Class dedicated to Mother Earth (Gaia)

Harmonium & Chanting: Aum Hraum Mitraya Mantra - Aum Hraum Mitraya Namaha.  Aum Eim Saraswatiyei Namaha.

Purpose/Meaning: “May the light of friendship shine through me, drawing noble companionship.  Om and Salutations to the feminine Saraswati principle.”  Saraswati is the Hindu Goddess who represents the feminine principle in each & every one of us of knowledge, music, arts, flow & growth.

Reading:  “What if our religion was each other, if our practice was our life, if prayer, our words. What if the temple was the earth, if forests were our church, if holy water-the rivers, lakes & oceans. What if meditation was our relationships, if the Teacher was life, if wisdom was self-knowledge, if love was the center of our being." - Ganga White

Pranayama: Circular breathing.  Soften front body & drag the breath down the front & up the back.  “From prana indeed all living forms are born and, having been born, they remain alive by prana.  At the end they merge into prana once more. “ - Kaushitaki Upanishad 3:2

Asana: Stretching, Core, Sun A’s, Sun B’s, Backbends, Playtime, Warm-down & Savasana.  Hold heart in poses.  Chant Jay Ma!

Meditation: Adjust them & balance third eye.  Breath as a wave meditation.  Starting with 4-part breath.  Puraka (Inhale).  Antar-Kumbhaka (Hold it full at the top).  Rechaka (Exhale).  Bahya-Kumbhaka (Hold it empty at the bottom).  Puraka...  Antar-Kumbhaka...  Rechaka...  Bahya-Kumbhaka.  

“Conscious control of the breath moves brain function from the primitive medula oblongata to the frontal lobe.  From unconscious to conscious breath.  Pranayama can be used as a tool to take the yogi to Samadhi (ultimate pure consciousness) where Kevala Kumbhaka, spontaneous, effortless suspension of the breath.”

Begin to think of the breath as a wave-like pattern.  Inhaling up, peaking and pausing at the crest, and exhaling back down, pausing at the trough.  Up & down.  After awhile, when you think you’ve got the hang of it, you can let go of the pause & just notice the brief cessation of breath at the top & bottom of the breath.

“Energy moves in waves, waves move in patterns, Patterns move in rhythms, the rhythms lend a map for the movements of our psyche as well as the ever-changing state of the universe.” - Gabrielle Roth, Sweat Your Prayers: movement as a spiritual practice.

“Peace is every step.  The shining red sun is in my heart.  Each flower smiles with me.  How green, how fresh all that grows.  How cool the wind blows.  Peace is every step.  It turn the endless path to joy.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

“Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings, vaster than the vast, sublter than the most subtle, unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat.  Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure & silent, merge with the formless truth.  As soon as you fins it, you are free; you have found yourself; you have solved the great riddle; your heart forever is at peace.  Whole, you enter the Whole.  Your personal self returns to its radiant intimate, deathless source.” - Mundaka Upanishad

Sing: “Imagine” by Beatles (Eva Cassidy version)

Class on Balancing the Third Eye Chakra

Setting the theme/tone:  “Tonight’s class will be focused on opening the third eye chakra, also called the Anja chakra or the sixth chakra, the home of intuition.  When this chakra is out of balance it can affect the eyes, ears, pituitary gland & hypothalamus as well as most of the brain with the exception of the very top (as that is governed by the crown chakra).  And so the third eye chakra is the primary chakra of sensory perception & it is also the center of thought & abstraction.  It is from this chakra that we begin to transcend our sense of self identity, separateness, differences & otherness from us with respect to the rest of the Universe.  Our sixth chakra also known as our “sixth” sense, going beyond the sensory perceptions & into our psychic perceptions .  When this chakra is out of balance our jealousies, fears, greed, or power plays can get the better of us.”  - Donna Eden in Energy Medicine  

Chakracise: Sitting in a comfortable seated position, breath calm & deep while using your index finger to push open your third eye.

Reading: The element associated with the sixth chakra is space.  A reading from Jivamukti Yoga by Sharon Gannon & David Life by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in Terrestrial & Celestial Magnetism.  “Without space, creation cannot take place.  When you purchase a house, you purchase the space, which is surrounded by the walls.  The more space, the more valuable the house.  You cannot think anything if you have no space within your mind.  You cannot welcome any guest in your house if you have no space within your house.  You cannot recieve any thought from outside if you have no space within your mind.  The outer space is the first & eldest of all the elements, without which creation cannot take place.  In the same way, inner space is the first & eldest of the inner elements, without which no thinking can take place in your mind.  What is the resaon that many people are creative?  They have space in their minds.  What is the reason that many people are fools?  They have no space in their minds.  Their minds are always congested with all sorts of thoughts, like a warehouse with furniture.  Nobody is a fool and nobody is wise.  It is the space that makes you foolish or wise.  If you have space within your mind, then you become wise, and if you have no space in your mind, then you become “other-wise.”  If you have no space in your mind, then you cannot understand God or “I-Am,” & visa versa, of you have space withing your mind, then you can grasp the operation of “I-Am” or God in you, according to space, qualitatively and quantitatively.” 

Prayer/Mantra:  “Sarva Mangala Mangalye, Sive Sarvatha Sadhike, Sharanye Tryambake Gauri, Narayani Namosthute, Narayani Namosthute.” 

Translation: I salute the three-eyed Divine Mother, Narayani, who brings total auspiciousness & who fulfills the desire for liberation.  Realization arises with her blessing.  She is the world itself.  Only through the experiences of life can the soul be perfected.  Honor this gift, your life. - Jivamukti Yoga by Sharon Gannon & David Life.

Have them chant the sound of the sixth Chakra (Om) - Aaaah (feel vibration in belly),  Oooh (feel vibration in the chest & throat), Mmmm (feel vibration in the skull), AUM (feel vibration traveling up through the chakras), AUM, AUM (voiced)

Asana:  Sun A’s, Sun B’s, balancing, backbends, & warm-down.  Have them periodically sense, through their third eye, the presence of others in the room.  Have them close their eyes to do this.  Have them feel into their bodies in deep, long stretches.

Meditation: Start them out in Savasana & use the pendulum & Lapis Lazul crystal to balance & open third eye chakra for each student.  Have them ask a question from their third eye & visually breath it down to their root chakra to settle.  After a few breaths, have them breath light up their spine, floating the question up to their third eye & be open for the answer to reveal itself as they pull open their third eye.  

Poem: “Many times, i’ve wondered if my heart will harden shadowed by the clouds that hide the sun.  A moment or a lifetime waiting in your garden.  I see you in the distance & I feel like crying out.” - Jai Uttal, Krishna Das & Linde “I won’t ask for more.”