditation, Shri Mataji. If you went through it already skip step 1). When your Inner Energy is activated it will stay so, there is no need to repeat the affirmations (although you can do so if you like).
- At the beginning and the end of each meditation we do what we call “raising the energy” and give ourselves “a shield of protection”.
- Here is a nice animation how to do it: http://sahajayogawa.com/flash/charlie.swf
You can also find a detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on your head for some seconds, put the hand down again but keep focused on the top of your head where your hand was.
- Sit still for about 10 minutes, hands palm upwards to let the energy flow freely through them, keep the focus on top of your head. If you find your mind wandering repeat step 3) as many times as it helps you to focus.
If you feel like it have some pleasant music.
In this time we allow our inner energy as well as the all-pervading power around to work on us – we do not need to do anything, just surrender to it. - After the 10 minutes hold your hand over your head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, sometimes also like a warm breeze, like a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with ”raising the energy” and giving yourself ”a bhandan” (shield of protection).
- Enjoy yourself and everyone else!
I wish you a wonderful week and would love to hear your stories about your journey to inside!
Yours, Angi
Meditate Away Your Stress (including a 10-minutes-meditation for home)
Back to normal life again after the holidays? Missing the peace and relaxation? Feeling as if you cannot keep up with everything on your head? And then someone comes your way saying: hey, spend some more time (exactly that what we do not have) to meditate?
It is true, it might take 20 minutes more of your day’s schedule but it’s effects are priceless! Here is an interesting description what ‘stress’ really is:
Stress is the individual perception of losing control of his or her own life, a miss-match between expectation and reality. It is not the external events that are stressful but our perception of them. Thus stress may be viewed as an inner phenomena rather than an outer event.
Does it mean if we can change our perception we become more calm? Listen to what Brenin tells us how meditation helped him:
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Now, if stress is something created inside ourselves then how can we un-create it? Here is a short film (about 7 minutes) from India explaining how stress is created through an imbalance in our subtle system and how Sahaja Meditation can help:
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So, as we have learned now how stress is created by an imbalance in our subtle system, more precisely by an imbalance of either the left channel or the right channel we can easily counter it by just balancing these two channels. So here it is, our weekly meditation guide:
A 10-Minutes-Meditation on Balancing The Right and Left Channel
(sit wherever you like, the most important thing is to feel comfortable)
- Awaken Your Inner Energy
The meditation will only work when you have awakened your Inner Energy! Here is a guided meditation (approx. 20 Min.) to awaken your Inner Energy by the founder of Sahaja Meditation, Shri Mataji. If you went through it already skip step 1). This is done only once. When your Inner Energy is activated it will stay so, there is no need to repeat the affirmations (although you can do so if you like).
. - At the beginning and the end of each meditation we do what we call “raising the energy” and give ourselves “a shield of protection”.
Here is a nice animation how to do it: charlie.swf
You can also find a detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on your head for some seconds, put the hand down again but keep focused on top of your head where your hand was.
- Balancing your left side:
Put your right hand down towards the earth, keep the left hand open on your lap. You can ask your Inner Energy:
“Please remove all imbalances of my left side”
Sit like that for several minutes and allow your Inner Energy to clear your left side
Balancing your Right Side:
With your right hand open in your lap, bend your left arm upward, with your left palm facing the back. You can ask your Inner Energy:
“Please remove all imbalances of my right side”
Sit like that for several minutes and allow your Inner Energy to clear your right side - Then keep both hands on your lap, palms upwards, keep the focus on top of your head.
If you feel like it have some pleasant music.
In this time we allow our inner energy as well as the all-pervading power around to work on us – we do not need to do anything, just surrender to it. - After the 10 minutes hold your hand over your head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, sometimes also like a warm breeze, like a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with ”raising the energy” and giving yourself ”a bhandan” (shield of protection).
Here one small tip how to find out which side is in imbalance (you can only feel this when your Inner Energy is awakened as only with this awakening you become aware of – what we call – vibrations):
Hold out both your hands, palm upwards. Now feel if your hands are cool or warm. You might discover that there is a difference between both hands. If one hand is warm or hot it indicates that this is the side of the imbalance.
