Exercise : So’ham.
Prerequisites: The ability to sit for one hour with the back straight and without moving or agitation. Control of breath.
There is to be no physical touching in this exercise.
The couple sits facing each other with a few centimetres of space separating them.
The mantra is so’ham, or other mantras done in so'ham consciousness, e.g., the 18-syllable Gopala Mantra on the inward breath, the Kama Gayatri on the outward; done at a count of 1:2, or at a natural rhythm.
With the inward breath, the meditation is as follows: “The Supreme Person has come in the form of my beloved to give me His/Her love. I breathe in that love.”
With the outward breath, one meditates: “With my outward breath, I return that love. I serve that love, I serve that Person.”
The focus is the heart center, the anahata chakra. Let the heart fill with the divine shakti. Please note that the three lower chakras are all primarily concerned with the most external layers of consciousness. This chakra is the first that really fills the body with a higher state. Therefore it is said that this is the first chakra where the Kundalini appears as a beautiful goddess.
The natural tendency is for the mind to awaken the kundalini in the other person. The mind naturally tends to seek out the chakra spots in the other, starting from muladhara and so on. On a lower level this is just the imagination of touching the genitals, etc., of the other party. This tendency should be controlled and one should picture the spinal column of the other person in the same way that one imagines the kundalini internally within oneself. The most natural images are blue fire and light welling up from the base chakra and up the spine until it becomes something of a Roman candle in the 1000-petaled lotus.
Since this is an exercise centering on the anahata chakra, you should breathe deeply, diaphragmatically, but taking care to expand the rib cage and fill the chest with air and prana.
As the couple mutually engages in this exercise, it becomes necessary to exercise some caution to keep the energies focused and traveling along the right channels. Various things can obstruct the channels--incorrect posture is probably the major physical one, the desire to consummate the sexual act being the principal mental distraction. Orgasm would here constitute an explosion, but in the wrong place.
You block certain channels, what most people feel is the natural channel outward, so that energies will flow in a different direction. The mistaken idea is that semen or other sexual fluids are waste products like stool or urine. They are obviously not, as they are meant to produce or facilitate the reproduction of life. Therefore the instinctual understanding of the yogis and ayurvedic physicians, that semen is the charama dhatu or ultimate and most precious ingredient in the body, seems reasonable.
Although the first tendency is to be overwhelmed by the powerful energies that are being released, one should use one's training in mantra meditation and breathing to help create a focus on lila smarana. This is especially true for more experience couples. For them, this exercise will serve both as a way of enhancing the appetite for oneness as well as an opportunity to use the generation of kundalini energy as a way of entering the lila smarana. Less experienced couples will have more of a tendency to be absorbed in the fireworks on the subtle body platform.
Nevertheless, as one practices this particular exercise, verses from Lila texts like Gita Govinda or Govinda Lilamrita can be used to help focus on specific lila scenes. But Lila-smarana of specific Radha Krishna activities should not be done artificially out of fear that somehow the consciousness of the sadhaka couple is somehow separate from Radha and Krishna. As one experiences the power of this meditational practice, one will naturally feel a sense of oneness with the Divine Couple and a feeling of mystic participation in their lila. Even in that stage, keep the spirit of service to the mood foremost, rather than trying to appropriate the feeling as one's own.
Since there is no touching here, and the heart chakra is the predominant consciousness center, the main emphasis is on the feeling. One should be conscious that the feeling itself is the Divine Couple. Therefore this is part of the culture of bhava sadhana. Continue for one hour.
Backdated from 2008.
There is to be no physical touching in this exercise.
The couple sits facing each other with a few centimetres of space separating them.
The mantra is so’ham, or other mantras done in so'ham consciousness, e.g., the 18-syllable Gopala Mantra on the inward breath, the Kama Gayatri on the outward; done at a count of 1:2, or at a natural rhythm.
With the inward breath, the meditation is as follows: “The Supreme Person has come in the form of my beloved to give me His/Her love. I breathe in that love.”
With the outward breath, one meditates: “With my outward breath, I return that love. I serve that love, I serve that Person.”
The focus is the heart center, the anahata chakra. Let the heart fill with the divine shakti. Please note that the three lower chakras are all primarily concerned with the most external layers of consciousness. This chakra is the first that really fills the body with a higher state. Therefore it is said that this is the first chakra where the Kundalini appears as a beautiful goddess.
The natural tendency is for the mind to awaken the kundalini in the other person. The mind naturally tends to seek out the chakra spots in the other, starting from muladhara and so on. On a lower level this is just the imagination of touching the genitals, etc., of the other party. This tendency should be controlled and one should picture the spinal column of the other person in the same way that one imagines the kundalini internally within oneself. The most natural images are blue fire and light welling up from the base chakra and up the spine until it becomes something of a Roman candle in the 1000-petaled lotus.
Since this is an exercise centering on the anahata chakra, you should breathe deeply, diaphragmatically, but taking care to expand the rib cage and fill the chest with air and prana.
As the couple mutually engages in this exercise, it becomes necessary to exercise some caution to keep the energies focused and traveling along the right channels. Various things can obstruct the channels--incorrect posture is probably the major physical one, the desire to consummate the sexual act being the principal mental distraction. Orgasm would here constitute an explosion, but in the wrong place.
You block certain channels, what most people feel is the natural channel outward, so that energies will flow in a different direction. The mistaken idea is that semen or other sexual fluids are waste products like stool or urine. They are obviously not, as they are meant to produce or facilitate the reproduction of life. Therefore the instinctual understanding of the yogis and ayurvedic physicians, that semen is the charama dhatu or ultimate and most precious ingredient in the body, seems reasonable.
Although the first tendency is to be overwhelmed by the powerful energies that are being released, one should use one's training in mantra meditation and breathing to help create a focus on lila smarana. This is especially true for more experience couples. For them, this exercise will serve both as a way of enhancing the appetite for oneness as well as an opportunity to use the generation of kundalini energy as a way of entering the lila smarana. Less experienced couples will have more of a tendency to be absorbed in the fireworks on the subtle body platform.
Nevertheless, as one practices this particular exercise, verses from Lila texts like Gita Govinda or Govinda Lilamrita can be used to help focus on specific lila scenes. But Lila-smarana of specific Radha Krishna activities should not be done artificially out of fear that somehow the consciousness of the sadhaka couple is somehow separate from Radha and Krishna. As one experiences the power of this meditational practice, one will naturally feel a sense of oneness with the Divine Couple and a feeling of mystic participation in their lila. Even in that stage, keep the spirit of service to the mood foremost, rather than trying to appropriate the feeling as one's own.
Since there is no touching here, and the heart chakra is the predominant consciousness center, the main emphasis is on the feeling. One should be conscious that the feeling itself is the Divine Couple. Therefore this is part of the culture of bhava sadhana. Continue for one hour.
Backdated from 2008.
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