The Bija Mantras, the Chakras and Enlightenment

I recently returned from a week-long training with my teacher, Margot Anand, called, From Sex to Super Consciousness. The workshop involved a series of powerful activations to help us awaken and embody conscious awareness. The process involves working with a variety of sacred mantras.

My familiarity with the Bija Mantras associated with the Chakras was very helpful for this advanced work. I encourage you to try this practice as a way to begin increasing your awareness and empowering your chakras.

Bija Mantra Chakra Clearing and Activation Practice

The Bija Mantras are powerful seed-sounds that emanate directly from Source.
Using these sounds remove blocks and activates the Chakras. Activating these energy centers allows ecstatic energy to flow into every part of your body and being. The flow of ecstatic energy enhances every aspect of your life- sexual, energetic and spiritual. I encourage you to try this practice as a way to begin increasing your awareness and empowering your chakras.

Begin by creating a quiet, beautiful space where you will not be disturbed. Remember to turn off all phones. Read over the entire practice before you begin. This practice is ideally done with a partner. It takes about one hour. It can be modified and done as a solo practice as well.


The Heart Salutation

You begin by acknowledging the Divine in each other with a Heart Salutation. Sit across from your partner and look into their eyes. Extend your arms towards the earth, palms together. Then, inhale and keeping your hands in prayer position, bring them to your heart. Exhale as you bow forward and acknowledge the Divine in each other with the Sanskrit salutation “Namaste.” Namaste means, "I honor the Divine in you as a reflection of the Divine in me." Inhale as you straighten back up. Finally, exhale as you allow your hands to return to the starting position, pointed toward the earth.

The Bubble

Now, you and your partner create a bubble around yourselves. Do this by waving your arms around you as you both define the shape of the bubble that surrounds you. Then, gesture as if removing an object from your bubble and verbally share what things you are removing. These are things that won't serve you in this practice (the past, distractions, anger, worry, etc.) Next, gesture as if bringing things into your bubble. These are things that will support the practice (love, willingness, presence, trust etc.) Creating the bubble helps to call you into present moment awareness and creates a safe space in which to practice.

Share Your Desires, Fears and Boundaries

Once the bubble is created, share your intentions/desires, fears and boundaries related to this practice. First, one person speaks while the other person listens without judgment or commentary. Then, you switch roles. Here is an example:
“There is a desire to stay present, open and clear any blocked energy.”
“There is a fear is that I won't remember which mantra to say."
“There is a boundary is that when you tone into my root, I'd like you to be a few inches away from my body. For the rest, it is ok to touch my body with your hands.”

Why boundaries? Boundaries are not walls, they are bridges. Intimacy happens when people have healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries allow you to feel safe, stay open and be present. Boundaries are dynamic, so it is important to check-in periodically with yourself to see if your boundaries have changed. If they have changed, update your partner so they can honor your new boundaries. Here are a few examples: “I need to end this practice by noon.” “I wanted to be touched gently during this meditation.” “If something isn't working for me, I will let you know.”

Bija Mantra Chakra Clearing and Activation

This practice is done with a partner or can be modified and done alone. One person will receive and the other will give. The receiver lies on the floor on a sarong or blanket, on a massage table or on the bed. The giver is positioned next to the receiver. The giver will be toning the Bija Mantra associated with each chakra into their partner's chakra center. As you tone into their chakra, you want to create a tube with your hands. Place your lips up against the opening of the tube you've created and make a seal. You will place the other end of the tube either against your partner's body or a few inches away (depending on your partner's boundaries.) As you tone through the tube, it allows the mantra to travel deeply into the body, clearing and activating the chakra. Practice a few times until you feel comfortable with the process.

How to Tone the Bija Mantras
The Bija Mantras are sacred sounds that resonate with each chakra. "Bija" means "seed." Each Bija Mantra is a specific sound that activates, clears and amplifies its particular chakra.

The first 5 seed sounds rhyme with the word "mom" :
1-"LAM" (Root Chakra)
2-"VAM" (Belly Chakra)
3-"RAM" (Solar Plexus Chakra)
4-"YAM" (Heart Chakra)
5-"HAM" (Throat Chakra)

The 6th seed sound rhymes with the word "home" :
6-"OM" (Third Eye Chakra)
7-Silence (Crown Chakra)

One way to remember the order of the Bija Mantras is with the acronym LoVeR You Have Orgasms.

The order in which we do the practice is different for men and women. With a man, you begin at the root and move up to the crown because masculine energy is associated with the sky, consciousness, and emptiness. With a woman, you begin at the crown and move down to the root, because feminine energy is associated with Earth, life and embodied bliss.

If you are doing this practice alone, place your hand over the appropriate area and say the mantra. As you tone, send the energy into each chakra with your hand and intention.

Choose who will give and receive first. I recommend toning into each chakra 3 times. After each chakra, wait 1-2 minutes for the receiver the fully integrate each sound. After completing all 7 chakras put on some meditative music and sit or lie with the receiver, allowing them time to integrate this experience. Finally, take a few minutes to communicate your experience with each other. If you've agreed, then switch roles.

Be sure to remember the toning sequence for men and women is reversed (men: root to crown; women: crown to root.) :
Men
1-LAM
2-VAM
3-RAM
4-YAM
5-HAM
6-OM
7-Silent

Women
7-Silent
6-OM
5-HAM
4-YAM
3-RAM
2-VAM
1-LAM

I recently discovered this CD of sounds that vibrate at the frequency of the Bija Mantras. http://www.voicesync.org/BijaMantra.htm

This practice allows you to clear and activate your energy and feel more aliveness in your body. It also clears the mind and allows you to expand your awareness of subtle energy and experience Emptiness.

Copyright 2010 by Crystal Dawn Morris

If you'd like to learn more about Tantra and Crystal's events, sign-up for her free monthly newsletter at: http://www.TantraforAwakening.com

Crystal Dawn Morris is a Certified Sky Dancing Tantra Teacher and the foundehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr of Tantra for Awakening. She is committed to creating a more conscious and compassionate world. She offers Tantra workshops, Tantra coaching and healing sessions. She also creates retreats for couples and individuals to awake passion in their lives and relationships. She teaches a 9-month Tantra teacher certification program called The Art and Business of Teaching Tantra. She lives in Sedona, AZ where she practices yoga, writes and enjoys life. She loves to travel and is open to teaching and coaching in your community.

Tantra & Conscious Relating Symposium with Margot Anand in Bali

ISTA's Tantra & Conscious Relating Symposium Bali 2012 06 Apr 2012 - 07 Apr 2

ISTA's Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Training for Practitioners
East Bali - 09 Apr 2012 - 15 Apr 2012
Learn more

Spiritual...Sexual....Shamanic ...each of these three areas
alone carry enormous charge and potential for liberation
as well as shadow and misuse of power. Together, integrated
we begin to see what it means to be awake, empowered and
in service as love in the world.

Margot Anand, Deborah Taj Anapol, Baba Dez Nichols, Crystal Dawn Morris and Robert Silber.

A Blissful Weekend in Sedona Learning Sky Dancing Tantra from Crystal Dawn

No one wanted to leave the workshop yesterday when the Awakening the Ecstatic Body, weekend came to a close. Participants from as far away as Ohio, gathered on Saturday morning to learn about Sky Dancing Tantra. The Opening the Path to Bliss weekend is the first of 3 Awakening the Ecstatic Body workshops. The can be taken as a series or individually. The Opening the Path to Bliss weekend is focused on energizing the chakras, opening the heart and learning healthy communication skills. Through active meditations, dyadic practices, and group processes magic was created. In only 2 days the group formed a deep bond of trust and connection. One participant said,"THANK YOU for the most amazing weekend! WOW is all I can say at this moment."

"I love teaching this body of wisdom because it is so empowering and transformational!" Says, Crystal Dawn Morris, a Certified Sky Dancing Tantra Teacher and the founder of Tantra for Awakening. She developed and teaches the Awakening the Ecstatic Body workshops. Sky Dancing Tantra was developed by my Teacher Margot Anand. I have had the good fortune to study with her, assist her workshops and become certified by her.

Margot Anand and Crystal Dawn at Harbin Hot Springs, Nov 2007

Tantra Tip of the Day- Love, Sex, & Enlightment

This article is reprinted from Margot Anand's Website. http://www.margotanand.com/margot_articles_love-sex-enlightenment.html

Love, Sex, & Enlightment

Many people mistakenly believe that Tantra is a spiritual bastardization of sexual therapy, an excuse to indulge in sexual games or orgies, an addiction to hours of sexual orgasms. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Tantric path teaches us to embrace and unify the ordinary, the erotic, and the sacred dimensions of life, all of which have their roots in Spirit.

The beauty and wisdom of Tantra is that it enhances sexuality as a doorway to the "ecstatic mind of great bliss". Truly, at the peak of orgasm, we pierce through the illusion of fragmentation and separation, and glimpse the unity and interconnectedness of all beings. And through the other--our partner--we fall in love with life.

Because sex holds this great potential for opening our being to the experience of ecstasy, Tantra has for millennia taught the cultivation of sexual love as an art, as a skillful spiritual practice. Then, as now, Tantra challenges the belief promoted by most spiritual and religious paths that we must suppress or transcend out sexuality to practice meditation or awaken our Spirit.

Tantra arose in rebellion against the repressive orthodoxy of the Hindu priesthood, the Brahmins – especially against the idea that one had to be celibate to gain enlightenment. Tantra acknowledges that sex is at the root of life and that to make human sexuality and erotic union a form or worship and meditation is to practice reverence for life, leading us directly through the pleasure of the sense to spiritual liberation.

Cultivate Ecstasy
As a therapist, I knew that the process of healing emotional wounds by focusing on the past to find their source was limited. Although it can bring about healing, it all too often promotes a fascination with the problematic. Furthermore, when we focus obsessively on our problems and pains, the ecstatic potential in most of life's moments goes unrecognized and unacknowledged, and our lives are emptied of a sacred and joyous dimension. Life appears problematic rather than ecstatic, more a puzzle to be solved than a pleasure to be cultivated.

