← Highest Self Podcast®
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- [00:00]
A
Kundalini is such a buzzword right now, even though it is an ancient Sanskrit word. So what does the word kundalini actually mean?
- [00:07]
B
It's the dormant potentiality within us that when it's aroused, it awakens us into who and what we really are.
- [00:16]
A
A lot of people talk about spontaneous Kundalini awakenings. What is this?
- [00:21]
B
Some sort of a dormancy that all of a sudden, boom, you have an experience that very much feels like you woke up, that. I have not experienced a spontaneous kundalini awakening. And I think most people can relate to that. But what I have experienced is when you have a real, genuine feeling of something that is altruistic, constant, a love supreme,
- [00:52]
A
Surrender, let go, trust flow. Welcome back to the Highest Self podcast. My name is Sahara Rose, and on this podcast I love to talk about spirituality. But make it modern, fun, grounded, and relatable so it can actually serve your needs. So a lot of people have been asking me to do an episode about Kundalini. This is a word we're seeing all over on social media, on YouTube. We don't know what it means. Is it something that happens spontaneously? Is it a yoga? Is it this? Is it that? And so we are going to be breaking it down and it's all, like, pure context of it, looking at it from the inner practice to the global perspective. And for me, you guys know I'm all about ancient Vedic sciences and wisdom and actually understanding why things are the way that they are. So I brought on none other than Jaidev here on the Highest Self podcast, who truly is a master at this work. So we speak about Kundalini. I ask all of the questions. I share about my own experiences with Kundalini, and we really bring it into how to adapt this into your life in this crazy world with social media and the news and, you know, it feels like shit's hitting the fan all the time. How can we have more compassion? How can we have more regulation in our nervous systems? And we also talk a lot about Vedic astrology, which I know is something a lot of us are interested in. We're dabbling in. And it can be very inaccessible sometimes. All the Sanskrit words, we don't understand it. So I ask him some interesting questions, like how we can learn about our intellectual and communication style from looking at her chart. So this is just such a great episode. If you are someone who's been on a yogic path and you're wanting to go deeper, it's really gonna drop you into the state of consciousness that we're in, right now of just living in pure peace, which ultimately is what all of these yogas are all about. Before we drop in, darling, it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe because I've noticed that over 50% of you who are watching it on YouTube, Spotify are not yet subscribed. So this allows you to stay in the flow for future conversations. Maybe get a fun little British accent from me. How am I doing? And it also supports this podcast, which I love to continue to make free for you. So wherever you're listening to this, be sure to hit subscribe and let's get into this episode. So without further ado, let's welcome Jaidev here on the High Self Podcast. Well, welcome Jaidev to the Highest Self Podcast. It's so great to have you here.
- [03:14]
B
Such a pleasure.
- [03:16]
A
So we are here in this beautiful Kundalini cave and Kundalini is such a beautiful buzzword right now, even though it is an ancient Sanskrit word. So what does the word kundalini actually mean?
- [03:28]
B
Well, what the word means, it means many things. A nice. As you know, it's one of the most beautiful things about the Sanskrit language is it's a conceptual language. So when you learn some of the etymology of these words, it opens up all of the different meanings of what these concepts are. Kundalini as a, as a concept in one context, it's an energy that yogis talk about in the kind of coiled at the base of the spine and through the spiritual process, it opens us up into our true nature, into some supreme reality. The word also means like a coiled lock of hair, sometimes it's referred to as a serpent, kundalini. So what the Kundalini is and what it means is kind of a bit mysterious. And that's why I think often, or as at least Carl Jung is, I think as many people don't realize that even our modern day Western psychology that we use so much of it influenced by the Jungian psychology. Carl Jung was very much studying Kundalini Yoga of ancient India and understanding their psychology and how they understood the inner universe, our minds, our psyches, and so their concepts of the chakras, which later now they become more like new age buzzword. But these are very sophisticated concepts and what the Kundalini is and I think why often they say Kundalini Yoga is quote unquote secret. Because as Carl Jung points out, the real secrets are not secrets because somebody knows it and then they're not telling anyone else because as soon as anyone has a secret, they're sharing it. With someone and that person's in sharing it with another person. And so the real secrets aren't those types of secrets. The real secrets are the ones that rely on our own inner experience in order to understand them. So it's a hard thing to say, what does a kundalini mean? But it means this. The dormant potentiality within us that when it's aroused, it awakens us into what, who and what we really are and what life really is. And that's a starting point.
- [05:47]
A
That's what I love about symbology and even words. Like when we have these words in our subconscious, we develop a relationship with them and they start to mean different things to us. And I know I hear of so many people saying, I've never studied yoga or any of these things. And in my dream I heard the word kundalini. I started feeling it. A lot of people talk about spontaneous kundalini awakenings. What is this?
- [06:09]
B
I don't know actually for sure because I haven't had a spontaneous kundalini awakening. I think people do have some sort of spontaneous kundalini awakenings where all of a sudden something happens in their life or something, or maybe they're doing some sort of technique or practice. Who knows what they're doing. You hear about all sorts of different things. Spontaneous kundalini awakening could be some sort of a dormancy that all of a sudden, boom, wakes up and you have an experience that very much feels like you woke up and woke up from what? Good question. Yeah. My way of experiencing it is this because I can more rather speak to what I have experienced. I have not experienced a spontaneous kundalini awakening, but what I have experienced is a gradual kundalini awakening, which is really what we're all, I think more after. And without even knowing what that word means, we're all after it. And that means that we're trying to fall in love. We're wanting to experience love. And so it's not too dissimilar from you wake up in the morning or you were in a dream state and you wake up. If you have a really vivid dream and then you wake up and you realize that you were dreaming. I think in a simple way that we can talk about it is that we're waking up into a non changing world. What the dream state is is the world of relativity, the world of change, the world of motion. Everything. My body is changing all the time. It's getting older. So I can definitely trust that this body is not always going to be my foundational ground. I can't rely on it like that. I can rely on it for certain things right now, but even those things are temporary. So what I think we're really wanting to wake up from is the delusion that things, certain things are real when actually they're unreal. And from a yogi's perspective, or at least my perspective of a yogi's perspective, my perspective is that which is not real is that which is always in chain change. Simple. It doesn't mean that it's not real. My body's definitely real. I'm touching it, I'm feeling it. It's filled with energy and emotion and pain and suffering and pleasure. So it's totally real, but it's just relatively real. What we're waking up into is something that's absolute, something that's non changing, a constant, a love supreme, something that is some sort of supreme reality. But even as we try to talk about it, you can feel like we hit a wall, we hit a plateau because you can't really, we can't really say what it is, but we all already know it and always have. So my experience of quote unquote, waking up is much, much more for me an experience of as if I'm remembering more than I'm learning something new. And I think most people can relate to that.
- [09:29]
A
This is your chance to be personally mentored by me in launching your podcast. I am so excited to be opening up my first ever Small Group Ltd. 10 people podcast mentorship where I'll be guiding you step by step into how to choose the right name for your podcast, graphic for it description what the format of your podcast is, whether you're going to do interviews, solo casts and getting comfortable in sharing your voice. So this is a really small group hands on container that I'll be running personally starting in January. So I'm really excited because I've learned so much from having a podcast over the past eight years. It has led to to the greatest gifts in my life, from a six figure business to my best friends, to traveling the world, to meeting the world's top spiritual teachers and thought leaders. And it's like every single week I'm being mentored by them. And that's what you get to have in your podcast. And it's going to be even more than that. It's going to be a movement. Every single day I meet people and I receive messages of people whose lives have been transformed for my podcast. And there is no greater feeling in the world than that. And that's what I want for you. So Head over to my show notes. It's the very first thing. I've limited it to only 10 people, so I can be really, really hands on. If you're listening to this later, I'll have the waitlist open and I can't wait to support you in your podcast. What do you feel are the biggest differences in your life, pre and post awakening?
