Sodarshan Chakra Kriya: the missing instructions Posted on December 14, 2010 by sodarshan

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I just finished 40 days of Sodarshan Chakra Kriya and wanted to pass on my experiences.

Without a Kundalini teacher, I found the online instructions incomplete. If you are in a similar situation, this page is for you.

If you have not done so already please go to the source 3HO, and download the official instructions:

http://www.3ho.org/kundalini-yoga/kundalini-yoga-yb/kriyas-meditations/featuredmeditations/pdfs/SodarshanChakraKriya.pdf

The instructions are good, and the commentary is essential, but there are a few things missing.

Missing Instructions

1) How to count. According to the You Tube video of Yogi Bhajan, you should count on your left hand with your thumb. You do this by tapping lightly the base of the four fingers, then the first knuckle, then the second knuckle, then the tips of the fingers. That makes 16. 16 times the three pumps WHA HAY GURU, makes the 48 pumps.

I spent my first many sessions counting with little pictures of numbers , or mentally say1 Wha Hay Guru, 2 Wha Hay Guru and so on. That distracted my from where my attention should have been, on the stomach pumping

2) Duration: the 48 pumps take about 30 seconds, according to the Yogi Bhajan video.

3) Eyes are 9/10 closed.

Observations and Tips

It is best to do this meditation early in the morning, before sunrise. The suggestion to start slow is a good one. Start with 5 minutes a day, but work up to 31 or 62. In the Video Yogi Bhajan says.(presumably to advanced students) to start with 31 and advance to 62 minutes a day.and you will be alright How do we reconcile the printed instructions to start with 5 minutes with the audio instructions to start with 31 minutes? My interpretation is that the 5, 11 and 21 minutes sessions are preludes to the 31 minutes session. The 31 minute is where the real power of SCK kicks in. But this may be too intense for people not familiar with intense pranayam. In my own experience, I got hung up on the instruction eyes fixed on the tip of the nose .. not to be done with the eyes open and spent too much time focusing on this. I tried different things like putting a colored sticker on the end of my nose or going crosseyed, which fundamentally were a distraction from the pumping and mantra. The eyes can be 9/10 closed with soft eyes. The best advice on nose gazing came from Adi Singh, which is copied in its entirety at the end of this document. My personal cheat is to close the left eye, so I see the nose from the right, then close the right eye, so I see the nose from the the left, then sort of squint one eye then the other so I see both at once. They make a sort of vase shape. Gazing at the tip of the nose is by far the most difficult part of the practice for me. You are holding your breath a long time. You need a deep inhale to sustain this. You can only get a deep inhale with a deep exhale, so try this: When you think you have exhaled, try to push a little more air out of your right nostril. Then when you inhale, try to inhale a little bit more. I am not suggesting you do a two part inhale and exhale with each breath, but I am suggesting that you play around with it and learn what you are capable of. Alternative viewpoint, some practitioners can not do a full pump with full lungs. You need to find what works for you. To ease into the practice, I made a music file that was 31 minutes, and had the mantra repeated at the proper pace, with a short bell at the top of the breath. This way I could get used to the pace and not have to worry about counting. I don't suggest this for ongoing, but I found it really useful when I was getting started. The instructions tell us to keep the right hand up with the nostrils, but there seems to be consensus among teachers that this is really hard, and it is OK to put comfort above form. It is OK to put your arm down between breaths if you need to. My tolerance built up during the 40 days, but I still have my hand down more then three quarters of the counting part of the breaths. I also find it harder to focus on the tip of the nose with my hand remaining up. Cold showers. I never thought I'd do this, but I started a quick cold rinse upon waking and before SCK. Yogi Bhajan seemed to make a big deal out of this for sadhana practice in general.. I can't say I noticed any difference, but I gave it a try from roughly day 20 to day 35. Silence. I strongly suggest that you take at least 10 minutes of silence after the SCK practice. Not visualizing, not chanting, just curiously observing. For me, this is where the magic happens. Laughter. Try doing laughter yoga (forced laughter) at least after one of your practice sessions. It can be pretty amazing. The stillness at the middle of the laughter is fantastic. The background to this is that someone emailed a link to Yogi Bhajan talking about SCK, except they sent the wrong link and the you tube that I was pointed to was a laughter yoga one. I didn't watch the video, but I took the hint from the universe. I found a wonderful yoga buddy, Jackie Pelle, a yoga teacher in Toronto, to join me on the 40 days of SCK through a Kundalini newsgroup. We emailed most days and kept each other motivated. This was very helpful.

