Tonight is not the end of the world. This our hot tip of the evening.

[Audience laughs, then Rama laughs with them.]

Oh, well. Tonight we’re going to be talking about trigonometric ratios. [Audience laughs.]

And kundalini and meditation and music.

We’re going to be doing three meditations tonight. You’ll be learning three meditation techniques to use the kundalini.

And essentially what I’m going to be doing with those techniques is using the kundalini, moving it through your subtle physical bodies—to raise you into altered states of attention—while showing you how you can do that yourself.

Tonight, three of my friends and three of my students—they’re one and the same—are going to be performing some live music. As you see we have amplifiers, we have speakers, we have headphones, we have all kinds of things.

And tonight we’re going to have some live music for the meditations. We’ll be doing three meditations of approximately 10 minutes to an hour each. [Audience laughs.]

About 10 minutes to 15 minutes each, throughout the evening, and so we’ll have some music to meditate to.

I like to use music in group meditations because it’s harder to hear the megaphones and … [Audience laughs.]

This is something they teach you in the spiritual teacher training academy [audience laughs] in another world.

And so we’ll have lots of music tonight. Lots of sound.

The kundalini is music. It’s energy, it’s excitement, it’s power.

And in the back, someone heard that word, and they said …

[Rama mimics a loud, greedy voice]

[normal voice]

No, not that kind of power.

Power. Pure unadulterated power. Limitless. Mindless. [Rama laughs.]

Whoa! No. [Audience laughs.]

Power. That’s the kundalini. The kundalini is the life force, it is the essential energy of existence. It’s the hidden ingredient in life.

[Someone sneezes, Rama says “Bless you.”]

It is … what makes it all work.

So tonight we’re going to be talking about meditation and kundalini.

How many of you, if any, are new to meditation? Could you raise your hand, please?

A few, a few. Great. Good. Alright, well, then let’s begin at the beginning. That’s usually a good place.

ॐ

Meditation.

Why do you meditate? I suppose it’s different for everybody.

Some people meditate because they need more energy, and when you meditate, of course, you get a lot of energy. A tremendous amount of energy.

Some people meditate because they are sick and tired of their lives, of the world, of the way people abuse each other in this world, and abrogate each other’s freedoms.

And essentially they want out, and sort of “Stop the universe, I want to get off.” They just feel that there’s more.

The life that we see on our small planet is not necessarily a great reflection of the entire universe.

The planet is beautiful. The animals are beautiful. The people are beautiful.

But they tend to destroy one another. And that’s not necessarily an operative principle in all dimensions.

So some people meditate because they want to get the larger picture on life, because it could get kind of discouraging if this was all there was.

There are thousands of worlds. Thousands of dimensional planes. Billions. Endless. Life is endless.

It’s discouraging. [Audience chuckles.] It goes on forever. I mean that’s a long time. And you’re eternal which means that you have a great deal of time on your hands.

So tonight I’d like to use a little bit of that time, and discuss just about anything that seems … irrelevant … and by discussing all things that are irrelevant we’ll find that what is left over is relevant.

And what is relevant? That which you can’t discuss, which is why we meditate, because when we meditate we enter into silence, stillness.

Meditation essentially means having a great time.

Some people, they’ve applied a sense or a feeling to the meditative experience such that—I like that phrase “such that” [audience laughs], yeah, just trying to loosen everybody up a little bit—such that meditation has become a quantifiable religious experience.

Which means that it’s not any fun. [Audience chuckles.]

In other words, meditation has been turned into a tool …

[Rama mimics a revolutionary]

[normal voice]

No, I’m sorry [audience laughs], wrong incarnation. [Audience laughs.]

I get … You know, I’m in different ones at different times, and I [Rama snaps his fingers] got to bring it around, and get it straight. Sorry, this is the … this is the … Right! America!

Meditation …

[Rama mimics a Yiddish voice.]

[normal voice]

It’s easy. All you have to do is stop all your thought and you’re … that’s it! [Audience laughs.]

See, now you know!

Admission, 7 dollars. Meditation, taught. Mission, accomplished. [Audience laughs.]

That is the secret!

Now, you might—of course—ask, “Well, how do you stop all your thought, Rama?”

[Rama, quietly] And I would say “Well, that’s the art isn’t it?”

[Audience pauses, then laughs.]

Tonight, we’re going to have three very talented musicians playing, and I assure you that the first time they sat down and played, they never thought they would end up where they are [audience laughs.]

Tonight I’m going to fry them with the kundalini. They’re going to be within the 12-foot range, that’s the kill range on the kundalini level [audience roars.]

These guys have never been on stage with me. They have no idea what they’re in for. But we’ll all be very chic and casual and hip about it, you know, and just … [audience laughs.]

I like it.

So, anyway, you’re trying to meditate. How do you do it? Boy, we’re gonna learn!

[Rama mimics comical intensity.]

We’re gonna learn how to do this meditation thing. When you leave here tonight … you won’t. [Audience laughs.]

How do you meditate?

Well, you have to learn to be very, very gentle to start with—with yourself—essentially.

Because meditation is not something that you force, you see? It’s something that happens to you because—I don’t know—life gives you a gift.

There are billions of people out there walking around. … And they wear a lot of shoes. [Audience laughs.]

Have you ever thought about that? [Audience laughs.] But anyway.

There are billions of people out there walking around and … they don’t meditate! You can tell. They’re not having a good time with their lives.

It’s bad out there, friends! You know, it’s just … people are not happy! It’s just not working. You know?

One nation trying to destroy another. One race trying to destroy another. One religion trying to destroy another. It’s the same old story, over and over again. It’s because they don’t meditate.

Now, I’m not suggesting everyone should meditate. Far from it. Meditation is for very few individuals.

When I speak of meditation, of course, I’m speaking of something that’s a powerful experience.

Some people speak of meditation as kind of relaxation. [Rama mimics snoring.]

And you do the mantra. [Rama snores, audience laughs.]

That’s—nah—that’s not, that’s not what I’m talking about. Nah.

Meditation is the entrance into alternate planes of consciousness. [Rama makes a chanting sound like, “Dzoouu.”]

Yeah. It’s fun. So, the way, the way you do it, is by not trying to be too good at it, too quickly.

This is essential. Because otherwise, you won’t have fun with it.

If you expect anything in particular to happen—the stars to spin in the sky, light to flood your being, the kundalini to surge through you—uh, give it a month. Don’t expect that to start out with.

Because you’ll be very discouraged, because it probably won’t happen.

At best, at the beginning you’ll just kind of, be kind of confused. And you’re not sure what you’re supposed to do—and you’re trying to do the stuff that they say—and you don’t even know why you’re doing it.

And I don’t know why you’re doing it either. [Audience laughs.]

But I do know that if you do that for a long period of time, you will change in ways that … I can’t understand. But that’s neither here nor there.

So how do you meditate? Well, they way you meditate is, well there’s not just one way. There’s a lot of ways. That’s why it’s difficult to talk about because there’s so many ways to meditate.

A good way to start is with love.

Love is perhaps the strongest force in the universe.

When you meditate with love, what you do is you feel love, and love is like a bird, you kind of ride it. You get on it’s back and you ride it up very very high, above the thought level.

You’re trying to stop thought, but all your life you’ve been thinking. You’ve been “taught to thought,” to analyze, to look at things.

[Rama mimics Sgt. Friday on Dragnet.] “Facts, gotta have the facts, ma’am.”

Remember Friday, on Dragnet? [Audience chuckles.] Yeah. So you’ve gotta have the facts, right.

But here we’re gonna do something about the word “facts.” Who could … ? I could care less.

What facts? You call those facts? Wh- where? I don’t see a fact. You see any facts? [Audience chuckles.] I’m looking for a fact. [Rama gestures as if looking under things.]

This is called “fact finding?” Ohhhhh. [Audience laughs.] Bad. Bad. I know.

So, I don’t know anything about facts, but I do know how to meditate. And all you have to do is stop your thought. And if your stop your thought for a sustained period of time, you’ll enter into other states of attention.

But fortunately, the good news …

I know this is ridiculous, but bear with me. I’ll get through this phase.

The good news … is that you don’t have to stop thought completely, to be able to meditate well.

Isn’t that good? Whew! Because it takes a long time to be able to stop thought impeccably.

What you need to do … is to detach yourself from thought.

The serious part of the talk.

ॐ

There are essentially three stages in learning how to meditate.

