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RAJA YOGA vs. QI GONG

RAJA YOGA = ROYAL UNION

QI GONG = ENERGY WORK

 

Qi Gong is based on the science and discipline of Raja Yoga.

Raja Yoga is prehistoric and east Indian. Somehow (the legends are wonderful) it migrated to China and inspired/influenced Qi Gong.

Raja Yoga proves the divine nature of consciousness by distinguishing between it and our various physical, energetic, and mental “layers”.

Qi Gong focuses on our energy vessels and channels, without which these magnificent body/minds don’t work!!

When we run out of energy – game over.

 

Qigong takes the practice of “exercising our energy layer” (yoga’s pranayama) and elevates it to an art form: consciously and purposefully gathering and purging – replenishing, refreshing, refilling – ourselves with the energy that sustains us!

Like the nurse lamented the other day (an age contemporary): “Why did they wait until the end of our lives to tell us this?!”

“This” being the Eastern concepts that reflect the underpinnings of our universe!!

Hugs, Skip

❤😊🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

 

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THERE’S A SEASON FOR EVERYTHING (aka “Most of us grow old; not all of us grow up.”)

The picture captures the gist of this morning’s lecture about the cyclical, energetic nature of our universe and everything in it – including us.

The concepts are universal and multi-dimensional. I’d be very happy to unpack the info for the truly curious, but here’s the bottom line, in the normal course:

We’re like flowers:

we sprout, grow, bud, bloom and whither.

 

That self-awareness is both sobering and liberating!

Having trouble sleeping? Call me. I can help.

Hugs, Skip

❤😊🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

 

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The Teacher Is Also The Student

It’s humbling yet inspiring to have a teacher “hold a mirror up” in front of me.

Yogis use the phrase “maya” koshas (“illusory” layers) to refer to our various physical, energetic and mental aspects – fully aware that they are inseparable and interconnected.

Unbeknownst to me [so much for my self-awareness!], I physically “stand back on my heels” (I lean backwards, albeit subtly): defensively.

Back to our interdependent layers, if I physically lean backwards, what might that say about me mentally and energetically?

Hints: I’m neither a good skier nor motorcyclist. In the fist case, I can’t get past the part of my mind that screams “Lean WHICH way?! DOWN that steep-ass hill?! Uh, No!” Same question on a bike: “Lean WHICH way?! TOWARDS the pavement blurring past underneath me?! Nope!”

Just this morning I told our daughter she’s world’s braver and tougher than me – though I didn’t realize at that moment there was physical proof!

I’m a chicken.

 

I did win a couple schoolyard scraps as a kid (something about having to wear pink glasses), but for the most part I kept to myself and took any chance (no matter how embarrassing – sigh) to Casper.

Some sixty years later, a lifetime of unvented fears & desires still keep me back on my heels – but the good news is that I’m now aware of it.

Marching on (pun intended):

TOES DOWN!!

 

As one of my qigong (“energy work”) teachers reminded me this morning, sometimes the teacher is also the student.

God bless! Let me know if you’re having trouble sleeping – I can help!

Skip

❤😊🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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60 Year-Old White Guy

Why is a 60 year-old white guy from Boston jumping up & down and screaming about consciousness?

Because I just discovered mine two years ago.

Why did it take me so long (13 years of devout searching)?

Unlike Eastern cultures which revere and honor this aspect of each of us, here in the States I was raised to believe that if I couldn’t see, smell, hear, taste or touch something, it probably wasn’t “true” – and according to my grandfather (whom I love beyond measure) not worth wasting time on.

Sigh. I lived 58 years of my life with the light out. Please don’t do the same.

Ironically, it’s only through the Eastern practices of self-reflection and control that it’s possible to sense some things: to know them as “true” on an intuitional level MUCH deeper than thought. [I teach Raja Yoga and Medical Qigong].

Meditate. You can’t do it wrong, but it helps to have a teacher. That’s why I’m here.

God bless, Skip

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BREADCRUMBS

Someone suggested that I leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back out of the Cummings Center the other day.

This is me leaving breadcrumbs for the next person trying to understand Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:

Life is mathematical.

Here’s how it works:

The centerline represents zero; everything to the left of the centerline is negative; everything to the right of the centerline is positive.