If your left hand is warm your left side is out of balance. That means that you may feel very emotional or depressed. If your right hand is warm of hot it tells that the right side is out of balance. That means that you might be overworked and stressed-out. If one or both hands are cool it means that the respective sides are in balance.
I wish you a peaceful and relaxed week and that in any stressful situation you can face it like a rock in a storm, calm and strong.
Yours, Angi
The Two Wolves Inside
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life…
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
“One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
“The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
“This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf will win?”
The old chief replied,”The one you feed.”
How Can We Make Joyful The New Normal?
A Happy New Year to all of You!
Holidays were great but now the Christmas tree is drying out, the wrapping paper is almost all thrown out and life is returning to so-called normal but how can we make ‘joyful’ the new normal? Because, honestly, who would call ‘normal’ joyful?
Somehow it seems we lose this quality of feeling joy the older we become. Instead a majority nowadays suffers from depression. Maybe at that point let us ask ourselves seriously: What hinders us to be joyful?
To find the answer it is worth going deeper into the knowledge about our subtle body and what is happening there. Let us compare our own state with the state of a child and we may soon see clearly why children are capable of being so joyful, and we are not.
Mooladhara represents wisdom, innocence and joy
Surprisingly it is the only energy center that is connected with all the other centers which is quite significant. How – that is best shown on our journey through the subtle centers. Children are the representatives of the Mooladhara. They are innocent about everything. On a deeper level it means that they approach everyone and everything without judging. Let us check if we can see someone or something without judging, that means without thinking. How easy is this for you? For me, honestly, it’s not. I walk around, see a nice decorated Christmas Tree, immediately the commentator somewhere on my shoulder throws out his tags with a “this is beautiful”, or a ”what a lousy tree’, or a ‘this person will catch a cold if he does not dress warmer’ and on and on and on… honestly, try it… look at something without thinking, without putting a tag on it… and let me know what happened!
Svadisthana represents creativity
Each child is an artist and they enjoy being artistic. They do not judge themselves if their work is good or not. They do not create anything in order that someone else approves it or not, they just create for the joy of creating and they enjoy their creation. How many times you are creative in one week and can you be creative without judging yourself, just only enjoying and loving whatever you produce?
Nabhi represents satisfaction
Children are so easy to satisfy. Take them out somewhere without any toys and they will just take whatever they find and make it into something. Children have an immense quality to make the best of every situation in life, to somehow arrange themselves in a way that they will feel satisfied. It is a natural mechanism in them, that might later on be disturbed by all the bombardments of advertisements or others pointing out what they should have, but originally they do not need much. Do we feel satisfied? With ourselves, with what we have, with our life?
Anahat represents our love and compassion
When children love they do not hesitate to show their love. They will throw their little arms around you, kiss you loudly and show their affection in many different ways. They also are not shy to demand love in return and do stamp up with their feet when they feel hurt. How much do we express our love to others? And how openly do we talk with each other when we feel that there is something wrong?
Vishuddhi represents our collective consciousness
Children are very collective. Children love other children. They always will search each others company and enjoy much more to play with others than to play alone. Have you ever seen when one child starts crying how the others join in? The true collective spirit… sometimes to the despair of the mothers. How much do we seek each others company? How much do we enjoy together or share the things we like?
Agnya represents our forgiving powers
Children can easily start fighting, but as easily they can forgive and in the next moment play together again as if nothing has happened. What about our forgiveness power? How many grudges do we have against someone else and how long does it take to give them up?
Sahasrara is the connecting power, the one that integrates all others
Have you ever wondered how children communicate with each other? Often they do not speak very much, or just some words, but somehow they seem to understand each other without any major difficulties. Children generally are much more open so it is easy for them to connect with another person and understand him/her without needing words. How easy it is for us to understand another’s person mood or state although the other might not say one word about it?
