from: Light on Kundalini: Your Lifestyle Guide to Yoga and Awakening

 

1. Why did you write this book? What is its purpose? Why a Kundalini Yoga Lifestyle Guide and Daily Companion?

My Purpose in Life is to share the teachings of any practice that will give anyone at any age an advantage of how to change lives and serve in their unique authentic voices. A teacher is the highest caliber of a Human Being. To really be honest, my story is a young woman’s journey in hopes to eventually find inner peace and purpose to make this life full of love, humor, forgiveness and compassionately honoring myself to honor others more carefully.

2. There is the saying, “It takes a village.” In Light on Kundalini, you use the analogy of a village to help readers navigate through the offerings contained within. Why is it important to understand that different Kundalini Yoga practices may be applied at different times in life to varied experiences? Further, why is the general concept of “community” so vital to Kundalini Yoga?

Sanghat or community in Kundalini Yoga is a starting point to live in Ashrams, to cook and share meals, to learn how to be polite and have exceptional patience. The KY tools are specific for each step from Waking Up, Growing, Up, Cleaning UP to Showing Up. Meditation is vital in our lives now. KY gives you stamina and strength to serve each other in Community with like-minded beings.

3. You also talk a bit about “going down the rabbit hole,” and how Kundalini Yoga aids in navigating the challenges associated therewith. When did you first “go down the rabbit hole,” and how did you know that Yoga was helping you to climb out of, or at least find strong handholds and footholds to mitigate the plunge?

The minute you sign a contract with a Modeling Agency or any workforce, you have this idea you have “made it.” Well, let me share with you, it’s only the beginning. You will get poked, provoked, and confronted; eventually, your ego has to surrender and make a change necessary to complete the task handed to you.

I first went down the rabbit hole when I was given a one-way ticket to Paris from a French Agency. I made the decision to go immediately and thought everyone spoke English. For a long period of time schlepping across Paris, I never got a ‘call back’ or received an opportunity to work. Finally, I had to change my approach, dig very deep, and make my heart know I was going to work. Once I connected with my inner guidance, I opened a magazine and saw Guy Bourdin, saying to myself, “This guy would like me! Those women look just like me.” That very day, I answered the phone and accepted an invitation to lunch, wiping the tears from my eyes, which resulted in a miracle meeting with Guy Bourdin, the exact photographer whom I had seen that morning in the magazine. After all of those months struggling, as quick as that, I changed my agent and received an opportunity for 6 months of French Vogue through Guy, and henceforth was referred to as “Miss Bourdin.” KY only makes you try harder, listen more deeply, and own up to yourself in a very defined, organic lifestyle. KY gives you a discipline like no other practice I have experienced because it changes you, your body, your metabolism on its own. KY raises your frequency to its highest vibration which changes the subconscious patterns that no longer serve you. It opens the being to new possibilities and fresh energy to reopen, re-engage, remember what we are capable of while at the same time providing mature discernment of situations that leads us out of the rabbit holes and into prospering gardens for tea. Even with little exposure to classes or teachings of Yoga, it is innate, this mastery, in our deep Self, which is always, from the moment of birth and rebirth, working on our behalf for awakening. When we go deep into the beloved loka of the heart, natural Yoga, the guidance and gifts are there.

4. Why is knowing the history of Yoga important?

We need to know we are not alone. To see that others, throughout time and history, have experienced and lived these lives of Yogic practice, to remember who we are and thrive in the face of adversity as well as jubilation.

Honoring the experiences and lives of our ancestors who have provided the tools and practices that bring forth awakening, shining the light on the pathways back to the soul. The trails have been blazed. We just need to follow the light.

We also need to know the connection of one life to another, both in community and for our own selves. We need to understand the concept of karma and the things that keep us contracted versus what leads to liberation, moksha, enlightenment, freedom.

It is extremely inspiring to have the foundation of Yoga built by our ancestors. We learn from the mastery of all these inspired beings. It naturally brings belief and confidence in the path ahead, that you can step on it and the same experience can be had. And we see that mistakes are made as one learns, and that you can overcome them. No mistake is forever because they are a “miss-take” on the situation. The next time always provides a new opportunity to do it differently.

