A Global Community of Living Yoga

Message from the 3HO Chief Executive Officer

Sat Nam,

Warm greetings to you, your family, friends, and community this New Year. I hope that this month’s 3HO eNewsletter finds you starting 2010 healthy, happy, and holy.

We had a wonderful Winter Solstice Sadhana Celebration with over 550 people from 16 countries. The 3 days of White Tantric Yoga® were challenging and enlightening. I experienced this Tantric course deeply in my physical body to the point at times where it really hurt. I kept up, got past the pain threshold, and was exalted afterwards. I remember someone telling me at some point that pain only lasts for 5 minutes and the trick is to stay in the pain for that 5 minutes because it releases itself after that. I find this to be true, sometimes.

So far this year, I find myself becoming more and more curious about the Aquarian Age and Aquarian Consciousness. What are the prophecies, what is happening with Mother Earth, what is the Aquarian way of living, and how can I best serve the planet, humanity, and myself at this time?

My curiosity has led me to explore books, web sites, and many Yogi Bhajan lectures and Kundalini Yoga manuals. One consistent message that I read is this: it is a time of deep transformation and purification; a cleansing of the old followed by a process of renewal on all levels – planetary, socially, and personally. The changes are significant and can seem destructive: destruction is spoken of as part of the purification process.

So how can we prepare ourselves and be our best as we go through profound changes now and the many more unknown changes that are to come? Below are some simple beginning things we can do:

• Reduce your carbon footprint: follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, use fewer resources, recycle, and be conscious and responsible for your effect on the planet.
• Vote with your dollars. Let the corporations know what you want and what you will support. Buy energy efficient products, choose organic produce, and purchase products that are cruelty-free.
• Create a community or become closer with ones that you are connected to. Community can provide us with the additional support we need when we need it, and gives us the opportunity to serve others with the skills and knowledge we each have.
• Clean up your lifestyle for improved health. Difficult times require all our faculties, and health is key.
• Keep up with your daily sadhana so that you can live each day from your authentic self, with tools of awareness and confidence in who you are and what you are here to do at this time.
• Choose your thoughts wisely. What you think returns as fast as you think it. Use your mind to manifest positive conditions for the planet, humanity, and yourself.

It’s not a coincidence that we are here on this planet at this specific time and that our lives have led us to this yoga. Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® is a significant tool in preparedness and steadiness for the Aquarian Age. Kundalini Yoga enables us to connect with our inner wisdom, our authentic self—it gives us vitality and the ability to process information faster. Yogi Bhajan provided us with this technology as a way to live during this time of the Aquarian Age. This practice gives us the opportunity to take care of ourselves, and the consciousness to serve our planet and each other.

We are here to serve and love every day; to recognize the state of the world and act to make a positive contribution; to recognize that our perceived reality is a reflection of our own inner beliefs; and to use the power of our minds to create the reality we want, the change we want to manifest. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi.

Here’s to a bright and blissful future that we are manifesting together.


In partnership,
Bhajan Kaur
3HO Foundation

What's New

The Fire Tattva: 2010 Global Meditation

Beginning in 2008, we entered a 5-year sequence, featuring the tattvas so that we could balance them as we entered the Aquarian Age together. This year we are exploring the Fire Tattva. The Fire Kriya shown below creates tapa (internal “heat”) which purifies so that your energy is clear, your body fit, and your eyes bright. In the spring of 1978, Yogi Bhajan said that the Fire Kriya, “is a powerful, absolutely sacred, secret meditation. It will take you as far as you take it.”

Click here to read more about the Fire Tattva.

Click here for the Fire Kriya.
(available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish).

Click here to download the Fire Mantra for a $5.00 fee.

Produced and Engineered by Ram Dass Khalsa, Narayan Khalsa and Simrit Kaur
Writen by Simrit Kaur, Ram Dass Khalsa
Arranged by Simrit Kaur, Ram Dass Khalsa, Narayan Khalsa
Vocals: Simrit Kaur, Jai Dev Singh
Percussion: Ramesh Kannan
Keyboards: Ram Dass Khalsa
Mastered at Epiphany Studios by Ram Dass Khalsa and Narayan Khalsa

2010 Numerology Forecast

By Nam Hari Kaur Khalsa
California, USA

The calendar year of 2010 shifts the psyche of humanity into a proactive rhythm of accomplishment and regeneration. We have just come through a catharsis of cleansing, completion, and clearing of all that cannot be maintained in the Aquarian Age. 2009 was the cosmic rotor-rooter of this process. With the initiative spirit of number 10 we now have the wind in our sails to move forward in new directions.