After this little journey through ourselves we might get a quite good overview where we have blocked our innate qualities that actually were the key to our joy in childhood. So what we want is to re-open all these centers and allow these qualities to grow and prosper without the dry commentator at the back telling you that it is not worth it, or an impossible task, or whatever other reasonable reasons.
Start listening to the child within! What would you enjoy? Want to see a movie? Why not take your inner child by its hand, go out and have a lot of fun together! Life is too beautiful to let it become a dry and grey day-to-day frustration! Allow yourself this freedom again to just enjoy, draw something just for the fun of it, run around or simply be somewhere admiring something beautiful. Remember how you managed everything as a child, how you made your day a great one!
Now, maybe sometimes it is not so easy as it sounds. Life was giving us many lessons and they are all stored inside, sometimes giving us a feeling of heaviness. But no worry, it is not difficult to get rid of all these inner burdens. It is only important to give yourself every day 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, to meditate. In your meditation you connect to the all-pervading power around you and allow it to take out your problems and heal your physical, emotional and mental body.
So for a new start into the year 2012 we will start with a 10-minutes-meditation specially for our first energy center, the Mooladhara. If you do this meditation regularly you will experience more and more joy without needing any reason to be joyful, and you will feel generally much lighter.
A 10-Minutes-Meditation on the Mooladhara
(for this meditation exercise it is good to sit on the ground, but not necessary)
- Awaken Your Inner Energy
Here is a guided meditation (approx. 20 Min.) to awaken your Inner Energy by the founder of Sahaja Meditation, Shri Mataji. If you went through it already skip step 1). This is done only once. When your Inner Energy is activated it will stay so, there is no need to repeat the affirmations (although you can do so if you like).
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- At the beginning and the end of each meditation we do what we call “raising the energy” and give ourselves “a shield of protection”.
Here is a nice animation how to do it: charlie.swf
You can also find a detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on your head for some seconds, put the hand down again but keep focused on top of your head where your hand was.
- If you can (it is not necessary) try out this physical exercise guided by Shri Mataji in the following short video – it is worth trying because it helps the Mooladhara to open up more:
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Then put both hands on or towards the Mother Earth. Feel the vibrations flowing between your hands and the earth. As the Mooladhara is connected to the element Earth this will help you a lot to clear it and to open it up more and more.
Have some pleasant music if you like. Allow your inner energy as well as the all-pervading power around to work on you – there is no need to do anything, just surrender to it. - After the 10 minutes hold your hand over your head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, sometimes also like a warm breeze, like a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with ”raising the energy” and giving yourself ”a bhandan” (shield of protection).
- Have fun with yourself! Enjoy!
Make joy a normal condition in your life! With this I wish you a very normal joyful week!
Yours, Angi
Where Are We When We Are Not Here?
Christmas Day is coming nearer and the stress level rising higher. Still there are so many things to do, the last gifts to buy, the Christmas Tree to be decorated. In the “Time of Silence” we are not silent at all.
Maybe that is a good time to try out Sahaja Meditation. Why? Because with this meditation you can achieve a state of inner silence within minutes, not only at home, but even on a stress-full working day or in a crowded shopping-mall. You only have to know the trick how to become thoughtless. And you will see that in this state of thoughtless awareness everything starts flowing, from no-where new ideas and inspirations may come up, be it what to buy for whom or a new business plan, it works for everything.
But what is this mysterious “Thoughtless Awareness”? Before answering this question I would like you to do a little test.
Look back on your day and try to remember what you were thinking about. Were your thoughts
- circulating more about something of the past or
- were they jumping into the future, weaving new plans and strategies?
Did you notice that even in our language we associate our thinking with our “where are we”? We can be far away with our thoughts, absent minded, then someone else might ask: “Where are you? Are you listening to me?”
Where our thinking is, there are we. So after this little test, can you say if you were more in the past or in the future?
And here is one more small test: when you are in the present what would you think?
