I recently returned from a weeklong retreat with some of my yogis at the Buddhist Retreat in Ixopo, KZN. It was a re-treat in many ways expected and unexpected, however, the question for everyone who has attend a retreat before always remains, how do I maintain that which I have experienced at the retreat when I am back in my normal life. A retreat is taking you out of the abnormal stress, tension and anxieties of your life and allows you to experience for a short while what we all long for: a calm and peaceful life! Instead of publishing an article about how to select your next retreat or what you should be looking for when you want to do a retreat, I thought I would publish an article on how to maintain that which you have experienced during the retreat for a while longer. Here are some pointers:

After the Retreat

You have just finished a retreat at a meditation center and have some difficulty adjusting to the outside world. It was so tranquil in the center that you find it very difficult to cope with the sights and sounds and all the confusion outside? For many who attend their first retreat this is usually a common experience and not unique at all. At the retreat everything was near perfect, there was peace, harmony, silence and you could most probably practice your meditation and other yogas without much disturbance. While at the retreat, it is amazing how quickly we can adapt to these natural silence and harmonious conditions. So, back in the world again, you now have to cope with the familiar stresses of our society, traffic, noise pollution, aggressive drivers and this is all very difficult to handle especially the first few days after your return.

Remember to be Mindful

However, you can cope with this transition and I would like to suggest a few guidelines. Let’s look at how your mind functions inside and outside the retreat. When you were in the retreat, you were practicing mindfulness intensively. Your mindfulness was in a very high gear. When you came out, you probably left the mindfulness behind, didn’t you? As soon as you left the retreat, you changed gear. You let you mindfulness go and you were back to your old unmindful state. When you are suddenly faced with the confusion in the outside world, you find it difficult to handle. So, remember the daily meditations, reflect on them and see how your mindful-state has helped you to relax during the retreat. Now is the time to remember that, put it into practice and allow your mindfulness to equip you better to face the outside world.

Watch the Mind

During the retreat you have also learned most probably to watch the mind more closely than normal. You have become a witness, and could look at your likes and dislikes and see them for what they were. Back in the hustle and bustle, you forgot to watch the mind and suddenly you find yourself challenged with dramas which feel like they might send you into an anxiety state. In daily life you can watch your mind like a witness in the same way. You can watch your aversions to sights and sounds as they come to you. Let them come and let them go. Be equanimous to your feelings about the outside world, and your equanimity will overflow to the outside world itself as well.

As you are witness to your own reactions to the outside world, you will also become a witness to the sights and sounds, and not be so disturbed by them. When you become quite good at this, you will actually be living with an inner retreat whatever your circumstances, whether quiet or not.

Practice makes Perfect

Above all, try to mirror the activities of the retreat to some degree in your life once you have returned for as long as possible. Remember the programme at your retreat, if you can stick to the same time-table for a few days, meditate at the same time, instead of having discussions, read a book, do some asanas at the same time you did at the retreat and even try to cook for yourself the food you had at the retreat. This is all ways to keep the energy of the retreat with you for a few more days and alow you to ease into everyday life.

When you are on the yoga path, the need for introspection becomes very apparent soon after you have started your first yoga class. Yoga has this wonderful ability to stir things up in you and soon you are confronted with old issues that you might have thought was something of the past. An old friend or foe out of your past suddenly appears again in your life and your first reaction might be disdain for this person and the situation or you may take a deep breath and start to look in the mirror this person is holding up and ask yourself what is it that I have to learn about my Self?

To look in the mirror that is being held up by the other person is not easy. To search for closure or to find that which you have to pay attention to might be an arduous  path and one that we would not always like to go down. However, if we do the work we need to, if we look at the reflection in that mirror and start to work on that reflection, we may soon find that we find a fine balance and that balance brings closure with the person or the situation.

Another aspect of this process is to ask yourself constantly who is the doer/witness in this whole process. Let me explain, have you ever had an issue with a person, say a good friend, the two of you talk about it, but you go home and in your mind you are still fighting that friend. You develop arguments, you formulate questions you should have posed to this person and then you also give your answer and so it goes on and on. The other person is not even there, has no interest in this process you are going through and doesn’t even witness this whole fight you have in your mind with him or her. So who is the witness and who is the doer in this whole process?

Most of the time we are the doer and we have to remind ourselves that I am not the doer and that I am just moving among objects in this illusion which we call the world. By observing this aspect, by diserning with the intellect this fine line between doer and witness, we train the mind to become the silent witness and to let go of our attachments to those emotions and people. We become more mindful of what we are doing, why we are doing it and as such living in the moment becomes much easier than we thought.

