Even entering the studio you get a feeling that this is a serene place - it almost radiates spirituality. Actually one of the first things you notice is that Kundalini yogis wear white, loose cotton or linen clothes and usually have their head covered, often with a turban or other type of scarf wrappings. The color white expands the aura and is believed to deflect negativity and the head is covered so that the energy doesn't leave the body through the crown of the head.
In fact, they talk a lot about containing the energy, locking the bhandas and energetic centers and suspending the breath. I believe their intense focus on breathing is what's drawing me to this form of yoga. After class I feel a little light headed, almost like levitating - and I'm sure it's got to do with both the kriyas (movements) and the breathing but in meditation I also notice that my practice becomes a lot more intense when I do the alternate nostril breathing with a pause, both on the exhale and inhale - that's when it intensifies. But this is probably also why they say, Kundalini is a little advanced - they actually ask you to do a lot of crazy things like breath of fire in bow pose or camel and I can see that this kind of things should not be tried unsupervised. So maybe it's a good thing I became a vinyasa teacher first and will take my time to ease into this. I do think that there is lots of room for integrating kundalini elements into a more physical vinyasa class and since we focused on the heart and throat chakra today and my next class at work will be on hear opening, I think I will definitely give it a try.
The fascinating thing to me is that vinyasa focuses so much on the alignment and the right way to get into the poses and to actually embody the pose while in kundalini the alignment seems to be rather secondary and first and foremost they want you to hold it for minutes at a time or move with the breath quickly in lots of repetitions, so if you think Kundalini is 'easier' than vinyasa, think again... I really think that in many ways it's more challenging - especially for the western mind. They constantly bring you up against that wall of - do I continue or do I let go? Working through things is the big mantra. While there can be music or chanting in vinyasa - kundalini includes sound healing elements - so they often use a gong for instance. Today in shavasana I was blown away by that sound - to be honest it almost induced some fear in me it was so powerful and it vibrates through every pore of your body. It's difficult to describe but definitely worth a try. It also seems that they have specific mantras that go with the kriyas but I need to investigate that a little further. The chanting we did today must have been close to 10-15 minutes long and just got under your skin.
Another thing I find appealing in Kundalini is that Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the Kundalini tradition seems to have broken with some of the traditional teachings of patanjali and does not encourage celibacy and restraint from everything - something that surprised me because I would have taken this group for quite conservative in their thinking - but I think they may come across as more fundamentalist than they actually are. I am looking forward to learning more. The studio also has a class that is a blend between vinyasa and kundalini so I will try to catch that one next week - I believe it's called 'vindalini'...
Satnam is what these guys say instead of namaste - it means 'truth is my name' and another one that I love is 'waheguru', something that our teacher in Sonic was saying a lot and now I heard it again, in several mantras- a sikh term for the divine, wondrous enlightener.
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