- [10:50]
B
Well, I don't know that I have a pre and post awakening. Really I don't feel that way. I've had moments in my life starting as a teenager. But if you go back even younger, because life is always a process of awakening and at certain points in life we're going through and it feels like everything's not necessarily connected. There's no real rhyme or reason. Then all of a sudden, boom, something happened and it makes everything else make sense. And so I suppose that I've had plenty of moments in my life where there's been real kind of paradigm leaps of conscious, particularly as a teenager, first with psychedelics, as a. In my teenage years with ganja. All of those medicines really helped me to like, wow. It kind of cracked through a veil for sure. And then as an 18 year old, I experienced my first. I was introduced to Kundalini yoga. It was the first type of yoga or meditation or anything I'd ever tried. I had already been reading and this time I would, you know, it was the Internet was just getting going. It was pre Internet. And so you're relying on the bookstore to. If so I would, you know, you could get the Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. You could get whatever, you know, was there on Ayurveda from whether it was Besant lad. I found that book as a teenager, the Science of Self Realization. And these were like treasures to me, you know. And so I had health problems as a teenager that caused a certain type of awakening because there was suffering involved. And so that wakes you up. So that was. If I really think about it, there's more that then you have these really powerful plant medicines that become great allies. And then these extraordinary practices. I feel very fortunate to, to have come into contact with maybe again, because my story, it almost doesn't make sense unless I consider the possibility that somehow I'm picking up where I left off. I'm sure you can relate to that. I'm sure so many of us. But I don't actually know, I don't really know nor put too much effort into understanding the details of past lifetimes or things like that. Although of course I'm interested. And it's always fascinating, but yet ultimately it's not important to me because what I know is true is whatever the patterns I currently have, the patterns that make keep my mind happy or the patterns that some of them keep my mind more miserable. And that is indicative. So I often am saying when I'm. When we're talking about karmas and when we're talking about the emotional whirlpools, that even if I would wish not to behave that way, I keep doing it. I wish not to feel anxious, I keep feeling anxious. I wish not to feel depressed. I wish not to feel insecure. I keep feeling insecure. So these are what are important to me because they're very real in the sense that I'm experiencing them, but they're also only relatively real, meaning I can transform them. So I like the tantric viewpoint in that way that anxiety for instance, or any difficult emotion is not something bad. It's a non desirable expression of an energy. It's non desirable because it's making me feel suffering. And then when I'm suffering also I'm more likely to make the other people around me experience suffering because we're like that with each other. On the same note, if I get some happiness going on, I'm more likely to be infectious with that. So it always does start with ourselves. But how we are absolutely is affecting all the others in our life and I think beyond our conception too. That's why any of us, if we can have a genuine wish of the heart from our heart, for all of any sentience, any being, any creature, any living thing that's capable of feeling pain and feeling love, that we wish that love to be there. And so even that type of a wish, I think a genuine feeling in my heart I think is very beneficial. And as Dalai Lama is often pointing out, you're always when you have a real genuine feeling of something that is altruistic, something that is others oriented, because that's the danger in yoga. It's not just yoga and anything, but anything that is going to bring power up and shakti up in a body and a mind is that also can fuel of course narcissism. And like a spiritual variety of narcissism is a real rough thing. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm speaking always to myself, you know, because all of us have the tendencies to of course be self oriented. But in order for us to actually be happy, we have to be also others oriented. So that's what I'm into, is to start every practice, every class with bodhicitta arousing the heart of compassion as the centerpiece, center, jewel of any endeavor of awakening. Now, this awakening is not just for me. This awakening is necessary for us to be, for me to be happy. My happiness is intimately interwoven with my concern for yours, regardless of who you are. Not just because you're Sahara, not just because we have a nice resonance and think about similar things and probably agree on a lot of certain ideals, but across all boundaries. And we can be that way because we're wishing genuine happiness and genuine happiness would never harm another. So those in the world that are so even like the oppressors, that really their behavior I despise, and those who are pushing real harm onto the world, I can wish them genuinely happiness because if they're genuinely happiness, they would cease to be oppressive. And so then we can have that genuine wish even for what we quote, unquote, our enemies. So anyways, this is how I think about awakening. I think of it as like a flower that's blossoming continually. Didn't happen to me at one point. I'm still in the process of it, you know, every moment, every day. And also when I'm like suffering and having a super hard time and sometimes we're down on our knees in grief also. That's awakening. Yeah. And so, but I think that's so important because when we can embrace those moments as not an obstacle to what we're doing, somehow become our great blessings.
- [17:58]
A
Yeah, we are all so connected. And one person raising their vibration will naturally raise the vibration of everyone around them, just psychically will feel it in the field where you can feel, if you walk, walk into a room and shit hit the fan there, you know, you can feel into that. And you can also feel a joyful room. All of a sudden you're starting to feel more in your heart. And we really are these energetic beings. And I love what you said. And it's really kind of the opposite of how a lot of people, especially on social media, describe spiritual awakenings. A lot of people are talking about my pre and post awakening life and pre awakening I was this and post awakening as if it was like a one time linear event. I am now awakened. And, and it's look, some things can feel like that, definitely big crisis, dark nights of the soul, you really do die. And another version of you comes forth. But it is a spiral and it is a journey and the end. I think all of us throughout the day have some awakened and unawakened moments every single day until the end of Time. Because then I think we can bring that shame of like, I've had my awakening. Why am I still anxious? Why am I still jealous? Why am I still. I'm not supposed to be like that anymore. As if it's like a new identity rather than a state of consciousness.
- [19:03]
B
Right. And doesn't necessarily leave room for you to just the natural humanness you've always had. And then you have to maintain this kind of facade, which is no bueno. It takes our, you know, you and I both have backgrounds in Ayurveda. It takes our organisms so much more vitality to maintain a facade. And easier said than done because that's also the process of awakening is. It's like layers upon layers. And as a yogi, you get to know that really well because all the work is in the mind, you know, naturally, how we already are our innate brilliance. We're creatures of love. And we know that from the very beginning. When we're born, it's so amazing that everybody's crying with joy, you know, anybody who is there. Often we feel like, ah, these people's stories are so amazing. But mine is, you know, I live such an ordinary life, you know. No life is ordinary. You come through your mother's womb. It's incredible. Everybody who was there cried, you know, it was so amazing. There was so much love. Then we're going to have to pass on too. And there's going to be tears. All those tears are love on each side. And the first side is there, there's tears of joy and on the other side there's tears of grief. Both you don't grieve when you didn't love, you grieve when you love. And so there's love on both sides of life. We come from love and we go to love. And this life is about love. We're creatures of love, definitely. We all know that. And sometimes though the mind, though obstructs that, of course, that's what our lives are all about. But our lives are so precious. When you're born, it's so important moment. We take a picture of the sky, so we know where all the stars are and all the planets and we call that our horoscope. And so everybody's life is a total heroic journey. There's a poem from Kabir, the great Indian poet Kabir, that when I was born. When I was born, everyone was crying. Everyone was laughing, but I was crying. And when I died, everyone was crying and I was laughing. Yeah, this life is all about love. And it's getting away the clutter of our mind and that just becomes natural, natural, natural, natural. So awakening to me is the most natural thing. And just like when, you know, when a baby's born, you know, kind of how to catch that baby, you know, I caught my son 20 years ago and you just kind of know how to do it. Never had done it before. And it was pure love there. And always instill that pure love remains. So sometimes our lives feel ordinary because our mind has become dull, you know. Or I've been teaching lately the yoga from Patanjali's yoga sutras. And he describes the five characteristics of the chitta, the mind field. And the first one, the Sanskrit, they often translate as stupefied. Says when our minds kind of become stupefied, we're a little just hypnotized by the changing world, by the kind of material realm, by the ups and downs of life. And it's so hypnotic that now the mind has mistaken what is not real for being real. So I think I'm only my body when my mind is kind of hypnotized in that way. So what I'm awakening to is that I'm much more than my body. And the body is temporary, but there's something else going on that is definitely not temporary. And it animates this thing while we're in it. And it's totally amazing. And that's what something like Kundalini Yoga allows a person to experience. Yeah.
- [23:02]
A
So how are these yogas, these kriyas that you teach, how. How are they formulated to evoke that kundalini rising in the body?