Ten represents enthusiasm, vigor, and a willingness to fight for what is right. Emotionally it is the dynamic of “All or Nothing!” so pacing yourself is important—you may feel overwhelmed by the increasing pressure of the times. You get to pick your own theme song this year, and you have two top choices: the Queen/David Bowie rock n' roll duet “Under Pressure,” and the option to sing along with “Hero” by Mariah Carey. Ten is the archetype of the hero or warrior, so choose your battles wisely—some people will be in a fighting mood. Considering the overall number of the year can save the day. Three (2+0+1+0=3) represents creativity and nurturing, as well as an aspect of the thinking process called the “Positive Mind.” If there was a motto for the Positive Mind it would be, “There are no problems, only solutions.” Three is also social energy. Use your creativity in cooperation with others. We all need each other, and as Yogi Bhajan has said, referring to this transition period, “Don’t isolate and insulate yourself.”

Click here to read more.

United Nations International Women's Day, March 8, 2010

May I be the master of myself and my own grace. May my dignity, my divinity, and my surroundings support me forever. May God Almighty, through all His love and affection, make me be what He has made me to be, all I wish to be, and want to be, and am: Woman in grace and grace in a woman.

-Yogi Bhajan

The UN celebrates International Women's Day to recognize that securing peace and social progress, and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, require the active participation, equality, and development of women. International Women’s Day is also a way to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security. For the women of the world, it is also an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace, and development, and an opportunity to unite, network, and mobilize together for meaningful change.

Yogi Bhajan spent many years focusing his energy on serving women so that they could regain their birthright of grace and strength. Summer after summer, women of the 3HO Global Community gathered in New Mexico to have the wonderful opportunity to renew themselves and experience their excellence. They grew from "chicks to eagles." They grew in their empowered collective spirit. When they returned to their homes they brought new clarity and joy to their families and communities. Join 3HO in collaboration with the UN's International Women's Day, as we continue to practice and share these sacred teachings dedicated to all women.

Global Meditation

I Am the Grace of God (Generator, Organizer, and Destroyer or Deliverer)

Men can do this meditation too, by saying, "I am in the Grace of God"

Suggested Service Projects

• Women serving food together
• Teaching and/or serving in a women's shelter
• Teaching and/or serving in jails
• Teaching and/or serving in youth centers
• Teaching and/or serving in schools
• Collaborating with local organizations that are serving women
• Serve an organization that is serving women
• Share this curriculum and give proceeds to a women’s organization

3HO IKYTA Women's Class Curriculum for IKYTA Members including sound and video clips (Visit the Members Only page)

To learn more about Yogi Bhajan's teachings on women, join your sisters at this year’s International Women’s Camp and look for the Women's teachings class track at Summer Solstice Sadhana

Happy 41st Anniversary 3HO!

By Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa, Mother of 3HO

For about 41 years we've been celebrating the “birth” of 3HO on January 5, 1969. To recap: It was on that January Sunday in Los Angeles, at the East West Cultural Center, that Yogi Bhajan spoke publicly for the first time in the United States about his vision of a “3HO,” and made his historic comment that it is everybody’s right to be healthy, happy, and holy. He explained that Kundalini Yoga was the tool, the method to use to ensure that everyone can claim that birthright.

He didn’t relate to 3HO being a Corporation; he was more interested in 3HO becoming a family -- made up of people who practice and teach the 3HO way of life, and live FOR each other, not just with and certainly not “at” each other.

Click here to read more.

From 3HO IKYTA

“A Teacher is an institution for help, for service, for raising people's consciousness, and granting them the Heavens.”

The 3HO International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association (IKYTA) is the Standard of Excellence for Teachers of Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan®. For more than 15 years, IKYTA has provided a forum for Teachers to connect, serve, and grow together. Over 2,000 Kundalini Yoga Teachers are enjoying the value and benefits of membership.

Join your fellow Kundalini Yoga Teachers!

Join IKYTA or renew your membership for 2010 at KundaliniYoga.com or call us at 505.629.1708 or 1.888.346.2420 (in the USA).

Join us for the next Community Conversation

Deep Listening: An Experiential Event for IKYTA Members led by Siri-Gian Kaur
Thursday, February 18, 2010, 6:00pm

Learn to listen to your Soul. Your Soul is really cozy, not aloof, and It is always right there for you. We will do this together, and then share what our Souls tell us. You will be Deeply Listening. “Deeply listening, sorrows and errors depart!” from Japji Sahib

Powerfully use your ability to Deeply Listen so you can:

• Immediately switch to hearing the Voice of your Self, for impeccable solutions to every situation
• Clearly discern your intuitive Voice from the unreliable ego/emotional voices that trip you up
• Learn to constantly experience that same state of secure knowingness that you get after deep meditation
• Move beyond old habits of pain and confusion to experience freedom and happiness

This event is free for current IKYTA members. To become an IKYTA member, click here) To register, email 3HOIKYTA@Gmail.com.

