Upcoming Workshop In Salem, OR and Portland Community Events

I'm gearing up for the workshop I will be teaching in Salem, Oregon this Sunday! A friend recently sent me this video of what a spiritual warrior is. This video resonates the essence of a spiritual warrior. It's a perfect representation of what you can reveal about your own spiritual warrior within at the workshop. 

(Video retrieved from https://vimeo.com/55904250 on 8/13/15)

 

Upcoming Kundalini Workshop: Igniting the Spiritual Warrior Within

When: August 16, 2015
Time: 1pm-3pm
Location: IYouMeWeUs - South
4340 Commercial St. SE,
Salem, OR 97302

Cost: $20 pre-registered, $25 at the door

Register via the website here: IYouMeWeUs

Have you been afraid to take the next step in committing to yourself? Whether it be committing to deepening your daily practice, letting go of the past, taking the next step in a relationship, or manifesting your dreams into reality one must search within and ignite his/her own spiritual warrior.

Igniting the archetypal spiritual warrior within requires one to find a balance of strength, courage, commitment, and grace through the most difficult situations all with a smile. The spiritual warrior manifests prosperity through gratitude. The fulfillment of the spiritual warrior rests in assisting in the victory of others. This cultivates the beginning of a deep inner knowing that the spiritual warrior's will is in complete alignment with the will of God.

Through the tools of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, you will be able to directly experience these qualities within yourself. The class will have a special meditative and physical focus on the third chakra while balancing the entire endocrine and nervous systems. No experience is necessary and all body types are welcome. Come with an open heart and a willing to drop that which is preventing you from igniting your own spiritual warrior.


Zero Balancing Sessions offered after the workshop:

Developed by Fritz Smith, MD in the early 1970s, Zero Balancing is a powerful body-mind therapy that uses skilled touch to address the relationship between energy and structures of the body.

Zero Balancing can help relieve body aches and pain, release restrictions in movement, and provide lasting relief from emotional distress to improve overall quality of life.

Zero Balancing can also be helpful with specific goals such as relief from back pain, improving concentration or sleep, releasing unwanted stress, eliminating old behavior patterns, or boosting well-being. Zero Balancing works in conjunction with medical therapy and is not a substitute for it. A typical session is an hour long, laying on your back on a massage table, fully clothed. Those with physical limitations can be accommodated.

Two Sessions will be offered at 3:45pm and 5:00pm.
Please email birkaurkypdx@gmail.com to register
Visit www.zerobalancing.com for more information about Zero Balancing

Kundalini Yoga Portland Community Events

Community Meditation for Yogi Bhajan's Birthday (August 15-25)Every year we celebrate Yogi Bhajan’s birthday. This is a very cozy occasion when we chant together in gratitude for all the priceless teachings he shared with us.

For eleven days (August 15-25) chant Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru for 31 minutes each day. Call on Guru Ram Das using Yogi Bhajan’s personal mantra.

Join with others at 7pm or chant on your own. We are looking for hosts !! Please contact KYPDX  if you are willing and able to open your space and welcome yogis. Plan on having guests for about an hour. Locations of the evening chant will be posted on the calendar. Some hosts provide yogi tea or a small snack but this is not required.

Simultaneous Worldwide Guru Ram Das Chant: August 26
On Yogi Ji's birthday at exactly 3:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Savings Time our worldwide community simultaneously chants Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru for 11 minutes. Then we chant Long Ek Ong Kars for 2.5 hours. Held at Shakti House. Doors open at 2:45am.

Receiving Amrit as the Spiritual Warrior : Amrit Sanchar/Sikh Baptism Ceremony

My Beloved,

I stand transparent before you. All my holiness, ugliness, worthiness, selfishness is set upon the altar. The energy of your word crawls up my body from my feet like a serpent. In an instant I recognize the immeasurable totality of your strength. My hands begin to shake. The ego has lost once again. Yet it stirs and flounders helplessly in one last attempt to survive and protect it's existence. I stay steady as your words continue to seduce me while they are echoed by each of the five guardians. My eyes are fixated upon the steal sword as it methodically cuts through water. However, I feel like I am drowning in the thick tar of darkness. I have waited lifetimes for this sweet agony. Then I remember, you are here waiting for me in this abyss. I was never lost. I was never needing to be saved because you were always there waiting. You are so intertwined with me I forgot to see the beauty. Your will is so infused within me I forgot that my will is also yours. 

