Synchronicity or Coincidence?

Before I delve into this, it makes sense to start with the conventional definitions of sychronicity and coincidence.

From Wikipedia:

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner.  The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning.  In order to be synchronistic, the events must be related to one another temporally so as to rule out direct causation.

From Answers.com:

Coincidence: 

1) The state or fact occupying the same relative position of area in space.

2) A sequence of events although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

The definitions seem close and it would be hard to differentiate at times.  Which leads me to believe that the way we differentiate between synchronicity and coincidence is awareness and faith.  Awareness and faith can be somewhat abstract concepts for people so my easiest way of explaining it is.... when you start to become aware of the coincidences as having meaning your faith transforms them into sychronicity.

Once you achieve the awareness, it can become a bit overwhelming as our life is basically a series of sychronicities leading us to our destiny.  When and how can you achieve the awareness?  Essentially, we have to live out our karma.  For some this could take a lifetime, for some you can burn through it much quicker.  It is all a matter of how intense your preoccupation with the daily life struggles are.  The more we learn to quiet our minds, the easier we flow in this life.  Guru Singh uses an analogy that people are like sailboats.  We all can move our sails to take us WITH the wind or try to move AGAINST the wind.  Obviously trying to move against the wind will probably not take us too far.  Living life through effortless ease comes from learning to adjust your sails to go with the winds.  

Sounds pretty simple.  Through a commitment to a daily spiritual practice, you will notice more clarity and awareness which will incidentally lead you to noticing the sychronicities of life.  I like to call them those "Hi there" moments.  Kundalini Yoga recommends dedicated 2.5 hours a day to a spiritual practice which is based on the law of karma, you get tenfold of whatever you give.  This would mean that in giving 2.5 hours a day, your entire day is covered by positive karma. By connecting breath with movement for as little as 11 minutes a day, you have a start.  

From the time that I started practicing Kundalini Yoga, a definite shift in my awareness has occurred.  Not only do I notice a lot more of those "Hi there" moments, but my life has started to move forward with a lot more ease than ever.  

Although I still struggle with my daily practice, I have seen the benefits of it and will continue to work at it.  I just finished a day of White Tantric Yoga which has refreshed me and left me at peace with the events of last week.  There were many sychronicities for me there as well including my brief numerology reading by Guru Bachan Kaur where I learned more about the gemstones that resonated for me.  (Subsequently I purchased a mala from her, they are beautiful and I would highly recommend you look into them and her work: Ganesha Gems)  The reading I was given expressed to me that I have an innate ability to see truth and speak it, however it gets me into trouble (an all too familiar problem for me). What stone resonated for me the most, Amazonite.  This stoneis meant to help people that have suffered emotional trauma and assists them in communicating the truth that they see. Its name was said to come from the Amazonian warriors.

Amazonite... Amazonian Warriors.... Truth.

Interesting stone for a 6-foot tall women who is repeatedly called an Amazon and goes by the nickname Wonder Woman (a member of the Amazons) and has difficulty knowing when and how to "tell it like it is"....

"Hi there."

Be Kind To Yourself

One of my yoga teachers once said "Please forgive me, God is not finished yet." As soon as I heard it, I committed it to memory.  What a great way to say.... life is a constant learning process.  As part of my learning process, I went to my first weekend of teachers' training at Yoga West a couple of weekends ago.  To give you some background on this, teachers' training is one weekend a month for 9 months, Saturday from 7am-8pm and Sunday from 7am-6pm, basically 180 hours.  There are many other requirements but these are the "classroom hours" requirements.  Within these hours, we probably did about 10-12 hours of yoga work, the rest is teaching theory.

When I had signed up for training, I had two fears, the mental and physical commitment. I knew the mental side was something I had to conquer, so even though I feared it, I welcomed it.  As for the physical side, this was my main struggle.  My spine has been a source of much pain in my life throughout the years.  Various doctors and xrays have given me the following list of diagnoses: 3 herniated discs in my lumbar region, twisted sacrum, loss of curvature in the neck, worn away L5 vertebrae, and lordosis of the lumbar region.  In addition, or because of all this, I also have horribly short hamstrings and a very week core which basically give me zero flexibility.  Needless to say, I constantly struggle, and fail, to even touch my toes.  