In the beginning, you’re simply sitting and trying to practice without any concern of what is happening, what is not happening, whether you’re gaining benefit from it, and so on. You’re just trying to do it.

And this is the stage of ignoring thought.

In the second part of the practice, we stop thought for limited periods of time. And we don’t stop thought, what we’re doing is learning to think specific types of thoughts.

In other words—thought control.

[Rama mimics a mad professor] Mind control.

So. Thought control. Sorry, slipped again. [Audience chuckles.]

The third stage is no thought.

Now “no thought” is not the end of meditation. That’s the beginning of higher meditation. That means that you are about to experience the other aspects of your being.

You are an endless conglomeration of awarenesses. You’re not one singular self. You’re a corporation. Inside you is eternity. Everything’s there.

A human being is not so simple. You know, we’re told that we’re Ted or Sally or Willie or whatever.

And that we grow up and have experiences and we die. Or maybe we go to heaven—I don’t know—but I do know that has nothing to do with what life is.

You’re eternity.

You have thousands of selves inside you.

And meditation is a process of peeling back the layers of the self.

We start with peeling back the personality form from this lifetime, your current one. The mental conditioning, the things that they told you.

[Rama mimics a silly kid voice.] “Girls wear pink.”

You know, that sort of thing.

Because these are ridiculous ideas that human beings have come up with. And in every culture they’re different. I mean, there’s no arbitrary standard of truth.

And what they do is block you from being the totality of yourself.

Meditation is not for everybody! I’ll grant you that. That’s for sure.

Because when you meditate, you’re going to become conscious. And most people don’t want to be too conscious, because they’re afraid!

They’re afraid of awareness, they’re afraid of life, they’re afraid of being happy.

Now that may sound ridiculous, and I would have thought so a long time ago. But having been around the world a little bit, I’ve seen that it’s not ridiculous. People really don’t want to be happy. They go out of their way to be miserable.

So if you want to be that way, I can’t do a thing for you. Nobody can. Because you’ve already set the program and it’s running. You debugged it. Misery!

[Rama mimics sobbing.] “Nothing’s going to work out. Everybody’s against me. Life has no meaning.”

You’re right there. But … [Audience laughs.]

Well, it doesn’t need a meaning. I mean a meaning is an arbitrary thought formulation that we affix to it, because we’re in the mood.

Life is its own meaning. It’s its own raison d’être. It’s exciting.

The kundalini is the energy. The energy. [Audience laughs.] Of existence.

Kundalini is the life force. It’s given different names. Sometimes they call it prana. Sometimes they divide it into different segments, and Sanskrit the apana and the samana, and all that sort of fancy terminology.

Sometimes it’s called shakti. Nice names, I like the sound of them.

All of it is energy. It’s the life force. The more life force you have, the more you can do. The more alive you are.

The kundalini is said to reside in the base of the spine.

Now it’s a bit of a misnomer, because the kundalini really is not so much in the physical body, as in what we call the subtle physical body, or body of energy. Also known by some as the astral body—that surrounds the physical body—the etheric body.

When you see someone’s aura, that’s just the outer reflection of the subtle physical body.

The subtle physical body is about the same shape as the physical body, although it can change shapes. It can become thousands of different things.

But it does have a basic structure.

And the way it works is—of course, as you all know—there are seven primary chakras or energy centers that run along, theoretically, along the spinal column.

And the root chakra—at the very base of the spine—is where the kundalini is said to reside.

The kundalini is thought of as a serpent, as a snake, it’s something that’s coiled. It means coiled. It’s gonna spring out!

Kkhhuu! [Rama mimics the sound of a snake striking.]

It isn’t really like that. But it sounds good. It’s much more intense than that. It’s much more complete.

The kundalini is not some little snap thing that goes whip! OK?

The kundalini is the totality of the universe. All of the life energy of existence is going to flow through you. You will be in thousands of planes of consciousness at once or beyond all in nirvana, absorbed.

Or maybe having a sandwich with a friend. Confronting an olive. [Audience chuckles.]

And you can see the life in that olive. You can know what it is to be an olive. [Audience chuckles.]

You can! Because you can detach your attention from yourself and go anywhere. You can wander the universe. Big deal. So!

So to meditate then, what you need to do, is to be able to free yourself from your ideas and your thoughts. Which are probably wonderful—

[Rama suddenly mimics a shouting accusation] Liar!

[Audience laughs.] No, they’re probably wonderful!

Wonderful thoughts and ideas you have. Great.

But sometimes there’s something more, and that’s beyond thought.

Because all of the higher dimensional planes, the higher realities—the infinite cosmos itself—is beyond thought.

It’s certainly something that you can experience and be. As are the other aspects of yourself.

Why are people unhappy? People are unhappy because they don’t understand life. They’re unhappy because, I mean, it’s obvious why they’re unhappy.

Maybe it’s better to look at why—what makes someone happy. By happy I don’t just mean “hummm,” but … complete, aware, conscious, poignant, caring, loving, unaffected, cosmic, simplistic, humble, excited, passive. Everything!

You’re everything.

We’re a stage. And there are players. And they come and they speak the speech. The loves, the experiences, the cares, the sorrows, it all passes through us. We’re the audience. We’re watching. We’re the participant. We’re the reviewer.

We’re everything.

To know that, to know that truth. To know that awareness and still not get too stuck on yourself? You know, so you’re like, not …

[Rama mimics an arrogant deep voice] “God’s gift to the world.” To avoid that. Yuck, uh.

To be conscious of life, to love! To be free.

And yet to be able to deal with the world effectively. To be able to handle that freeway traffic. To be able to deal with pain.

And love. And ecstasy. Ecstasy can be painful when it’s intense enough. When the kundalini surges enough, the ecstasy is so complete, it’s overwhelming sometimes!

Eventually you’ll go into “samadhi.” Samadhi is a very advanced meditation. You dissolve in the clear light of eternity, again and again.

The experience of enlightenment. (Tomorrow night.)

ॐ

How do you meditate? We’re going to do a meditation technique. And I’m going to go through it now and we’re going to do one. You will find that they will build over the evening.

We’re gonna do three of them. This will be the first one. I’d like you to listen carefully. They seem very simple, and they are. That’s why they work. But they’re extremely powerful.

Tonight as we meditate together, I’m going to be moving in and out of different planes of attention, and taking the kundalini and surging it through you in a lot of different ways, to show you inside what it feels like to meditate.

Naturally when you’re here, there’s lots of wonderful people, and they’ve got lots of wonderful energy. And so you’ll feel a lot of different things.

But the true test of how the experience was—what it did for you—was how you feel when you get home.

Go home, have a little bite to eat. Relax, and look around you. See the energy.

See how you feel tomorrow. If we did a good job, you’ll be pretty gone. [Audience chuckles.]

What I’d like you to do is, to—in a moment … stay relaxed—in a moment, to sit up straight. It’s good when you meditate to sit up straight.

Normally, when you practice meditation, you can sit in a chair, which I wish you would tonight.

Please don’t sit in the aisles because there are fire laws you know. I don’t know. Fire has problems with it. [Audience chuckles.]

But you can sit like this. You can sit—I don’t know, any way you want—as long as you sit up straight, and your back is … the spine is straight. You should be comfortable. It’s good to wear clean loose clothing when you meditate. You can meditate naked if that’s what you’re into. It doesn’t matter.

The main thing is to learn to be still.

Now so therefore, why all this music when you’re trying to be still?

The music is used as a backdrop. We have a lot of people together. A lot of different energies, and it gives us something to focus on a little bit.

And I take the kundalini, and I play against the notes with it.

I kind of, do a light show, inwardly and outwardly, with the energy—with vortexes of energy—as you sit there.

Opening you up. Opening up different parts of you, that maybe you haven’t felt since you were a child. It’s no big deal. It’s just what I do.

What I’d like you to do, is to do a meditation.

During this experience—the next 10 or 12 minutes while we’re sitting here and feeling in new ways, new energies—you’re storing something.

Don’t be looking for the flashy experience. It may happen.

But if it’s strong enough, you won’t realize it’s happened until much later, when you start to come down from it.

What we’re looking for here is … storing power. You’re accumulating energy. The kundalini.

So I’d like you to begin this evening, just for a moment, by taking your hand and touching the area around your navel. Just take your hand and touch that area, OK? And you’ll know how much weight you need to lose. [Audience laughs.] The holidays are always devastating.

OK. This is one of the “nadis.” This is one of the places where the kundalini hangs out.

