Namaste.
Welcome to Tantra Mantra Meditation.
Awaken the five elements as you.
I'm very excited to start this series of 10 sessions focused on the meditation practices of Tantra Yoga and with a focus on the five elements.
Each session will contain some tantric teaching and introduction,
Followed by a centering,
And we'll chant the sound of OM.
Then we'll do a little bit of pranayama,
That's breathing technique,
And then meditation using a mantra in the tantric tradition.
And we'll conclude with a shavasana,
That's lying down on your back to rest for a few minutes afterwards.
And then we'll come up and conclude with an OM.
My intention in offering this series is to create a way for you to access the true joy and bliss that dwells deep inside.
The five elements are called the Pancha Mahabhutas.
Pancha meaning five,
Maha,
Great,
Bhutas,
Elements.
We all come from the five elements,
Earth,
Water,
Fire,
Air,
And sky.
And when we die,
We'll all return to the five elements.
The open sky,
Rich earth,
Delicious water,
Bright fire,
And soothing wind are all inside of us.
Every single atom that makes up material reality is forged in stars.
That means that our body comes from the stars.
In essence,
We are star babies.
It makes sense then that the five elements are who we are.
The practice of yoga and meditation is the activation and awakening of these five elements within our body and mind.
And when balanced and refined,
Secrets of the universe.
You are the universe condensed into time and space.
To know the five elements is to know yourself.
Only human beings have the capacity to take evolution into our own hands,
To use our brain,
This body,
And this precious life to wake up.
And we can either rise higher or fall even more deeply into a kind of stupor of sleepwalking.
We are the peak expression of the evolution of consciousness,
But we're asleep to it.
We must realize that we're not an accident,
That our life has great meaning,
And that we are the crystallization of the divine's desire to know itself.
Becoming aware of this truth makes it possible to realize our infinite potential,
Potency,
And power to bring our best self forward and live our dream.
So please come into a comfortable seated position.
It's helpful to either sit in a chair or sit on a cushion to elevate your hips.
If you're sitting cross-legged,
Or even if you're sitting in a chair,
Take your hands to your thigh and manually inner rotate the thigh.
That means that the skin on the inner edge of the thigh will move down toward the floor.
At the same time you move your thighs inwardly,
Take one hand behind the sitting bone and widen the sitting bone of that side out to the side.
This generates a low back curve,
And then we add length to the curve by drawing the tailbone down and scoop it in just a bit.
You know you're doing it well when your low back has curve and length and your low belly pulls in and up.
Join your index fingers and thumbs in the jnana mudra,
Mudra of knowledge,
Palms down.
Close your eyes and invite the light of the universe to fill you.
Let it come in,
In the form of your breath,
And breathe all the way down to your sitting bones and low belly.
And when you inhale,
Lengthen your side ribs,
Bring the breath into the heart,
Way up at the top of the lungs,
The ribs lift,
And then take the head of your arm bones back.
When you exhale,
Let your hips settle and get heavier.
Lift your throat,
And take your palate back.
That's the center of the roof of your mouth.
And then lift the back of your skull up.
So you align your palate over your pelvis and try to bring into alignment head,
Heart,
And body.
Tantra,
Which means loom,
Like a weaver's loom,
Is the process by which we weave back together the dispersed parts of ourself into an integrated,
Meaningful matrix of relationship.
And so we embrace the full spectrum of ourself,
Both shadow and light.
And now,
As you breathe open to the vastness of the sky,
The sky element has no boundaries.
It's free,
Supremely full,
Open.
And we come to recognize that we live in a realm of all possibilities,
With no limitations.
Allow yourself to be more spacious inside.
If you've been struggling with anything in your life,
Or if you've been gripping or anxious about the future,
Regretful of the past,
See if you can let go,
Open to the vastness of your true being,
Which is free.
And then bring your palms together in front of your heart.
Let's bring our energies in harmony with one another with the sound of OM.
Bring your hands back into Gyanamudra,
Palms down.
We begin with Ujjayi Pranayama.
Ujjayi means victoriously uprising.
It's done in and out through the nostrils,
Very slow,
Soft breath.
But you hug the base of the throat,
And you make an aspirated whisper sound,
Lips closed.
It's also known as the ocean breath,
Because it sounds like when you put a seashell up to your ear,
You can hear the ocean.
So focus on the sound that you make.
Apply just enough effort,
But not too much.
And let your sound be loud enough so you can hear it.
But perhaps someone would not be able to hear it across the room.
Make your sound rich,
Thick,
And full.
Become aware of the pauses between the breaths.
Permit the pauses.
And then with each breath,
Start and finish at the same volume.
So typically,
We start off really loud,
And then we trail off and fade out.
I'd like you to hold back a little bit in the beginning,
And put a little more power into it at the end to keep a consistent,
Cohesive volume of sound,
Rich and full from start to finish.
And lastly,
Try to match your inhalation sound exactly the same as your exhalation sound.
So if someone were listening nearby,
They would not be able to tell which breath you were doing.
Now we'll inhale for a count of four,
And try to exhale for a count of eight without forcing it.
If eight is too long and you start to strain,
Shorten it.