I realized that existential or psychological pain was actually the absence of ecstasy. It was the outcome of being cut off from the source of one's being, the source of life. On the other hand, cultivating ecstatic states of consciousness and learning how to integrate them into our lives can have profoundly healing effects. I have come to believe that our suffering has its roots in the loss of ecstasy and that reclaiming our natural ecstasy holds the key to our healing and our liberation.

SkyDancing
Over the years, all that I had discovered coalesced within me into a new shape and meaning. I called the body of knowledge and the ritual practices I had developed over many years "SkyDancing Tantra: The Path to Bliss". This path came to me as a revelation rather than a tradition. Yet the path of the SkyDancer is indeed one that goes back to eighth-century Tibet, when Yeshe Sogyel, the consort of Buddha Padma Sambhava, was called the "SkyDancer". Together they developed Tantric Buddhism.

Originally, the SkyDancers were wild, free ecstatic "dakinis", also called feminine buddhas or female awakeners. The word dakini means "woman who dances in space" or "woman who revels in the freedom of emptiness". SkyDancers were, and are, women of passion who were profoundly devoted to spiritual awakening. The path of the SkyDancer is a path of spiritual partnership that teaches the complete reciprocity of male and female practitioners as they learn the art of integrating ecstatic states and ecstatic practices in their daily life. It reintroduces in our world the understanding that to heal the world, we need to rediscover and respect the fact that women can be and are awakeners and initiators and enlightened teachers.

SkyDancing Tantra is a unique path that weaves together traditional Tantric, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist teaching with my studies in humanistic and transpersonal psychology, bodywork therapies, sexology, yoga, music, and metaphysics.


All of this works with human energy systems through the use of light, music, movement, visualization, and particularly (and primarily) the energy map of the chakras. The tantric
chakra system offers a perfect map for the transformation of energy and consciousness, from raw lust to love, a visionary power, and finally to awakening.

SkyDancing Tantra teaches us that when we learn to approach life with a relaxed body, an open heart, and a peaceful mind, we can access ecstatic states and learn to weave them into the daily fabric of our lives.

Sacredness of Sex
It is crucial to understand the sacred dimensions of sex. Sex lies at the root of life, and we can only learn reverence for life when we learn reverence for sex. People in this culture need training in the art of love. They need to understand that sexuality is a very natural instinct, and there is nothing wrong with it. The damage to human society caused by the condemnation of sex is incalculable. Instead of celebrating sex as the creative force it is, we have turned sex into a furtive, guilt-ridden affair. This has misguided and influenced our entire world view. There is a tremendous effort being made to heal the planet, save the rain forests and to bring peace to warring ethnic and religious factions and yet how can any of this happen when the very source of human love is poisoned?

There is a powerfully creative force associated with our sexuality. It is possible for each of us to become a magician and use that force to heal our life and transform our vision--to realize our dreams. We have all sorts of programming blocking the flow of our sexual power. We need to be open to be able to face those demons, to look at the shadow with all honesty, knowing that truth is erotic. The more you can share your truth, the deeper and the more erotic it will become in the long run.

©Margot Anand. All rights reserved.
Vist Margot Anand's website to:http://www.margotanand.com/index.html

The Tantra Tip of the Day- Inner Man and Inner Woman

Understanding masculine and feminine energy is primary to creating healthy relationship of all kinds. If the world is going to heal and come into balance this knowledge is primary. Bringing your inner man and inner woman into conscious awareness is the first step.

Try this: lay down in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for the next hour. Call forth your inner women and notice how she looks. What is her age, build, coloring, clothing, style of speech etc…? What gifts does she have to offer? How has she been active in your life up to now? Spend sometime getting to know her. Thank her for showing up. Then take a short break. Make some notes if you like. Then repeat the process and call forth your inner man. Go through the same process. Take a break.

Finally, you can call them both forth at the same time and introduce them to each other if they are not familiar with each other already. Notice how they relate to each other? Are they compatible? Do they like each other? Are they willing to work together? How can they help you have more balance in your life?

You can repeat this process many times. It is possible that they will change forms as you learn and grow from this process. To learn more about this process read The Art of Sexual Ecstasy by Margot Anand page 247-252.

Art by Andrew Gonzalez
(C)Copyright 2009, Crystal Dawn Morris, all rights reserved.
www.TantraForAwakening.com
www.TantraGal.Blogspot.com

The Wave of Bliss

The week of Nov. 10-16, 2008, I had the pleasure of assisting Margot Anand and Jelle Bode at the Love and Ecstatsy Training Level 3: The Wave of Bliss in northern California. Margot creates an amazing container for people to expand their consciousness and move into new experiences. This group was particularly open to taking it to the next level and they did. Our closing ritual took us flying out into the cosmos.

Being a part of a week long workshop with people who have spent a 6 months bonding is a great gift. It gives me hope for the world. By the end of the week there was such a sense of love, trust and connection that no one wanted to leave. I believe if we could expose everyone in the world to this work we could end war.

Thank you to all beings who are on the SkyDancing path may it continue to grow and end all suffering everywhere.