Did you notice it? When your attention is in the present you do not think. You can, if you want, that would mean to move into the past or future again, but if you concentrate on this very moment, the present, you are thoughtless.
This is the very small, but important clue. Be in the present. Be here. Right now. No more rattling of the brain about the past or the future, just to be. Not have to be this or that, because we have learned so, not to plan what to do the next moment, just to be. That is the point where we experience the inner silence, the soothing calmness of just being, and of enjoying to be.
Did you ever ask yourself why children are so capable of learning so fast? They have one simple trick – they do not think. They are in the “Here and Now”, therefore capable of absorbing everything because they are not distracted by inner thought processing.
Now ask yourself again: Where are you, right now? Are you lingering in the past, in a memory? Or far ahead in the future, that has not happened, yet?
Or have you managed already to pull yourself back to the present moment? A state that is not that easy to reach for most of us! But it is worth going for it, because as it is said: The present is a present, therefore it is called the present.
As it is, with Sahaja Meditation it becomes much easier to reach the state of thoughtless awareness, of being in the present, of feeling inner peace. We only need to balance the left and right side of our subtle body. The left side corresponds with our past, the right side with our future. If you are someone who generally thinks a lot about past things it might indicate that your left side is out of balance, if you are someone who plans and organizes a lot, always looking out for something in the future it might indicate that your right side is out of balance.
The following meditation exercise focuses specially on balancing our inner system. Doing this balancing every day, 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, might increase your ability in a very short time to feel a state of inner silence and peace, something that we want to enjoy specially at Christmas Time together with our family.
A 10-Minutes-Meditation-Guide to experience Inner Silence
(sit wherever you like, the most important thing is to feel comfortable)
- Awaken Your Inner Energy
This is done only once and takes about 20 minutes. If you went through it already skip step 1). When your Inner Energy is activated it will stay so, there is no need to repeat the affirmations (although you can do so if you like).
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- At the beginning and the end of each meditation we do what we call “raising the energy” and give ourselves “a shield of protection”.
Here is a nice animation how to do it: charlie.swf
You can also find a detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on your head for some seconds, put the hand down again but keep focused on top of your head where your hand was.
- Balancing your left side:
Put your right hand down towards the earth, keep the left hand open on your lap. You can ask your Inner Energy:
“Please remove all imbalances of my left side”
Sit like that for several minutes and allow your Inner Energy to clear your left side
Balancing your Right Side:
With your right hand open in your lap, bend your left arm upward, with your left palm facing the back. You can ask your Inner Energy:
“Please remove all imbalances of my right side”
Sit like that for several minutes and allow your Inner Energy to clear your right side - Then keep both hands on your lap, palms upwards, keep the focus on top of your head.
If you feel like it have some pleasant music.
In this time we allow our inner energy as well as the all-pervading power around to work on us – we do not need to do anything, just surrender to it. - After the 10 minutes hold your hand over your head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, sometimes also like a warm breeze, like a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with ”raising the energy” and giving yourself ”a bhandan” (shield of protection).
I hope this meditation helps you for the coming week and beyond, to be in complete balance, enjoying the present moments and feeling totally peaceful with yourself and everyone else. I wish you and your families
A Wonderful and Merry Christmas!
Yours, Angi
When Curing Becomes A Side-Effect…
Dear All,
Today I would like to share a documentary (30 minutes long) of the early 1990s that dives deep into the effects of Sahaja Meditation on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level.
Here are some of the key topics:
- Carl G. Jung speaking about the anima and animus (the left and right side of our subtle system) and about the imbalance of these two in Western society
- Interviews with three doctors and their experiences with Sahaja Meditation, including scientific research on how Sahaja Meditation reduces high blood pressure
- Shri Mataji giving a detailed explanation where and how most of the diseases start and explaining how the awakening of the inner energy works to cure them by ones own power
I hope you enjoy this documentary and that you will have as many Aha!- and Oh!-effects as I had. One such moment for me was that curing people is only a side effect of Sahaja Meditation, while the essence of it enables us to go beyond and find out who we really are, our true Self.
