Kundalini Rising

Satnam, everybody. Welcome to Sacred Kundalini. On Yoga Anytime, I'm Kara Looney. Today is our eighth practice together. I really just feel very blessed to have been able to bring this series of classes onto this platform. I've loved the community that engages here, both in the live stream and through the video comments and questions. It's really very beautiful. Please keep them coming. I'm so eager to be a part of that. Today, we are going to be working as sort of a, the class will be sort of a culmination of all the classes leading up to this point. All of the classes we've been working with some level of, whether it be function or system or level of awareness, that brings us to kind of this holistic understanding of the practice of Kundalini Yoga, if not just at a fundamental level. In today's class, we're going to be working on that rising of the Kundalini, the activation of the energy. In truth, you know, in its transmuted form, the Kundalini energy manifests itself as our sexual energy. So when we work with balancing out our sexual energy in our bodies, right? So it's not necessarily so stuck and radiating down in this area when it can transmute and sort of rise and distribute itself throughout our whole being. Then we start to create an environment within our being that is primed for that evolutionary energy to manifest itself. Now I know it's been said in many texts, and I don't necessarily disagree with this, that I have no reason to disagree with it. I tend to trust many texts, ancient texts that have represented the same kind of perspective collectively. And that perspective being that, you know, defining one's Kundalini energy may be considered somewhat of a dharmic blessing or a graceful blessing, right? Maybe it's your karmic setup that allows that energy to manifest itself within this lifetime. I don't necessarily disagree with that. I do know that it does happen a lot. People have the expression of the Kundalini energy, but it's not, although it is something that opens itself up to the potential for the experience of enlightenment, it is not equal to enlightenment, right? It is a manifestation of energy that has expressed itself within your body because your body was primed for its expression. A lot of times people confuse Kundalini awakening with enlightenment, and that's not the case. Although it may be a precursor in some aspects to that, maybe not even within one lifetime, but it is definitely an evolution of energetic expression within one's being that creates the opportunity towards spiritual evolution. And we'll be working with that energy today. We'll be working with all of the stuff we've done throughout these classes and then bringing it all home into this last kriya set that is intended to make use of the transmuted energy to allow the environment within our being to be primed for the potential of that energy expressing itself. And now people sometimes ask, is the expression of Kundalini energy dangerous?

And it's like asking, is being born dangerous? Is dying dangerous? It's the most natural thing that could express itself within your being, though there are things that we can do to inhibit or maladapt the expression of that energy, right? Even diet choices, right? Lots of foods with preservatives and toxins, drug use, you know, can sometimes not only activate and facilitate that energy, but also sometimes cause it to maladapt in its expression. So in that context, sometimes the Kundalini energy can be a little bit disorienting. But it is, again, one of the most natural things, just like being born and dying, right? Little mysterious, maybe more than a little. Let's start with tuning in. Let's rub our hands together, stimulating 72,000 energy channels. We call them nadis. We tune in with Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. I bow to the divine teacher within. We're calling on that high self that fully aligned expression of ourselves that is connected to divine consciousness. Let's bring the thumbs into the sternum, shoulders down away from the ears. And let's tune in Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. I bow to the divine teacher within. Let's take a deep breath into the nose to begin. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Take a deep breath into the nose. Suspended. Big belly, root lock, third eye. Soften yourself and be a container for that held breath. And exhale release. All right. So as I was mentioning, we're working with a set that brings some of that more visceral sexual energy that we have, right? In whatever way it manifests itself within us as human beings, right? It can be extremely overt or it can be extremely repressed, but nevertheless, the energy is there. And so we're working to take it from its transmuted form and start to really focus it, right? So taking it from sexual energy to spiritual energy. And that's what today's set's going to be all about. Let's start with our warmup. Hands are on the shins. Eyes are up at third eye center. And if you've taken the other classes with me, I'd like you to consider tapping into some of the awarenesses that you've gained through the past few weeks in class, right? Connecting to those three centers of intuition, the gut, the heart, the third eye. Acknowledging that strengthening this nervous system, right? Through kind of leaning into the uncomfortable, helps prepare the nervous system to hold a, have a larger bandwidth, to hold a larger charge, right?

