Tantric Yoga Techniques

How to Tune and Balance your Chakras

The techniques of chakra tuning are similar whether you are working with your own energy centers or assisting someone else. If you are working on another person, you may have them lie comfortably on the floor or bed. This will allow them to relax physically so that they may experience the maximum healing effect. If you are working on your own chakras, you may also sit or lie comfortably as you so desire. It is best to be in a soothing quiet atmosphere so that you may focus and allow the tones to be heard and felt more completely. Soft lighting, candles, soothing scents or other elements may help enhance a chakra tuning session.

If you are aware of which chakras may need tuning, then you can proceed with the instructions for balancing. If you have not done a chakra tuning before, it may be helpful to do a simple chakra awareness meditation to help you become more aware of them and any blockages of energy which may be occurring.

Chakra Awareness Meditation

Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. If you are sitting, you should try to sit with a relaxed but upright posture, so that your spinal column is aligned and straight. If you are lying down, you should avoid fluffy pillows which lift the head out of alignment with the spine. Take as much time as you feel is necessary for each chakra. This mediation may also be repeated at any time to help you become more aware of what is happening with the subtle body on a day to day basis. This meditation is designed to help you get in touch and create awareness, not to balance.

Once you are comfortable, take some deep relaxing breaths and try to clear your mind of distracting thoughts. If you need to, you can imagine a peaceful scene where you like to go. When you are fully relaxed, move your awareness to the location of your first chakra, which is located at the base of your spine. Become aware of how the energy center located there feels. Is it rotating? Which direction? Is it glowing? What color is it? Is it large or small, does it feel energetic or quiet? Is there energy flowing through the area? Make note of what this area feels like, and then move on to the next chakra. Repeat the process on all of the chakra centers in your body. If you like you can do this with a small notepad on which you can write down the impressions you receive of each chakra, or perhaps take notes with a tape recorder.

If you are assisting someone with this meditation, you can use your hands held at a distance of a few inches from their body to help sense what is happening, or you can take notes for them as they do the meditation.

How to Balance Chakras

Once you have a better awareness of which chakras may need work, or if you would like to do an overall “tune-up” then you can follow the steps below. However you choose to work, be aware that most people have their own ways of working with their chakras, and it is important to recognize that a way of working that resonates with one person may not work for another. It is critical to learn how you personally work best. Some may have difficulty visualizing light entering a chakra, but can “sing” along with the bowls just fine. Others may choose to “massage” the area with their hands while concentrating on sending love to the chakra. There is no wrong way of doing things, as long as the intention of healing and love is present. Again, a soothing atmosphere is more conducive to doing healing work. You or the person being worked on may choose to sit or lie comfortably.

It may help to specifically state your intention or offer a short prayer at the beginning of your session. We have found that doing so helps to set the tone and contributes to the overall effect.

Sound the singing bowl by striking the rim three times and then run the striker around the rim of the bowl to begin the resonance. If you are using a bowl for a specific chakra, then you may visualize filling the energy center with light that is the color of the chakra while the bowl plays. You may also simply imagine love pouring into the area and filling it with warmth and healing. If you would like to tone your voice with the bowls, you can feel or see the vibrations from the bowl and your voice joining to balance the chakra. If you are using a Practitioners Bowl, or smaller singing bowl, you can sound the bowl then move it over the area in a clockwise direction. The use of positive affirmations (i.e. “I am filled with love and healing”) can be effective.

If you are doing an overall “tune-up” it is best to start with the root chakra and work your way up to the crown and then back down. If you are working with a single chakra, you can also do a quick once-over of the other chakras to ensure that they are all resonating in tune with each other, or simply feel the energy spreading up and down from the chakra you are working on. If you are working on another person, you can help direct energy into the chakras by moving your hands or a singing bowl in a circular pattern (clockwise) above the energy center while focusing on sending love and healing to the chakra. You can also use stones or crystals associated with each chakra, colored candles or other aids to assist in balancing and tuning the chakras.

You may do the balancing as often as needed and for as long as needed.

Precautions

No medical claims are made about the use of crystal bowls to replace the need for medical advice.

If you experience any health problems you should always consult your regular physician.

Do not place a person’s head inside a crystal bowl while playing it.

Do not strike or play bowl too loudly, especially near a person’s head.