So what I’d like you to do is—while the music is on—I’d like you to practice a simple exercise, maybe 4 or 5 minutes. Then you can stop the exercise, and just go. And leave the driving to us.

What I’d like you to do, is to focus your attention here, and you will feel surges of energy. You don’t have to touch that spot when you do this.

And I’d like you to feel the energy moving. We’re going to move that energy from here, to the center of the chest.

Now touch the center of the chest right here. This is the heart chakra. This is the navel chakra. These are two primary energy centers.

The heart chakra is a very pure luminous energy center.

The shushumna is the tube that the kundalini passes up in the subtle physical body, and one side is the little guy called the ida, and the other side is the pingala.

We’re going to move the kundalini from the solar plexus region—where it stores—right up into the heart center, which purifies it, and connects the two halves of the being.

This is the central chakra. There are three above the heart chakra—throat chakra, third eye and of course the crown chakra. Navel center, one half way down, and then one all the way at the base of the spine.

So to start with, we’re going to do a simple exercise, but it’s strong. Focusing here.

And then what I’d like you to imagine—because imagination is power in the inner world. When you use your imagination, you are creating a movement of energy. It’s not arbitrary. It’s not daydreaming. Well, daydreaming is energy.

What I’d like you to do, is to sit up, relax—feel this area of your body—and feel energy or just imagine it, moving from here to here.

Like a little surge, like a little fountain, going from here to here. If it goes further, fine, don’t worry about it.

And so you just sort of feel energy, kind of going from here to here.

Then you’re going to come back down again, and bring it from here to here. Little circle.

Then you’re going to come back down again, and bring it from here to here.

But at this point, we’re not taking the energy so much in a circle. as just bringing it up.

And I’d just like you to repeat this for a few minutes. Four or five minutes.

And as you do, you’ll notice your attention level changing.

Thoughts will come in and out of your mind at this point, please just ignore them. Don’t try and fight with them or stop them yet. Just ignore them, relax.

And just keep this focus.

After doing that for a few minutes, stop. Let go.

And just let the music absorb you or the energy absorb you.

The energy changes will be very [Rama claps his hands], very [claps] fast [claps], very quick.

I’ll snap [snaps his fingers] you through a lot of different planes of attention, [snaps] very quickly.

If you feel uncomfortable, relax, it’ll go away in a moment. You’re trying too hard. Relax a little bit. Lighten up. Have fun with it. Smile a little bit. If it gets too intense, just sit back.

You might meditate with your eyes closed—normally that’s the easiest. Once in awhile it’s fun to meditate with the eyes open and gaze forward without a particular focus. We’ll talk more about that later.

To stop thought, you have to go above it.

So we’re collecting energy, and then that energy—when it’s freed it’s like a flood. And the water will rise and rise and will take us above a certain level.

And then there’s no thought. Then we’re in altered states of attention. That’s how the kundalini works, one of the ways.

So I’d like you to focus your attention here, and then just very gently—as you sit there with your eyes closed—just bring the energy from here to here. Just imagine it. You don’t have to see a picture in your mind. Just feel it.

Focus here, then feel here, then here, then here.

And just feel it rising up, and as you do, you may feel a sensation, kind of like you’re floating. You may see visual colors—particularly if your eyes are open.

You may see colors. There’ll be certain light changes that they’re doing here.

But aside from that, you may see subtle changes in the subtle physical. Maybe no phenomena. It doesn’t matter.

You’re absorbing energy. You’re absorbing power, which you’ll take with you, when you leave these evening.

So let us begin. If you’d please sit up nice and straight.

Relax. Close your eyes. Focus your attention—navel center.

Meditating for about 10 minutes, so just have a nice time. Don’t fall asleep. And just let yourself go. Let yourself wander.

You’re thinking, “What am I supposed to do, what’s going to happen?”

Who knows? I don’t know. That’s what makes life exciting. Just let go. Ignore thought.

Feel. Just practice feeling. Feel the energy shifts in the room.

Ride the music for a while. Ride the energy.

Go beyond thought. Feel love. Feel peace. Don’t think about tomorrow or yesterday. They don’t exist.

Yesterday’s gone, tomorrow hasn’t happened. We only have this night and this night is eternity. Good. Let us begin.

[Zazen music plays and the meditation begins. It lasts 14 minutes.]

Please sit back and relax.

ॐ

There are many, many ways to meditate. Essentially, in the very beginning, when you meditate you’re learning how to feel again.

When we’re very young children, we know how to feel. It’s innate. But as we lead a lifetime, we pick up so many thoughts, impressions, feelings, ideas, that our sensitivity goes away.

Now little children don’t meditate perfectly. Don’t misunderstand me. Some children are perfectly horrible. [Audience chuckles.]

But their subtle physical bodies are perfectly intact.

But as we grow up, as we’re exposed to hate and greed and anger and jealousy, and peanut brittle and all kinds of things, our subtle body erodes.

The subtle body must be intact to transmit the kundalini, the life force. As the subtle body wears we get sick and that’s why eventually the body dies.

It’s because something happens to the subtle body. The integrity of the subtle body is totally important. Think of the subtle body as the framework. The veins, capillaries, organs, everything is required for the body to function.

The subtle physical body also is made up of many different strands of luminous energy, and energies are flowing through them constantly in the etheric plane that supports—of course—the physical body.

Above the subtle body is the causal body, and then—of course—the soul, or whatever you want to call it.

That which we are. We’re the universe. We’ll all-intelligent.

So what are we doing here? [Audience chuckles.]

Well, life is like that. You end up in the strangest places. They had a great brochure for this particular planet before this incarnation. You probably read it, too. [Audience chuckles.]

ॐ

If you’re starting to meditate, I suggest that you set up a schedule for yourself. It’s good to meditate twice a day. If you’re an absolute beginner, once a day.

If you can’t get yourself to meditate once a day, then try once a year. [Audience laughs.]

Now you shouldn’t expect as much, of course. Once a day is good to start.

The best time to meditate is when you first get up in the morning. Or evening, or whenever you rise. [Audience chuckles.]

What you want to do … Get up, wake up, take a shower or whatever, and sit down and meditate.

Most people have a little meditation table they sit in front of when they meditate, or sit in a chair.

And sometimes they keep large amounts of cash on it. [Audience laughs.]

And they hope that through the process of meditation, when they finish meditating, there will be more. [Audience laughs.] I don’t know.

But, I myself have candles on mine, and some flowers.

The candles are nice because the light is very gentle. It’s easy on the eyes. And sometimes a little incense burning.

Sometimes the rug, whatever [audience laughs] you’re in the mood for.

The flowers are nice; they bring nature into our universe.

And then what should you do? It’s a good idea sometimes before you start a meditation, to chant a mantra. A mantra’s a very powerful word.

It vibrates like music does, only not just on this plane, but on other planes of reality. It creates a power, a force. It starts the kundalini moving.

There are many different mantras. The most powerful of all mantras, of course, is “AUM,” spelled A-U-M or O-M.

It’s usually chanted either silently, or out loud. But it’s stretched.

So it’s “OOOOOOOMMMM”, stretched. [Rama chants for five seconds.]

All mantras are always elongated.

The mantra for beauty is “SRING,” S-R-I-N-G, to enter into the states of beauty.

And that’s SRING, “SRRRIIIINNNNNNNNNG,” and so on. [Rama chants for five seconds.]

So if you would chant “OM,” either silently or out loud, maybe seven times.

Seven powerful numbers, seven higher worlds, and seven lower worlds, according to one philosophy.

If you would chant “OM” seven times, sit down …

OK, woke up …

[Rama mimics a slightly wasted but aspiring workshop-attendee. Audience laughs throughout.]

[Rama returns to normal voice.]

So what you’re gonna do then … [audience laughs]

We cut back to the present moment!

… is after you’ve chanted “OM” a few times, and sort of gotten yourself basically together, and put the flower out [audience laughs] you’re going to sit there, and focus your attention in a number of different ways.

Any of the exercises that you start out with, will get the kundalini moving.

You don’t have to stay with them for the entire period of meditation. You want to go beyond them. We want to walk through the door. Once we’re through the door we’re outside. We’re in another world. But we need to get up and walk through the door.

So a meditation exercise serves that purpose. It’s not something to stay with, because you’ll fixate on it. We want to go beyond thought, beyond ideation, beyond feeling, beyond everything.

But we start in the physical, and in the mind.

We use the transitory to go to the eternal because they’re really interconnected.

