News from The Yogi Bhajan Library of Teachings

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Happy New Year from The Yogi Bhajan Library of Teachings!

We’re happy to report that our matching fund was very successful in December. We were able to match $5,440 in December. Thank you for helping us reach our year-end goal. We raised $11,000 in December alone—and $100,000 for the year.

Each month throughout 2010, we plan on posting a new lecture or yoga kriya with Yogi Bhajan—to give you just a taste of what your support has helped to bring about. Subscription Donors will receive a link to the latest videos personally each month. Sign up today to get access to an advanced viewing of these recently archived videos: www.yogibhajan.org. We have subscriptions available at every level—and every dollar works to make a difference.

We’ll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of videos from 1985, which are some of the earliest videos available from the archive (everything before 1984-5 is audio only). Each month we’ll be posting a video from that same month in 1985. Please visit www.yogibhajan.org and sign up for our RSS feed so you always know when the latest video has been posted.

Included with this newsletter is the edited transcript of Yogi Bhajan’s very first lecture, which he gave to an empty room in January of 1969. It’s a good reminder to me, as I start my new yoga class in January, that even if no one comes, my duty is to teach, to hold the space for the students who will come. Because as we well know, students came—and continue to come!

These teachings are a light and we are the torch bearers. Carry that light into this New Year and be a blessing to all those who receive these teachings because of you.

Sat Nam,

Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa

The Yogi Bhajan Library of Teachings Capital Campaign
Kundalini Research Institute
PO Box 1819
Santa Cruz, NM 87567
www.yogibhajan.org

The Three Laws of Prosperity: Be Kind to Everyone; Never Speak Ill of Anyone; and Never Speak Ill of Yourself. —© The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan
 

 

We Are KRI - Now Is the Time for Teachers!

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Sat Nam and Happy New Year from KRI! Welcome to a new decade as together we move closer to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, with its new opportunities and challenges.

While at Winter Solstice this year I looked around the camp and saw students, teachers and trainers from all over the world: Japan, Cambodia, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany, and South Africa. All of us gathered to meditate together over Winter Solstice and complete three days of White Tantric Yoga. We had new students practicing White Tantric for the first time, and we had those of us who have been returning since the first Winter Solstice 40 years ago.

In January we celebrate our beginnings as a community and a family; for it was on January 5th, 1969, often called 3HOs birthday, that Yogi Bhajan gave his first lecture in the United States, “The Art and Science of Liberation” . In this lecture Yogi Bhajan taught us where our happiness comes from, defining a happy person as a carefree person who lives by life-promoting habits. In the years since that lecture, he continued to teach us how to live in this world as liberated, carefree yogis. Meanwhile, KRI developed Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training under the direction of Yogi Bhajan, and it’s now on every continent and in most countries throughout the world. The KRI Trainers and Teachers are serving to uplift humanity out of the pain and into a life of hope, in the words of Yogi Bhajan in this first lecture, “… if you have an honest and sincere urge to improve your future, you will always have promoting habits. Oh man, if you are to care not even for God, at least care for the future. When you care enough for your future to have promoting habits, you will become a liberated person.”

This month I received a story of The Happy Smiles Orphanage in Cambodia. In 2006, Tonie and and his wife Hanneke began to teach Kundalini Yoga and meditation to the children. Since then, they have created a Kundalini Yoga center that is managed by five of the Cambodian Kundalini Yoga Teachers they trained. This center and the outreach classes into the community is touching the hearts and lives of the people of Cambodia at every level of society. The practice of Kundalini Yoga is supporting the students of Cambodia in a “new and improved future” by helping them recover from the post-war stress and past abuse and starvation. This picture shows the faces of happy children practicing Kundalini Yoga and Meditation at the House of Smiles Orphanage.

Please read the full story sent to us by Sunder Singh (the KRI Coordinator of Teacher Training in Asia) and Suraj Kaur of Australia, the President of the Kundalini Yoga Association of Australia and New Zealand.

We Are KRI would like to share your stories. How are you serving to help others have a bright future through your Teacher Training programs and other community building efforts? I look forward to hearing about the transformation that takes place through Kundalini Yoga and Teacher Training. In this time of New Year’s resolutions I offer the words that our Teacher, Yogi Bhajan, shared at his first lecture in the United States.

“Maintain a positive attitude, with promoting habits for 40 days, and you can change your destiny. This psychological concept of human behavior is a pattern which can guide you to that goal described in our scriptures as Paradise.”

Sincerely,

Hari Charn Kaur Khalsa

Director of Reach Out–Teach Out

 

 

 

Message from the DOT

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Fire Tattva: The 2010 Global Meditation

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan®

 

Fire is an important quality or element in the philosophy of yoga. From the formless manifold Being that is the Infinite to the dense form of finite existence there is a process of manifestation that moves from the most subtle to the gross and tangible. This transition occurs in 36 steps or tattvas. Each step or tattva is a state of Being. Fire is a major step in that process and as such is a pervasive potential, which manifests in differing degrees. Fire as an element encodes a transformative function inherent in the universe, which is experienced in particular functions throughout the body. Fire gives light. Light enables vision. Vision gives insight, perspective and projective potency. In terms of chakras, it is associated with the Third Chakra, the Manipura Chakra, which is often represented as an upward pointing triangle and the color red.