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B
They're very simple in a lot of ways and in other ways incredibly sophisticated. The fingers, you touch different fingers together. Touch my index finger to my thumb, touch my thumb to my middle finger, ring fin, pinky finger. They all have slightly different effects, but in the ordinary circumstances, a person won't really feel anything much from that. But when you make the prana, the life force come alive in the body, then a simple little movement like that can have a quite a nice effect. In fact, there's a kriya of Kundalini yoga where they call it kirtan kriya. It's simple. Anyone can do it. You can do it sitting down. People who are very elderly do it. There's placebo, double blind placebo, tested studies that have been done primarily in UCLA where they're using this little crea for patients experiencing Alzheimer's and dementia and things like that. And the results are incredible in not only helping to prevent it, but reversing some symptoms once they've shown themselves. So the creas work in a lot of different variety of ways. And there's a lot of different types of krias, grease or these. Basically just either a sequence of exercises or a meditation. Some way of using your body, your breath and your mind, putting it all together to create an effect. And so generally what the Kriyas of Kundalini Yoga do is they help to what I call concentrate the prana, your life force in the nervous system. Ordinarily my life force, the chi, the prana is moving in all the different directions. All the responsibilities of my life, all the things I have to take care of on the day to day and the dishes are there and then this and what am I going to do and what about the book and what. So life force for is being used all the time for all the different things that our life requires us to pay attention to. But also a lot of our life force is getting eaten up because I'm worrying about this thing that I have no control over anyways. And yet I'm still allowing my life force to kind of dwell on that thing. A lot of these things that are happening in the privacy of our own mind and our own heart that only we know about. But we're allowing the mind to just keep going and going and dwelling on things because it's more powerful than our intent not to do it. So I may not want to be depressed, but yet the depression may keep going. So what the Kundalini Yoga Kriyas do do is they create a bit of like an interception of that. They help to kind of break through old patterning in a way that bypasses my need to analyze it, my need to understand it intellectually. Instead in a certain way I can like push this lever that way, push levered this way, use the body, use the breath, use the energy to kind of shift the patterning. Because the mind is not like up here as you know, as a person background. In Ayurveda, the body is the mind. The body is the terrain of the mind. My blood is my mind, the plasma is my mind, the muscles are my mind, my sense of who I am, my sense of do I feel safe or not. These are. Is the body is the inner terrain of the mind. Our magnetic field is our mind. So this human body mind is one breathing kind of mysterious and incredible instrument. So Kundalini Yoga Kriya is, to put very simply, they tune your instrument. They tune your instrument so you can be you, so you can feel your Own vibe, feel your own sense of confidence. It's not coming from outer stimulus, but a confidence that comes from feeling connected to who you are, what you're about. A lot of those things we can't even say in words, but we know and we can feel it. That's why we have to like, make a song or write a poem or just be. Because some things, just our ordinary language, our ordinary words, can't touch.
- [27:15]
A
So if you could describe it, how would you describe the feeling of kundalini rising?
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B
Well, I would like to talk about it more as a kundalini process and kundalini rising. Because I think what that does is sometimes, and some people do experience things like this where they'll feel an actual rising in their body, like going up their spine. And I like to encourage people not to really worry about that or think about that. And if something like that may happen and you feel it and experience it, cool. But even the whole practice of yoga is to not get caught up in any of that. In the same way that we're not going to get caught up in the swirling anxiousness, we're also not going to get caught up in the incredible pleasures. Not that we're going to suppress the pleasures, we're just not going to grasp on them. Because always our minds, from our basic nature, basic programming, is grasping towards the pleasure and pushing away the pain. And so sometimes we know that and we try to suppress the pleasure and then we try to push away the pain, or we try to really grasp at the pleasure and to grasp at the pleasure. Ironically, we don't get to experience the pleasure as well because we're relying on it for something that it can never give us. Temporary pleasures are fleeting. If I allow myself to feel the pain when it arises and yet not indulge it, meaning, not listen to its stories. So put it in the context. This, to me is really the process one goes through. In a Kundalini yoga kriya. In a kundalini yoga meditation, any yoga, meditation, meditation, any yoga practice is not only are you asking your mind to focus, say you always in any kriya, there's going to be a focal point for your mind, which will be your breath or a mantra. There's multiple things the mind can focus, but we need to give it an anchor because what we don't want the mind to do is to follow every story that arises. So my job is to be able to feel, feel. If I'm feeling anxious, step number one is to feel anxious, to feel anxious. And as men, we're not usually as skillful in being able to just feel our own feelings. Feminine has a much more innate capacity at that. And so when we start to become a little more skillful at just liberating. But indulging means to not follow the stories. To not indulge means to not follow all of the stories that the feeling provokes. At least within the yoga practice later maybe you're going to analyze all of the stories of your feelings and really investigate it, psychoanalyze, whatever. But in a yoga practice it's to allow but not indulge. Same way if you get a pleasure, even if you get a feeling of what I think most people are experiencing when they say Kundalini Rising is they're experiencing prana of some way. They're feeling a lift of their life force, of their chi. They're experiencing their channels open, they're experiencing their mind open. They're experiencing, ah, the incredible pleasures in our body. That's what I say. Yoga is partly self discipline, but it's just as much self pleasure. Absolutely. But in the same way that I'm not going to indulge the pain when it comes, I'm not going to indulge the pleasure, but I'm going to feel it if pleasure arises. What do I do? If you feel feel love, what do I do? Feel it. But not indulge in the context of a yoga practice, not indulge the narratives that that feeling provokes and putting a story around it. And then the more and more we do that, the more and more it becomes clear that all of these kind of the mind operates in stories. So mythology is so powerful and so helpful because it gives you a new story. That's why I love astrology so much too, because then you can look at that horoscop scope of that we took when that person was born and you can see the story of their life in a mythological context. So it's like improving our stories. And so that's getting out of, you know, penetrating through, through what they call tapas, as you know, this generating this inner energy that kind of cuts through this. The density, the hypnotic kind of stupefication of the mind kind of getting lost in the things that we will know when it does come to the end of our life are not important. And it reveals to us the things that are truly important in life. And that puts us right in the center path of what our life, the Dharma of our life.
- [32:16]
A
So a lot of people, when they're experiencing kundalini energy, they feel arousal, orgasmic, energy. So is this related to Kundalini energy? Is that the kind of pleasure that we need to like, not give into? Or is that part of it, to just enjoy that experience?
- [32:32]
B
Yeah, I would totally enjoy that experience. It's not about not getting giving into a pleasure pleasure. It's just like, what is it? We don't know. We like to put a name on it. You know, it's like Kundalini is awakening. And maybe it is, I don't know. But what the real important to me, Kundalini awakening is, is that you're experiencing your life blossom. And it's a continual thing. And you know that your life is going to continue to get better always. Even if things are going kind of rough and even if the world feels like it's crumbling around you, there's this bigger process within you that's happening that you're opening up into a wonderful dimension, a wonderful reality that is more supreme than the one where everything is falling apart. So that's why it's even. You know, it's not that we can keep. We can stay happy or we can keep track of our joy even when things are rough, but especially when things are rough. And often it's when things are rough that it opens us up into the deeper levels of love. Love and even joy. Because joy isn't something that relies on. It's like not a. It's not a superficial thing, real joy. Joy is coming from. We feel connected into life. And so we need our joy and take care of it. That's what I think of when I think of Kundalini. You know, it's not some quick thing. Because what comes quick also closes quick. We want the rising, we want the opening that's slow, you know, that has ease to it. Because even. Even an awakening that is slow and has ease to it. What we're talking about, really, when we're talking about Kundalini, we're talking about one's sense of identity. And that's not something you want to shake up super quick. What you are, who you are, what you're about, what you're not about, what type of people you like, what type of people you don't like. All of these preferences are shaped by our sense of who we are, of an inner identity. T so. So one way to describe Kundalini is this. And as. As you know, we have this term in both Ayurveda and yoga, that is Ahamkar, which is often translated as ego, is our sense of ego. But it's not negative ego as in ahankar literally means a Sanskrit term, the I former. So this is my mine, this is not mine, this is me, this is not me. It forms my sense of I ness. I am this, I am not that. And this is an important part of our psyche that we have to have to operate as a human being. We have to have individuality. And so this sense of I ness ahankara which we say is the ego sense gives us a sense of what we are. So ahankara when that sense of identity, when my consciousness is identifying as me, as my temporary nature because very naturally for me to say this is my body, I am Jaidev, that's my name, I come from here, you know, this is my body, here's my hand. These are all true, that's my temporary nature. If this hand got chopped off and then my hand was over there and I'm over here, you wouldn't say I'm over still in the hand. So the hand is only temporarily part the of of me. The real me is something else. What that is is the great mystery. And that's what Kundalini process is. And so that same energy, this, that shakti that we say is ahankara. And when, and she is always, she is always contextualized as a she regardless of the gender of the person. And we talk about it as she at the level of our blood, blood feels invigorated. When I feel invigorated at the level of my of the waters and the juices and the, and the hydration of my body, I feel satisfaction when I'm well hydrated, my mind feels dissatisfaction when my juice is dried up, I don't feel creative, I don't quite feel like myself. Then you go to the level of the muscles and the skin and that is what clothes her. And that's why they say naya veda mamzadatu. The muscles and the skin gives one a sense of self confidence when you have strong mamzadatu. So just getting toned up already helps us feel more safe in our bodies. So you have nice for our own constitution, you have nice muscle toning helps us stay alive, helps us feel confident at the level of our bodies. This is me. And then you go rasa rakta mamsamehta. Our fat tissue is what snuggles us and makes us feel cozy and loved. And so when fat tissue is to diminish or extremely excess, one of the things we do in Ayurveda is we look is what this organ, this, this, this needs love, this needs Love, it needs a hug, it needs nourishment in that way. So going on and on. The body in our sense of identity of what we are, when the consciousness is identifying with predominantly as the body, as its reality, we call it ahankara. But when the consciousness starts to identify with one's infinite nature, the part of us that is non dying in nature, we call it kundalini. It's the same shakti, that mother Shakti, the force of identification, where you become the entire universe, the entire creation is you, you identify with that. That is the experience of kundalini rising.