One of the Kundalini books I read suggested doing sadhana in elastic waisted pants. With SCK my experience is that elastic is a bad idea. You are doing so many pumps that the subtle pul of elastic just feels wrong. Better to wear loose pants and unfasten them. My practice looks like this:

Wake up, quick cold shower (or not) Drink a glass of water with a little lemon. Invocation (Ong namo guru dev namo) Set timer for 62 minutes. (If you have an IPhone or ITouch there is a cool timer in the clock icon. I discovered this after my egg timer broke) Sodarshan Chakra Kriya until the timer goes off. Deep breath (I love this part, the world just stops) Shake just arms or get up and shake whole body, depending on my temperament. Meditate sitting up 5-20 minutes depending on my temperament. Sivasna 0-10 minutes, again depending on temperament. Afternoon is 11 or 31 minutes of SA TA NA MA (with an audio file to track the timing) with 15 minutes of silence.

I hope these instructions and observations help make your practice go smoothly.

My story:

I am not a Sikh, I don't wear a turban. I do do yoga and meditate. I started with Kirtan Krya (SA TA NA MA) after seeing the physical benefits that it does to the brain on Dr. Amen's brainscans. I was looking on the 3HO site for further instructions. I stumbled on the SCK instructions and knew it was for me.

I started with 5 minutes for a few days, then 11 minutes for a few days, then 31 minutes. At 31 minutes I decided to make it a 40 day practice.

On about day 20 of the 31 minute practice I pulled a tendon in my calf. This meant I couldn't do my regular exercises in the morning so I thought it was a perfect time to try a 62 minute session. So day day 21 I did 62 minutes for the first time and stayed with it. I kept up with Kirtan Kriya in the afternoon with Sodarshan Chakra Kriya in the morning, most days before dawn.

I started spontaneously getting up earlier, so it was common to be up at 5AM at this point in the practice. Towards the end of the 40 days I seemed to need more sleep and got up at 6 or 6:30.

I found myself getting very sensitive to coffee early on. Previously I was drinking one or two double espressos a day. Shortly after starting the practice, the espressos stopped feeling good. I cut down to one single, but even that was too much. I tried coffee on day 30, but could only drink a quarter cup before I started to feel jittery. I still have caffeine in other milder ways, yerba mate, green tea and chocolate.

Another weird physical change is that I got much more sensitive to tastes and the texture of food.. Ghirardelli 72% chocolate was particularly good.

During the 40 day practice I found myself gently more aware of the previously ignored thoughts and emotions that had been driving my life. Some of these were thoughts like I don't deserve that or seeing ways I held back in my life. Our thoughts and feeling create our experience and it is eye opening, and not always pleasant, to see how I am responsible for what happens in my life.

Good things started to happen. I had been underemployed for quite a while and during the 40 days I had my first solid job interviews. I had wanted a larger monitor for web development work and a friend gave me a 22 Samsung after I helped her with some computer issues. I was the grand prize winner of $1500 in high end tiling from a local store.

But more importantly, I could feel Shakti working on me. At the beginning, the energy would be very specific, perhaps in my pecs one day, in my temples the next. My interpretation is that this was blocks being gently worked out. After perhaps the half way point in the 40 days or a little later, the energy is more spread out in my body. Definitely very tangible from morning 'till noon and noticeable, but less intense, all day.

I really enjoy the practice. When I go to bed at night I am looking forward to morning sadhana.

Nose Tip Gazing (from Adi Singh, on the Kundalain Yahoo news group)

Tip of the Nose: is one of the oldest recorded yogic practices. Nose tip gazing, a form of Trataka, concentration of mind as a prelude to meditation, to that state where we have gone beyond our senses to surrender ourselves.

The technique for the Tip of the Nose, fixing the eyesight within:

You may use the finger technique but the one described here comes more natural.

Sit comfortable in Easy Pose. Close your eyes. By closing your eyes first you will cut off 80% of all stimuli coming at your brain, plus, it will disengage the optic nerve and relax all your extraocular muscles which are controlled by the cranial nerves (3rd, 4th and 6th). Stay in this position for as long as it takes for you to find yourself in a relaxed state. Then open your eyes and focus on the tip of the nose. Dont fight it. Dont strain your eyes. This is the most important part. Dont strain. If you strain you will feel pain. If you dont strain, it all will be gain. You know when you are at the tip of the nose, at the Lotus Point, when you see a double outline of the nose. Remember, this is inward gazing, the tip of the nose is the guide. If you concentrate too much on the tip of the nose by fighting strain and resistance, your mind will be full of nose but not of Bliss. After a while, the nose double outline will merge and will

become one. Then, the outlines will cross each other and form a V point. Look for that V-point. That is your gazing point. Focus there, stay there. If you can not see this V point (it is actually really cool to see it, a Wahe Guru moment), then you are not really fixing at the tip of the nose. Relax your eyes and try again. You will get there. When you feel you are straining too much, relax and keep coming to it.