So when we start to isolate and specify that energy, the nervous system can sustain it. And I think that's why there's so much expression of depression and anxiety and all of those things. I think collectively we are all starting to evolve and our nervous systems are being tested, right? Be it by our internal reactions to our outward experience or whatever, you know? So much information coming at us, us trying to process it. Let's keep those eyes at third eye. Let's take four more in this direction. Inhaling forward, exhaling back. And inhale, hold center and reverse. Grounding that lowest energy center, let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift through the heart. Flex the spine. Exhale, tuck and lift. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale, exhale. Shoulders down away from the ears, hands on the shoulders. Let's take an inhale to his left, exhale to his right, root lock, third eye, long spine. Let's take these nice beautiful twists, wringing out low body organs, realigning the vertebrae of the spine, drawing that energy up into the heart. Inhale left, exhale right. Hands come off the shoulders and ghee on mudra. Now to reach those arms 60 degrees, full reach, engage through the arms, heartless to the sky. Inhale, exhale. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift. And exhale, let's sweep from side to side, opening up the side body and the low back, charging the energy field around the body. See if you can connect to the energy in your palms. Use your heart energy to kind of charge the energy coming from the palms, right? Hands, arms are an energetic expression of the heart center. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, reach arms nice and high. Exhale, hinge bow, stretch forward. And let's come over on to tabletop, hands under shoulders, knees under hips. And let's begin a cow. Hands directly under shoulders, all right? Inhale, chin and exhale. Exhale, round tuck and dome. Here we go. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale, chin and tail. Exhale, round tuck and dome. Please ground the hands, spread the fingers wide, curl the toes under. Let's lift up into a downward dog. Again, a lot of today's set's going to be in seated cross-leg position. So I'd like to get some length into the legs.

Give them a little stretch. So please start to pedal and wag. Pedal the feet, wag the tail. Chin is to the chest, lengthen the spine. And then please ground the right heel and the left heel. And then right leg rises up high. Nice long extension. Give it a good stretch. Hip points are facing the floor. And then please bend the right knee and turn the right hip point to the right side of the room. So the belly is facing the right side of the room. And you're breathing and stretching through the hip flexor in the quad. And then gently release. Right leg comes down, left leg sweeps up high. Nice long stretch. Hip points are facing the floor, shoulders away from the ears. And then please bend the knee, turn the left hip point to the left side of the room and give it a good stretch. Head hangs heavy. Last breath. And then please ground the foot. Let's come seated. Back into a child's pose for just a moment. Forehead to the ground. Connect third eye to the earth. From your presence. Sometimes we get hijacked by thoughts and then we just start running through the motions and passively listening. Let's step into the present moment and start actively listening, actively participating. Let's rise up. How interesting it is that we constantly have to remind ourselves to be active participants in our lives. I have to do it on a regular basis. Right? We just kind of get into like thought land. All right. So we're going to start this Kriya with a couple fun and playful exercises. And especially if never more so now than ever, I would like you to please consider the reality that our whole being is just a series of energy fields. Right? What appears to be my skin and my bones holding this very specific form and how this specific form is separate from the space that's around me. Right? This is the world that we live in and take quite for granted in many ways sometimes. But I'd like you to take it a step deeper and consider that this matter is just energy vibrating at a particular frequency that's making itself appear solid. So really what we are is just various energy fields. My skin is an energy field. My aura is an energy field. My bones are an energy field. My organs are a specific and unique energy field. Right? All of these. Even my thoughts are an energy field. And so I'm just the series of energy fields. And I would like you to consider that. Use that as your frame of consciousness through which to work through all the energy work we're doing today. Because some of it may seem a little out of the ordinary. We're going to be rolling fists in front of the heart. Right? That's really strange. But when you think about that, these are just energy fields. And what are we doing here? Interacting of the energy field between the heart and the solar plexus. Right? We're creating and we're generating. So use that, please, as a frame of reference, to work from today. Now. Taking fists. Thumbs outside the fists. And I'm going to just lift my hips and then drop them. Inhale. Exhale. Root lock is engaged. We call these body drops. And what they do is they really start to stimulate the root chakra. Okay? Eyes are closed. Third eye center. Notice if you find yourself rounding through the chest. Keep the chest lifted. We don't want to close off that energy center. Keep those bathroom muscles squeezing and engaged. Let's go for 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And lift, hold, root lock. And exhale. Okay. Let's take those arms up high to the side in a little bit up angle. Right? Whereas this would be just kind of right and balanced. This is just a little higher. Okay? So I'm coming up with my hands gently cupped. And then on the exhale I'm coming down right in front of my heart and almost clapping my hands. So it's going to look like this. Okay? Now what tends to happen, sometimes people get really aggro with this. Right? And there's a lot of tension in the shoulders and the chest. I want you to be soft in the shoulders and the chest. And think of yourself as just moving water.