- [38:20]
A
Yeah, beautifully said. And I had that same realization with Ayurveda as well, of it's not really about the foods you eat and these specific practices, but it is a philosophy and a viewpoint of seeing life. And you know, so many women are experiencing vata imbalances and it's like from deprivation, from self loathing, from feeling like we don't deserve nourishment. So we're constantly dieting, doing intense workouts and you know, know, literally like dry from love. And that's going to reflect in our bodies and our hormones. That's why there's so many digestive issues and hormonal imbalances. And you know, that's what brought me into AA and I realized, oh, that's actually how health was taught to me. You know, like go to spin class and just have green smoothies and you know, try to be as small as possible.
- [39:05]
B
You know, not purify, purify, purify.
- [39:08]
A
Exactly. Yeah. Like, like so many people are going on cleanses and actually coming out feeling further out of balance. Because when you're already a small woman, which a lot of women might not self identify as that because they're comparing themselves to the fashion industry.
- [39:21]
B
Some idea, right?
- [39:22]
A
So they're like, I'm too big, I need to lose five pounds. Then they're going on juice cleanses and then their, their nervous systems are getting out of balance from it. And it's bigger question of do you deserve to take up space in your own life.
- [39:35]
B
Oh, that's beautifully said.
- [39:36]
A
And I feel like so many women are afraid of being seen and in that being seen, being rejected for it. And so if I'm small, then you'll still love me. Right?
- [39:45]
B
Right. Yeah. We haven't been conditioned to appreciate the beautiful kapha body. You know, we're a little like in the, in the western culture over the last, however many, you know, you had more kapha bodies like in the 60s, whereas like a Marilyn Monroe Was more kapha like body. But then we got into this thing where it's got be skinny, you know, this idea. But they want the kapha lips, you know, and the kapha booty.
- [40:12]
A
Yeah. And the pitta arms. Pick and choose each dota.
- [40:16]
B
That's the beauty of Ayurveda. You know, I think as you were saying and as we were talking before we started in, that amazing thing about it is its principles and they can be applied to anything. And just to be able to see that what's natural, what's natural, etc, like everybody, I always say everybody has the perfect horoscope, everybody has the perfect constitution. We're all designed unique, totally unique and totally perfect. But the conditions that cause us to self loathe, you know, are profound and some of them are inner conditions. We can't put all of it on like how we've been conditioned. But the patternings of our mind that, that we come in with as well. You know, some we get from our parents, some we get from like our, in our society, our cultures with some, some of these patterns are unique to us and we come in that way and that's part of our big journey in life.
- [41:13]
A
And I feel like when you're in this Kundalini process, as you say, those preferences change so quickly and it's so incredible to witness within myself of oh, I said I used to like this but now I don't. And I said I was like. And it's like nothing is determined, like everything is changing and moving. And yes, there are some karmas that are, you know, deeper in, etched in wood. Right. They take longer to shift. And there's some just in sand that change very quickly. But, but some things that I thought like, oh, this is who I am, like I'm an ocean person. I always like the beach. I don't like the cold, I don't like mountains. And I was telling you, I was like, I was thinking of moving to Nevada City which is like cold mountains. And I'm like who am I? But it's like all these layers of preferences shifting and shifting, shifting from internal things, shifting which is making how I interact with the outer world and what is important to me.
- [42:03]
B
Right.
- [42:04]
A
So there's so much here. But what I see most right now in social media around Kundalini are these like Kundalini activations that someone is doing on someone else. And you see these videos on social media, I'm not sure if you've seen them. And they're, you know, moving into these interesting ways and a lot of people desire it. A lot of people are critical of it. What are your thoughts, if any?
- [42:26]
B
Yeah, I'm not super familiar with. I have seen it, but only from a kind of a distance and like maybe some reels and I'm not super familiar with what exactly is going on and what they're doing and what that system is. You know, there is a long tradition in India of certain teachers or gurus who can initiate like shaktipat, where there is some sort of a stimulation from a teacher that does have some arousal on the life force. And that's a very real thing.
- [42:56]
A
So I got to witness an Osho one.
- [42:58]
B
Oh, you did? 10 years ago. I witnessed a couple too, in different context as well. Not personally in my own body, but I never experienced anything. I participated, but I didn't experience that in my own body. So I actually don't know what that is. But here's what I do know. It doesn't matter what it is that we're doing. It doesn't matter for, you know, you using jungle medicines like ayahuasca or mushroom medicines like psilocybin or all the variety of ways that you can stimulate an awakening of consciousness or a stimulation of an opening of awareness is another way of saying about that there's all sorts of ways that we can do that. At the end of the day, it's still going to be the hard work of transforming my inner patterns. None of these things are going to transform my more sticky patterns for me. That's why we can do these things and we can have incredible experiences and we can experience things that do feel like certain, like sometimes feel like a sense of like supreme awakening. And yet we're still maintaining so many of our patterns that are perhaps narcissistic in nature that can be damaging to ourselves and still to others. So we have to be very careful, I think, with these types of ideas of awakening too, because sometimes causes divisiveness in our sense of us and others where we can feel like, oh, we've awakened and then there's other people that have not awakened and that kind of thing. Yeah, it creates a type of kind of like, you know, spiritual pretentiousness, which I think is a bit of a drag because it's all about people, you know, it's all about love and it's all about lifting people up. And so if I've found something that's given me some happiness, then my job is to share that, but it's not to share it. And like, I don't need support someone else to do what I'm doing. I teach a system, actually. I mean, that's what my whole work revolves around. So people are most welcome to do so. But at the heart of it, that's not what it is. You know, that's what the life Force Academy is in terms of. That's what we teach. Kundalini Yoga, Yoga Raja Yoga, you know, eight limbs of yoga to not just the kriyas and the practices, but to really understand how to work with. The Kriyas are just a cat catalyst. The Kriyas are just the tool to do yoga. The Kriyas are not the yoga themselves. The asanas are not really, as we know, it's just one. One limb of yoga. And Patanjali's. In the. In the most important classical text for modern yoga and Patanjali's yoga sutras, asana posture, out of hundreds of sutras is mentioned three times. You know, just three times, times. Sthira Sukham Asanam. You want the posture to be sthira, steady still, then. But then also sukha, ease. Sukha means good space. It's a Sanskrit word that often is used for happy. So sukha. So we want a posture that is. Sthira is uplifted still. It doesn't move, but it has ease. It's soft, it's open. That's what he's saying about posture. And so why. Because real yoga is what he says is yoga Citta vritti nirodha. The most famously quoted sutra of Patanjali, which is yoga, is the neutralization of the whirlpools of the mind. And often they say waves of the mind, but our mind is also. They're like swirling. The sound Sanskrit term vritti insinuates a circling, a swirling. I'm not just codependent as a wave. It's more of a deep whirlpool that keeps going and going. And the difficult emotions that we have or anxious, attached, or when under stress in a relationship, we withdraw. Most of us are fine and good when we're doing a yoga practice and a yoga class. But it's when your relationship hits super stress, stress, and it's pressuring everything about you. That's when you see the vrittis, the real ones that need to transform. And so any sort of powerful technology, like Kundalini Yoga, whatever the other these other practices are that I'm not familiar with, but we're seeing with like Kundalini kind of activation, I don't. I'm not so familiar with what those are, or whether it's plant medicine and so forth, all of that can give us great ins, actually, and great wisdom to help us navigate that stuff. But we still have to do the hard work ourselves. And the hard work, the best part about it is that's where the bliss is. That's where the real bliss is. Because if you can actually do that and if I can be honest enough with myself to know that, like when I'm in a relationship and it's really difficult and every part of me wants to put it on that other person, every part of my mind, I should say. But to be tender enough and honest enough to look at my participation in it. And then if I'm willing to do that and then also doing something like Kundalini Yoga to continue to open up my field of awareness so I can see more and more of what it is that I'm doing and what it is I am, then it ends up being the exact thing that starts to make me truly a blissful, happy place person. And now it's not such a big deal to go through it because my body is starting to learn. Every time I refine my harder, more difficult patterns a little bit, I become a happier person. Now my body starts to push away from those difficult emotions less my impulses and welcome them a little bit more, even though still hurts. And now my body's starting to identify with the bliss that comes from refinement of pattern. And that's where I think that's the real tantra right there is. Because that's going to really get you into the joy field, you know, and make your relationships great.