Once you get there: A teacher's moment here; a lot of us tend to start our Kriya or Pranayam first and then try to focus at the tip of the nose as if it was a consequence or a second thought of the Kriya. Think when you are doing morning Sadhana and chanting Wahe Guru Wahe Jio. We tend to jump into Vir Asan asana, then as we start chanting we try to figure out how to focus at the tip of the nose and sustain it, as if it was a secondary part of it. It has got to be the other way around. The Trataka, gazing, needs to be established first if we are to be in a meditative state.

After you have established into the tip of the nose gazing, then you need to become aware of your breath. Then, you may begin the pranayam. If doing Sodharshan Chakra Kriya, try to establish the tip of the nose gaze before starting the breath, the mental chanting and the pumps.

The Eyes at the Tip of the Nose: Agiaa Chakra Bandh: Stimulates the Pineal gland and the frontal lobe of the brain. It is so powerful because it bypasses the master gland, the Pituitary, and goes straight for the Tenth gate, into the Thousand-Petaled Lotus, hence its name Lotus Point Meditation.

Just for remembering: the eyes at the Third Eye Point, Shambavi Mudra, stimulates the Pituitary. Eyes at the Tip of the Nose, Agiaa Chakra Bandh, stimulates the Pineal gland.

The Bhagavad Gita says: Holding his body, head and neck erect and motionless, the aspirant should gaze at the tip of his nose without once turning around. (6:13). This is the chapter that talks about Meditation and Self-Control (Dhyana, the seventh limb, ashtanga, in Patanjali's sutras).

Now for your contemplation: if the Gita really meant to say that we must focus at the tip of the nose to be in the Tenth Gate and fill our mind in nothing but God, then, by concentrating solely at the tip of the nose the mind will be left with the nose but without God. What the Tip of the Nose gazing really means is that we have to fix the eyesight within.

Thanks to Guru Rattana for the pointers. You can visit her at http://www.yogatech.com/

About these ads This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Day 48 notes 3 Responses to Sodarshan Chakra Kriya: the missing instructions

Paula says: April 19, 2011 at 2:46 am

Hello,

I found out about your blog from the Raviana facebook page. Hope to hear you write more. That is good that you are getting physical things manifesting. I am trying this meditation again as I have tried it a few times but did not do a full discipline. I am hoping to turn my life around and have a better life and future. I've been doing KY for a few years and it has been helpful.

I do feel the same experience as you have written, being aware of subtle negative thoughts. Hope this clears things up and gets the blocks out.

Reply M says: November 17, 2011 at 9:50 pm

Hi, I landed on the blog while looking for instructions on this technique. I'm impressed with your discipline and perseverance. How did it helped you during the last 100+ sessions? do you feel a significant improvement on your health/spiritual path/state of mind? Best Regards, M Reply sodarshan says: January 24, 2012 at 8:15 pm

Hi I have not been monitoring the blog, so my apologies in taking so long getting back to you.

I have kept up with SCK, this is month 13 or something. After 6 months I cut down from 62 minutes to 31 so I would have time to do a Kundalin Yoga DVD before SCK. Have not missed a day. M-F I do it early (4:30m-ish) , on the weekends before dinner .

Definite improvements all the way around. Healthwise I did get a cold this winter, but it was mild and short. Financially, I found a great career after almost 3 years of under employment. Spiritual is harder to describe, but neutral mind is easier to get into and I am loving the silence after SCK . I am not thrown off as easily. SCK goes through define phases, the phase I am starting now has something to do with feeling shakti and releasing into it. I'll post more when I have more perspective on it, this phase is just starting.

Be well, and thanks for reading my humble little posts

From http://sodarshan.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/hello-world

zzz

Day 48 notes Posted on December 29, 2010 by sodarshan

Notes on Day 48

Day 48 of SCK, day 28 of 62 minute SCK

Any hopes of being invulnerable to sickness are gone I caught a cold or flu or something that lasted a few days. Didnt stop practice, and was mild.

On the practice itself, I have abandoned any pretense of holding my right hand up I keep it down during the entire pumping now. It is just to hard to focus on the tip of the nose with the the hand there.

Tip of the nose is gradually getting better, I am comfortable with the two noses now and strain and scowl much less.

At the beginning of the practice each day would be different One day sweat would roll down my back the next Id be wrapped in a blanket. One day there would be blue light, the next indigo. Id feel a vibration or tingeing in various places, different each day.

These days my sadhana time is good, but each day is pretty much the same. Im a middle aged guy sitting pumping his stomach. I feel energy after, but it is more generalized up and down my spine.

One other (I hope short term) effect is that I have been really needing to sleep more Each of the last few day I have taken an afternoon nap.