So you’ll sit down in the morning, if you can’t make it in the morning, try the evening to start with. Do the late show.

But you meditate best in the morning. Even though you may be a little tired, the mind has not been active yet.

Once you’ve been thinking—analyzing, talking, picking up energy, being active—it’s harder to slow it down. Even though you’re a little tired, the mind hasn’t been moving. It’s easier to make it still.

When you meditate in the morning, you pick up a lot of energy—focus, awareness—and that will be with you throughout the day.

You’ll have a shield of energy around you. It brightens the subtle physical body, so you won’t pick up as much negative energy from your transactions with the world. Your mind will be clear. You’ll do everything well.

“Everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on it.” [Audience laughs.] Right.

So if you smear it all over yourself before you medi- [audience laughs.]

Nooooo! Kinky! Boy, I’ll tell you.

So sit there and meditate. Practice one of these exercises that I’m showing you tonight—or another one that you may know—to start out with.

Then what are you supposed to do? As I suggested, there are three stages.

If you’re very new to meditation, simply practice the exercise for a few minutes, say five minutes, or as long as is comfortable.

Then after doing that for about five minutes or so, stop, just let go. Letting go is the hardest thing, isn’t it?

Because everybody’s so afraid. They’re so afraid of eternity. They’re so afraid of life. They’re so afraid of what’s on the other side of death.

There’s nothing but light. Infinite light. Infinite awareness. God is everywhere.

So learn to let go. You do it a little at a time and you have small successes.

And those successes—in terms of mental clarity, feeling better, deep perceptions about life, developing your psychic abilities—whatever it may be.

The changes you go through. You become someone else when you meditate, you know. It isn’t—, it isn’t just a little technique.

If you really pursue it, you change radically, constantly, because you evolve. You can go through hundreds of lifetimes in one. You can experience so much. Feel so much. Be so much.

Or be nothing. Or everything. Or beyond both.

And it all starts with that daily meditation practice.

How long should you meditate? If you’re very new to meditation maybe 15 minutes is fine. Set a minimum time. You’ll sit there for 15 minutes.

Don’t expect anything in the beginning. Just to do it is enough. It’s like jogging. The first few times you do it you’re not gonna suddenly be running marathons.

But if you do it everyday for a little while you’ll find that time will increase by itself. It won’t be as hard. It’ll feel good and pretty soon you’ll be amazed at what you can do.

Or in the case of meditation: not do, or undo.

If you’ve been meditating for awhile—after a month or so if you’re new to meditation, or two months—work it up to a half an hour. After six months or a year, maybe 45 minutes, twice a day.

You’ll sleep less, have a lot more energy, and you’ll begin to become conscious of consciousness, of awareness.

Meditation gives you personal power. You’ll notice that people will treat you very differently—as you progress—because they can feel that power or that energy.

Naturally, it’s the hope of those of us who teach meditation—particularly the release of the kundalini, which is a very powerful form of meditation—that you use that power wisely.

And if you search your heart, I think you will.

You’ll learn through experience like everyone. Experience is the great teacher.

You’ll have to go through the trials and tribulations—and the ecstasies and abandoned moments of wonderfulness—that all of us did on the way to enlightenment.

It’s a great, great life we lead.

But it causes substantial changes in the way that you see life.

Because the way you see life is the way you’ve been taught to see life. You’ve been programmed, brainwashed to see life in very specific forms. Some of them may be useful forms, but still they’re specific forms.

Life is endless. And we are a body of perception. We’re an awareness … that’s endless.

And as you meditate, you experience different parts of that perception. And as perception alters, the universe alters. Because the universe is only perception.

So in the beginning when you’re sitting meditating, just ignore thought. Pay no attention. Shine it on.

Then after you’re comfortable with sitting there—you’ve been meditating a month or two—try selectively eliminating negative thoughts.

By that I mean, thoughts that draw you into the world of unhappiness, that agitate your mind.

So rather than worrying about your examine that you’ve gotta take—or your career, or this person you’re in love with, or whatever it may be—begin to have thought control.

You can practice it during the day, also. But start in your meditations.

And meditate and think positive thoughts. If you must think, think good thoughts, happy thoughts, constructive thoughts. You’ll find that sometimes while you’re sitting there, you’ll get a lot of great ideas.

Now granted, you want to go beyond ideas and beyond thought, but that takes years of practice (if not lifetimes) to erase thought—even subconscious thought—completely, for extended periods of eternity.

So in the beginning, we’re just stopping thought for awhile.

But first just ignore it, then selectively work with your thoughts.

And then you’ll begin to move into periods of no-thought. It’ll just happen, and you won’t realize it’s happened until you’ve started to think again, and you’ll think, “Boy, I wasn’t thinking.” [Audience chuckles.]

It’s good to meditate in the early evening if you can.

Ideally one would meditate in the morning. Clear yourself. Bring in a lot of kundalini, a lot of energy. Go out into the day. Have an exciting day. Come back, slightly worn by the day, but feeling good, having learned in the school of life.

Come back. Meditate again and clear yourself again.

It’s very easy to mediate at sunset. There’s a doorway that opens between the worlds at the time of the setting sun. It’s very easy to still your thoughts.

Sometimes it’s fun to meditate outside. Be creative! Meditate at the beach. On a mountain top. In the desert. Wherever you’re comfortable. Don’t get hung up in rituals or routines.

How do you end a meditation session?

It’s nice to chant a mantra again. Maybe repeat it a few times. It seals the meditation.

You’ll notice sometimes after a meditation, I bow. Wonderful for the stomach muscles. [Audience chuckles.]

What am I doing? You don’t have to do it that way, you can just do it inside. You don’t have to give it physical form.

You’re giving the meditation away. You have a meditation. You do your best, and then you just give it to eternity.

Don’t judge your meditations. Don’t rate them. The mind—the physical mind—cannot tell, how well you did.

So if you start to think, “Gee that was a good one, that was a bad one,”—nonsense. There’s no such thing. The only bad meditation is when you don’t meditate. As long as you’re sitting there trying, something will happen.

But you will not necessarily feel the positive effect of your meditation experience, perhaps for a half an hour or an hour after you’ve ended the meditation.

Then suddenly everything will get very clear. You’ll just feel very good; a sense of well-being. This is the preliminary, the beginning.

You don’t stay with well-being, you move to ecstatic consciousness; perceptions about life, eternity.

You become the cosmos. It just depends how far you want to go with it. That’s up to you.

ॐ

Kundalini can be used in a lot of different ways. Essentially in the beginning, you’re just trying to get it moving within yourself. Everyone has kundalini. It’s already there.

But it’s a question of waking it up.

As I suggested before, the subtle physical body must be intact. If there are problems with the subtle body, it’s very hard for the kundalini to flow.

A certain amount of the kundalini is always floating through the ida and the pingala, these two little subtle nerve tubes, on either side of the shushumna—which is the central tube in the subtle physical body. And that’s what keeps us alive.

When the subtle physical body is damaged, you’ll begin to notice changes in your skin. When you skin starts to get kind of gnarly. Dry, problems with it.

Now I’m not speaking of acne. Acne is not necessarily a problem with the subtle physical body, it just means that you have a lot of kundalini which stimulates the hormones.

But when you see deterioration in the skin, or the hair particularly, you’re having problems with the subtle body;. You’re taking in too much bad energy—usually from people—or you’re thinking too many negative thoughts.

You’re just on the wrong circuit. You’re pulling an energy that is not suitable for the human life form.

The human life form vibrates at a certain rate, but all vibratory rates are not suitable for human life.

So it’s very necessary to meditate on higher octave energy, on the clear light, on joy, on happiness, peace.

If you try and pull too much power through too soon, you’ll injure yourself.

The kundalini can be transmitted. You’re trying to awaken it—bring it through you—it brings you into other states of consciousness.

But it can also be transmitted. A person who is very adept at the kundalini, who has a great deal of it, who’s gone through this enlightenment process, can transmit it—and that’s, of course, what I do.

When you’re sitting here, I’m taking the kundalini and moving it through you. Some of you—if you’re sensitive, of course—you’ll feel it. If not, you won’t.

But it still has an effect. It’s like a radiation. Whether you feel it or not, it’s affecting you in a very positive way.

You may notice during the meditation, sometimes, I’m moving my hands and doing different things. What I’m doing is moving the kundalini in very specific ways.

It’s kind of like reaching into another dimensional plane, and pulling the kundalini through, and moving it through you in specific ways and forms.

