Ana Brett & Ravi Singh's May Newsletter

           "Spirit is LIfe / It flows through the death of me / Like a river unafraid
                                  of becoming the ocean."  --Gregory Corso

in this issue:
1. News & Notes, Best Cover Contest, Ana & Ravi's Favorite Things, More!
2.Top 10 Reasons To Commit to a Meditation Practice
3. ***Specials of the Month***
4.Questions of the Month: Sex & Astral Travel, YouTube Gurus, More!
6. Meditation of the Month
NEWS & NOTES

Happy May everyone! Let's take May as a metaphor: the eternal spring of our inner burgeoning!  We'd like to begin this month with a few words about meditation. Meditation truly is mediation, between our minds and our world, between our past propensities and our future possibilities, between bondage to illusion and freedom from fear. It's not always easy to see how practicing a simple focused activity can have all these implications, but it does!

A Yoga Teacher asked a Spiritual Master, "Would you recommend studying the various schools of philosophy?"  "Yes, that would be good, in order to gather preaching material," he said, "But it's more important to meditate as much as possible, so the light of Truth doesn't go out!"

Meditation is a means through which we can stabilize our minds. Most people, have every reason to be happy, but their minds are too unsettled to allow it. To a very large extent, we are the cause of our own suffering. When our minds are settled our souls can shine through. That's when happiness happens!  When we meditate, we are not only increasing our mental acuity, intuition, and creativity, but we're also raising the collective frequency and are making a tangible contribution towards healing the suffering of the world. Of course we still have to get out there and do our part, but when we involve ourselves in a spiritual practice, the merit, grace, blessings, and impact for ourselves and all beings is unimaginable. When we do a spiritual practice our personal demons become our bodyguards!

Meditation can take many forms. You can just sit still and say any random word mentally, over and over again. If done long enough, on a regular basis, it will engender a relaxation response, which will lower your stress, and more. But, as long as we're putting in the time, we might as well get the most out it. The meditations in Kundalini Yoga have been designed to to give us the most powerful benefits on all the levels we are. All of the techniques in Kundalini Yoga have been formulated with people like us in mind. Based on the exigencies of our lives, we want to get the most bang for our buck in our yoga and meditation practice, body, mind, soul, and world!

Please join us for our ongoing 40 day So Darshan Chakra Kriya and Kirtan Kriya practices on the RaviAna Group Page on Facebook.com (see link in Meditation of the Month).

Best Cover Contest!!!

We are publishing a new and improved Matrix Menu option version of our AM/PM Yoga DVD (release date May 20th) featuring updates and more. We have whittled our cover choices down to three and now it's up to you. Please go to the RaviAna Fan Page (see link in Specials of the Month) on Facebook, click on the image of the cover you like best, and place your vote/comment there. For participating, five of you will receive a free copy of the new AM/PM Yoga DVD (even if you didn't pick the winning cover!).

Ana & Ravi's Favorite Things

Check out this new page at www.raviana.com Based on many of your requests, we are listing many of our favorite products, which we use ourselves. Everything from eco-friendly yoga mats, glasses to protect you from computer radiation, raw food books, natural beauty products, and more!

Featured this month: 
Gunnar Optiks Glasses - Protect your eyes from computer glare and radiation
Silk Pillowcases - Prevent hair damage and luxuriate in silky slumber
Symphonic Gong - Hear the music of the spheres and choirs of angels. Sonic healing.
Greens Energy Bars - Healthy, delicious, energy sustaining. Ana's favorite
Heaven Fresh Ionic Air Purifier - Turn your inner airspace into nectar!
Eco Friendly Jade Yoga Mat - Guilt-free non-slippage!
Cri De Couer Vegan Ankle Boots - Compassionate chic
& More!
Top 10 Reasons To Commit to A Meditation Practice