Siri-Gian Kaur

Yogi Bhajan identified Siri-Gian Kaur as an intuitive, and commenting on her work, he said: “You are fantastic!” She offers effective intuitive healing by phone and in person, teaches life-changing workshops in person, and gives free intuited Tele-Talks each Wednesday. For more information visit SoulAnswer.com.

Mega Multiply Yourself

Make a donation to Gurudakshina today. Your tax deductible donation is used to advertise Kundalini Yoga in Yoga Journal and support the Library of Teachings project. Donate online at KundaliniYoga.com or mail a check to Gurudakshina, 6 Narayan Ct, Española, NM 87532.

“Gurudakshina is an honest investment of clarity, a graceful link which teachers need to value to keep out of maya.”

Kundalini Chronicles: Marry Yourself

By Sat Kirtan Kaur, Amsterdam, Holland

In 2002 I had everything a girl could want-money, a beautiful house, a good job, a nice partner. But I was not happy.

After all, throughout my life everything had just come easily to me. I pretended to be happy, but I knew something was missing. I discovered I was missing myself in my life. I didn’t feel I was really part of my life, I just lived it. I didn’t pay attention to the pain in my arms from working on the computer. I went to the physical therapist and he worked on me, and I felt better for a little while. But he could not take away my inner pain, my inner sadness. I knew that if I wanted to be happy, I had to change some things in my life.

Click here to read more.

Eco-3HO

Our Sustainable Future
By Joshua Sandstrom, Oregon, USA

Fair Trade

It’s nice to go to the store and find affordable clothing, shoes, housewares, and all the other things our modern life enjoys. In fact it has become so convenient to go to the local department store and purchase a lovely variety of consumer products that we rarely stop to think much about where these goods come from, or why they are so inexpensive.

Unfortunately, those deep discounts and low prices are usually a result of the producers having been paid less, rather than lower margins at the retail level. For example, the typical imported tropical fruit is picked before it is ripe, treated with preservatives, then rushed to a market near you, ripening along the way. The farmer who grew it is in stiff competition with his neighbors to sell his crop, and the only buyers are usually large corporations staging price wars and driving down the prices before they buy. Even our friendly Whole Foods store is known for creating price wars over crops in order to buy at lower prices and then sell at a premium to you. Luckily there is a growing movement among small-scale producers and buyers starting to infiltrate such ‘business as usual’ practices.

Click here to read more.

SEVAlicious

Let Go of the Ego and Step into Service
By Darshan F. Jessop, New Mexico, USA

“Everybody can’t serve every part of everybody. I can serve some parts, someone else can serve some parts, and it’s all seva. That is love. Love is a very realistic service we render to each other.” ~ Yogi Bhajan

It is a yogic truism that the Universe will always take care of us, if only we will allow it!

Let go of the ego and step into service. We can make a difference every day by acting from a place of authenticity and selflessness. Every moment we can leave our marks in the world by dropping fear and coming from a place of love.

Click here to read more.

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan®

Fire Kriya: 2010 Meditation

View Fire Kriya in:
French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish

Posture: Sit straight in a meditative posture with neck lock.

Eye Focus: Eyes are closed except for small slit to let in some light (99% closed).

Mudra: Reverse Finger Lock—interlace the fingers so that both the fingers and the palms point toward the chest. Keep the fingers as straight as you can; bring the fingers together so that the pads of the fingers are touching. Right index finger on top; left little finger on bottom, the thumb tips touch lightly. The mudra is held with the elbows at natural shoulder level so that the fingers point toward the body, at the level of the throat, above the heart. The shoulders should feel relaxed as you keep the elbows, forearms and hands parallel to the ground.

Mantra: Inhale deeply and chant four times on the breath in a steady tone.

Sat naam sat naam sat naam sat naam sat naam sat naam whaa-hay guroo

Click here to download the Fire Mantra for a $5.00 donation.

Time: 11-31 minutes.

Originally, the practice was given through number of cycles. That is, practice this for 108 breath cycles. You can practice longer if you gradually increase in increments of 27 breaths. You can also start with 27 breaths and perfect the mantra and concentration before progressing to the full 108 cycles. Comments: This kriya's powerful tapas will elevate, purify, and empower you and your victory in excellence.

“It is a powerful, absolutely sacred, secret meditation. It will take you as far as you take it.”

~Yogi Bhajan

Disclaimer

© The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan