The 21 Stages of Meditation

Editor's Note: Kundalini yoga teacher and writer Dhanpal/Donna Quesada recently attended The 21 Stages of Meditation retreat, taught by Gurucharan Singh.  Here she shares her experience trekking through the terrain of the mind.
When the flight attendant opened the doors, a puff of warm desert air rushed the compact jet, as if to let us know we were now in Albuquerque.

Yoga for Beginners: What is Meditation?

(Editor's Note: The idea of meditation can be intimidating for yoga beginners.  While yoga asanas can be physically challenging, for many people the thought of sitting in meditation can bring  up a lot of concerns.  Sohan Kaur shares some thoughts on meditation for yoga beginners that will encourage you to pull out your meditation cushion and give it a try!)
“It is not meditation that stops the mind. It is the surrender of the mind to the soul, and the soul to Truth. It is when you prefer the word of Truth to the word of your own intellect.”

Yoga for Beginners: Behind Closed Eyes

What do you do when your yoga teacher asks you to close your eyes in class?  For many yoga beginners, closing your eyes is more challenging than it sounds.   But closing your eyes in your yoga practice can bring about a huge change in your consciousness fairly quickly.  In a beginner’s yoga class, you’ll often hear the teacher say, “Close your eyes and open your mind”. But what’s really going on here?

Snatam Kaur on Letting Go

Sat Nam. Recently a dear friend of mine, Dharm Singh of Espanola, told a story about a conversation he had with Yogi Bhajan many years back.
"Dharam Singh, you have two choices. You can either control everything, or control nothing."
As Dharam shared with us, he gave this statement some serious thought. Could he control everything? He started going through the list of things that he would like to control, that he wanted to control, and then realized at some point in the cascading of thoughts that passed through his mind in a matter of seconds that he could not control everything. So therefore, he decided from that point on to live life in the reality that he could control nothing.

Human BEings, not Human DOings

Yogi Bhajan used to say, “We’re human Beings, not human Doings.”  How many of us take time out of our busy days to actually BE?  Even those of us who are committed to a yoga practice often let life pass in a blur.  We wake up in the morning, reach for our cup of coffee, rush around to get the kids ready for school, walk the dog, get ourselves ready for work, and so on.  Our awakening hours pass in a flash, and we repeat the routine day after day.  As the day goes on, we’re so busy running from one activity to the next that we barely have time to stop and take a breath.   More often than not, our focus is on BECOMING or HAVING, not on BEING.

GuruPrem Singh: The Story Behind the Songs

Beads of Truth Magazine interviewed GuruPrem Singh to get the story behind the songs that have emerged. Date: March 24, 1990
Under the direct guidance of the Siri Singh Sahib/Yogi Bhajan, Guru Prem Singh Khalsa(Posture Master) of Los Angeles has produced over 30 songs featuring the voice of SS Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa and other artists. After a 10 year hiatus from making music, where he wrote 3 books, Divine Alignment, The Heart Rules and Everyday Devotion: The Heart of Being, GuruPrem came back with a new sound, himself singing and often featuring his wife of 22 years, Simran Kaur Khalsa, they have recently released: The Heart Rules, Suite: Kirtan Soheila and the newest, Heal Me.

All About Kundalini Yoga: The Aquarian Age

(Editor's Note: This series is dedicated to sharing the knowledge contained in "The Aquarian Teacher", the teacher training manual shared by all students of the KRI certified Kundalini yoga teacher training program.  You can discover the wisdom in greater depth by taking the Yoga Teacher Training course.  We recommend the training offered by Golden Bridge Yoga held in Rishikesh, India February 1-23,