Okay? Here we go. Eyes are at third eye. And don't be afraid to let the elbows kind of gently tap the ribs as you come down. Right? We want to stimulate that heart center. Thymus gland. Easy in the joints. Navel, bathroom muscles engaged. Let's go for 10 more seconds. And inhale. Root lock, third eye, stretch through the chest. Exhale. Hands come down. Take a few breaths. Eyes are closed. Gain awareness. Tap into the reality of your being as just energy fields. When we start to pay attention to the body and our being in that way, we start to get the storyline starts to fall off. Right? I have this block because this happened to me. Not discounting anyone's experience, but sometimes that keeps the block there. When we can just see, oh, there's a really intense field of blocked energy here. I'm going to let it go. Right? It's the beauty about this practice among many. Now let's make fists with the hands. Again, thumbs on the outside. We're going to do a second round of body drops. Root lock, third eye. Here we go. Keep as open through the chest as you can. I know it requires a little bit of bearing down. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and hold up on the 1. Inhale and exhale. Relax. Just sit for a moment. Meditative posture. The reason stillness is so important is we don't do the exercises for the sake of doing the exercises. The exercises produce equality. They produce an experience in opening and awareness, so we give ourselves time to open ourselves up to that. All right. Now we're going to take a fun mudra. If your hands get a little crampy, you can take the thumb and close down the ring in the pinky finger, but see if you can try it without first. The mudra that's called for in this kriya involves the sun and the mercury finger being bent down. That's my ring in my pinky. My Jupiter in my middle, my Jupiter and my Saturn finger are extended to the sky and the thumbs are out to the side. If you find yourself cramping in the hands or the forearms, you can always close down those and that can kind of take some of that tension out of the too far fingers. Palms face down, shoulders are down and away.

Lots of energy in the arms. Like that. Inhale, lift. Exhale, lower. Now I want you to really engage that root lock so you're rooted to the earth and here we go. Eyes at third eye. Be kind to your shoulders. Recognize its limitations. If you have tight shoulders, don't try and force it to 90. Be okay with 60. Soften those shoulders up over time. You'll get to 90. By that I mean degrees. I'm going at a rather rapid pace. Feel free to go at your own pace even if it's slower. You're not compromising a thing here. I'm working those upper body energy fields. Let's go for 10. And inhale. Arms straight up, shoulders down and away. Lock third eye. Suspend the breath. Exhale. Inhale. Extend, engage, direct. And exhale. Exhales come down. Exhaling through the nose. Taking a few breaths. Again, gaining awareness.

Understanding what that has to teach you. We're gaining energetic intelligence. Energy is very, despite its negative and positive charge, it's very neutral if you get my meaning. Meaning it doesn't have favorites or it doesn't play favorites or anything like that. Energy is energy. Either got it blocked or it's free. Storylines need not apply. Okay. Now this is where I really would like you to tap into the energy field of your heart. Right? This right here is a gateway between the lower chakras and the higher chakras. We call this the lower triangle. This is the higher triangle. The lower triangle has more of our energy chakras associated with our human existence. Survival and procreation and eating and eliminating and creating. When we move up here, it becomes more collectively human. It's not just me, mine and my. It's our. And thou. And then we move up here and it comes into just I am. So there is there's a cohesion that occurs here with individual and universal consciousness. So we're starting to try and really create the ability for this energy to rise. I want you to take your thumbs inside of your fingers, make strong fists, lift through the heart. And with nice, even powerful breathing, we're going to roll circles right in front of the heart. Okay. It may seem strange from like a what would this do for me physically perspective unless you're training to be a rock and sock and robot. But from an energy perspective, this is really powerful. So get in that space. Here we go. I'm doing a gentle breath of fire.