So you can transmit the kundalini physically when people are there, of course, long distance. It’s energy. Interdimensional energy.

ॐ

It’s much easier for women to meditate than it is for men, innately.

And it has to do with the nature of a woman’s subtle physical body. The subtle physical body of a man and woman is slightly different. Both a man and woman can meditate well. But women will just find it a little bit easier. They have to do a little less work. That’s all.

Because their subtle physical bodies pick up the kundalini much more quickly. They vibrate at a slightly different rate, that passes very easily.

But that’s also problematic, because a woman also picks up bad energy or negative energy. It affects her more—hate, anger—things that affect her subtle physical more.

Sensitivity is a two-way street. When you’re sensitive you can feel and appreciate, but you can also be injured more easily.

But women find it very easy to release the kundalini, and bring it through their beings.

The kundalini brings about changes—structured changes in the being. We’re reordering the self.

We’re made up of a series of awarenesses.

Beyond the subtle physical body we have something called the causal body. And that’s more what we are.

We’re a series of interconnecting awarenesses.

It’s possible—it’s like a molecular bond, a DNA, a double helix—we can change that. That’s what self-discovery is.

Self-discovery is a very advanced art. What we’re doing basically is screwing around with what you’re made up of.

We’re taking awarenesses—feelings, ideas, impressions—and changing them. We do that with ourselves.

As you expose yourself again and again to the power of meditation—to the kundalini—you’re changing that, and refining it, enlarging it.

You have a house that has many, many rooms in it, but you’ve only seen a few. But there are so many. And then there’s beyond the house. There’s the outdoors. The endless universe.

You are sitting on this little planet—spaceship Earth. But the universe is very accessible to you. You don’t need a spaceship to travel there. And most of the worlds are non-physical.

And it’s all god, it’s all eternity.

ॐ

I’m going to teach you another meditation technique.

This one is very simple. It’s a focus on the heart center.

The heart center is the principle chakra. There are three above, and three below. It’s the central axis of the being.

What I would like you to do—it’s very simple—is to focus on this spot, and to feel love.

Now, how do you feel love? Spontaneously?

Well, you can think of someone you love, or something you love. A nice experience that you’ve had. Anything to get the flow started.

But we can do it more delicately.

What we’re going to do is feel love. That’s going to get something in us started. That’s going to get our awareness moving. Light flowing through our consciousness.

So what I’d like you to do is simply to focus on this center. [Rama gestures to the center of his chest.]

If you like, you might visualize a flower, or feel that there’s a flower there. But it’s like a rose, and it’s all folded up.

And as you meditate, feel—you don’t have to see a mental picture—but just feel the flower is opening. That there’re all these petals—they’re closed up.

And gradually they’re opening up, and there’s set after set of petals. And as each set of petals open up—opens up—it’s a little larger than the first set.

Endless petals opening up.

Each time you open up a set of petals, you’re going deeper into the self. Deeper into nirvana. Deeper into eternal awareness.

When thoughts come in and out of your mind just ignore them.

You might try meditating that way with the eyes closed for a few minutes. You might try meditation then with the eyes open. It’s good to learn to meditate that way.

We call it “gazing.” Just looking forward, without a singular focus.

And you can see the kundalini actually moving through the air. Other than the light changes, of course.

There are other changes taking place. As you watch my hands, you may notice energy flowing through them. It’s going through you.

It’s the transmission of the kundalini.

ॐ

So we’re meditating here for about 10 minutes. And you’ll notice that this meditation will be quite different.

Try and feel love. We’re meditating on love this time. It’s the strongest force in the universe.

Now we’re just going to open ourselves up to it, and just let it carry us.

There’re a lot of wonderful people here and we’re all networking our energy together. We’re getting high together. And they can’t do anything about it. [Audience laughs.] So let’s try.

So sit up nice and straight please. Focus on the center of the chest. Relax. Relax. Enjoy yourself. This is your life. [Audience chuckles.] Exactly.

And imagine a flower there, if you like, or just focus on that spot for a few minutes. And feel it unfolding. Let yourself go. Ignore your thoughts. And let’s meditate.

[Zazen plays and the meditation begins. It lasts 15 minutes.]

Please sit back and relax.

ॐ

It’s a good idea when you meditate, to avoid eating for a few hours before you meditate, because otherwise, you just feel your body too much. You really don’t want to feel the body.

If you’re very, very hungry though, you should have something to eat, because otherwise you’ll just sit there … and think of food. [Audience chuckles.]

Which is not the worst thing to think of, granted!

Kundalini flows in different directions. Some people are under the assumption that the kundalini just flows from the base of the spine up. That’s not the case at all. It flows a lot of different ways. Kundalini also flows down. Downward.

You can take the kundalini from the crown center—which is an access point—and bring it down. You can bring it up, or you can stabilize them both.

When you stop breathing in meditation, the kundalini is stabilized.

When you go into samadhi, very often you won’t breath for half an hour, an hour, there’s no breath at all.

The kundalini—the life force—is perfectly stabilized.

Usually they stabilize in the solar plexus area. You can stabilize it anywhere, actually. But that’s the most common.

The kundalini can be used for a lot of purposes. Healing disease, obviously. Healing the mind.

More importantly, it can be used to help awaken someone—to life.

We’re all asleep. This is a dream—that we’re in this world.

We’re trying to wake up.

We have this recurring dream—is that we’re human beings—that we have bodies, that we’re in time and space, that there’s birth and death. We keep having this dream, day after day.

To awaken from the dream … of life—or to see endless dreams—or to go beyond the dream to nirvana.

To be conscious of eternity, and yet to be here, and to be aware. Of the moment!

Meditation. Never leave the body without it.

ॐ

I’d like to answer a few questions, about meditation and the kundalini specifically, for a few minutes.

We’ll be doing another meditation after a while. It’ll be our final one for the evening. But that won’t be for a while yet.

And if you have a question, I’d like you to raise your hand. If you could say it nice and loudly so I can hear you, it would be helpful, and I’ll repeat the question for everyone else, because they probably won’t be able to hear. So if you have a question, please raise your hand.

There’s such a vast area of meditation and the kundalini. You may have specific interests.

When you meditate at home sometimes it’s good to try very hard. You know, you just want to really just do your absolute best.

Now sometimes—some people say when they start to meditate—they get a headache when they meditate. It’s because they’re trying too hard. You’re pulling in too much energy. It’s like eating too much and then you feel sick afterwards.

So if you just feel any ill effects, it means you’re trying too hard.

But tonight it’s really not necessary for you to try very hard. Because there’s just so much kundalini surging, that if you try too hard, it’ll just get—you’ll get in your own way. You see?

It’s best just to let go, and leave it, this evening. That’d be the easiest.

To try and not to try. It goes back and forth. To strive, not to strive. There are different ways of talking about something that’s really beyond words. It’s an experience, which is why we meditate together.

You see, real higher meditation is not taught through techniques or words. These are the beginning steps. It’s how we start someone. And everyone has to go through that process. Really. You have to learn the basics. One can never be too proud to learn how to begin, again.

But the real meditation experience is taught—it’s either just learned, of course, through practice naturally—but it’s taught inwardly.

In other words, you shift a person through different dimensional planes.

But they have to do the prep, for you to be able to do that, as a teacher. So it’s necessary for you to meditate on your own, and just refine your consciousness. Tighten up your life.

You know, constantly examine your life and look for weak points. Are your relationships sloppy? Are your emotions sloppy? Or are they tight? Are you loving and giving, or are you being selfish and weird? You know, what’s what’s going on in your life?

As you meditate, you get clearer on that. You get clearer on the fact that you can shape and mold your life. You can be an architect of your own destiny.

Most people, they lead their lives like they drive their cars. [Audience chuckles.] And you can be more precise.

You can lead a life poorly or very well. So meditation gives you the energy, and also the insight to do that.

As to meditate, how should we meditate—hard, easily … ?

Every meditation is unique. There is no absolute rule. That’s what makes it fun. You have to feel out each situation and try as you go.

So if you’re sitting there meditating one day, and you’re meditating on the heart center … it’s been great the last three times, this time nothing—don’t stay with it, switch.

Do something else. Be creative. Meditate on your navel center. Do another exercise. Switch it around. Don’t be bound.

Stop for a minute. You’re sitting there, it’s just not happening. Stop, take a break for a moment. Walk around. Sit down try again. Try a different room. A different energy. Every place has different energy. Be creative in your meditation.