1. Unless we can bring our minds under conscious control, it's hard to stay happy.
2. There is an ocean of untapped potential in us. Meditation can help us access it.
3. It may be that each of us has strived for lifetimes to be in a position where we could even consider the possibilty of a spiritual practice.
4. We want to live in a way in which we create blessings not discord. Meditation is one of the most powerful ways of learning to observe and transform negative emotions in us and around us.
5. It's a big Universe out there. Meditation can help liberate us from bondage to our bodies (and everything that implies).
6. What becomes of us is all about the choices we make, day to day and breath to breath. A meditation practice prepares us for those momentous descisions which everything depends on.
7. When we learn to slow down our personal progress speeds up.
8. We are born into this life to learn, grow, and evolve. We can either regress, kill time, or coalesce in consciousness. Meditation is a key component of this process.
9. When you commit to a spiritual practice, all of your relations, friends, and ancestors receive copious blessings.
10. It doesn't matter how together we think we are, unless we are able to filter subconscious debris, then sooner or later we're going to trip ourselves up. Just as we brush our teeth each day, and take showers everyday, so too do we need to purify our minds, simply as a matter of course.
***SPECIALS OF THE MONTH***

Amazon.com is currently offering our 3 new titles on sale for as low as $12.99 ! All 3 for $41.97!!!:

Yoga for Beginners & Beyond: Stretch, Strengthen, Be Stress Free! - $11.99 - is the best of both worlds:  Kundalini Yoga's dynamic aspect with the focused intensity of Power and Ashtanga Yoga.

Kundalini Yoga Cardio, Stretch, & Strengthen- $12.99 - is also the best of both worlds: an amazing Kundalini Yoga set with its spiritual depth and power, as well as a complete fitness experience: stretching, in-depth ab work, an effective and a fun dance-influenced cardio routine, and more!

Kundalini Yoga for Energy & Super Radiance!- $12.99 -  Live on fire. Shine like the sun! This is a Kundalini Yoga "old school" workout with cutting edge music and more. Features a complete whole body workout including some extended exercises which will test you, and bring out the best in you!  

***

It's still fitness season, the time when many people's thoughts turn to jumpstarting their fitness level for spring. Try Fat Free Yoga, Kundalini Yoga Cardio, Stretch, & Strengthen,along with Kundalini Yoga for Energy & Super Radiance and Warrior Workout to melt away any extra pounds with total fun fitness Kundalini style! All of these (among others) are currently on sale on Amazon.com for as low as 10.99. If you buy more than one title on Amazon.com, you also get free shipping!

Kundalini Yoga for Beginners & Beyond - $11.99 - a Kundalini Yoga 'must have,' for any level. Featuring the essential Rise & Spine set, followed by strength building "5 Tibetans" Kundalini Yoga style!

Fat Free Yoga 
- $11.99 - Four 20 minute sets: Start Your Engines, Burn Baby Burn, No Impact Aerobics, Your Life is In Your Own Glands. Also: 2 meditations and more!

Ultimate Stretch Workout
- $11.99 - best of both worlds combining the great dynamic elements of Kundalini Yoga with deep stretching of Power and Vinyasa

Warrior Workout - $12.99 - A perfect workout for 2009! A non-stop energy feast!

Dance the Chakras Yoga Workout  
- $14.99 - 2 yoga sets and movement work. A perfect balance of flexibility and strength work and fun low impact cardio dance.

Yoga Beauty Body
  - $14.99 -  The "Perfect" Yoga Workout.  Includes the Magnificent Seven. Daily "must," yoga exercises.

Yoga Bliss Hips 
- $15.99 -  Kundalini Yoga for Hip Opening & Mood Mastery

Navel Power  - $14.49  - for a Stomach of Steel & Personal Power

Yoga Quick Fixes 
- $15.99 -  almost 4 hours of workout options. Pre-set workouts plus Quick Fixes for everything from Depression to Headaches.

Yoga Cleanse- $14.49 - Lighten Up & Purify!

A Journey thru the Chakras  
- $14.49 - Climb the Ladder of Lights. A Great Inner/Outer Workout.

Here is the Link to the RaviAna Fan Page to participate in the new Matrix Version  of our AM/PM Yoga DVD Cover Contest.
***QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH***

We want to thank all of you for the insightful questions and comments you send to us. If we don't reply to your question within 3 weeks please resend! It probably means that it was lost or somehow never got to us!

How Does Fat Free Yoga Do What It Does So Well?

