by SS Hargopal Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, California
2025 (First Quarter)
Challenges in life? These days (and maybe always), there are so many opportunities to grow! Here are some of my practices that may help sail through the rough seas.
Dropping attachments has been vital for my growth. My daily practice is to surrender my attachment to any person, any situation, any thought, anything. In fact, I give the writing of this article to God and Guru. Ego and agendas are no longer involved. Then it is about what will serve. It took practice for this approach to be effective. When I haven’t fully let go, there’s a stickiness. For me that can mean reciting a second Japji Sahib, another meditation, bowing before the Guru—i.e. something more.
When it feels like things are beyond me, when my practice isn’t working, it’s bowing before the Guru—and remaining bowed—merging my arc line with the Guru’s arc line. It sometimes takes a while for my nuttiness to dissolve, for my consciousness to shift. There’s a lightness of being when the shift happens. Goodbye neurosis, attachment, fear, neediness.
When I recognize that I am judging, opinionated, negative, there is a query system Byron Katie has developed that helps drop those thoughts and beliefs. Is the thought true? How do I react when I believe it? (Usually not so good) Who would I be without it? (it can be very freeing). And then turning around the thought. She describes her approach on her website: thework.com
Another way to approach unwelcome thoughts is to use a mantra to cut through them. My favorite mantra for this is Wahe Guru Wahe Guru Wahe Guru Wahe Jio. After having repeated it a zillion times, it’s my go-to mantra. Finding a mantra that resonates with you is key. There seems to be a rhythm to chanting that makes it particularly effective. Chanting it aloud or mentally works.
Looking into being reactive, at a deep level, is to identify what is triggering it. When my forearms are tense, that often means I’m trying to control things. Behind that is fear. Sat Nam Rasayan is one way to release the trigger, the fear. Even without SNR, if a person or situation is triggering, for me, it’s reminding myself that the infinite didn’t make a mistake! This is reality. Arguing with reality is not a winning strategy. Then it’s tuning into how the universe might utilize the person or situation as a learning tool, as a path to change, as a push to grow, expanding my awareness and compassion, and so on. This reframes my outlook and changes my experience.
In Sat Nam Rasayan and Kundalini Yoga we learn to move the consciousness. When I am stuck in my head, moving to my heart chakra changes my experience of and relationship to reality. Practicing meditations that move the consciousness to different chakras was helpful in learning this. Then, when I recognize that I don’t like where I am, it’s shifting my mental state, my perspective. For a really significant shift in consciousness, Kumbhak Japa (retaining the breath after inhaling or holding the breath out after exhaling) takes you beyond time and space.
In addition to these approaches that reduce the ego’s involvement, there are meditations that can lead to shuniya. An exercise is to relate to the space between thoughts. Or relating to the space between atoms can give a sense of vast nothingness. From a macro perspective, relate to the space between the stars, to the universe–the vast vacuum of space. Another approach is to relate to what it feels like to be thinking. And then, turning on a dime, relate to no thoughts. It works!
For shuniya, it can also help to have a touchstone. When you experience shuniya, anchor it in with a touchstone that will serve as a reminder of being there. It could be a feeling, visuals you have when in shuniya, a sound. It can be fleeting when first in shuniya. Being “there” more and more stabilizes it, and makes it easier to remain in that empty space. Some Buddhist books hold the vibration of shuniya. Without even reading the book, just tuning in to it, it’s possible to experience it.
These are some of my practices. Of course, sadhana is the foundation. You already know that.
Wahe Guru!
Infinite blessings,
Hargopal Kaur
Photo Credit: Guru_Granth_Sahib-Flickr-Creative-Commons-J.-Singh-e1652128472580
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SS Hargopal Kaur studied Physics to make sense of what is. That questioning mind led her to Kundalini Yoga and the wisdom of Yogi Bhajan’s teachings. There was a recognition and an actual experience that “what is” is all interconnected—traveling from theory to knowing. The next step was Sat Nam Rasayan, taught by BabaJi Guru Dev Singh. The universe then pointed Hargopal in the direction of family constellations, developed by Bert Hellinger, a systemic approach to healing trauma and injustice, even when it started in earlier generations. With opportunities to teach and provide private healing sessions, Hargopal continues her journey, opening to what was, what is, and what will be.