Our universe is similarly bipolar. Everything we can sense, including our own body/mind, is a unique manifestation of positively and negatively charged sub-atomic particles. The East refers to these two elemental “states of matter” as Yin and Yang. Patanjali refers to them as Rajas and Tamas. Lucas called them the Light and Dark forces.

The image of a circling tiger and dragon is commonly used to represent those two constantly moving energetic states of matter. Love it!! The oppositional polarity keeps them on the move, giving rise to the “hunger” (the fears and desires) within each of us.

Back to the graph above, half of the world’s population is generally positive. A very small subset of positive people are extremely so, though most fall within a “normal” range.

Same on the other side of the elusive perfectly balanced middle line: half of the world’s population is generally negative. A very small subset [thankfully] of negative people are extremely so.

In class this morning, Master Leone asked students why they practice and train. Here are their responses:

To:

  • avoid suffering
  • have fun
  • find tranquility
  • find love
  • find community
  • find peace of mind
  • reduce pain

The keys to smiling more for ALL of us are self-awareness and self-control; specifically, never forgetting that consciousness is NOT a mental function!

Patanjali said:

1.12. Practice and non-attachment

1.13. Practice means NEVER giving up

1.14. By practicing continuously and earnestly over a long time, your efforts become habitual

1.15. Non-attachment means ALWAYS letting go (mastering desire)

1.16. With ultimate self-awareness, all attachments fall away

Master Leone said:

“It’s a constant struggle. It’s NEVER ‘Hey look Ma! No hands!’… EVERY MINUTE EVERY DAY.”

Blessings and gratitude, Skip

❤😊🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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OLD DOG LEARNS NEW TRICK [aka Cynthia’s Masterpiece]

I experienced Cynthia’s monster breakfast sandwich with the assistance of my sub-conscious mind: I saw, smelled, held, heard (yup – it spoke to me!) and ate the damned thing. And it was good.

The following I experienced with additional assistance from my conscious or thinking mind. I figured as long as I’m sharing one……..

Part of the requirements for the initial 100-hour Medical Qigong teacher certification are listening to Master Michael Leone’s lectures.

I posted something about Master Leone after meeting him last year. He’s a truly awesome human being. He’s tapped into something “other worldly” that I can only dream about experiencing.

Master Leone has been studying and practicing with a devotion that dwarfs mine – for some forty years – and it shows!

Reality check: part of today’s lecture made it all-too clear that I’m in the Fall of my life! Gulp.

 

This happened during this morning’s lecture:

A student asked Master Leone about the Medical QiGong protocol for a 22 year-old female exhibiting:

Anxiety

Depression

Autoimmune diseases including:

  • Celiac disease
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome
  • Allergies
  • Psoriasis
  • Fatty liver disease

I didn’t get to hear the detailed diagnosis/prescription part of the lecture because I’m a newbie, but I did learn that ALL those symptoms have a common cause:

Chronic Stress

 

Master Leone expressed what we all know intuitively: somewhere around our 18th birthday we wake up to the stark reality or weight of life: it’s responsibilities and impermanence.

And we each deal with that realization in a uniquely personal way based on the circumstances of our lives up to that point.

Those symptoms can literally become overwhelming as the mental and physical effects compound – and in today’s turbulent geopolitical, semi-virtual world, it’s getting worse – quickly.

Reach out and help someone. We’re all in this soup together.

We have the same incessant thinking pattern; we all have fears and desires, they just differ from person to person based on the unique circumstances of our lives.

Life is mathematical: half of us learn to cope with it better than the other half, and there are extremes at both ends – clearly.

Need help meditating? That’s why I’m here.

God bless, Skip

❤😊🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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KOSHAS: OUR ILLUSORY LAYERS [for yoga geeks]

Here’s a link to my favorite online resource on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – specifically to a section on the koshas – described therein as five lampshades covering our light: Swamij.com/Koshas.

