Written by Alexander Levering Kern, MDiv and originally published here.
Warm greetings of peace, hope, and healing to you and yours. As we navigate these perilous waters of our common life – with all the grace and gratefulness we can muster – you might find support in exploring these thoughts on “Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trouble: Some Spiritual Tools and Tips.”
“When we unblock on a physical level—cleaning out the digestive tract while jump-starting the lymph, circulatory, and glandular systems with life-giving foods, juices, supplements, and yoga—our immune system becomes stronger, our blood chemistry is restored, and we literally build a new body at the cellular level.”
-Kartar Singh Khalsa, DOM
By Dr. Linda Lancaster
Mandhavani Kriya: Mantra to Clear Blocks
The practice of this meditation, even briefly, locates you in your heart, opens your perception, and lets you immediately recognize the way forward. Mandhavani means being in the presence of intelligence, beauty, and profound caring. It is a state of joy. It’s when you’re so happy that you feel the hand and grace of God accompany each breath and effort. In that state all victory is yours and there is no victory to win but to conquer your own heart.
By Dev Suroop Kaur
It is safe to say that each one of us is experiencing the pressures and stresses of the times. We are faced not only with today’s turbulent political and social environment, but we are also coping with our own private, internal landscape. We may be processing feelings of insecurity, concern, or anger from ever changing and intensifying world events.
By Nicola-Jane le Breton
“Shakti Pad is the era of consciousness in which you confront the ego and the ego confronts you in a million ways, but if you take faith and the mental link of your teacher, you can lean through it, you can penetrate through it, you can pass it.”
–Yogi Bhajan
Meditation to Experience the Essence of a Teacher
Taught by Yogi Bhajan on 4/22/97
“I have given you the words of Nanak, which define the essence of a Spiritual Teacher. It's not a commercial thing, it is real. And the key to that, joining into that, is the mantra, Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo. That is the mantra, that's a key to the essence of that shabad, Gurdev Mata."
Mudra: Place the palms flat together at the heart center in Prayer Pose.
Eyes: Closed.
By Yogi Bhajan
1. A Teacher will never alter the teachings because of personal opinion. You will teach by example.
2. The higher you grow as a Teacher, the more humble you have to be.
3. The Teacher always serves the students, so they can become ten times stronger than you, because every student is a Teacher for tomorrow.
4. A Teacher has to be extremely kind, caring, compassionate, and forgiving.
5. As a Teacher you should always poke, provoke, confront, and elevate your students to excellence.
By Guruka Singh
We live in a difficult age. There is constant distraction. In our 21st century culture of acquisition and consumerism, television, movies, newspapers, magazines, and books constantly fill our mind with stimulating images. Our minds constantly fantasize, and we spend much of our time living in our fantasies.
The most basic teaching of Raj Yoga is that the mind makes a powerful servant, but it makes a lousy master. When we let our mind roam free, it takes us wherever it wishes to go—and there's always someplace interesting to go!
By Devjot Singh
Yogi Bhajan’s messages about the Aquarian Age may have been difficult to contextualise before now. We can forgive ourselves perhaps for hearing his teachings simply as an inspirational metaphor supporting personal commitment to a spiritual path.
We may have felt confirmed in our preferences and justified in any stance against war, hunger, and a myriad of social injustices. But now that times have changed, perhaps we had better look again at what the Master was telling us and what will be asked of Aquarian Teachers.
By Tommy Rosen