- [49:16]
A
Actually, I love that of the. The pleasure of shifting your patterns.
- [49:22]
B
The pleasure of it, the pleasure of
- [49:23]
A
growth, the pleasure of I used to be like this, but now I'm choosing this. I'm not as agitated as I'm noticing that. And there's such a gratification in that. It doesn't mean the thing never happened. It's. That's happening. But I'm different.
- [49:36]
B
Whoa.
- [49:37]
A
And that's all we can really do in this life. We can't really change our external. We can just change how we react to it.
- [49:43]
B
Yeah, definitely. And that's why relationships are so powerful. And so both kind of the best thing and the hardest thing.
- [49:51]
A
Do you feel we attract someone that mirrors our deepest traumas or our traumas are just there. We're regardless of who we're in front of?
- [50:00]
B
I think it depends. I think at least I can say, like when younger in life, I was married for 20 years. And we got into that relationship, you know, I was like in my early 20s, you know, so at that time in life, it's just. It's just kind of magnetic, you know, it's like, boom. You know, nothing is stopping this from happening, you know. And so I think it's a combination of things. I think it's. I don't. I certainly don't think it's just all trauma. That's not my viewpoint on it. It's mostly love is what it is, actually. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. But of course, we do get attracted to people for all sorts of different reasons. And our real deep some, like, I'm a this person. I want that type of a person. When those desires are super strong and super specific, then I think you can look at that and you can say, why do I want such a person. Person, you know, and not to say that I don't, but what is that? You know, what is that? Maybe I'm going to need to experience that and maybe it will fulfill me, but probably it will not. Ultimately. It will not for a while it will, because you get to experience that type of a person. And obviously we're not always thinking like this, you know, cognitively, but there is a process like this that is happening. So then as we get older, and I think as long as, of course, we're also maturing emotionally, we have more of a choice, because I love this. I heard Esther Perel the other day, who I love. I think she always gives such great language to these things. And she was saying that you can love all sorts of people, you can fall in love with all sorts of type of people, but you can't create a life with all sorts of people. And those are different things. So that's why I don't get too caught up in the stories around it. And. And I think that's what's so useful in kriya practice, is because when you're in a kriya, it's like a bit of a relationship. It puts you in a bit of a pressure cooker with your own psyche. It might put you in this posture with this pranayama, with this mantra for this longer amount of time, usually going to be a little longer than you wish it was. And so it takes you into this space where you can kind of witness your pattern under stress, and that's a very safe place to witness them. And then. And also I get to witness them independently of another person. And I think that's super valuable. And so I can see how my body responds to the feeling of anxiety. I can see how my mind, stories and narratives respond when I feel anxious or I feel irritated. But the actual practice is to not follow the stories around the feeling. Now, later on, I'm in a very difficult situation. And if a relationship's good enough, it's going to bring up difficult situations, and it's going to test your sense of who you are. You know, to love someone, to go into a bond with someone, to create a commitment with someone, it changes the zodiac house that you're operating in. First, if it's more of like a romance and just a fun love affair, is more of a fifth house thing. But as soon as there's a contract involved, meaning we've made an agreement with each other for we do this, we don't do this. Now you're in the seventh house. So it changes the dynamic, which is the house of marriage, a partnership, any type of connection, contract.
- [53:33]
A
So because a lot of people see a shift in their relationship once they're legally married.
- [53:39]
B
Exactly.
- [53:39]
A
I was divorced a few years ago, and I noticed a big shift in when we were married. And then not like you don't think a piece of paper would change anything, but there was something in that energy. And so it's interesting around the house.
- [53:53]
B
Change? Yeah, totally. Yeah, I experienced a similar thing. So, yeah, it is in the signing of a contract or even the ritual of a marriage, I think, you know, you can be living together, you can be functionally, totally married, but then you do that ritual and it can really set some things in motion, is my experience. And that's beautiful if that's what you're going for. But it's nice to kind of be aware of these things and then you value them more and you honor them more, too, because it's not just something we're supposed to do, something we're choosing to do. And that's a different mood. And so much of us, you know, we just. We grow up and it's like, this is what we're doing. I want to get married. I want to have children and, you know, more power to us. May that happen, you know, if that's our heart's desires. But then life doesn't always go that way, or it does go that way. And then the season changes. So that's why the real love affair is the one that you've got to find and side, and that's what we're all doing. That's what you're about. That's what I'm about. That's what this podcast is about is finding that. And then when that love affair is the supreme one, then the ones we have with others, whether they're our romantic partners, life partners, our children, our mothers, our fathers, our friends, these are all such important relationships. They're all love relationships. So it's just about staying present and wait. Those are such. It's so easy to throw out cliches like that, but I mean, like, concentrate our life force. Take some time every day to get the chi centralized in the body that it's not going to the Instagram feed, that it's not going to. All my worries about this, that's not going to my concerns about money, that it's not going to my concerns about will this relationship work, will I find one? Da da da da da da. But there's some time that is spent every day to where it's about centralizing everything in your own body, making sure you're good, independent of anything else happening. And that's the most important relationship, I think.
- [56:04]
A
And that you can create that feeling of falling in love within yourself.
- [56:07]
B
Absolutely.
- [56:08]
A
And when you're, when you're capable of that, then you're not needing to find someone and attach to something to feel a kind of way. As we know that feeling never lasts in that way anyways, you know, and
- [56:19]
B
it kind of destroys a relationship when you're. When we're clingy like that, or when we're needy like that, or when we're anxious like that, it makes the relationship less likely to work because that other person, and maybe that other person's feeling like that towards us. And that case, we can have compassion for that because we probably know what that feels like. So when we're the person who is feeling needy and which is totally human, I'm all about keeping the human parts intact, you know, not create a spiritual idea around our ways of living that don't leave total room for the experience of life. And if I'm feeling sad to be able to feel sad, if I'm feeling needy to feel needy. And I find the only way I was able to feel like that and feel confident in feeling those things without feeling self loathing is compassion. But self compassion, and I like compassion in that word. Self love. Yes. But self compassion also has, I think, a different connotation because self compassion means that when I feel like, you know, when I feel I ain't worth shit, sometimes I feel that way. I've learned how to get my mind to not jump to self loathing, but to actually jump in to go immediately, we can naturally respond with a feeling of compassion in response to our suffering. So by shifting that tendency, which used to be if I'm feeling self doubt for instance, or the emotions and feelings that accompany self doubt doubt, that would usually spiral into I ain't worth, I'm not damn like self loathing. I think so much, so many of us are struggling with different types of self loathing. And to shift that pattern is not to change it into something that it's not. If I'm driving home, I live on this mountain road and I pass a deer who's been hit by a car and the deer is still alive but needs to die, die naturally, I compassion like it's just, that's not intellectual, that's just any of us, if we experience an animal and suffering naturally, we get welled up with compassion. That's natural for us. Same way with our own bodies. If we feel hurt, if we feel pain, which self loathing is pain and the feeling of it is, it's a mind is responding to pain, to something suffering. So in the same way, if I have self compassion, I'll respond like I would to a suffering animal and say love comes up. That will get me to take a bath, that will get me to like call a friend as opposed to. What often happens is it will stimulate more destructive behavior where we entertain harder narratives in our mind that are not healthy for us, that make us us loathe others more because then our minds want to put that on someone else. And so then we get into the spiral of animosity with others as a way of trying to like just soothe ourself. And so, you know, we're so sensitive, tender creatures and. But we want to be strong and we are strong, but our strength comes from something different. Compassion is a powerful force. You know, it's wisdom force. It is not some like, it's not, it's not just empathy, you know.
- [59:48]
A
And I feel like we often spiral into the world is an unsafe place and everything's. And you know, if I saw a dying deer, I'd be like, like animals aren't safe and da da da. So and especially now with the news and social media, it's like you click on one video that's like somewhat news oriented. All of a sudden your Explore page is like everything happening wrong in the world that sets your nervous system out of balance. And then, you know, that's why so many people feel like this must be my last lifetime. Because it's this feeling of I don't want to Be here. Some people think I must be a Pleiadian or something else because this shit, you know. But how can we enjoy this human experience more and soothe ourselves when we go into those. The world is going to shit spirals.