Not only can the physical pain due to this be tough to bear, the emotional and psychological pain of being in a yoga class and seeing everyone do so many of the poses and breathing with such little effort is tough to endure as well. This brings me to my Sunday of my first weekend of training.  Having gotten through the Saturday somehow, my body was aching with pain and soreness by Sunday morning.  My struggle to get through the Sunday was evident.  I could barely complete the poses and breathing.  During one of our breaks, I approached my group trainer, Gurudhan Singh, and explained to him that I was having  so much difficulty even doing the exercises and I was feeling inadequate watching everyone else.  "Not all of us have flexibility", Gurudhan said, "Some of us have a meditative mind for example... we are all different and we must remember above all to be kind to our bodies and love what they CAN give us."

I decided I would go back in and try again.  This time it was Guru Singh's class.  After another of his amazing lectures (I really urge you to check out his podcasts), we started our third repetition of the kriya for elevation, which was for our first 40-day sadhana.  Having barely gotten through the first two repetitions, my back was screaming at me and going into spasm.  Despite Gurudhan's words, my self-doubt and negativity started to creep up.  What was I thinking signing up for this training?  I mean really, how on earth can I teach exercises that I am physically struggling to do myself?....but I am still here.  Keep going....don't give up.

The kriya is completed by an 11 minute long meditation of the Adi Mantra, also known as Long Ek Ong Kaars.  By this time, I was having difficulty even sitting up and keeping my back straight and legs crossed.  I let my legs move any which way I could to try to allow the pain to subside but I kept my hands in gyan mudra.  When we finished the meditation, we stayed there with our eyes closed.  Guru Singh then instructed us to place our hands on our body where we needed the most healing.  Instinctively, I moved my hands to my lower back and gently placed them there.  As soon as my hands touched my back, tears came to my eyes.  I wasn't sure why except that I must have been absorbing my physical pain in an emotional capacity.  Within seconds though, my back became warm where my hands were and then... I felt nothing.  Yes I felt the heat on my lower back, but that was all I felt.  Panic struck me in that moment.  For a few seconds there, I thought I had pushed my back too far; I thought I somehow paralyzed myself.  Now I know that SOUNDS silly, but to go from the amount of pain I was feeling in my back, to feeling NOTHING.... it was such a shock to me.

While this is all going through my head, I hear Guru Singh's words pierce through, "Now turn to the person next to you and tell them what you felt."  Too scared to move, I just sat there and waited.  The lady next to me turned to me and said, "What happened for you?"  Then, a dam broke, tears poured out of my eyes as it hit me.  "My pain is gone."  Were the only words out of my mouth.  "What pain?" I was too overcome with emotion and tears but I managed to sputter out that my back was in agony and all of a sudden my pain was gone.  I don't know what happened but something happened.  She had told me that was amazing and she was so happy for me, and these types of things happen often in kundalini. Nevertheless, I still had to run to the bathroom to collect myself.

Upon returning from the bathroom, Guru Singh was speaking again.  "Some of us have a bad back," he said, "but its not really a BAD back... it's just a good one that needs a little bit of work."  He then explained that when he started kundalini he had a fracture in his spine and could barely bend forward and with time that healed.  "Be kind to your body... love your body... if your muscles don't stretch as far as you would like them to, thats ok.  You ask them to stretch a little more with you each day, but always be kind to yourself."

My first training weekend was completed hours later.  I still felt the warmth on my back and that stayed with me for a couple of days.  Did the pain come back?  Yes and no.  The soreness from that intense training weekend remained with me for days in my entire body, but my lower back was still fine.  Within a week or so though, my back went back to its "misalignment" which I am currently seeing a chiropractor for. However, for those few blissful days, I floated on a cloud of both amazement and pure bliss.  Magic had flowed from my hands through meditation.

We are all capable of healing.  The body is an amazing thing.  Your cells regenerates every 72 hours.  Why not imprint them with something positive?

Be kind to yourself, and in that kindness, you find the grace to project kindness to others.

The Age of Aquarius

On Nov 11, 2008, we will have exactly four years until the Age of Aquarius is upon us.

What is the Age of Aquarius? Many of us have become familiar with the term from "Hair", the musical.

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius....Aquarius! Aquarius!
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Many of us have also heard prophecies and talk of the year 2012 being the Armageddon or the end of the world. It is in fact going to be the end of the world as WE know it and the beginning of a new world .... a world ruled by awareness, information, and energy.