I continue to watch the blade cut me up into pieces. I witness my death like a movie being played out before me. I am the witness to taking my last breath and my first breath at the same time. I have no choice but to surrender to you. If I could only close my eyes in these final moments and complete this earthly journey. I am so close to you. Yet you smile and tell me to stay a little longer. There is work to be done. Somewhere in the trance the water transformed into your nectar like Christ turning water into wine. It happened so fast I was unaware. Your nectar was placed in my open palms. How forever grateful I am for you being so patient with me to pry these prideful hands open. I taste your sublime sweetness even before it reaches my lips. In this moment you transform into all human senses as one. In this moment I become wed with my Beloved, a romance that started long ago. You are the Lover of lovers.

 Then the battle cry is released from the depths of my belly. Fear is transcended through the sound current of my voice as I call to you, “Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh." Lifetimes of wars I've fought are revealed in an instant. An unknown strength is born and the warrior emerges into the light as my eyes continue to be fixated on you. My voice is so loud, fierce, and powerful it startles me. Meanwhile I can feel the support of my fellow warrior saints in the room with each victorious cry. 

 The next phase begins as each of the five forcefully throw a handful of your nectar into my opened eyes. If anything in my being was not awakened from the dream it is now. I feel the full force of the Miracle take place. The instant you hit my eyes it stuck there for what seemed forever, as if you were making sure I was paying attention. Then each drop of water cascades down my eyes and I feel the curtain of illusion drop. The dream is literally being swept away while I am simultaneously given new sight. In that point of timelessness I stared at you and there was nothing but you and I merged into one. I was both the Creator and the creation. I was the Forgiver and the forgiven. There was no right, wrong, blame, shame, guilt- the only thing that remained in this empty space was the purest form of joy. It is the joy that I felt right before the time of separation from you that never truly occurred. With this joy came an even more powerful battle cry of compassion, victory, liberation, peace, freedom of not just myself but for all. It was the battle cry for Love.

 Finally, the Amrit was placed on my crown. I could feel each droplet take it's time as it seeped slowly through my coiled hair. Each drop meticulously took it's place through every hair follicle until it reached the bones of my skull and then dispersed throughout every cell of my body. I can only smile.

 Once it has been completed and the final commands have been given, I am presented to the Sangat. Without words I lock eyes with them not as strangers or friends, but as family. The longing to belong is relinquished. After this re-birthing you do not waste time to send me out into the world to shine amidst adversity. At once I am tested to utilize this gift as an opportunity of expression of your love. For how can we truly appreciate light without the companion of it's shadow. 

 From here I commit every breath as a meditation, every moment as an opportunity to see grace in graceless moments, security in the unstable, and strength in the weakness. For you are in all. None can exist without the other. 

 May I set aside my worries, insecurities, and fears only to place them in your care. No worry is too big or small for they are the same in your eyes.

 May my seva be not limited to the physical, but more so a state of being embodied through presence and with ease.

 May I embrace the darkness more fully so I can be grounded into the Light.

 May I trust you. May I trust myself. May I be given the discernment to know what to trust. 

 May I be practical and realistic rather than dogmatic. 

May I embody the gifts of my soul.

 May I be flexible yet steady and strong as steal. 

 May I live with simplicity and yet with prosperity. 

May I laugh often. 

 May I embrace the perfection of my imperfections. 

 May I be courage. 

 Lastly, If I am to stumble may I be kind to myself and simply turn my gaze back to you.

 Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh

If you would like to learn more about receiving Amrit please click here: 
Sikh Dharma International

The Power of Breath and Mantra in Kundalini Yoga

What Does It Mean to Receive a Spiritual Name in Kundalini Yoga?

Why Do Kundalini Yoga? How it changed my life.

(video courtesy of Mandala Yoga, Portand OR)

The Importance of Sadhana. How to start a 40, 90, 120, 1000 day Kundalini Yoga meditation?

1000 Day Meditation for the Negative Mind: Aspect 2 (Manager)

This is my first 1000 day meditation. I have completed 529 days so far. This meditation is found in "The Mind: It's Projections and Multiple Facets" written by Yogi Bhajan (p.160). There are three functional minds: Positive, Negative, Neutral with each of these minds  having 3 aspects that correlate with them. Then there are 3 controlling projections within each of those aspects that act with each functional mind making a total of 81 facets of the mind. This particular meditation works on the  Aspect 2 * Manager. So you may ask how I chose this one particular aspect?  Well, it was by pure intuition. I was turning through the book and saw the meditation and caught my eye. It had all the qualities that I really wanted to work on. I found out after I started that two experienced yogis of my Kundalini family were doing the same meditation. I had no idea the depth that this meditation offered, So I kept on going, even after they completed their 1000 days. This meditation has been incredibly useful in helping me to find a better sense of identity  and  understanding of the following qualities