So tonight if you’re sitting there, and you’re trying real hard, and it’s just not kicking over for you, don’t try so hard, obviously. You see, every situation is different. But there’s just so much energy tonight that it’s not necessary.

Questions. Yes.

[Rama repeats the question.]

How do you deal with the fact that you’re meditating at home and sometimes you stop breathing. And your question is how do you deal with that?

[Rama holds his breath, gasps, falls down, to audience laughter.]

How do you deal with it? Well, I don’t know.

I can remember when that started happening to me about 15 years ago. And I wouldn’t breathe, and then suddenly become real uptight because you’re not breathing. Your mind says …

[Rama mimics terror, gasping.] “I’m not breathing! I’m supposed to be breathing! God, I’m not breathing! [Gasp!]” [Audience chuckles.]

Then you realize, all you did was just bring yourself down from a nice meditation.

The trick is to meditate just a little higher and you won’t even know that you’re not breathing. So then it isn’t a problem.

Because as long as you’re in the plane where you know you’re not breathing, you know you’re going to think about it …

Try not to think about an armadillo with a purple beret. [Audience laughs.]

Good luck! Here he comes now. [Audience laughs.]

Right?

So you know you’re not breathing. It’s good you’re not breathing. You don’t need to breathe too much. People breathe too much, listen. [Audience laughs.]

If everybody would breathe less, there’d be more oxygen on the planet. [Audience chuckles.] Rama’s suggestion.

So you don’t need to breathe. It’s happening by itself. But your mind will tell you you do, because we’ve been conditioned to think that we need to breathe.

And you don’t need to breathe so much. I mean, breathing is nice. It’s OK. But it’s nothing to get attached to. [Audience chuckles.]

It’s a matter of just ignoring that whole experience. It’s just another place to get stuck.

As you’re meditating, you’re stuck to start out with. You’re stuck in your thoughts.

It’s like your feet are in, you know, Bonomo Turkish Taffy or something. You know, “Ughhhhhh. ” You’re trying to get them out. And then you get one free, and then you get the other one free, and then finally you’re going, but then along the way there are little things that kind of “Whoosh, ulp, ah!” grab you. See? And those are all your attachments.

You know, you’re having a great meditation, thoughts stop, you’re cruising along and then suddenly … the love of your life comes into your mind.

He/she or it is sitting at home thinking about you.

[Rama mimics a greedy, snarling voice and audience chuckles.]

[normal voice]

Now, of course, if you’re not experienced in the ways of occult power, you’ll assume that you’re just thinking about Susie or Bill or, you know, the armadillo or whatever you’re into.

And you won’t realize that they are—because human beings are very strong, and they all radiate kundalini and energy—inserting themselves into your thoughts. It’s true. It’s true.

It’s a good idea, if you’re going to have a really good meditation, to unplug the phone.

Because you’d be surprised. Boy, that’s—that’s one you learn early. Because just when it’s finally happening, “Rrrring!”

[Mimics nerd father.]

Whatever it may be, right, you know. And it’s like [mimics surprise, gasping] “Ah, ah, ah, ah!”

The energy crackles along the line [mimics electricity crackling. Audience chuckles.]

Another question. Yes.

[Rama listens to a woman’s question.]

I would think so, yeah.

OK. So, your problem is, then, that you live in a—as you said—a multi-room dwelling where different people live, known as a rooming house.

And that there’s a fellow who lives in the room next to you, who—as you put it very poetically—has a drinking problem.

And that when he starts to rave and scream, as you said, it—and like he puts out a lot of bad energy—and you’re sitting in your room, and you notice … the flowers are wilting [audience laughs] and stuff like that.

So your question, then, is—I’m just repeating it for all to hear—your question is, How can you put out an energy that will kind of protect you from that experience?

Well, the obvious answer is “Move,” naturally. [Audience chuckles.] That’s the easiest.

Because when it’s real serious, you know, it’s gonna be a battle every step of the way. But if that just isn’t in the cards—you really like the room, or you’re just determined, or you signed the lease, or whatever, and you’re stuck with it …

Then, you need to turn your room into a place of … Power!

[Mimics a spooky voice.] “Wooooo.” [Audience chuckles.] Yeah.

It’s a good idea to have flowers around, candles, incense. You know, happy things. Make your room a beautiful place.

I mean, you should always do that with your house anyway. You should have beauty wherever you are. Because life is so pretty.

And so just make your room really beautiful, and just keep it very clean. Impeccably clean. All the closets in order, drawers. Everything in it’s perfect place.

And just turn on music, when he screams. That’s the best, I think, personally. A walk-person, headphones. You know.

There’s not much you can do, except feel that he doesn’t exist.

Ah! This is the trick. What you can do.

It’s possible—now, I don’t know if you can do this, but I can do this—it’s possible to block out any noise.

Not by blocking it out, but by expanding your attention level—so that it’s so vast, that it’s just another part of eternity—and you do not apply a specific mental charge to it.

In other words, that particular sound or those vibrations that person is sending out, are offending you. They are offending your sensibility. They hurt your subtle body.

But it’s possible to go up high enough where everything’s sort of a white noise. Everything blends together, if you can do that.

In the beginning, that’s pretty hard though. I’d move. That’s my advice.

But just—if you don’t do that—just make your own life as tight as possible.

Don’t think badly of the person. Because what can they do? I mean this is his karma, right? He can’t help it. He’s got a weak subtle physical body, so he drinks.

Life hurts sometimes real badly. Who knows?

I mean, we should never criticize or judge a person who does things like that, because who knows what they’ve been through in their life? Some people have some pretty rough lives and he’s just killing the pain. That’s all he’s doing.

But naturally, you’re in a different place. You’re vibrating at a different cycle. So you have to do something about it.

I’d move, or just try and be very compassionate and understanding and play music. Little things. Little practical applications.

But if you can—in your heart—understand what’s going on, it’s easier to deal with it. Because obviously this person has had a tough incarnation.

Question. Yes.

[A man in the audience asks a question, which Rama repeats.]

Ah! Yes. So you’re saying that sometimes, when you meditate, you’re kind of going beyond the body, and then you notice that your body is just sort of tilting or falling, or something like that, yeah?

[Audience member elaborates.]

Yeah. Right. And that brings you back. So that’s not a good thing. What you need to do is, learn to discipline your body to sit there. You can do this when you go into very advanced states of attention.

And the way you do it, is just by gently correcting yourself. When you meditate, your body shouldn’t move.

Some people get this kundalini-sway business. You know. It’s nauseating to watch them meditate. [Audience chuckles.]

[Mimics barfing.] OK, you get a whole room like that and it’s like … [mimics more barfing, audience laughs.] You bring Dramamine to the meditations. [Audience laughs.]

So, the body should be kept still. And if you find yourself leaning during a meditation, then correct yourself. Gently, don’t worry about bringing yourself down, that’s fine. Correct yourself. You just have to do it a few times. You know, you make a little habit of it. As soon as you start to go off, bring yourself right back.

And you’ll find after a while the body will know that and it will just stay that way.

The only time that there will be variances … in samadhi.

In nirvikalpa samadhi you go completely beyond this world, beyond the physical level of attention, and the body just, “poof.” [Rama chuckles.]

That’s it. It doesn’t stay, it’s gone. Erased. [Audience chuckles.]

Doesn’t matter. You don’t care. But.

Huh?

[Audience member asks a question.]

Yeah. Your body is, yes. Exactly. Your body’s distracting.

That’s why I’m saying, if you take the time to—every time—observe your body for awhile, and correct yourself.

In other words, this problem could go on your whole life.

Better you should take a little time and correct it early, now, and just pay a little attention to your posture. Every once in awhile, check yourself during the meditation.

And you might think, “Well, that’s gonna bring me down.” That’s OK.

If you do it just for a little while, for a month or so, it’ll become a routine. You’ll never have to do it again. Otherwise you’re going to deal with this thing forever. See what I mean?

So just use a little tighter physical attention on it, and it’ll work out fine.

Question. Yes. There’s somebody back over there.

[Audience member asks a question, which Rama repeats.]

OK. If your subtle body is damaged, how can you tell where it’s damaged, and how do you repair it?

I wouldn’t so much worry about where it’s damaged. Because usually it’s not a specific place. It can be.

But usually, it’s just more of an erosion of the whole subtle physical body. It’s just not sort of healthy.

What can you do about it?