5. What are the elements of the Kundalini Yoga landscape?

The Tattvas: Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Ether. Your fingers represent your tattvas. These profound elements start to awaken your 10 bodies (soul, negative mind, positive mind, neutral mind, physical body, intuitive body, aura, prana, subtle body, radiant body). The necessity is to keep them awakened.

6. Specifically, how did Kundalini Yoga practice assist in the various stages of your life, from professional modeling, to becoming an actor, to becoming a mother?

My modeling career started in 1979. After Paris, luckily, I was modeling for Eileen Ford and living in the West Village, NYC, near The Integral Yoga Center. For modeling and other life situations, I knew that I needed to open my voice and to be able to express my truest feeling. It was an enormous challenge for me personally to understand the art of truth and to explore the deeper meaning of courage. I also needed nutrition and guidance for healing, health and well-being to sustain me in my career, which was always challenging. I had also lost my sister and needed to be able to process and understand grief and to live with it, through it, and beyond it. I needed it to be able to hold my seat as an actor, give the energy to these characters, these narratives, to make these stories come alive on the stage and screen of life. You just know it, as a model or an actor, when you “aren’t there.”

So it is also true in Motherhood. To be there, to be a single parent, to hold space for growing beings on their own journeys, is no easy task. To raise others in a manner that facilitates their growth, to raise children without your own ego or desires in the way, is an art mastered only by the soul and its lessons. To raise my children was the beginning of understanding my destiny. It was very clear that those children were a deepest part of my dharma, my awakening, and experience of true joy. It was essential for me to be a Mother to embody, experience, The Mother.

7. How does Kundalini Yoga provide a “Way Out?”

It gives you the opposite – a WAY IN – to get out! It releases blockages that become stored in our mind, our brains, our physical bodies. When we release these things, as mentioned above, we become open to new possibilities and fresh energy to reopen, reengage, and remember what we are capable of to get us out of the rabbit holes and into prospering gardens for tea.

8. Specifically, how does Kundalini Yoga aid in healing grief?

This is a big subject. We approach grief in KY with an awareness that we are already grieving. Therefore, the practices designed for personal grieving in KY are specific. We have a “way out” through practicing meditation and knowing where the body holds memory. This is a big cause of pain in the physical body, and when we dive into the sources, we acknowledge and embrace and live free with specific modalities and teachers for guidance. There is also asana accompanied by mantra and musical instruments that aid in getting the grief to shift, soften, and become malleable. The Teacher will work with the student where they are, in that respective situation with additional instruction.

9. What is Sadhana? Why is routine Kundalini Yoga practice important, and how is it integral to Awakening personally and in community?

Sadhana is a daily practice as mentioned in the book. Basically, it cleans the subconscious patterns by doing specific yoga practice and chants. The dedication of routine practice offers the daily cleansing and charging required for maintaining and experiencing the Yogic state for longer and longer periods of time. Initially, you intentionally dedicate yourself to this for 40 days, but over time, it becomes your lifestyle.

The hour before the sun rises is a key time for daily practice to maximize the potential of the energy. Clearer communication is held with the Self at that time. Channels are more open for awareness to flow. Sadhana gives you the tool to see the best path or means forward, releasing old patterns, welcoming in new ways of being, and sustaining the energy that keeps you living, creating, serving and loving from the deepest heart of the heart.

10. What are the Ten Bodies, and why is it important to know and recognize what they are?

Soul, negative mind, positive mind, neutral mind, physical body, intuition, aura, prana (breath), subtle, and radiant body.

The necessity is to keep them awakened so that you can have proper guidance and trust without stress. You are spiritually, mentally and physically open to change and growth. Awakening and aging becomes normal, assets. You are more patient and understanding with yourself and others in times of change. Once you maintain this awareness and dedicated practice, your life can balance and flow with your dharma and true voice and purpose. You can function without attachment, expectations, projections or getting stuck in your own narratives.

11. Explain Sat Nam.

Truth is my Identity.

12. Davy Crockett: At each step, “be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” How does this approach take us from frontier to frontier in Kundalini Yoga? How do we know how to progress, and what is working for us? How can we gauge our progressions? How do we know when to self-correct?

You can only rely on the shift. Has your life shifted into a more productive vibration? Are you better able to function, serve, find humor, experience joy, hold space, no matter the circumstance? If you are upshifting, what you are doing is working. If you are finding yourself contracting, being less open, talking to yourself more often in unconstructive tones, judging yourself and others (not to be confused with discernment), then what you are doing might not be working.