- [60:34]
B
Right. And how do we do it without turning, running away from it, you know, because we all want to retreat from it and retreat from the horrors retreat and not right now, of course. We're getting exposed to so much that are so much in real time because on one hand everything is so highly connected. So we can do a cool, like have a conversation like this and it can get to the whole world super quick. But also if there's genocide happening, that gets to the whole world super quick and we're all exposed, experiencing like. And what do you do with that? You know? And how do you. This is. Yeah, because this ain't. This is not what I'm about. This is not me. This is not. And, but. And yet I feel helpless, you know, so that's what refuge is all about. To use more of like kind of the Buddhist semantic, you know, to take refuge in that thing that's underneath it all, that's non changing. And that doesn't mean that you turn away from it. I think people feel like if you're going into spirituality that it can't happen, have anything to do with like the political world and it can't have anything to do with all of this. And then it's much easier to kind of ignore that whole realm. And yet some people will have dharmas that will take them directly into that realm. Because if you care for life and you care about people and you have a dharma in that particular role, then that is the most spiritual thing for you and others, you know, they're going to find it in different ways. Ways. So yeah, I don't know. It's in a certain way. We're definitely in a time where massive change, massive change is happening. And on another level, massive change has always been happening and always, you know, if you were to live in medieval times and, and before that, and you compare that to our lives.
- [62:28]
A
Sourdough bread. That was a big change.
- [62:30]
B
That was a good one. Thankfully that lineage has stayed alive and we still have old sourdough starters and we can heal everybody making a big comeback. Wheat problems from too much, you know, bad, bad agriculture.
- [62:46]
A
Yeah, I think ultimately it's, it's the balance. And so what do you feel about the word spiritual bypass? Do you think that's a real thing?
- [62:54]
B
It certainly can. Yeah, it's a real thing. It can be a real thing. I mean, it just. It all depends on the context of what. That's what we're talking about. But of course, spiritual bypassing can happen and does happen all the time, where we're just using, you know, spiritual ideas to bypass our responsibilities in life in some way or another. So it could be spiritual bypassing. In my own relationship, if my partner is giving me some feedback that I feel is, you know, well, maybe is true. I'm sure if my partner. And I'm just speaking hypothetically, if my. If a partner is giving feedback, there's some reality to it. There's some truth. There's something to listen to there. So I could use some spiritual concepts to bypass, because I don't want to actually look at it. I'm not thinking that way to myself. When we're bypassing things, usually we're not lying only to other people. We're also lying to ourselves. And so, of course, we can use spiritual philosophies to bypass certain responsibilities. But also, life is difficult, and we're all doing our best, and it's hard. It's hard. And the mind is very complicated. So that's why I'm always like, compassion and effort every direction to the person who is bypassing, they need compassion. Not. Not always only criticism, you know, but compassion. Because with compassion, people will feel more likely to change, you know, under criticism, they'll fight back. And so we can be critical and compassionate simultaneously. And we must be, you know, to critique with love, you know, not always putting people down, down. So, yeah, spiritual bypassing, I think happens probably all the time, but I think happened less and less now that it's being called out for some years, you know, and we kind of know what it is. So I think it's good things.
- [64:49]
A
Yeah. And I feel everyone's dharmas are unique, that some people genuinely are meant to be in the mountains in isolation, and that is their highest service to humanity, to just hold that vibration. And some people are meant to be on the front lines of wars and reporting from them, and that's where they're called to be. And sometimes in a lifetime, you can shift between the extremes in various amounts. And I think sometimes we're called somewhere and then we're looking at our friend and we're like, why don't you care about what I care about? This is the most important thing. Does it. But it's like because of your. Your karmas and family and all these things, this cause feels like it, but for someone else, something else that might not be even activated right now. So it's that looking outwards rather than inwards thing.
- [65:29]
B
Yes. And I mean, if that's the cause you're about, that's the cause to follow, you know, get about about that, you know, but. Right. It doesn't mean that every other person's going to see it the same way. In fact, most people are not going to see it the same way. But that's the beauty of it is if each of us can get in the river current of our dharma in life, then it all works together as this great, wonderful force. So that's why I'm about you doing what you're about and me doing what I'm about. And they work as a team. You know, we work as a team like that as opposed to people needing others to be more like how we are. You can see it in the horoscope. You know, that person was never going to be like that. That person was always going to be more activist. Like, look at the Sagittarius placement. Look at this. And so you can see it. And that's what's so cool about it.
- [66:16]
A
And you're speaking about Jyotish Vedic astrology. Can you share with us the differences for someone who hasn't heard of this in Vedic astrology? Yeah.
- [66:24]
B
Well, it's largely the same. It looks at the zodiac from a different point of view. But for instance, when you're using a Stargate Days app on our phone, when you look up and you see there's constellation, here's where Leo is in the sky, there's the moon, that's actually looking at the zodiac that Vedic astrology uses. There is a difference in how Western astrology calculates the zodiac versus Vedic. Vedic uses what they call the sidereal zodiac and Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac. They both work. I have friends who are Western astrologers and they're excellent and I would get a reading from them. But I love Vedic astrology and I follow that because astrology is a science, but it's an intuitive art as well. And so I find that with a good astrologer, both systems have their way of getting to more or less the same thing. They kind of do so in different ways, but the difference in the two is 24 degrees. Specifically why that is as a whole, I don't know if you want to get into all of that, but there's a.
- [67:33]
A
Can you share a little? I know the story, but I think it's important for people to know.
- [67:36]
B
Well, it just has to do with the procession of the equinox, and where Western astrology agrees that the sign of Aries begins on the spring equinox, Whereas because the Earth has a wobble to its rotation, where for Vedic astrology, in the sidereal zodiac, that point has changed over time. And so now, because it changes a certain amount every year, we're 24 degrees different. So that's why if your sun is in Aries, in Western astrology, if it's at 15 degrees Aries in Vedic astrology, that sun is in Pisces, it goes 24 degrees back. However, Vedic astrology doesn't emphasize the sun sign in the same way that Western astrology does. So trying to shift over to Vedic astrology, because if you're comparing the two, especially if it's new to people, it just becomes confusing. How can there be two zodiacs? And how can they both be true? Well, they are. Even Vedic astrologers use many different ways of dividing the zodiac up and learning. You're talking about understanding the psyches of humans. It's not one thing. It's totally multifaceted. And so there's a different horoscope in Vedic astrology, for every domain of your life, you have your main horoscope, which is called your rasi. But then you have the horoscope you can look at for just your career. You have the chart that you can look at for marriage, you have the chart that you can look at for money in life, you can have. I'm just naming the ones that people get really motivated in. Oh, I want to look at all those charts. So there's so many ways to divide it up. But Vedic astrology, because when we say, okay, you're a Scorpio or you're a Libra, we're talking about the sun sign in the astrology that most people in the west use. But in Vedic astrology, Jyotish, we start with the rising sign. So what was the constellation at the.
- [69:37]
A
You and I have the same one.
- [69:38]
B
You're a Capricorn rising.
- [69:40]
A
Oh, I thought you were Scorpio.
- [69:41]
B
No, I'm not a Scorpio rising.
- [69:43]
A
Okay. No, I'm Scorpio. Maybe it was Bob Marley, because you did a story.
- [69:48]
B
Bob Marley is a Scorpio Ascendant. That's it. Yes. So me and Bob Marley, you're both in good company. So what that means the Ascendant is what was the constellation on the eastern horizon at the moment you were born? What's cool about this is the sun changes only once a month for the whole month. It's in Leo. It's in Leo. So everyone born that month has the sun in Leo. The ascendant changes every two hours. So in one 24 hour period, all 12 constellations move across the eastern horizon. It's the point where the sun rises. It's the eastern horizon and that's called the first house of self. So whatever constellation was on the eastern horizon when you were born, you a Scorpio. So your basic kind of wiring is scorpion in nature. And that person who's Scorpio is all about change and transformation and you're not going to keep them on the surface that things are going to want to travel deep always. And it's water and fire versus a person with a Capricorn on the sun and it's an Earth sign and it has a different mode. But whatever constellation is on the eastern horizon forms that kind of nucleus that everything else, that and colors. So even if you're born on the same exact day as another person, but it was a couple hours away, it changes the entire basic placement of that person's chart because it's based on the Ascendant. I really love the physics of it. Every planet rules two constellations, a masculine and a feminine. So Mars rules the masculine Aries and the feminine Scorpio. Scorpio. Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius. Venus rules the feminine Taurus, the masculine Libra. Mercury rules the feminine Virgo, the masculine Gemini. Jupiter rules the masculine Sagittarius, the feminine Pisces.
- [71:51]
A
Those aren't the opposite signs, are they?
- [71:53]
B
No, they're not opposites in the sky.
- [71:55]
A
Yeah, because I'm like, how are those two related?
- [71:58]
B
Which two?
- [71:58]
A
Like the two, the masculine and feminine ones that the.
