Tantric Yoga Techniques

The practice of mothers having a ‘lotus birth‘ is increasing in the western world. A lotus birth is a term taken from Buddhism that means holy, intact and ‘child’. It is the practice of having a natural birth and allowing the placenta to remain attached to the child until the cord naturally deteriorates and detaches itself. This natural process normally takes 2 to 5 days. The umbilical stump that is left after the cord is cut after a normal birth takes about 10 days to come off.

Dr Sarah Buckley, who is a GP, is a firm advocate of lotus birth. Out of her 4 children, 3 were by lotus birth. She said “The baby receives an extra 50-100ml of their own blood, known as the placental transfusion, which contains iron, red cells, stem cells and other nutrients, which will benefit the baby through the first year.”

Another exponent of lotus birth is natal hypnotherapist Gina Cox-Roberts, from Telford. After having her baby she said she felt the placenta was “As much a part of her (the baby) as her hands or her heart,” and that “The placenta and the child came from the same cell.”

Gina described her story, saying “We rinsed off the placenta so it was as clean as possible. We sprinkled sea salt over it - it’s a chunk of meat quite like liver and has the potential to go off. We had some lavender essential oil to drip on it too in case it got smelly, but it never did. We wrapped it in a terry nappy, and then wrapped the baby and the placenta up together in a sleeping bag. Every 12 hours we changed the nappy and added more salt. It worked fine.”

From the Royal College of Midwives, Mervi Jokinen suggested it may be possible to request this type of birth in a hospital. “The people who do this are happy to see the experience as a life event and a natural thing. It’s difficult to make a clinical comment on this because there are no studies.” The only caution Jokinen added was that “The placenta is a blood organ and bacteria can set in quickly with a blood organ.”

Source: healthypages.co.uk

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