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So let’s start with our journey to the greatest mystery within – our universal self! 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening is all you need!
The 10-Minutes-Meditation
(sit wherever you like, the most important thing is to feel comfortable)
- Awaken Your Inner Energy
This is done only once and takes about 20 minutes. If you went through it already skip step 1). When your Inner Energy is activated it will stay so, there is no need to repeat the affirmations (although you can do so if you like) - At the beginning and the end of each meditation we do what we call “raising the energy” and give ourselves “a shield of protection”.
Here is a nice animation how to do it: http://sahajayogawa.com/flash/charlie.swf
You can also find a detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on your head for some seconds, put the hand down again but keep focused on the top of your head where your hand was.
- Sit still for about 10 minutes, hands palm upwards to let the energy flow freely through them, keep the focus on top of your head. If you find your mind wandering repeat step 3) as many times as it helps you to focus.
If you feel like it have some pleasant music.
In this time we allow our inner energy as well as the all-pervading power around to work on us – we do not need to do anything, just surrender to it. - After the 10 minutes hold your hand over your head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, sometimes also like a warm breeze, like a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with “raising the energy” and giving yourself “a bhandan” (shield of protection).
- Enjoy your day!
I wish you many exciting and joyful adventures on the road to Within!
Yours, Angi
Money, Money, Money, Must Be Funny…
Dear All,
Are you, like me, worried about all the turmoil that is going on in the world? Do you also sometimes get the feeling of being stuck in between forces over which you have hardly any control but that can crash on your head any time, like the financial crisis? All in all our near future prospects do not seem to be as rosy as we would wish them to be. And many of us might wonder how we would cope with a crisis if – may fate prevent it – one does come to our own door-steps.
One of the most common worries is about our financial situation and one cannot help agreeing with the ABBA song when they sing: “Money, Money, Money, must be funny, must be sunny, in a rich mans world… all the things I could do if I had a little money…”
But is that really so, is having more money the solution? Does money really make us happy? It is worth looking a bit deeper into it.
Before we do that let me tell you about one very personal experience. I was many times in India and stayed there with different people, in conditions that for the mind of a Westerner would be regarded as quite challenging. Often there was only one room, with a kitchen and bathroom attached and this room served as dining room, leisure place and sleeping room in one. In the evening a carpet was rolled out on the floor and being stacked like sardines we went to sleep, parents, children, cousins, me, all in one small room. And guess what… despite the lack of the usual amenities, the warmth and care from my hosts more than made up for the physical discomforts. In short, it felt like no hardship at all. Of course, even in such poverty there are limits and one might see things that will stick to your mind, heart-breaking, but generally I was deeply amazed about one thing – how could people still look so satisfied despite their material scarcity?
It is said when you go to another country you might experience kind of a culture shock. What shall I say… the culture shock did come, but not in India – it was when I came home! I got a shock about my own culture. There, in the middle of wealth and well-fed people I was sitting in a metro, or walking down a street and staring at grumpy, unfriendly, discontent faces. Isn’t that kind of a curious paradox? Here we are living on a heap of riches (compared to other countries) and being unsatisfied, and there people often have the minimum of a minimum to live on and seem to be more satisfied than we?
I drew the most reasonable conclusion: satisfaction isn’t connected with having money, nor with being rich. But how could that be?
The answer lays inside us… and we have to start by better understanding the set-up of our third energy center. We learned already last week that the whole center is divided into three parts: one part that is lined up on the left channel (emotions), one part that is lined up on the right channel (actions), and one that is lined up on the center channel (our personal evolution).
Here is an overview of what is governed by these three parts:
left: satisfaction, family, household
right: attention, job and material well-being
center: balance, evolution, values
You see, although money-issues are a part of this center (at the right, to be precise), the satisfaction comes from the left part of the center, which is closely connected to family and household – “family” can also be expanded to any close relationship.
Now, if we move our attention too much on the right side of this center being busy on how to make a lot of money, we move out of balance, away from our satisfaction that is actually on the left side of the energy center….