So next time somebody holds that mirror up, look at the reflection and instead of attaching to it, just be the “Switzerland” of your mind, impartially disern what is happening around you without placing any judgement card on that which you observe. The reflection in the mirror is an opportunity for growth, if we learn to see the reflection and learn from it.

 In the case of Yoga for back pain or sciatica, most people usually first feel a worsening of the back pain as your muscles start to adjust to the asanas and the new postures your body is required to perform. People suffering from sciatica usually find immediate relief and long term healing. Depending on the severity of your back pain and the years of neglect through diet and lack of exercise and proper care yoga will make it either worse initially or it will bring immediate relief. However, I find that most people with back pain have neglected their muscles and bodies to such an extent that building them up through yoga takes considerable time and effort coupled with a severity in back pain before they start to reap the benefits of a regular yoga practice.

 After trying a variety of solutions, most people tend to continue with anything that helps them manage, or eliminate pain. With that said, Yoga asana classes are often part of a larger solution for pain management and in some cases, the complete elimination of back pain.

 Also remember that going to a general yoga class where there is a mix of people with different needs, that the asanas will not be specific for your problem. Therefore, it would be wise to schedule  private Yoga sessions with me in order to compile a programme that will benefit your problem most.

 A short description of back pain

 Back pain is a common musculoskeletal symptom that may be either acute or chronic. It may be caused by a variety of diseases and disorders that affect the lumbar spine.

 Low back pain may be experienced in several different ways:

• Localized. In localized pain the patient will feel soreness or discomfort when the doctor palpates, or presses on, a specific surface area of the lower back.
• Diffuse. Diffuse pain is spread over a larger area and comes from deep tissue layers.
• Radicular. The pain is caused by irritation of a nerve root. Sciatica is an example of radicular pain.
• Referred. The pain is perceived in the lower back but is caused by inflammation elsewhere—often in the kidneys or lower abdomen.

A short description of sciatica

 The sciatic nerve is irritated just as it leaves the spinal cord. It is unusual to feel sciatica symptoms in the back. Usually the pain is felt along the ‘distribution’ of the nerve or in other words in the area that the nerve supplies. This means that sciatica is often felt as a spreading leg pain.

 Pain resulting from irritation of the sciatic nerve, typically felt from the low back to behind the thigh and radiating down below the knee. Diagnosis is by observation of symptoms, physical and nerve testing, and sometimes by X-ray or MRI if a herniated disk is suspected.

 In conclusion, yoga can definitely help to alleviate your back or sciatic pain, but this is not an instant cure, it will take time, effort and discipline in the beginning. However, you should be able to experience relief within the first 6-12 months of a regular and dedicated asana practice. During private sessions we will also consider the emotional, mental and spiritual causes and issues for sciatica and back pain, as most pain isn’t just a purely physical condition.

 Detachment (vairagya)

The first one is vairagya – detachment (to be in the world but not of the world). Human beings tend to perceive the world according to their personal likes and dislikes, attractions and aversions. The result is a highly subjective and misleading view of the world and oneself. Detachment means not to be influenced by selfish desires. Many people think you have to totally emotion-less to be detached, this is untrue, we need our emotions to function in the world, it is just to not allow your emotions to rule your life. According to Adi Shankara, vairagya is the refusal or inability to be satisfied by the limited and transitory.

 Discernment (viveka)

The first one is viveka – discernment (act of the soul) versus discrimination (act of reason, the ego).  Viveka is the ability to know how to handle our emotions and belief systems and comes about as our consciousness moves up the lower chakras into the higher chakras. Viveka is the arrival at that point in your life where you change your reaction to the outside, the emotions and the influences of the mind to be more spiritually orientated. Vedanta describes it as the ability to discriminate between the Real and unreal, the Self and the non-self. Viveka is sometimes likened to a sword that separates Truth from illusion, the Permanent from the transient.

 Six virtues (shat sampat)

The next qualification is a combination of six spiritual virtues which are different forms of mind control. They are shama (calmness), dama (sense control), uparati (self-withdrawal), titiksha (forbearance), shradda (faith) and samadhana (constant concentration).