I suggest that there’s a very direct correlation between the five koshas and the last six of Patanjali’s eight limbs: as we gain proficiency with a limb, we begin to experience a deeper, subtler aspect of our being:

Limb

Kosha
Postures Outer physical
Breathing Inner physical/energetic
Concentration Conscious mind
Meditation (3 levels) Sub-conscious mind (3 functions)

When we meditate, we sequentially transcend [from densest to subtlest energetically] three states of generally sub-conscious mind, evidenced by our (i) sensory processing, (ii) memory storage and (iii) sense of individuality.

Beyond that point we meditate without specific focus or obstruction, having come as close as physically/mentally possible to consciousness itself.

I skinny the eight limbs down to six: the four above plus the yamas & niyamas [the two most important based on prioritization and because they make up ~70% of the eight limbs!!].

I group the last three limbs together – not just because they’re very notably placed in a separate chapter in the Sutras – but because the physical/mental action associated with them (seated meditation) is identical.

While we sit and meditate, we descend three progressively subtle energetic densities of sub-conscious mind (each evidenced by a distinct mental function – and very different perspective!) – which takes a LONG time.

At the end of the day there’s no incorrect way to meditate – it just takes practice, and as Patanjali said, we’ll know it when we get there!

😊❤️🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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THE SCIENCE OF MIND CONTROL

I teach the science of mind control: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

MEDITATION:

as it was originally practiced!

developed by devout EMPIRICAL scientists – without Google!!!!!!

using just their bodies and minds!

MEDITATE – you can’t do it wrong!! But if you want to find TRUE inner peace please read a translation (or two or three!) of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras!

If you want a place to start here are links to personal translations of the first half of Patanjali’s epic poem:

Chapter One – the science

Chapter Two – preparing to meditate

😊❤️🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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WHAT DOES CONSCIOUSNESS HAVE TO DO WITH RELAXING? [Alternative title: Why is the Raja Yogi teaching Medical QiGong?]

Just because we’re not equipped to literally experience or fully comprehend consciousness – think about this:

Here’s how consciousness has been described since the dawn of our species:

  • Infinite – unaffected by space
  • Eternal – unaffected by time
  • Omnipresent – everywhere
  • Omnipotent – all-knowing
  • Omniscient – all-powerful
  • A balance between wisdom and curiosity
  • A balance between awareness and clarity
  • A balance between bliss and compassion

A source of courage, wisdom, serenity and faith – Patanjali

Infilling everything, pervading everywhere, impelling all – Amma

Tap into THAT PART OF YOU and experience what happens!

 

Relaxing? Yup.

Here’s how I experience it:  [remember, meditating is uniquely personal. It’s something you do for yourself – lovingly(!) – because like physical exercise, ONLY YOU CAN. Ironically, it works better when our intention is to better serve others!]

I find meditation relieving, reassuring and reaffirming in a loving, non-judgmental accepting sense. Sometimes it almost feels as if I’m being holistically embraced. I often reemerge from my sub-conscious journeys feeling subtly holistically energized!

Little picture: How we get our physical body and non-physical mind to relax sufficiently to enable that sense of holistic union or yoga doesn’t matter. That’s where QiGong’s breathing, movement and visualization comes in!

😊❤️🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali

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EH?

One of Sue’s favorite new TV shows is “Grown-ish”, a spinoff of “Blackish”. Skin color aside, I’ve discovered another reason I may be having trouble enlightening today’s youth: we don’t speak the same language!!

I watched an entire episode, after which I told Sue, “I have NO idea what they were talking about!”

One of my teachers believes that our species has literally evolved: that children born after 1990 have developed a new predisposition. Give a two year old a phone and watch what happens!!

Evolutionary time warp or not, we haven’t changed physiologically in thousands of years.

The holistic practice of Raja Yoga (meditation) is timeless.

 

It’s the oldest (read most time-tested!) form of self-care known to man – of any age!

Mind control or meditation hinges entirely upon a single principle: that consciousness is NOT a mental function!

 

Once that “clicks”, well……..you and your problems seem somehow lighter, certainly less stressful!

😊❤️🕉

Meditate – you can’t do it incorrectly [just more efficiently – that’s why I’m here]!!

$15 – scheduled group “meditation prep” classes

Current class schedule

  • Skype lessons
  • seminars
  • lectures
  • private lessons

Proud sponsor of Yoga Instructors Association (MA)

#BringBackPatanjali