It does work the other way round as well! Too much running after every satisfaction results in a move away from our balance, and we might not be able to keep our jobs, or the money runs through our fingers and we end up in debts that we may never be able to repay. One of the worst examples is the drug abuse that creates a kind of artificial satisfaction, but in reality drains out the energy of the left side of this Nabhi and weakens the whole center more and more.
How do we know if our Nabhi is in balance?
If you have looked already through the sites about Sahaja Meditation and the Subtle Body you might have found hints that our inner energy, once awakened, actually communicates with us. Each finger and parts of our hands are connected to a specific energy center. On the chart above you will see that the third energy center, the Nabhi, is linked to both our middle fingers. If the Nabhi is in balance both these fingers will feel slightly cool, or light. If there is a block you might feel warmth, heaviness or a tingling. The left middle finger corresponds to the left side of the Nabhi, the right middle finger to the right side of the Nabhi. If both fingers feel warm, heavy or tingling it shows a block in the center Nabhi.
How to bring back the Nabhi into balance?
That we can easily do in our meditation where we allow the all-pervading power to flow into us, provide all needed energy to this center and take out all “bad energy”, i.e. blocks. It might however need more than just a one-time-meditation. Often we have over-worked our energy centers so much that they do need a little time to recover and come back to their full capacity but if you keep meditating, every day 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, you will soon feel the change.
So here it is again, our 10-Minutes-Meditation with focus on the Nabhi Center
(sit comfortably wherever you like ):
- If your Inner Energy is already awakened you can skip 1). Otherwise please take the time once for the 20-minutes-meditation by the founder of Sahaja Meditation, Shri Mataji, where she leads you through the process of awakening this energy. If this energy is not awakened the rest will not work!
- Start your meditation by “Raising the Inner Energy” and put the shield of protection around you:Here is a helpful animation how to do it: http://sahajayogawa.com/flash/charlie.swf
Or the detailed description in our Meditation Tips on page 4 and 5: Meditation Tips - Put your right hand on top of the head, put a little bit of pressure and focus there, where you feel the pressure.
- Keep focused on top of your head, put both hands on the lap and try to feel your left and right middle fingers – do they feel cool, warm, heavy, tingling, any different from the rest of the hand? If they feel cool it means the center is in balance; warm, heavy or tingling sensations indicate that the center is disturbed in its balance
The left middle finger corresponds to your left Nabhi: If you feel a warm, heavy or tingling sensation on the left middle finger put your right hand on the left side of your navel, left hand palm upwards on the lap, keep the focus on top of your head, stay in mental silence for about 10 minutes (or longer if you wish so)
The right middle finger corresponds to your right Nabhi: If you feel a warm, heavy or tingling sensation on the right middle finger put your left hand on the right side of your navel, right hand palm upwards on the lap, keep the focus on top of your head, stay in mental silence for about 10 minutes (or longer if you wish so)
Both middle fingers together correspond to your center Nabhi: If you feel a warm, heavy or tingling sensation on both middle fingers put your right hand on your navel, left hand palm upwards on the lap, keep the focus on top of your head, stay in mental silence for about 10 minutes (or longer if you wish so) - After 10 minutes see if there is a change in the sensation of the middle fingers
- Then hold your hand over the head and see if you feel vibrations coming out – it might feel like a cool breeze, or warm, maybe a tingling, or simply “somehow different”.
- End the meditation again with ”Raising the Energy” and giving yourself ”a bhandan” (shield of protection).
You might have guessed one thing already yourself: the key to our personal success lays in the Nabhi! If this center is in balance we can be satisfied no matter what. And in such a balanced state it is very easy for us to make the right decisions on our way as well.
And here the secret of the week: the whole construction of this Nabhi center shows us clearly one thing:
We were meant to be happy and satisfied people! We were meant to be capable to enjoy life in all its forms, in all its varieties and in all its facets!
I wish you a wonderful week and that you connect deeply with your satisfaction and joy inside!
Yours, Angi
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