The “Waking Up” part of KY gives you the Yes permission to move forward or choose a way of being or let something go. The whole of the ten bodies through awakened practice inform our choices, and they don’t manipulate or bargain or spin narratives. They discern and recognize Truth when it vibrates in resonance with the soul. In this way, you are then confident in walking the path and going ahead, all the while knowing that, if you accidentally fall in another rabbit hole, you are capable of discerning a way out by going in and trusting and relying on your deep heart.

How do we know when to self-correct? KY will correct you, just get out of the way.

13. Grace and Gracefulness in Transitions. In a section of the book, you tell the story of how you came home to find your house destroyed and how you navigated the experience. Can you talk a little bit about the lessons you learned and how Kundalini Yoga practices can help us through hard, life altering challenges? What do you do when you lose everything you have and you have to start over?

Immediately, when I noticed the house windows were fogged up from the inside out, I knew there was trouble. When I walked in and saw a waterfall gushing from the second floor, instantly, I remembered, as a Yogi, to proceed with grace to find immediate help. I could not waste time or effort entertaining shock or wallowing in emotions that stymie action. I could not afford to panic. I fell to my knees, and I asked what to do. The breath took over, activating guidance, and everything took care of itself to move forward and handle the situation with trust.

We must remove the dialog that stops us from starting over with joy. We have to remove the attachment to “permanency” in the physical realm and to deal with the absolute truth that all is born, is sustained, and is destroyed to go back into the whole. We need to change the vocabulary of starting over, calling it a new beginning. Every loss is a gain; every destruction begins new life.

14. You speak about the importance of Sound in Yoga. Can you talk about how sound brought you to yoga and how/why it continues to guide people to Awakening?

Yogic sound is everything from your breath to the tone of your body and voice in accordance with the divine vibrations of the universe. Its therapy is so healing. We start from the heart chakra (neutral mind) up. The frequency is timely, and the vibration of it raises your awareness and retunes your body to the cosmic, universal frequency, which awakens the Chitta, universal mind, allowing us to heal and be whole. This brings a vibration that overrides whatever is going on and resets you. Music is everything. Gong is therapy. Bowls heal. Pure and relaxing vibrations will resonate in the soul and bring forth the soul’s innate energy to heal grief and so much more.

Yogic sound vibrates on such an internal level to cultivate the awareness of where the pain points reside, so that you are then able to open to healing and wholeness, to receive relief and experience the peace that resides in the deep heart, the Self, the soul.

I have lain in deep, deep pain, four gongs being played at once in session, but heard the guidance “Don’t move!” surrendered, and the pain dissolved. We have amazing inner guidance.

15. What makes mantra so important? How is it powerful personally and in community?

When you listen to music, it gives you an automatic download of dopamine into the brain, into the cellular system, allowing you to remove the dead cells, awaken to the abundanceof love, and by repeating in mantra (japa), it enhances any experience of joy, resulting in peace and happiness.

16. How does Kirtan function in Kundalini Yoga community? How does it bring people together?

When we gather in group consciousness, chanting the sacred, ancient, historical mantras that allow change and awakening to happen, the sound current of the instruments are particularly vibrating a frequency of higher vibration into the communal atmosphere of gathering that gives each and every participant a Voice again. To share the Voice again, is the universal activation which works environmentally to supply enough frequency needed for change.

17. How are the Gunas, Tattvas and Chakras working together in Kundalini Yoga?

Bringing you into divine Balance, the three gunas – Manas, Ahangkar, Buddhi – each give rise to an impersonal mind to function to a universal mind. The Tattvas – earth, ether, fire, water, air – in increasing density, represent the transition from most pure to most tangible. The Chakras, or energy vortices specifically aligned with the ten bodies, activate to heal pain and rescue and restore well-being. The practice of KY brings all this together.

18. What role does Ayurveda play in Yogic Health? How does understanding our Doshas assist in physical, emotional and behavioral balance?

Essential knowledge in these healing modalities of nutrition guides you into a perfect balance of your Gunas. Doshas are vital in knowing yourself more intimately, to recognize when your body is out of balance and its needs to come back into balance. From a Yogic perspective, it is applied to find this balance. The vast knowledge of Ayurveda in conjunction with Kundalini Yoga has been proven to assist and support the growth and development of healthy, wholistic practitioners. It takes deep dedication to cultivate this lifestyle.