- [72:01]
B
Well, Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Jupiter also rules Pisces.
- [72:06]
A
Why those two?
- [72:08]
B
Why those two? Well, why is kind of like, you know, it's a big question. But how you can understand it is by understanding Sagittarius and understanding Pisces, you will learn the different facets of Jupiter's energy. Sagittarius is more of the fire, philosophical wisdom teaching energy of Jupiter, whereas Pisces is more of the etheric ocean of kind of bliss, deeply spiritual. So there are different facets of the
- [72:43]
A
planets, which is kind of like north node, south node, but in western it's just those are the opposite. So it's like very clear.
- [72:51]
B
That's also in Vedic astrology too. They're opposites in the sky. So it's a bit little, little different. Like Ketu and Rahu are always opposite of each Other going retrograde. But if you can look at it this way, there's five planets, five element planets. They each rule two constellations. And then you have the two luminaries which are the sun and the moon. They're opposites of each other in terms of qualities, not in terms of the actual opposites in the sky. So sun and moon.
- [73:19]
A
Because you said Capricorn, Aquarius, I was like, well, those are right next to each other.
- [73:22]
B
Yeah, but they're both ruled by Saturn. Exactly. They are. That's, I think, the only case where they're right next to each other.
- [73:28]
A
Interesting.
- [73:29]
B
Yeah, it's a beautiful science. And so by looking at these. So if you person has, for instance, their moon in Pisces, this is a human being who's going to be totally very intuitive human being. Or take a different example if they have like Mercury in Pisces. Well, this person is. Their type of intelligence is maybe not going to be an intelligence that thrives in our modern school systems that rely more on analytical intelligence and intelligence that's really in service of certain things. Vs Mercury in Pisces is someone who's going to have an intuitive intelligence, a much more feminine type of intelligence. So they may not thrive in school and they may grow up thinking they're not smart because their style of intelligence didn't thrive in that type of setting. Setting. And so if we are, as our culture changes, as people like you are starting to really educate on what like a feminine path is all about and what a feminine intelligence is all about, that empowers people to understand their intelligence better. I didn't ever fit in that box. And so then I was kind of like come to believe that I wasn't smart or I wasn't this or I wasn't that or I was this or I was that. Whereas when you look at the, the astrology of a person or we look at our own astrology, we can see where our unique brand of brand, our unique style of intelligence really is and then how to work with it.
- [74:58]
A
So people can look up their Mercury in their Vedic astrology chart and that will tell them their style of intelligence communication.
- [75:05]
B
In part, I mean, it only really works that way if you learn more than that. Of course, you kind of got to be able to put the different pieces together because it's not just one planet. We're so multifaceted. So like you're a Scorpio. And then we would look, where's your Mars? That's going to tell us a lot about you. But then we want to know where is your moon?
- [75:24]
A
Because that's moon and sun are Sagittarius.
- [75:27]
B
Cool. So that means your moon and your sun are in your second house because your Scorpio ascendant. So right next to that is Sagittarius. And so you got the moon in the second house in Sagittarius. And we look at the moon to discover really what is our path to find peace. Peace to find bliss, to feel safe. And the moon is our mind, but not our thinking mind. That's more Mercury. The moon is our feeling mind in the realm of our subconscious and our emotions. So second house. There's going to be real big themes of money. Real big themes of. Could be money. Also, people with second house tend to be very like, love the pleasures of life, love sensitive sensuality and food with moon in the second house and tend to be very food people as well.
- [76:17]
A
And I did write a cookbook.
- [76:19]
B
Did you really? Yeah. So there you go. So. But it's just tip of the iceberg a little. What ends up happening is first you learn your ascendant. I'm all about. We teach astrology at Lifeforce Academy. And I like teaching astrology. Not to be an astrologer, not to try to predict things, but to use it to learn about ourselves. It also shows us where our strengths are, and it shows us where our blind spots are. And that's what I find to be the most probably important and transformational aspect of studying astrology in this way, is because sometimes the things that make us super strong and our strengths also show us where our blind spots are. Because that muscle's so already flexed and has been strong for so long. It's just kind of. That shapes our perspective of the world. From that angle, do you find that
- [77:12]
A
you can accurately see someone's dosha from their chart?
- [77:15]
B
Yes. And I wish it was a little more straightforward than it, because I've had
- [77:20]
A
the reading and they always say I'm pitta, but I've never really resonated with being pitta.
- [77:25]
B
What is your constitution that you resonate with more?
- [77:27]
A
Vata. Vata and kapha. Yeah.
- [77:30]
B
Cool. Yeah. Different people have different systems for looking at what the Ayurvedic constitution is. And in some cases, my experience is this. In some cases, just like, plain as day. Yeah. This is a kapha person. And in some places it's less clear. But that's often the case when you're. When you're doing an assessment of someone in Ayurveda, sometimes it's super clear what this person's constitution is other persons come in. You really need to feel the pulse because there's kind of. Yeah, they are like a. They are like a vata. I'm primarily a pitta and secondarily a kapha. Okay. Yeah. And then of course, tertiary vata, because we have it all and we all deal with vata. That's the thing. And that's. And vata is the thing that confuses everything because all of us are living in this crazy world where vata is a vata, time to be alive. Right now, these devices and the speed at which everything's moving and even. And because everything's so highly connected that it has changed our perception of time. And it feels very much like time is speeding up. And so all of that absolutely is affecting our nervous system and vata is going high. So this is why we need Ayurveda and put oils on our body and get sirodhara and have good massages and remember the pleasures and important things of life so that we can also deal with the katana.
- [78:55]
A
Do you feel like we're in Kali Yuga or do you feel we're coming out of it?
- [78:58]
B
I don't know, to be honest, because I have such great teachers at St. Paul and people are just like, we're definitely in Kali Yuga. But then my primary astrology teacher is from the Sri Yukteswar Paramahansa Yoga Nanda lineage. And they very much are going into Dwarpa Yuga. And their case for that is pretty strong if you look at it. So I don't really know. And then you have the whole thing of the changing of the age into the Aquarian age and that thing. And all of them kind of seem to be right when you look at it.
- [79:32]
A
From the Vedic, it's moved into Capricorn age.
- [79:35]
B
No, from the Vedic perspective, there's so many different ways that people calculate these things, but it would still be the age of Pisces. I think the Aquarian age must be a Western astrology concept because there's nothing in Vedic that is saying that, to my knowledge. But I also don't know because in Vedic, in India, there's so many different systems of astrology, but the main Vedic system is not saying this, but to me personally, it's not important, actually, because what we do know is all the things that, for instance, describe an Aquarian age are very much happening. So. So there's different ways of categorizing time as well. And so what is happening right now? Everything is highly connected. What is happening Right now, there's so much information that nothing works. What is happening right now? People are totally confused. So I'm into like, all right, that's what's happening right now. This is the characteristics that are described. So the only real important thing at the end of the day is Dharma. And so whatever kind of ideological or philosophical context that I'm using to shape my view. Okay, cool. But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that I'm getting happier, that I'm getting that I'm being helpful, I'm staying connected to the creativity. I'm staying connected to life. And that I'm keeping my concern for life a lot alive. And all of that takes enough time, you know, So I don't know always the answers to these questions, but I'm into it exactly soon.
- [81:13]
A
Hope my Scorpio rising. What can I say?
- [81:15]
B
Because a lot of these calculations, like my astrology teacher is saying, if, you know, if you believe what all these folks are saying are like, well, Kali Yuga ends in, like, whatever, like, 10,000 more years, which might as well be infinite more years because it means nothing to. There's no practical use of that information. Yeah.
- [81:32]
A
I recently had a conversation with Richard Rudd, the founder of Gene Keys.
- [81:36]
B
Yeah, well, a little bit. I met him last summer briefly.
- [81:40]
A
It's incredible. Really incredible. And space docs astrology with I Ching, just such great concentrations. And he's also, you know, studied all forms of astrology. And what he shared was that it was a miscalculation when they said that Kali Yuga is going to end 10,000 years ago. And he can tell you the whole story why, and that we. It is. We are experiencing, like, the end of it right now and into this next age, which is this age of, like, purification. Yeah. Not Satyuga yet. I don't think we'll, in this incarnation, be around for that. But we're. We're building the road. And in. In Gene Keys and Human Design, they write about how the years 2020 to 2027 are the big shift where everything is going to kind of come into service, which we've seen. 2020, Covid, that was like, the start of this kind of, like, one thing after the next after next in a more heightened way, which definitely was happening. But I think social media has brought it more to our. Our. Our faces. And he says now from 2027, it will be starting to, like, once the dust has kind of like, all risen and starts to settle, it's like, okay, now what do we want to build and like building this new paradigm that will be emerging, merging of the ancient and Earth based wisdom with technology. And maybe some people will be more off grid and some people will be microchipped in, but there will be a path of integration as well that tracks.