 Desire for Liberation (mumukshutva)

Mumukshutva means the feeling of intensive longing to be liberated from our limited, separate existence. It is the desire to become one with the Divine, which Vedanta describes as Sat-Chit-Ananda or Being-Awareness-Bliss. It is essentially the yearning to go back to the Divine, to be one with God that is shared by all human beings, although in most cases, this yearning remains unconscious. Instead of longing for Absolute Freedom which is the very nature of all human beings, most people desire the lesser freedom of acting according to their ego-centred whims and fancies. Mumukshutva may be the most important quality of all, since it automatically helps develop all the others. However, it remains a rare quality. As Krishna says in chapter 7, verse 3 of the Bhagavad-Gita: “Among thousands of men, one perchance struggles for perfection.”

SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA

I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of ‘Yoga and the Christian Religion’ because most of you are from a Christian background, very pious and very religious. Some are only Christian because they are born Christian, but some are halfway going to the Church once in two months, but all are from a Christian background, may be some Roman Catholic, may be not, may be Protestant, may be Methodist, may be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you belong to, when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally apply to Yoga and any other religion. So, what is the connection between Yoga and one’s religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is of the Hindu religion, and asks: ‘What is the connection between, this Hindu thing and my religion?’ Anyone belonging to another religion must wonder. So, it is worth-knowing how to relate Yoga to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp divergences between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may be some would feel a sense of guilt. ‘O, I am a Christian, am I doing the right by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a little irreligious in the particular area of my interest in Yoga.’ Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be felt.

First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a background or basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India and it is part of the Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal science that has arisen out of the Hindu religious ground-a science that has risen above religion. It is a universal technique. Because in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of Patanjali, one of the six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid down and no particular God is pointed out for your worship. Yoga doesn’t say that you must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things. Yoga doesn’t say that you must repeat any particular Name of God. Yoga only says that repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of the ways of concentrating the mind. It says repetition of the Divine Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you may say the prayer of Jesus, you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say the name of Siva, or you may say some other Name if you are in some other religion, but it does not specify that Name and also whom to worship. The All-perfect Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the imperfections, ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme Being, Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name, it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who is free from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute; that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of Yoga. So, it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga; it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of your religion. It does not point out a God different from the one pointed by your own religion—Christianity, Islam, etc.—and it does not give a special name of that God so that you will have to change Gods. It does not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the ground of Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.

 Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion, and assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science for Man. It is not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner, an Oriental or an Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given to mortal man on this earth of birth, pain and death. It was given to man on earth, no matter what he is or who he is; and it is given to man for all times. It was not given to an ancient man or medieval man or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he takes to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it is the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it is something that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga is the heritage of humanity. It does not interfere with religion. What does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the life of man and makes up for certain lack brought about by religion failing man or man failing religion. There is a condition created by the failure of religion administering to man’s highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage of religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot say.

 Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow religion. It is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the neglect of religion, the ignoring of religion and its teachings and its wisdom. Mostly, this is the situation. But in some places where religion has become totally institutionalised, it has become a great impersonal structure, and lost living contact with the individuals. Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit. It becomes only a pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief. You are a Christian; if you say ‘I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ’. Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian; so go your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain things which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a set of dogmas, and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious man. But, then, this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain spiritual content which has direct relevance to that part of you which is your innermost essential being, which is your innermost reality, a true, essential reality, and where religion fails to touch that part of your being, and loses its concern with that, and only concerns itself with the way in which you live, your social life and pattern of your social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your tithe and whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you go through all the various sacraments. You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is interested only in that but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you to question yourself or query ‘What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my goal?’ In organised religions, the structure does not encourage you to ask these questions, does not insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and make life a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is ministering to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that dimension of your being where you are the real being. Other dimensions are touched and affected, but that dimension is left untouched.

 So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no longer progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive in such cases. Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern of Yoga is the spiritual reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual goal for which you have taken this human birth; that is the prime concern of Yoga. Yoga is the path to God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine Experience, and the Divine Experience is the heart of religion. Trying to attain God-realisation is the very heart, the very essence of religion. That is the inner spiritual core of religion, and where that spiritual core has been neglected and cast aside, and is forgotten, then religion is only there as a great forum; a great structure is there, but inside there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a built palace is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that, religion becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Parsi, or a Muslim; if such it has become, then Yoga comes as life-giving waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing inner spiritual core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected and dried away. Yoga comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes spring into life the spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your religion alive for you. It can make religion alive for anyone, be he a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back to you the life within your religion. It is the common experience of many people that after Yoga came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found it to be meaningless,—’I find no meaning, it is mechanical’. It has no meaning, and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian. In many cases Yoga has helped a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins to see the reason behind the practice and then he begins to take more interest in his own religion, understand it better than he understood it before. Yoga restores to people whatever religion they may belong to. It restores to people the inner spiritual content of their religion. It restores to people the spiritual life which is the centre of any real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely an external facade. Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it forth into life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.