 

In the finite world of forms, fire is fed by fuel. Physiologically, it is the power of digestion and food is its fuel. Emotionally, it is passion and the fuel is the object of love or desire. Psychologically, it is known as personal will and the fuel is a goal. When fire is present it induces dynamic change, restlessness, and purification of the substance and form it presides in. Fire is increased with the practice and discipline of yoga. The Fifth Chakra supports this internal flame through the power of projection and by charging the space it can burn in with potential.

 

In the formless realm of experience, the fire tattva is prakasha, the brilliance of the soul, the insight and intuition of the mind and the presence of awareness. It is the light, which gives rise to forms.

 

This quality was described in an early lecture: “Saints and sages have taught mankind that whatever elements are found in the constitution of the Infinite Universe will also be found in the human body. The Universe is the entire Cosmos; and we are a microcosm of the entire Cosmos. If we were to take a thimbleful of sea water and examine it closely, we would find by chemical qualitative analysis that the constituents of the sea water in the thimble are identical to those of the vast ocean. Similarly, the constituents of our individual bodies are identical to those of the Universe. It would be a strange finding if some element were found inside the human body which differed from the elements of the Universe. For there is One Creator who has created this Creation; and all manifested things are born from the One Source of all.

 

Our personality is dependent on which of the five gross elements predominates in our nature. The agnigranthi, or fire center, manifests through the spleen, liver, pancreas, and adrenal glands. Just as the heat of the sun makes life possible on Earth, the heat of the agni tattva sustains life in the body. The day this internal fire goes out means death to the individual as surely as this world would die if the sun refused to shine. Persons with a supremacy of this agni tattva are very vigorous, full of perseverance, and become untiring workers. They have a wonderful capacity for leadership and a directness of manner and speech.”

– © The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, January 1, 1973

 

Fire is applied and refined in the meditative art of Traatik Yoga, sometimes called gazing. Students select a flame, a sacred object or the image of a teacher or saint to focus on. But it is more than gazing. Gazing in the West implies passivity with alertness. In yoga it is an active projection of the mind and self in order to merge with the existence and qualities of an object. If the focus is a flame, you increase the purifying capacity of the body and mind. Fire Traatik is used for healing. If the object is a teacher—like the Tantric photo of Yogi Bhajan—the meditator attunes to and “acquires the virtues” of the teacher. Certain objects are crafted with specific qualities that a meditator may wish to cultivate. This is the art of yantra—the use of form and image as energy. Performing traatik on an image of the Golden Temple links the state of the meditator to a profound healing space. The temple itself is designed with proportions and color that make it a perfect gateway for spiritual and healing traatik practice.

 

When the fire element is strong and integrated, in balance with the personality, it gives one bright eyes. The light of the soul is shown in the healing glance of the saint. Practice of traatik keeps vision healthy and gives the ability to see the subtle and unseen as well as the visible.

 

As we move toward the Aquarian shift we invite this quality of insight, will and leadership. The meditation we are practicing invokes the projective power of the chakras, from the Third and Fifth Chakras, and refines the use of light, fire and truth (satya) in the mantra. Let us gain clarity and will to walk the rest of the mile and deliver our heart and soul to a future of peace and blessings. Let us each be fully human and fully our Self.

 

By the blessings of our teacher and the power of the Naam,

 

 

Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, PhD
Director of Training
Kundalini Research Institute
 

DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION THIS DOT MESSAGE

 

Yogic Recipe of the Month

 

Jalapeno Pancakes
By Yogi Bhajan

Jalapeno chilies are extremely high in vitamin C. These spicy pancakes help to build resistance to colds and flu. Also known as "smog pancakes," these help to overcome ill effects of living in a polluted environment.  Amounts of spices may be increased, if you so inclined.

2 Cups of Besan flour

Water

1 Tbsp. Whole Coriander

2 tsp. Ajwain

8 Jalapeno Chiles, chopped

1 tsp. Salt

1 Onion, finely diced

1 Bulb garlic, minced

1/3 Cup Minced Gingerroot

15 Almonds, blanched and halved

1 tsp. Black Pepper

1 Tbsp. Cumin Seeds

1 tsp. Crushed red chilies

Olive Oil
 

 

Mix besan with enough water to make a batter of pancake consistency.  (As the batter sits, it will thicken slightly.  Add water in very small amounts to maintain consistency.) Add remaining ingredients, except oil.  Heat 1/8-inch olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high flame.  Pour in enough batter to make a 6-inch pancake, spreading it evenly in a circle with the bottom of a spoon.  (They should be about 1/8-1/4 inch thick.) Fry as you would pancakes, browning on both sides and draining on absorbent paper.

 

Makes 8 Pancakes

 

DISCLAIMER
 

 

The KRI Photo Archive Project

Holiday Special and New Year Celebration:

Yogi Bhajan Photos proudly announces a HUGE SALE on all Yogi Bhajan Photographs, discounts up to 50% off of regularly priced prints!

Give the gift of Photographic Art! Prints of any size make a terrific holiday surprise! Keep warm with a cup of Yogi Tea in your specialized Mug, decorated with your choice of one of our 11 Yogi Bhajan images available for sale. Other great gift ideas include custom greeting cards, refrigerator magnets, shirts, a mahogany keepsake box, photo puzzle, and more! Visit http://yogibhajan.com/YBPhotos.htm and pick your favorite picture.

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy, and Holy New Year!

Yogi Bhajan Photo Archives