Hello Magnificent People! I have been doing your Fat Free Yoga for 3 months and I love it! My skin and eyes are clearer, my digestion has improved ie,I don't feel like my food just sits in my stomach for hours...and I have lost weight!! I have lost 11-12 pounds in 3 months. My body shed it like it was unnecessary baggage. I feel so much more energy now. I actually feel like moving and participating in my life more, which is wonderful for my whole family. There are so many yoga for weightloss and weightloss workouts none of which worked for me. My question is this:  What is it about Kundalini Yoga in general and Fat Free Yoga in particular that makes it work so well. PS I have ordered the Cardio and Warrior Workouts and can't wait to try them!

Thanks for writing. Fat Free Yoga, and all of Kundalini Yoga, approaches issues like weight loss on every level: physical (which includes metabolism, liver, and glands), emotional (addressing all the ways we armor ourselves to keep feelings down), and energetic (when energy is blocked in certain areas of the body we gain weight there) and, of course, spiritual  (when we are truly ourselves, we don't have to compensate in other areas of our lives!).

Kundalini Yoga may seem like just groups of exercises, but these sequences are called Kriyas and they have been perfected over thousands of years to provide the most powerful and elegant means possible to achieve specific goals. The first set in
Fat Free Yoga "Start Your Engines," works on metabolism via the thyroid and other glands, "Fight Fire with Fire,"  works on reducing the abdominal area and stimulating the digestive system as it strengthens our willpower. "No Impact Aerobics," works on the cardiovascular system as well as the major muscle groups. Finally, "Your Life is in Your own Glands," is the defining statement of this DVD. Unless we can bring our glands into balance, successful weight loss will always be elusive. There are also 2 meditations to heal our emotions and for peace of mind.

Many yoga systems feel that adding weights to standard yoga postures will up the ante and cause weight to drop but this is a gym-minded approach and is really a one dimensional attempt to address a multidimensional issue.

Body image and weight loss are a major preoccupation in our culture and it is our hope through 
Fat Free Yoga and our other DVDs that people will be able to find balance in this area and keep growing in spirit.

PS. We recommend the following to maintain weight loss, and continue to make progress in this area,
Warrior Workout, Kundalini Yoga Cardio, Stretch, & Strengthen, Yoga Cleanse, Navel Power, and Kundalini Yoga for Energy & Super Radiance!

Sex & Astral Travel

Good Morning. From your FAQ online you state that "there are specific techniques in Taoist Yoga and some yoga traditions which advocate forced retention of semen. In Kundalini Yoga, it is felt that this approach...is actually a mundane and erroneous interpretation of a more subtle concept."

I would love to hear from you what your interpretation is of this teaching. I have read Samael Aun Weor for a few years now and every time I "fall" and have an orgasm or lose a little bit of semen during the sexual act I feel terrible. I have practiced Kundalini Yoga for about 5 years now and was very happy to ready what your FAQ stated.

Is a book that explains this more in depth, I would love to know what you recommend (for reading). I feel that the shackles were lifted from me when I read what you have on your website however I think I have brainwashed myself to a point where I feel great sadness when doing something natural.

I also am interested in Astral Travel.  is there any literature about Kundalini Yoga and the astral planes? I have failed to find anything about that in one book. Thank you so much for everything you do!!


Thanks for writing.  Kundalini Yoga was specifically formulated by the ancient sages for householders so that people could have the best of both worlds, the joys of sex and conscious relationshiops and ultimate spritual attainment. In fact the two enhance the other. Medical doctors are of the opinion that forced retention of semen can cause prostate problems. Yogi Bhajan agreed with this assessment. Kundalini Yoga is a middle path. It beiieves in not too much and not too little. If one overindulges in sexual activity, or enters into it in the wrong spirit, then it can compromise one's nervous system and drain one's energy. Sex, like food and money, are things in which we have to work to find balance. By God's grace, hopefully one is able to find that balance and capitalize on it by dedicating themselves to a spiritual practice.

The Fertility & Potency segment on
Yoga House Call, the Delete Depression segment on Yoga Quick Fixes, the entire first half of A Journey thru the Chakras, as well as Dance the Chakras Yoga Workout  are all great for transmuting sexual energy into energy you can use for creativity or other areas of focus. If you desire further information on this subject, we recommend the book called Sacred Sexual Bliss by Sat Kaur Khalsa.