Well, first of all, naturally you have to stop the harm that’s being done to it. But even actually before that, you have to realize that there’s harm being done to it. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say that you go up in the mountains, and it’s real cold up there. And you come into the cabin and it’s just freezing, it’s 10 below zero. Even some of the windows are open. They have to be boarded up. It’s just a mess.

The first thing to do is light a fire. The first thing, light the fire. Don’t worry about the windows. Light the fire.

Once the fire is going, that’ll provide a certain amount of warmth. And with that warmth you can then take your time, and fill in the biggest holes to start with. The biggest losses. And the heat will spread and you’ll get warmer.

Then you can gradually get the little ones, until there’s no heat loss whatsoever. Also you can make the fire larger, whatever.

So with the subtle physical body—and with one’s attention field—we start first by generating energy, the kundalini.

You’ve got to make yourself warm. You need energy and life force, to see and feel what you need to do.

Otherwise you’re in a dark room, and you can’t tell what’s going on.

So to begin with, you just need to practice more meditation. That’s the best thing you can do. And to meditate well.

Some people, they, you know—I talk to them, and they—“Oh I meditate for four hours a day.”

And you look at their consciousness and it’s like “luuughh” [Rama mimics gagging.]

You meditate for four hours a day? You know, they’re obviously not meditating for four hours a day, they’re sitting there spacing out. They’re not meditating.

There’s a large difference between spacing out into the lower occult astral planes—just kind of this weird junky, fuzzy energy—and meditation.

Meditation is sharp [Rama snaps his fingers], clear [snaps fingers], precise, perfect, luminous, shiny, happy, etheric, cosmic, dissolute. It has various forms and formlessnesses.

But it’s not this kind of spacey stuff, that then makes it difficult to orient to your life.

If that’s your experience of meditation, you’re not meditating. You’re tapping into the lower astral planes, which is not a healthy place for human beings to tap.

So you need to have good, clear, sharp, precise meditations that are filled with love and light and energy. Then you can address questions in your life.

And you start with the biggest energy losses.

The biggest energy losses for most people are relationships, inter-relations with other people. That where we lose most energy. Through our attachments.

Or just by opening ourselves up to people who may be very nice on the surface, but underneath they have a lot of problems.

And when we open our heart up to someone, that energy, of course, comes into us.

So you just have to start to examine the people in your life, and ask yourself if you’re really having fun with them. Sometimes we keep relationships going with people who aren’t what they used to be. They’re not the people we knew and liked. They’ve changed. We’ve changed.

But we keep up this association because we’re afraid to make a jump to something new. And we die inwardly.

When we’re young, we were little kids—we’d change, we’d make new friends all the time—we’re alive, we’re growing. But we get scared as adults. We get too conservative. We die.

So begin by looking at your relationships.

And usually what you do is, you just take out a piece of paper—two actually—and on one piece of paper, just put down all the people you know and associate with, who you feel are adding more to your life than they’re taking.

And then on the other piece of paper, put all the people you know—list them—who are taking more than they’re adding.

You should also include people from the past. Just because you’re not physically close to someone doesn’t mean that there isn’t an interaction of energy.

You may not have seen your ex-wife for 10 years. But there can be an interaction taking place.

Then what you need to do, when you find any that you feel are not happening—they’re not generating energy—you need to cut those inside yourself.

At the umbilical region we actually network with people.

And so what you can do, there’s a little exercise … where you just can picture, if you want to … that you’re cutting these cords that go out to everyone you know.

And as you do that, you create a sense of detachment. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them. It just means you’re cutting down on the negative energy pickup from people. The people who hurt you are the ones you love, because you’re most open to them.

Then, of course, you have to look at your own thought forms.

Are you sitting around thinking a lot of negative thoughts?

These injure the subtle body. When you hate. When you’re angry. You bring that energy through you.

Are you focusing too much on the lower occult? The lower astral? Are you contacting entities and strange low-vibe beings in weird worlds?

If you do that, you’re accessing energies that are very bad for the subtle physical.

You should be focusing more on light—energy, storing personal power—whatever it may be.

But there’s certain neighborhoods that are not healthy to traverse.

Then of course, it gets much deeper, naturally. Then we get into self-discovery. That’s my specialty.

And that’s dissecting someone inwardly. Looking at the different selfs. Making changes in them and so on and so forth. It’s what we call the Tibetan Rebirth Process.

It’s a very complex process of changing levels of attention. Changing selves around and so forth. It’s all done inwardly with the kundalini.

That’s the art of self-discovery, advanced self-discovery.

But first you have to go through all those preliminary stages, and also there are obvious physical things you can do.

Spend time in nature. Get away from the city once in awhile. Go jogging down on the beach. The ocean is a wonderful place—you know, if there’s not too many people around—to be.

To draw in a lot of prana, a lot of good energy.

Have a lot of plants in your house. Happy things. Plants generate energy. Make friends with them. Transact with nature. Nature is energy. It’s prana. It’s healing.

Drink lots of water—it has lots of prana in it. Things like that.

Physical exercise—anything that’s aerobic where you’re moving a lot—jogging, tennis, swimming, long distance walking, hopping [audience chuckles], you know, whatever.

Be very careful whom you love. Not how much, but whom.

All the usual spiritual stuff, you know.

And then the subtle body will begin to return.

A lot of people trash their subtle physical body with drugs. Psychedelic drugs and things like that, while they do certainly give you experiences in altered levels of attention, you pay a price for it.

They create some awakenings, but they definitely screw up the subtle physical.

And so sometimes … Yoga’s very good for that. Hatha Yoga, that’s good.

Sometimes fasting, not excessively, you know, with … But that can be good.

Lots of things. Whatever, whatever makes you feel good.

You might be listening to music, things like that. Just find what makes you feel gentle.

What makes you feel still. And people who have that effect upon you.

I mean, sometimes it’s fun to just be crazy with energy and laugh and be silly. Don’t misunderstand. That can be very regenerative. But you need the stillness too.

ॐ

What is the relationship between the kundalini force and the sex force? The sexual drive is kundalini.

Really, any energy within us is a form of kundalini, so it’s a particular fragrance or aspect of kundalini.

Now, like all things, they’re neither good nor bad—it’s how they’re applied. And I wouldn’t even say the effect is good or bad, but there is what we call karma.

Karma simply means that there’s a reaction for an action. There’s cause and effect in the world of duality.

So the sexual energy then becomes problematic, if you use it to enslave someone, to demoralize them, to hurt them, to wrap them up.

In other words, the way most people use sexual energy is to hook somebody. They use it to wrap them, to get control over them.

Some people use the sexual energy—particularly during intercourse—to take personal power from each other. Or it’s just a gratification of a physical sensation. You know, there are lots of ways it can be used. But those ways don’t engender a rise in consciousness.

If you use that energy to love somebody, then it works a little better in terms of raising one’s level of attention.

Some people say that if you have sex, you can’t be enlightened. That’s not my point of view. I think it isn’t really so much whether you have sex or not, but it’s what you’re doing with your attention level during that time. That’s the issue.

In other words, if you can meditate and be very high—regardless of what you’re doing—then that’s what you’re doing. You’re meditating.

But you have to be able just to slash through your desires to do that. Because otherwise, you get so caught up in physical sensation, you know—pleasure, this, that and the other thing—that you’re distracted from meditating. So you have to have a very intense degree of detachment and determination to do that.

But then it can become a cosmic experience, you see, as everything is.

But the kundalini and sex are extremely interrelated. And sexual drive is part of the kundalini.

That’s why it’s funny because some people who have a lot of sexual energy—they think of themselves as being not spiritual, because they have a lot of sexual energy. And that’s like, “tee-hee, how silly,” … uh, they’re probably more spiritually inclined.

All that sexual energy is kundalini. That’s all it is. They’d probably do really, really well in meditation.

But because in certain books they say [Rama mimics authoritative voice] “Well you know, blah, blah, you know … uuurrr,” [audience chuckles] … uh, and you figure you’re kinky, right? And you figure, what hope is there for me?

Well, from my point of view, you’ll probably do better, because you have more life force, more energy, and it’s just manifesting.

But what you need to do, is take some of that energy, and use it in some other ways, in addition to sexuality, you see.

It’s a very healthy sign. It means you’re alive. You’ve got a lot of life force.

So you’re trying to give it away. [Audience chuckles.]

Nice of you! [Audience laughs.]

Such a guy! [Audience chuckles.]

Now if you’re interested in developing the “siddhas,” the occult powers (“whoosh”), all that stuff, you have to be a little more conservative—unless you’re very, very far along—because there is the certain drop of a type of kundalini when you have sex.