 In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its refusing to accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’. It does not call man a sinner. It may call man a fool but it doesn’t call him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool, or, man is God who has lost his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running about in circles. It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path again and says, ‘go ahead now, go straight to your home’. So it doesn’t want you to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this: Much of Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes wholly a preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and somehow or other slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even if you are not fully qualified for it. Yoga says: ‘This is a little childish, you have got something more glorious. Why do you play this game of heaven and hell?’ Yoga rejects hell, and Yoga rejects heaven also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven. Why heaven? Heaven is also a petty desire. You don’t want it. ‘I want God. I want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven’. Yoga concerns itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these are some of the differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity. It is where orthodox Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.

 Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately, by and large, is not present. In most of the major religions of the world, except in a microscopic section of people who enter into monastery for all life, the nuns and the monks, who somehow or other concentrate all their life upon this spiritual content, except for them, by and large, normally, the spiritual content is found to be lacking in religion. But since the impact of Yoga over the past fifty years, gradually, we see a very wonderful phenomenon, a revival is taking place in the Christian world, emphasising this inner spiritual aspect, your connection with this Godhead. There are many such examples. Some of them are working like the apostles. In the early days, some of them were really fired, like Pentecostal inspirations. They are all good signs. Yoga is presently doing that, restoring to religion the religious life of any being. It restores to him the spiritual quality, the spiritual factor and that is the greatest thing that it does. It doesn’t disturb your religion. It doesn’t contradict your religion. In no way does it contradict anything. It says: ‘wherever you are, whatever you are, try to find God, try to live a noble life. Purify yourself of the lower nature. Shine with virtue. Create in yourself divine qualities and awaken the divine within you, and move towards God.’ That is the central message of Yoga. It can be harmoniously incorporated into any religion and the religious life of any being, any faith to enrich that religion and make it alive and take you towards the true goal which is the goal of any religion.

(Kindly copied from www.yogaforums.com)

Psychologically the relaxation is meant to guide the yogi to let go of any effort and identification with the physical body and emotions. As the asana (savasana or corpse pose) used for this relaxation suggests, it is also a dying of the physical body and a rebirth into a fresh innocence. So in essence the relaxation is a detachment from the body, from your aspirations, from your accomplishments, your possessions, plans and personal history, and in doing so one opens yourself to the great mystery in front of you, which is awareness or consciousness.

The relaxation at the end of a class is the psychosomatic release of all of who/that you think you are, a free fall into groundless ground, the pathless path, but coupled with clear alertness and being mindfully present. This becomes your foundation for the meditation that follows after the relaxation.

Mindfullness Meditation after the class

I teach Mindfulness Meditation, which has three very distinct behaviours or phases.

1. The first I call the arrival and centering. This implies being aware of your body, in other words selecting a comfortable position and posture for it to sit, choosing a room with certain vibrations, lighting a candle and incense. These are all the aspects I associate with this phase. Once you have arrived, you can move into the next phase, which is centering. In other words, commit yourself to what you are about to do, meditating, focussing your awareness on what you want to achieve and how you going to achieve it. During this phase you can recite a mantra or you can read an inspiring piece to facilitate this phase. I also like to watch the thoughts that come up in my mind and to tell my mind constantly that there is no need to worry about the thought it just brought up. Eventually the mind realsie that it can relax and stop its chattering by wanting to control everything. Once you have achieved peace you need, you can move to the next phase, which I call anchoring and labelling.

2. In the second phase of anchoring and labelling, we anchor the breath by mindfully practicing a few rounds of pranayama. It is a time to open to greater awareness that includes sensations, emotions and even states of mind. This practice creates a state of calm abiding or what the Buddhists call shamantha. When we rest our awareness on a single anchor without any expectation or outcome other than pure observance or awareness, it is considered the foundation for mindfulness meditation. Now you can employ techniques such as mantra, advanced pranayama, concentration and contemplation to further develop this awareness, which leads you to the final phase of accepting and letting go.

3. When you accept and let go, your meditation reach a point where you suspend any effort to edit or censure what is happening. To stay mindful, aware and conscious, you have to accept that which mindfulness finds and say “yes” to it every moment and this in turn imply that you are present in every moment without lapse. Eventually you will recognise meditation happening all the time, when washing the dishes or clothes or picking up after your children etc., becomes part of mindfulness meditation.