You can join me with that. Or you can just do whatever breath feels okay. Pregnant or three days first on your cycle, please, instead of doing breath of fire, do regular breath. Tap into that energy tap into that consciousness. Let's go for 10 more seconds. And inhale. Release the hands. Sitting in meditation, directing your focus at the heart, that beautiful gateway between our human worldly self and our angelic divine spiritual self. Please blink the eyes open. Arms come up overhead, chin gently tucked toward the chest and grabbing onto opposite forearms. If you can reach opposite elbows, great. I have to make consideration for my hair. So let's take an inhale and exhale. Going at a nice pace here. Nice and slow. Just enough where you can really be present with all of it. Think of all the spiritual cultures, be they spiritual or religious or a little bit of both. The process of bowing, the process of bowing toward a higher power, bowing toward higher consciousness. Energetically speaking, this is also an encouragement to awaken that divine aspect, the Kundalini within our bodies, within our being. Let's go for 4, 3, 2, and 1. Inhale. Suspend the breath, root lock, third eye, shoulders away from the ears. Keep the posture, exhale again. Feel your heartbeat. Exhale. Release.

Meditate for a few moments. Long, deep breathing. Being the experiencer of this Kriya that serves to manipulate our energy fields and when I say the word manipulate, I mean in the most benevolent way. Manipulate our energy fields or provoke rather. Provoke our energy fields in a way that bring us back to balance. It's a technology. So beautiful. We're going to do a little chanting. And the mantra we're going to use is called the Laya Yoga mantra. And the mantra is specific in that there's an inflection on the end of every line of the mantra or every word of the mantra. So I'm chanting, but at the end of every line or word, I'm putting a little inflection. And when I do that, I'm going to lift up my root lock and draw my navel muscle up. I'm going to draw up that kind of lower region of my body. This mantra is intended to help us channel, align that Kundalini energy from the base of the spine and travel it up three cycles, three and a half cycles up to the crown of the head is the indication that they say that that energy rises. And that's where the coiled snake comes from in that symbolism. Notice that that coiled snake runs three and a half little coils upward. So we're going to come into Gyan mudra. Eyes are at third eye center, chin is gently tucked to the chest, root lock engaged. And I'm going to chant Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Now feel free to chant along with me or listen and mentally rehearse the mantra, vibrate the mantra. Here we go. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Next time. Ekkankara Satnama Sriwah Heguru. Take a deep inhale. Suspend the breath. Big belly, big chest, root lock, third eye, ghee on mudra. Exhale. Again, inhale. And exhale. All right. Keeping yourself in this very crystalline experience. Take the hands up overhead, please interlace the Saturn, Sun, and Mercury finger. That's middle ring and pinky. And have the Jupiter finger, the index finger, extended to the sky. Shoulders are down away from the ears. Eyes are up at third eye center. I'm going to inhale center. Exhale. Tip just through my side body, keeping my hips very grounded. Exhale to the left. Inhale. Tip through the waist, through the side body, to the right. Inhale. Exhale. Here we go. Keep a stable base. No wobbling. Root lock and ghee, third eye focus. You're not going to be able to tip very far as long as you leave those hips solid to the ground. If you find yourself tipping far, you're likely letting the hips leave the ground. This is for the rib cage.

Right? Not for the hips, necessarily. This is also with this mudra, directing the energy up through, throat, third eye, and crown. Now notice if you're over gripping in the hands. Are you creating more tension for yourself than is necessary? Soften the grip of the hands. Soften the shoulders. Good. Let's go for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Inhale. Root lock, third eye, big belly, and reach those arms up, shoulders away from ears. Keep the posture. Exhale. Inhale. Suspend, engage, direct. Release the hands. Exhale. Please sit in a gentle meditation, gaining awareness, observing. Maybe employing an ujjayi breath. Heighten your awareness around your process of breathing. Even on the inhale, even on the exhale. Let's take four more breaths here. Let the breath be slow and nourishing. Give yourself patience to take it in. Let the breath be slow and nourishing.

