Ojai is a nice place to be planted after such an experience. I'm going to go on a hike after I write this.
The last days of the training we learned the Bija mantras, a very basic approach using chanting to clear or simply become aware of the chakras. From the base up: Lum, Vum, Ram, Yum, Hum, Om, and Om. You can repeat these mantras as many times as you'd like, as many times as you feel it is necessary, and after each chakra spending a moment of breathless awareness to experience the chakra. The most difficult thing for me is "breathless awareness" When we tried this in class I found the if I tried to suspend my breathing it wouldn't work, I'd feel out of breath, and suffocated. But when I tried this mantra at home I relaxed the EFFORT of breath suspension and just allowed my body to fill as it needed, I noticed that I was breathing very, very slightly, almost unnoticeably. So I had let my initial idea of "breathless awareness" to be that of NO breathing. That made it painful really. When I decided that I might not know exactly what is meant by "breathless awareness", and it might be a while before my body understands what to do with these mantras, I could begin to concentrate more on my personal experience of each chakra and how it was affected by the vibrations. I started to enjoy the awareness, and the groundedness of each chakra, and I even loved all the noises that happened outside of my house walls. I could hear birds chirping, my neighbors talking, dogs barking crazily, cars driving by. I was chanting for the well being of all of these things. It interested me how each chakra had a different affect on my body. Lum, Vum, and Ram made me feel very stable on the ground, like I was really planted. When I got to the upper chakras I started to yawn, or cough, even hiccup and they were a little more difficult to move through and experience, but I just did as much as I could until I felt I had marinated in the mantra enough. I love the last Om to close the practice. This is done as a more traditional round of om, and not used with the Bija rhythm that I learned. It really settles the effects and allows clarity to reflect on the experience. I'd like to continue to play with the Bija mantras, and experience the effects in all of my various moods. I think sometimes it'll be harder than other times, but it will help me to just allow things to be different, transform, and allow me an opportunity to stick to something that keeps me turning inward to experience light and life.
Namaste
