No rhyme or reason

This Sunday evening is the chanting and Gong bath. I love it! Mantra has been my favourite part of Kundalini Yoga ever since I discovered that focusing on a mantra could bring a state of bliss whilst holding a definitely not blissful pose for far too long. I promise on Sunday no horrible poses though - just the bliss :-)

Mantra has become a bit of an unexpected obsession for me. It would take me ages to learn them, months for the longer ones. I would listen to them on a loop. It reminded me of being a teenager with a favourite song, driving my family crazy playing it over and over. And still I couldn't remember all the words! I would think that I had got it and then I would lose it again! Then a sudden shift from nowhere and the words would appear just like magic. The beauty of the subconscious.

Chanting is a significant and mysterious practice. It is the highest nectar, a tonic that fully nourishes our inner being. Chanting opens the heart and makes love flow within us. It releases such intoxicating inner bliss and enthusiastic splendor, that simply through the nectar it generates, we can enter the abode of the Self.

― Swami Muktananda

I still don't really understand why, given that it was such a struggle to learn them that I decided to try to learn the JapJi, the twenty minute prayer from the first Guru, Nanak, of the Sikh tradition. I'm not even a Sikh.

I came across the JapJi during my teacher training when we would recite it at 5am as part of our Sadhana (early morning practice). And the translated words spoke of the nature of reality, the universe and existence that I have been fascinated by since discovering meditation. The power of mindfulness, the power of belief and consciousness, how we each experience our own reality. The illusion of the separate self, the ego. And it spoke of other mysteries that I didn't comprehend which piqued my interest. 

And I loved it because the only command in this twenty minute prayer is "Jap" - Meditate.

And now, after three years of trying to learn it on and off, I know it. Not that I get it right every time, but I know when I get it wrong. So I am sharing this recording with you and I am not even sure why.

But I think sometimes doing something which makes no sense at all rationally (in terms of the drives and the values of our culture) is precisely what is called for. Like something in our being, in the heart, longs to do something that makes no sense to the mind.  I wonder what that thing is for you?

And when I focus on saying the words, feeling them, listening to them it brings a state of deep peace and happiness. 

So here it is, the Japji. May it bless you as it has blessed me.

.“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

― Franz Kafka