We have probably all been noticing the shift in energies of the world, from the economy, wars, and energy crisis. Mental illnesses have also been on the rise for years. The World Health Organization has said that one in four people suffer from various forms of mental, behavioral, and neurological disorders. It has also been estimated that depression will be the second largest illness by 2010. The Annals of Internal Medicine recently reported fatigue and stress as two of the top reasons people seek a doctor. People are losing their sense of balance. In comes the Aquarian Age... an age where we are meant to shift our awareness and consciousness and focus on humanitarian efforts rather than expansion efforts.

How does this relate to each of us? I can speak for myself, before I even had heard of any of this, I too had fallen into depression and chronic fatigue. I spent months trying to understand how I got to that point. Why was this happening to me? Once I stopped fighting the changes that I was going through, I realized that in every dark moment is a ray of light, an opportunity to learn.

The secret to learning is forgetting...

- Guru Singh

As I started getting more and more engaged in my books as well as kundalini yoga, I saw how I had to forget what I knew in order to accept this new awareness. Nothing proves so hard as trying to convince your ego to let go of everything its held on to. A shift in awareness is a very tough thing to handle. Your ego fights with it tooth and nail. Nevertheless, I make baby steps, such as entering my Teacher's Training for Kundalini Yoga.

People asked me why I entered the training. Did I want to teach yoga? I hadn't really thought about teaching really. I was looking for more of a spiritual guidance, and up until then, nothing had spoken to me more than my yoga. Kundalini yoga was one of the very few things that allowed me to feel safe and sane. I also believed that I was led there by forces beyond me. However the decision to enter the training was not an easy one. Not only had I not even considered it more than a week prior to my registration, but I actually thought I was crazy to commit to something that I could potentially not endure physically due to the issues I had with my spine.

The Friday before I registered, I attended Guru Singh's class at Yoga West. Guru Singh started his lecture by explaining to us that we were all there for a reason. None of us ended up there by accident. "All of you have always known you were ... different," he said. He was right, I always felt that I was different, since I was a child. "You have always been a little much for people to handle." Yes yes.. that would be me again. Looking around at the class, it was obvious that he was right. Everyone in there was a bit... different. You have to be a little different to spend hours a week chanting and breathing like a freight train. I had been feeling a little spaced out since I returned from Amsterdam. Guru Singh's lecture was about the only thing that could knock me on my ass and get me back on track.

The energy of love and acceptance permeated the room as we all sang Aap Sahaee Hoa Sachay Daa Sacha Doaa, Har Har Har; a meditation meant to help you penetrate the unknown without fear as well as give protection and mental balance. I let my voice soar and sing, as I sent the love out to the world. I sent the energy to my beloved sister... to my beloved Palestine... and to all humanity. Tears rolled down my face as I felt the healing energy. Somehow the decision had been made for me to be there... to sign up for teachers' training. My ego fought it for a few more days. I even started having massive abdominal spasms that week that prevented me from going to yoga. I did make it in to sign up for the training and got my textbooks: The Aquarian Teacher.

Five Sutras for the Aquarian Age (by Yogi Bhajan)

1. Recognize that the other person is you.
2. There is a way through every block.
3. When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.
4. Understand through compassion or you will misunderstand the times.
5. Vibrate the Cosmos, the Cosmos shall clear the path.

We are all one collective consciousness. This is what the Aquarian Age is about, realizing this consciousness and reaching out to help each other. It is time to make those changes in ourselves that we KNOW we need to make. Each breath we take is an opportunity to achieve that awareness. Start by breathing consciously at every opportunity you get. Be AWARE of your breath. Breathing consciously declares you are awakening.

Any time we see something around us that we do not like, it is our indication to make that change within ourself. Awaken to those changes in preparation for the Aquarian Age.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

I will finish this with our Kundalini yoga farewell blessing:

Long Time Sun

May the long time sun

Shine upon you,

All love surround you,

And the pure light within you

Guide your way on.

Sat Nam

My Personal Awakening

Today I made the decision to commit to Kundalini yoga teachers' training at Yoga West. This course is a 9 month course that teach you the fundamentals of the Kundalini yoga practice and principles.

This is a huge step for me and it starts this weekend. I will write more about the experience as I go through it. Suffice to say that I was overtaken with emotion immediately after leaving Yoga West today with my textbooks.

For more information check out:

http://www.yogawestla.com/TT.html

Wish me luck!