Gently blink the eyes open. All right. One more part of this kriya set. I'd like you to come laying down on your back, please. And as calm and as relaxed as you may feel at the moment, the last part of this kriya set calls for you to, for one last time, tap into some of those naval reserves, right? The naval energy reserves, right? Tap into some of what might just be hanging out here blocked and unexpressed. Okay. I'm going to take my hands behind my head, interlaced. I'm going to strongly press my heels into the floor with a gentle bend in my knees and just so much so to allow me to lift my hips up off the ground for an inhale. It's very limited, right? Very limited movement and then drop it. Okay. So it's going to be like this. And please don't force your hips down. Please let gravity do. I'm getting rid of some of that kidney energy that might be blocked. It's not the most comfortable posture. I agree. But it has purpose. Last four, three, two, and one. Now to your best of your ability, inhale, lift, hold, and release. Counterpose through the back, gentle knees to the chest, wrap the forearms around the shins. Breathe into the low back. And then please release. Feet and thighs turn out naturally. Palms face up next to the hips. Shoulders are down away from the ears. Chin is to the chest. I'd like you to let those legs turn out naturally. Let the spine or the tail turn down toward the heels. Palms are faced up, allowing the shoulders to roll back. Chin is to the chest. Jaw softens, tongue relaxes in the mouth. And please remain laying down as I get up. Allow yourself to feel fully, completely supported by the ground. This should allow all of your muscles to relax. Your joints to loosen. Allow your ears to gently fall back. Those muscles are on the skull relaxed. Eyes sink back. And have a gentle awareness of the crown of your head. Gently wiggling your fingers and your toes. And dry your knees into your chest. Wrap your forearms around your shins and rock from side to side. And please roll onto one side into fetal position. While you're down there, just tap into that fetal you, right? You were a fetus at one point. You were in this position naturally at some point. All the potential of the universe energetically existed to bring you into that state. And now we are manifestations of that energy continuing to express itself. Please use your top hand and press yourself up seated.

Please sit in a meditative space for a moment. Close your eyes, Gyan Mudra. And the sacred Kundalini energy that we are working to connect to today. Transmuting or the sexual energy is that Kundalini energy in its transmuted form. So really preparing the body to allow it for its full expression. And Kundalini awakenings is a big topic of discussion. You can prime the body, connect to an evolutionary practice for yourself to help it facilitate, to help facilitate its expression. And sometimes this energy expresses itself through child birth or through trauma even. It's very interesting and very beautiful. And just know that that living energy resides within you. It is constantly expressing itself through you. When you are in connection with a higher source, universal consciousness, you are in close intimacy with that energy. Let's bring the hands to the heart center. I'd like to close out with one round of the long time sun. May the long time sun shine upon you. All love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on. We close out with three long vibrational expressions of the sound Sat Naam. Let's take a deep breath in through the nose to begin. Long time sun shine upon you. All love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on. Guide your way on. Guide your way on. Sat Naam. Sat Naam. Sat Naam. Take a deep inhale through the nose. Suspend the breath. Root lock, third eye. Please bring folded hands to third eye center. Blessing that you'll be guided by intuition and have the wisdom and courage to follow it. Exhale bowing forward. Sat Naam. Namaste. And as you rise up, just one little moment to say before closing, the mantra that we chanted today in class, I think I forgot to mention its translation. So Ek Onkar Sat Naam. Siri Wa Higuru. Ek Onkar. There is one creator that created this creation. Truth is its identity. Anything that is true and in alignment. Truth is its identity. And how great is that awareness of that which brings us from the darkness to the light. Also translated to that which brings us to Guru's grace. But that can be misapplied sometimes when people say brings us to Guru's grace. That means and sometimes interpreted that people think that some Guru needs to grace you. Right? We've been spending so much time thinking that we need the grace of God to make us okay and to make life perfect. Right? Guru's grace is that Guru within us.

That within us. That evolutionary, natural, beautiful process that brings us from ignorance to awareness. From the darkness to the light. So I hope you enjoyed class today. Thank you so very much for joining me on these journeys. Sat Naam.