Re: astral travel. There is a book by Robert Monroe called Journeys Out of the Body which you may find interesting. Most people relate to astral travel as a form of escape when they probably should be working on being more present, more in their bodies. The best way to learn to astral travel is to practice projecting your subtle body to visit and heal the people in your life who are ill, or are having a hard time.

YouTube Guru

I saw clip on YouTube of a Shaktipat Guru. It was a women who said that the true Kundalini Yoga was to get an energy transmission from a qualified guru, and without a guru's intervention then one shouldn't mess around with Kundalini.  Do I need to be worried? I've stopped doing my Kundalini Yoga DVD's until I hear from you.

The difference between Kundalini Yoga and a "Kundalini Shaktipat Guru," or "Kundalini Maha Yoga," is that in Kundalini Yoga we initiate ourselves into higher consciousness and in those other approaches one has to rely on someone else to transmit energy. There's really no way around doing the necessary work on ourselves, ourselves.  When relying on someone else, one has to accept as an act of faith, that that person is pure in intent and that their attainment is as described. Also, when energy is transmitted through an external source, it will invariably hit blockages in the recipient's nervous system and psyche, and the process is not always a graceful one.

Kundalini Yoga on the other hand is a graceful, systematic process, in which you never access more energy then you can safely accommodate. We are strengthening our nervous systems and balancing our glandular systems to pave the way for the natural flow of energy which amplifies our inner talents and helps us to be a more effective and balanced human beings.

In the tradition of Kundalini Yoga, which we teach, one's Guru is one's Higher Self, the Universe, and the Teachings themselves. Thus, all the murkiness around human foibles doesn't cloud the process. Having the openness and awareness to be able to embrace a practice like Kundalini Yoga represents an amazing opportunity. We encourage you to continue your Kundalini Yoga practice, tune into your heart and soul, and avoid YouTube!!

What's on my mind is how exactly does one empty the mind to meditate and think about nothing?? I really don't think it's possible...I mean how can you possibly think of nothing?? Om doesn't do it for me! 
 
There are many forms of meditation and at different times in our development we will be attracted to certain types of techniques. There will be times in your practice when silent meditation may be very compelling. Initially, we feel that using a mantra mentally, or out loud, is a great way to meditate because asking someone to 'empty the mind,' is not realistic. So, we want to use an elevated thought (a mantra) to help to recycle and redirect our random and stressful thoughts. All mantras in yoga are good because they relate to higher frequencies.

A great initial meditation can be found our our
Yoga for Beginners & Beyond: Stretch, Strengthen, Be Stress Free!. It involves feeling the pulse on the upturned left wrist with the fingers of the right hand. In rhythm with your pulse you're mentally repeating Sat Nam. Yogi Bhajan said that that meditation would make one so calm, inside and outside, that if a person accosted you with the intent to rob you or do you harm, it will have rendered your presence so calming that they would be transformed on the spot!

Another great way to meditate is to chant a mantra.  For those who don't have the temperment to sit still for long periods, it is a great option. Most of our DVD's have mantra chants. 
Kundalini Yoga Cardio, Stretch, & Strengthen  has two of them!  Chanting is an increasingly popular trend. It's a very simple and direct way to elevate oneself.


                                  MEDITATION OF THE MONTH

Please join us for our ongoing 40 day So Darshan Chakra Kriya and Kirtan Kriya practices on the RaviAna group page  on Facebook.com:

There are currently two meditations happening at once: So Darshan Chakra Kriya and Kirtan Kriya.  Kirtan Kriya, also know as Panj Shabd, The Five Primal Sounds uses the mantra Sa-Ta-Na-Ma which means Existence, Life, Death, Rebirth. The can help heal emotional wounds and balance you on all levels. It will make you a creative genius as well and bring harmony into your life. You can read instructions for the practice of these technqiues on our Facebook group page.
We wish you an exhilarating, joyful, Mayl!!

All Best,
Ana Brett & Ravi Singh
www.raviana.com / ravianayoga@aol.com

Disclaimer: The advice we give is in no way intended as a substitute for medical counseling. Please consult your physician before beginning any exercise program or nutritional protocol.