- [83:06]
B
Yeah, I like that. Vedic astrology. So when it was 2020 and we had that grand conjunction where Saturn and Jupiter are on the same degree and a lot of us went out and looked at it, it was even making the news, mainstream news. A grand conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter forming this one very beautiful star in the sky that you could go up at sunset on the winter solstice of 2020 and see that grand conjunction. See that on the. Just above the eastern horizon. Well, at that time Saturn was in the constellation of Capricorn, which it rules. And Jupiter was in the sign on the same degree of Capricorn, which Jupiter is at its weakest, weakest point in the sky in Capricorn. And Saturn is at a very strong point. Saturn is the planet of contraction and constriction. Jupiter is the planet of expansion. So that we all very much contracted. We went into this very constricted moment of our life. But in Saturnian context it wasn't a constriction that is all bad. It's a constriction that is very difficult. But changes need to happen and the entire structures need to transform. And that's happening. That happened that, that cracked through a veil for sure. Cracked through a stupefied state that we all had in a certain. It's not a. I like this word stupefy. It's like you're kind of hypnotized a little bit. And it's good to like get cracked out of like those and say, oh, I feel aw. I feel alive. And so woke up society for sure to certain things. But of course in the process very difficult and creates this real fragmentation and bifurcation. And so that's why unification. But not in some fluffy way. It has to be real unified. And to me it's that compassion as the unifying force force the bodhicitta.
- [85:14]
A
And I feel like these tools like Kundalini Yoga help us deal with the discomforts and the uncertainties. Like that feeling of this is going for a little too long. I feel like that is totally my experience. Every time I do Kundalini I'm like, this is a very long time to be putting my legs up and down and up and down, up and down. And I'm noticing that part of me that's like, then I'll be like, okay, how much longer I'll get through this. Rather. Rather than just enjoying the process and releasing how much time it takes. So it's like, interesting to notice your own samskaras come. And that's how you live life. You know, how you do anything is how you do everything. And I feel like these. Do you ever do the Kundalini where they go into like the river and
- [85:54]
B
they're white Tantric yoga? Yes, I have done lots of white Tantric yoga. Yeah. I don't know which kriya is. There's so many different kriya in a
- [86:02]
A
river and they have to like, put their arms out on each other and stare each other for like, hours.
- [86:07]
B
Oh, sure, sure. You're talking about the white Tantric yoga. Yeah. Sometimes maybe contextualized as a river. But basically what it is is the. The in the practice you have masculine on one side, feminine on the other side. There's always more women than men, so it doesn't matter really, the gender. But you make masculine one side, feminine the other side. And then you're doing similar to Kundalini yoga. Kriyas. Different Kriyas, but with a partner. Often it's gazing in the eyes as the drishti. Sometimes eyes are closed and it's a dristy focal point of somewhere else. Sometimes you're chanting mantras, sometimes you're holding difficult positions, sometimes you're just in a very simple position. But in any case, they're usually each about an hour long meditations, and then you do many of those per day. And it's a very powerful practice. Very powerful.
- [86:55]
A
There's definitely one in an actual river.
- [86:57]
B
Oh, really? I haven't been to that. I haven't seen that. So cold.
- [87:01]
A
But it's. I mean, it's like warrior yoga.
- [87:04]
B
Yeah, yeah, no, those. I mean, Since I was 18, I was doing white Tantric yoga practices.
- [87:08]
A
And is that related to Sikhism?
- [87:11]
B
No, not. Not specifically. It's a yogic practice.
- [87:13]
A
Okay.
- [87:14]
B
Yeah.
- [87:14]
A
And so how is the Kundalini Yoga related to Sikhism?
- [87:18]
B
Well, Kundalini yoga in the bigger context of Kundalini Yoga is not specifically related to Sikhism. The brand of Kundalini yoga that is practiced in the west came through Yogi Bhajan and others who were Sikhs and was contextualized in the Sikh context. And there are less known traditions in the Sikh context that do work with different yoga practices, but they're not very common in the Sikh context. So Kundalini yoga, Tantra yoga are not usually contextualized in direct Connection with Sikhi.
- [88:00]
A
Yeah. Because I've obviously noticed a lot of my friends who are very deep in Kundalini are also Sikhs. So I'm like, okay, there's something here
- [88:06]
B
that's coming through the Yogi Bhajan lineage of Sikh of Kundalini yoga.
- [88:12]
A
Beautiful. The first Kundalini experience I had, I was 23, is my first time taking mushrooms in Bali. And I could just feel this wave of energy pulsing through my spine. And it was like, extremely, extremely orgasmic. And I thought I was being so loud and.
- [88:29]
B
And.
- [88:29]
A
But, like, I couldn't stop myself. And then after I was like, oh, my God, was I, like being loud? They were like, no, your face was in the dirt.
- [88:36]
B
You're like.
- [88:37]
A
Like, here I am thinking I was like a panting pro V commercial. But it was like a dormant, stuck energy that was inside of me that I was feeling. And then more recently, which was my second pilgrimage in Egypt, that happened again after this very, very deep meditation, I went into in an Isis temple that was like a complete psychedelic experience by sit. Specific point in a. In a temple. And those waves started to come through me again. So would you say that's Kundalini energy?
- [89:05]
B
Sure, yeah. I mean, those are beautiful experiences, these experiences that kind of open us up to what we really are and what life really is. Absolutely. I don't like to put, like, too tight of a container, because also, anytime you're having an epiphany in life and you're like, in your creative flow is also Kundalini energy. When you're opening up, when you're in the zone is also Kundalini energy. And so all of this. But when. Especially though, when you're communing with some supreme reality and you're having a visceral experience of that, you know, that's what this is. And what Kundalini Yoga does is it helps you get in that zone more often. It helps you kind of live more fully in that space to where they're not only like extraordinary experiences, but they're zones. They're vibes that we hang out in and that we live our life in and we cultivate. But that has to happen slowly because. Because that's what Sadhana is all about. There's a little bit of practice you do every day or every week that that kind of nourishes that and keeps that going and keeps opening it up. And not only keeps it going, but you keep going deeper into it and keeping experiencing it in everyday life, life and. And so forth. And so, yes, to all of that, you know.
- [90:21]
A
Beautiful. So where can listeners start actually practicing Kundalini Yoga with you and learning Jyotish as well?
- [90:27]
B
Yeah, Lifeforce Academy. You know, Lifeforce Academy is great. And what we do really well is the whole global virtual experience. All our courses, even our immersions that we do multiple per year, they're totally transformational where we have these four and a half day, five day experiences where it's. You're jumping in, you know, head first and you're gonna come out the other side and it's gonna be amazing, you know, and you're gonna work, it's gonna be amazing. And then, you know, we have classes, members portal, I'm teaching every week. And then we have just libraries of practices in there and libraries of the music that we create that go with the practices. And then we have courses on Yogic astrology, courses on Ayurveda, courses on Kundalini Yoga. It's a beautiful thing. We've been doing it for, you know, a good 15 years. I travel all over the place and we do lots of things in person. But what we do really well is to also. And what we put so much of our creativity in and so much of our life force is to get it to transmit through a virtual experience as well. And I think we're doing pretty good job. It's hard work, but we're doing it. And so people can find a great super easy. Yeah, Life Force Academy.
- [91:41]
A
Yeah. I remember my friend Anna who's been on this podcast as well as who told me about you. And I signed up and I was doing the practices every day and so I'm excited to get back into it now that I'm here. This face is so beautiful, guys. So when you do these practices, you're gonna like feel the energy of it.
- [91:56]
B
Cool. Yeah, it's super fun. You know, we talk about it and goes deep and it can get heavy and all that. But the main thing is it's super simple, it's super fun. It's using your breath, it's using your body, it's working out, it's feeling good, it's looking good. Good is taking care of ourselves, keeping ourselves happy, keeping our spirit lifted, keeping connected to creativity, keeping self confidence up and keeping us. And when you do all those things, naturally you're going to be in the dharma of your life and tuning the instrument, connecting you to your bigger universe. That's what Life Force Academy is about.
- [92:30]
A
I love that. So we will share that link below. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciated it.
- [92:35]
B
Such a pleasure. Thanks so much for inviting me, having me.
- [92:38]
A
Great. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in. You can find that link in the show notes. Be sure to subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast. It's available on video format on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to podcasts. And I'll see you next week. So trust your intuition, trust your Trust you in the wisdom. Trust you in the guidance.