Om’s and blessings.

I AM whole, I AM full of Light
I AM perfect, I AM full of Light
The Light surges into and through my blood
Making of it a fountain of Living Light
Bringing purity, vitality, youth and beauty
Into my being and body now.

My Father and I are One
I AM surrounded by the pure white Light of The Christ
Nothing but good can come to me
Nothing but good shall go from me.

I give thanks,   I give thanks,  I give thanks.

More about Mantras:

Mantras can excite the emotions and give suggestions to the mind. Mantras affect both the one who chants them as the one who hears them. The word mantra comes from the Sanskrit “mantrana”, which means advice or suggestion. In a sense, every word is a mantra. In our daily life we use words to get everything done, obtain everything we need. Each mantra or word is a sound pattern that suggests to the mind the meanings inherent to it and the mind immediately responds. According to Ramana Maharshi, repetition of mantras (japa), with attention directed to the source of the sound, completely engages the mind. The source is not in the vocal chords alone, but also the idea of the sound is in the mind, whose source is Self. Thus the practice of mantra repetition is more than a suggestion, a bit of advice or an idea. It is a means of getting in touch with our self. Mantras may be used for religious worship, for japa (repetition), for healing, to help spiritual evolution, for purification, for making offerings and in Mantra Yoga. Some mantras are only chants or expressions of nearness to the Divine. But some saints who were inspired by divine love and unshakable faith used these mantras in their own spiritual practice and their followers afterwards started using those mantras, calling them mahamantras or great mantras.

Raja Yoga may be more commonly known as the yoga of the mind, and that it is. Here we find many methods of working with the mind through creative visualization and use of verbal and vocal process. There is a lot of learning about the functions of the mind followed by skilful use of mind energies to achieve certain results within the body; as in healing, and out in the world as in manifesting your dreams. Meditational practices that take you out of the normal world to explore the inner world are a large part of this Raja.

This type of Yoga awakens the power of the 5th Chakra: Vishuddha.

The element of ether is best translated today as that of electromagnetism. It is this energy, which sustains most others. In fact all of the lower energies are condensations of this one. In its free form it fills the universe, containing all those quantum frequencies of energy that we perceive as light and heat, as well as those we do not normally perceive at all. Radiant energy emanating from each of the billions of stars, and coming at us from all directions. By its very vibration it moves out in all directions, just as sound does.

The vibratory nature of this energy is indeed very much like sound. In your nervous system and brain it stimulates thinking as a verbal function while at the more physiological level it is most evidently flowing in the throat. As you might have guessed the voice is involved.

The sense plugged in at this level is hearing. Voice, hearing and sound are all connected don’t you think?

The endocrine gland in the throat area is the thyroid, while within it lies imbedded four smaller glands called the para-thyroids. These hormonal producers put out the chemical messengers that govern several functions. Of the most known is the influence on metabolism. The thyroid is in charge of the speed with which you metabolise food, the actual rate of the cell’s activity. This of course controls the body temperature as well.

The para-thyroids have to do with bone structure and the utilization of calcium by the bone cells. Whether or not you assimilate the calcium in your diet depends on these tiny little glands.

Mentally this fifth chakra energy influences the verbal thought process, whether this is voiced out loud or remains part of the internal dialogue it is still vibrating energy. This places it right back in the realm of electromagnetism. Now if you observe the speed at which you think and then change it by speeding it up a little you might notice that you can control it, kind of like with the accelerator on a car. All that has to do with vibration lies in this center but the actual control of it comes from the center above.

Blue is the essential colour of the energy, like the sky. Though talking and verbal thinking may not always be up there, the sky blue colour is an indication of how high the thoughts can be. In the electromagnetic spectrum (which are called the akashic records) are all the philosophical thoughts and the true knowledge about the universe. At this level one can see that the brain is just the radio, the universe is the broadcast and the communication is in the energy waves. You decide what station you want to be tuned in to.

North is the direction to face while looking into the realm of Vishuddha chakra as it helps line up our brain cells with the magnetic currents from north to south, making for an easier flow of energy through those cells and a resulting clarity of mind. The gateway to knowledge lies in this direction, but you need to be aware that knowledge comes in bits and pieces of information and does not necessarily lead to wisdom. Too much of this energy creates an overactive intellect, and that is probably white man’s greatest disease.