After the next exhalation,
Breathe normally and pay attention to the subtle shift in sensation in the body,
And even more profoundly in the mind.
And then soften your skin.
Let go into the vastness of sky consciousness,
Like an ocean with no shores,
A field with no boundaries.
Now we'll practice Nadi Shodhana.
This means channel purification,
And it's alternating right and left nostrils.
Bring your right hand up in another mudra called the Vishnu Mudra.
Index finger and middle fingers curl to the palm,
Right thumb on the right nostril,
Fourth and fifth fingers together like a little pincer on the left nostril.
So your hand is just curled a bit.
Your forearm is more or less vertical in front of the heart,
Perhaps slightly to the right.
Inhale through both nostrils first,
And then close the left nostril and exhale through the right.
Inhale gently through the right nostril.
Exhale through the left.
Close the right nostril with your right thumb.
Inhale left.
Exhale right.
Continue in this way for a few moments.
Try to make the breath as slow and calm as you can.
And for those more familiar with Nadi Shodhana,
Please apply the Ujjayi sound that we just learned previously.
Imagine with each breath you breathe in the spaciousness of the sky.
The breath opens a portal where you get an infusion of spirit energy.
Grace pours into you in the form of a breath.
And as we traverse right to left,
Left to right,
We traverse across the central channel,
Which is the center,
Like a column of evolution.
It's where the full force of the universe rises up in us and through us.
And it goes from earth to sky,
From the base of the spine,
All the way up to the top of the head and out into the heavens.
As you alternate the breath,
Imagine that you are giving a kind of cross friction massage to the central channel to soften it,
To open it,
To make it more pliable,
Full and rich.
In Sanskrit,
The right nostril is called Surya Nadi,
Referring to the sun.
It's active.
Left hemisphere of the brain.
The left nostril is called Chandra Nadi or the moon channel.
Coming related to the right hemisphere of the brain.
Nadi Shodhana brings about a profound harmony and balance of sun and moon.
And the central channel is called Sushumna,
Which means she who is most graceful.
Now,
The next time you inhale through the right nostril,
Wait for the rhythm.
Exhale through both nostrils simultaneously and lower your right hand.
Sit tall.
Now we'll begin the practice of silent mantra meditation.
Please use the mantra Hamsa.
In the Tantric tradition,
This is a Maha mantra or a great mantra full of mystery and magic and a profound deep inner stillness.
The definition of these mantras doesn't really matter.
It's the feeling quality that you have.
But just so that our minds can relax,
Ham means I am.
Sa means that.
I am that.
I am the universe.
The universe is in me as me.
Those atoms that were forged in stars in the sky are what have formed me.
So it's basically an affirmation of what we are.
So now silently place the thought Hamsa into the field of your awareness with as little effort as possible.
Think the mantra Hamsa with no movement of the mouth.
And after you place the mantra into the field of your awareness,
Let go and continue with the medium,
Slow,
Continuous repetition.
Now,
If or when other thoughts start to arise and you're aware you're no longer with the mantra,
Just simply come back to the mantra.
No judgment.
The wandering mind is what's supposed to happen over time.
As you start to go deeper,
You let the mantra fade into the background like a distant star.
It's there,
But your mental thought of it is so light.
You can hardly even know that you're thinking it.
And when that happens,
The mantra opens the doorway to go deeper.
And you enter deep into the center channel where you dwell surrounded in a column of light.
And this light is so full,
So bright.
There's no room for doubt or anxiety or restlessness or sadness.
Let yourself be with what is.
Continue to repeat the mantra as effortlessly as possible for the next five minutes.
Now,
Very slowly bring your palms together in front of your heart.
Offer a gentle bow and come lie down on your back for Shavasana.
It's important to rest for a few minutes after the practice of mantra meditation because the mantra heats up the mind.
And it's good to just simply relax,
Lie down,
Let yourself integrate the depth of the practice.
So on your back now,
Get comfortable,
Palms up if you can,
Arms and hands by your side.
Begin to relax your muscles,
Your bones,
And your organs.
Let your body get heavy and sink deep beneath the surface.
Let yourself be surrounded by the vastness of the sky.
Let it shower down pure vectors of light and healing energy that comes straight from the ethers,
Unsullied,
Pure,
Like nectar raining down.
And receive this blessing into your cells,
Into your body,
Into every fiber of your being.
Bringing with it the blessing of sky,
Full and free,
Unbounded and pulsing with the highest joy,
Ananda.
Now gently return.
Draw your knees in towards your chest,
Roll to the right side,
And use both your hands to push down.
Come up to a seated position just as when we started.
Close your eyes.
We'll sit for a moment.
Allow yourself to affirm the qualities of sky in you as you may bring more spaciousness.
And affirm silently to yourself,
I am as vast as the sky.
The sky is in me and I am in the sky.
I am supremely free and I live in a realm of all possibilities.
My creativity is limitless and free,
Unbounded in its scope.
I take the greatest delight in this miracle called life.
I am free and empowered to choose,
To change,
To let go,
To shift,
And to receive the deepest blessing life has to offer.
I affirm that life is a gift and meditation is what makes that gift a blessing.
Bring your palms together in front of your heart now.
And let's conclude with the sound of one home.
Namaste.
Thank you for your practice.