19. Discuss the importance of Seva in Kundalini Yoga. Why is the approach of service better than a doership approach?

Selfless Service is about being able to offer your very best to anyone. It needs to be effortless, viewed as an honor to offer of yourself to someone without attachment to doership or outcome. Seva is not about me; it is about WE! How can I help? You don’t walk into Seva with an agenda.

20. You say that love is the common denominator. How does that apply to Oneness with Mother Gaia? How does Kundalini Yoga help to act with awareness and environmental vigilance and help us move toward being One World?

KY changes your view on Sustainability. One must study the facts to know how we can become better stewards of the land, and Mother Gaia is our greatest teacher. When we need to make decisions for the land, it is not easy to agree without seeing the bigger picture. There needs to be an understanding that our planet is being destroyed by our participation in behaviors that are destructive to the planet because it affords convenience. The least amount of effort is not always necessarily the best answer for ourselves or the planet. When we approach the planet and all living beings as One, one fabric of creation comprised of the same stardust that is destined to return to the cosmos, we can better make choices with compassion and love for the whole. When we stop viewing things as “Other” than ourselves but as an integral part of who and what we are, we make better informed decisions.

For example, through recent scientific discovery, we have learned that a mushroom visually seen on a forest floor is not an individual entity but a part of a vast network of mycelium that composes what’s called a “mycorrhizal network,” which connects individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals. German forester Peter Wohlleben dubbed this network the “woodwide web,” as it is through the mycelium that trees “communicate” (Britt Holewinski, “Underground Networking: The Amazing Connections Beneath Your Feet“. How different we see a little mushroom when given the context of its larger role in the woodwide web of creation!

21. Why is it important to have a teacher? How did you meet your teacher? How did you find yourself called to be a Kundalini Yoga teacher?

My first experience with a specific teacher led me to my dream state on how this teacher was going to serve me and my children. Saying yes to an invitation to a yoga class brought me in front of this teacher. Later in our new relationship, she told me it was my destiny to become a teacher, and I believed her messaging.

Having a teacher, as we already touched upon, lends itself to knowing that we are not alone. To see that others, throughout time and history, have experienced and lived these lives of Yogic practice, to remember who we are and thrive in the face of adversity as well as jubilation. These teachers provide the tools and practices that bring forth awakening, shining the light on the pathways back to the soul. The trails have been blazed. We just need to follow the light they shine. We learn from their mastery. It naturally brings belief and confidence in the path ahead, that you can step on it and the same experience can be had.

These teachers also are the conveyers of the energy disseminated through the various Yogic lineages, which naturally support, enliven and encourage the Kundalini to work in our lives. The personality of a Teacher is very different than the purpose of a Teacher.

22. Why did you found Light on Light Publications and Media with Dr. Kurt Johnson?

It was our shared dharma, just as we share in the publication of this book. We continue to support all efforts to raise the vibration of this planet and the awakening of all beings. Wewelcome all walks of life into our conversation as One. We walk together with many others on their paths up the same mountain to collective awakening. Each story, each outreach, each connection, offered to the world in an experiential way, is an opportunity for more people to recognize these experiences in their own lives, share their stories, and participate as we upshift this world as One to a new paradigm.

23. Talk about the importance of your work with the UN International Day of Yoga Committee. How important is it for all beings to unite in our awakening work?

Uniting all beings is how all YOGA works. It literally means “union.” We have to unite and welcome change and release our patterns of blame, globally. WE have to love more deeply and honor everyone. We have to upshift to a new paradigm that collectively considers all beings and the planet as one entity, and to treat all parts of the whole with respect and dignity. Anything less is ego. Be the LIGHT!

The UN, being an international organization focused on global peace, is at the forefront of establishing a new paradigm and supporting the people and organizations that will bring about this change. The UN International Day of Yoga Committee is one of the highest advocates of global unity and provides space for all people to find and utilize their gifts. They spotlight all instances of love and unity within the Yogic community and work in great partnership to promote diversity and to offer those who may not otherwise have the forum to have a voice that is heard around the world. Here at Light on Light, we consider this partnership, with gratitude, to be a vital partner in our awakening work.