Bikram 101

by: Johan

I took a trip to the sea today and while walking along the beach at night I remembered back 15 years to similar night time strolls along another beach. I used to sneak out late at night, when no one else was around and go to the beach. There I would sit down and listen to the waves breaking while doing what I now know as my Pranayama and silent sitting. In those days I think I called it my prayers and contemplation respectively.

Zoom forward 5 years and I find myself in India studying pranic healing when those same subjects come back. This time they've been given new names, prana and mediation. Here they are presented as valued tools giving us the gift to heal ourselves and others. At this point I also learned more about our connection to the universe and each others. How the body is made up of chakras, and connecting them together are 3 meridians on the front and back of the body. Healing others is simply the process of removing or giving prana to chakras that are out of the norm, and clearing the meridians. I never bought in to pranic healing it felt to cult like and new age. But it gave me a introduction to the Indian tradition of thoughts.

Going forward to the present and I'm rediscovering these same prana, mediation and chakras. Again they have changed their name, but not their nature. As I said at the start I now refer to them as Pranayama and silent sitting, well at least with the chakras I learned a name that's stayed. The meridians were not so blessed, they are now called Nāḍi or channels. Two of those channels have Sanskrit names you might recognise, Ha (sun) and Tha (moon). At the union of these channels sits the chakras. The healing has changed it's tool, but not it's nature. The tool now becomes the action of Hatha Yoga.

How far my journey down the path of yoga will lead I can't tell. But today I caught a rear glimpse at how far ago this journey started and I feel blessed. It's my hope that this post will help you too find a connection in your practice that you might have missed.

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