Place bowls at least 12 inches apart, or the vibration may shatter a bowl.

Bowls may also shatter if several are playing in a small room.

Some have noted discomfort or pain if they have metal pins or stainless steel ball joints. Ask before sounding the bowl.

Chart of Chakra Correspondences

Sourse: http://www.crystalsingingbowls.com/chakra-balance.htm

Using an incense is an important part of Tantric Yoga.

The most suitable incense for any tantric practice are Tibetan Incense.

Tibetan Incense is made from a blend of different herbs, spices, plants and minerals from centuries’ old recipes.
All natural ingredients are used such as flowers, leaves, grass, wood, bark, spices, and aromatic herbs found in the high altitude regions of Tibet and Nepal.

The tibetan incense, unlike Indian one, is made from rolled herbs, so there is no wooden stick inside and no chemicals used that could be allergenic or harmful to inhale.

Many tibetan incenses are actually made for inhalation.
The medicinal incense are prepared using strict vedic formulas which are based on ancient medical tantra texts that have remained unchanged for centuries.

In Tibet, tradition of making and using incense exists since the very beginning of human existence.
The art of making and using of incense was flourished in Tibet even before Buddhism, along with a ancient Bon mystic tradition.
Buddhism evolved in Tibet to a great extent in the 7th century AD under the reign of religious kings of Tibet, along with the development of making incense based on the sacred Indian tantric texts.
This way, the art of making and using of incense is a combination of Bon and Indian tantric traditions.

Burning of incense gives you much needed mood and environment that is crucial when you do Tantric Yoga, Tantric Massage and any kind of tantra or mystic practice.

Energy follows thought. Your energies travel to where you place your attention. Kundalini describes personal energy fields; and ‘raising your Kundalini’ really implies an expansion of this personal energy field. As we extend our individual energy fields from current self to higher aspects of Self, finally merging into pure consciousness and its oneness, we naturally experience its bliss.

Mind expansion helps. Gyan yoga encompasses a long-term focused attention on higher aspects of self and life; our attention shifts from the microcosm to the macrocosm. This is followed by energy flow and over a period of time this leads to raised energy fields. This is why we can be operating from the higher awareness and bliss of a raised Kundalini without ever doing any direct work on it; and why gyanis are able to reach enlightened states of being.

In reverse, a raised Kundalini implies the wisdom and purity of an expanded beingness and thus energy management, be it through meditation, pranayam, kriya, reiki, or some means of directly working with your energies. Gyan and meditation help expand your personal energy field at a geometric rate. Bhakti or devotion to God helps for it is at deeper levels; it is love in its various expressions - starting with love of self and evolving into unconditional love for humanity and all that is.

If your focus is on love, your energies follow and you dwell in an expanded energy field moment-to-moment. Such a state eventually leads to what is known as a rising Kundalini. Guided meditations can be a vital aid, for they are the modern alternative to ancient dhyana techniques, whereby you wilfully place your attention on divine aspects of self. Your energies follow and if you are a regular meditator your energy fields expand and merge with your point of focus in these meditations.

Based on the law of attraction, if you are vibrating at a finer frequency, you are receptive to a comparable quality of consciousness elevation. And based on the law that tantra employs - energy resists its opposite and raised energy fields automatically resist denser energy signatures of anger, judgment, sorrow - we find ourselves increasingly in sync with the universal qualities of love and beingness.

Allow your Kundalini to unfurl rather than looking for quick-fix routes that might end up having just the opposite effect. A raised Kundalini implies expanded energy fields and your current physical reality is only a reflection of this inner you. Density cannot coexist with raised energies and whatever doesn’t match this expansion will begin to disintegrate. Without the support of gyan and its deep understanding, without the succour of bhakti and its deep acceptance, without the dedication to self growth, you may well be thrown off guard.

Become aware that as your energies follow thought, they can indeed be directed through constant focus and continued attention. In this manner, you will find that raising your Kundalini is not as exotic a goal as it seems. It is more about where your thoughts reside on a regular basis. Based on your inclination, gyan, kriya or hatha yoga could work equally well. All inner expansion leads to bhakti which automatically amplifies the process. You would eventually meditate 24×7 within even while carrying on with an enhanced reality on the outside. That is called a raised Kundalini.

Divyaa Kummar, The Times Of India, 23 Mar 2008