So if you’re into developing the supernatural powers, then it’s a good idea to be a little more temperate.

Some occult teachers suggest celibacy. I don’t know.

But in terms of spiritual development, meditative development, enlightenment, and so on, it’s not a big deal whether you have sex or not, the question is more of who you have sex with, and what their energy is doing to you.

Because if you’re having sex with someone who’s not on the same frequency that you’re on, it can be very problematic. Because the greatest transfer—karmic transfer—occurs in … aside from meditating with someone … in sex with someone.

Particularly for women, because women tend to open themselves up more.

And just because their subtle physical bodies are so much more sensitive, they pick up the total energy of the man they have sex with.

And so it’s a real problem, because a lot of men hate women subconsciously, or just are very confused about them, or are afraid of their power, or want to suppress them, or, you know, the usual.

And so when they have sex with someone what happens is—on the one hand they’re having a good time or they’re trying to do this, or perform or whatever … you know, it’s Ed Sullivan, [Rama mimics making an introduction] “Hey!” [Audience laughs] But, but … gotcha … yeah.

But the problem is, that … it’s not Ed Sullivan. And that’s somebody. And you’re affecting their attention level, incredibly.

And if you have a lot of problems inside yourself, they transfer. So it’s, it’s good to be selective and to love a whole lot and not be attached.

It’s … it’s a very delicate balance. And the further along you go—the more delicate the balance—it’s the razor’s edge that we walk in advanced self-discovery.

So what I’m trying to say is, it isn’t important what you do or what you don’t do, it’s how.

And by “how,” I don’t mean Kama Sutra Position Number 95 [audience chuckles.] You know, “Hanging from one foot from a large building.” [Audience chuckles] You know, while chanting the mantra, “fwam!” [Audience laughs.]

But rather the quality of your love. That’s what I mean. The quality of your attention. Your ability to maintain a sense of love and giving, without any ownership. Without any possessiveness. Without any jealousy. Without any greed.

A sense of the total sensitivity of this universe that you’re colliding with, and trying to be perfect for that universe, without any egotism or vanity whatsoever.

It’s the [makes shuuuuu sound] … it’s a very fine line.

And if you don’t do that, if you’re not able to do that exactly correctly, it comes back on you, naturally. It’s a very quick karma and your level of attention drops.

And afterwards you don’t get along. You don’t feel so good. You’re energy’s down.

That’s because you didn’t … it was not a transcendent experience, because you didn’t care enough and give enough, and you got lazy, sloppy and selfish. Like most people.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You could be one in a billion, why not? What the heck? It’s worth taking a shot at, you know. Practice. Keep me informed. [Audience laughs.]

Oh, one or two more, then we have to meditate.

Yes. Another one. Yes?

[Woman asks a question.]

Oh yeah, you wrap them up with your second attention. Yeah. Most people do.

Right. It’s a habit, yeah. Uh, yeah, women are very good at it particularly. You men do it too, in a different way.

But women have really developed it as an art. They’ve had to, to survive.

You understand—the world the way men have designed it—if you can’t use that power, then what else have you got? Right, you know?

So, but the problem with it is, it limits you. It puts you into a control situation. And even though you can control someone and it protects you in a certain extent, still you’re in a controlling situation—in duality—it brings you down.

So what you really need to do is—I would suggest—is first of all, watch how much you do it. It’s fascinating.

Because we’re brought up and educated to do it. You know, it’s … and then you need to be around people who aren’t like that. I mean, people who have decided that there’s another way to lead their life, and it’s not necessary to wrap people up.

The reason you’re doing it, is because you don’t have enough power. If you had enough power—if you could unlock your own personal power—you wouldn’t need to control others.

So you need to be around people who’ve learned there’s another way of leading life.

And if you can find people like that—who feel good to you, and you’re around them, and that’s how they lead their lives—you’ll find that it’s catching.

It’s a happy disease to get. And that’s … You don’t have to control people.

And you can—you can easily stop them from controlling you.

But you have to be able to see to do that. You have to develop your psychic abilities, and increase your personal power and, you know, all the usual things. But, yeah, it can be done.

But I don’t have a simple technique for you. It’s a way of life.

Some of us lead lives like that, and we have a good time. [Makes a silly, happy sound.]

One more. Uh-huh.

[Man asks a question.]

How do you, how do you … ? Let’s say you’re going to meditate. If you’re very new to meditation—you’re just starting—I suggest that you have a watch or a clock by you and set a minimum amount of time.

Chances are, what you’re going to be doing is referring to it occasionally. Because after five minutes you’re going to say, [mimics a cranky voice] “I have to sit here longer?” [Audience laughs.]

See, so you set 15 minutes, let’s say, as a minimum. You’re going to sit there and no matter what you think, songs are running through your head, you’re thinking a million things you never would think, “This is never gonna work.” Doesn’t matter. Sit there. Do the 15 minutes.

After that you’ll find, after a few weeks, that it becomes very comfortable and suddenly you’ll look down at the watch and 20 minutes have gone by, or 25.

So what you want to do is, sit as long as it feel good. Once you’ve reached a minimum time and you’ve just gotten used to that, then just sit as long as it feels good.

Sometimes it’s fun to set little hurdles for yourself. It depends. There are different ways to go about this. There’s not one right way. Some people like to set hurdles, so then they’ll try half an hour as a minimum time.

Other people would feel uptight if they did that. It wouldn’t be a natural flow for them. So maybe it’s better then just to see how long you sit. When it stops feeling good, you’ll just find yourself stopping.

Sometimes you’ll start out, you might meditate on the heart center, or in one of these various methods, you know, that I’ll show you. Or rather as I’ll show you another night, and—or that you’re learned elsewhere—and you meditate for 15 or 20 minutes, it’s wonderful.

Then suddenly, you’ll feel your consciousness, logging back too much on the physical. The thing to do is, then maybe do a different technique for a few minutes. And what you’re doing when you do that, is bringing kundalini through, and then you’re riding that kundalini for awhile.

A time comes when you don’t have to use meditation techniques anymore. You just sit down and you’re nonexistence itself.

So as far as time is concerned, just as long as it feels really good—once you’ve reached the point where you’re past the minimum time. Good.

ॐ

We’re going to do one more meditation technique to close it out here. And this one will be the most powerful. So please listen carefully. This one’s a little complicated. So I need your second attention here.

What I would like you to do—in a minute—is sit up straight again.

And for the first couple minutes of meditation, I’d like you to focus right around the back of the neck. There’s a chakra that a lot of people don’t know about.

Most people are aware of the basic seven, or the ones in the hands or the feet. But there’s some other more hidden energy centers in the subtle physical body.

There’s one around the back of the neck—OK, it’s just, just kind of, oh—around the top of the neck.

And put your hand back there, just for a second. Just feel that area, back there.

Feel your neck, sort of, then come up, just about to the top of it, where you’re connecting with the head.

Never thought of it that way did you—good thing, huh? Yeah. [Audience chuckles.]

Right around there. That’s where you’re gonna be focusing. To start with.

What I’d like you to do, is to start focusing your attention right there, and then take that energy and feel that it’s gonna transmit from there in two lines … to your hands.

I don’t want you to move your hands, do anything with your hands. Just put them in a comfortable position. You might put them on your lap. Some people hold them like this. Or just any way you want.

But just feel that two lines of energy are going to move out from here to your hands.

And when they hit your hands, you’ll kind of feel a warming sensation. And then from the hands, we’re gonna bounce that energy right back to the heart center. And ground it.

We’re taking a very occult or a very mystical energy, and we’re shooting it through, then we’re gonna bring it into the psychic being. And it’s done in waves like we did before.

So we’re going to start with the energy here, and then just feel it pulsing towards your hands.

You can visualize lines of light—if you like or not—just feel it going there. It doesn’t matter whether it travels in a straight line, or through your arms, whatever. It gets there.

Just feel the energy going there—and it’s going right to the very center of the palms. And then it’s going to bounce back.

This is a more advanced technique now, so it’s a little stronger.

And then it’s gonna bounce back, and go right into the heart center.

So it’s just out and back. Out and back. Just do that in a rhythmic way, for just a couple minutes. And then stop. Let go. Go with the music.

Then open your eyes a little bit, and watch me meditate. Just observe, without looking too hard. You don’t want to focus too sharply.

You just kind of, you want to …

You’re not just watching me, the body. You’re watching the energy fields, here.

You’re relaxing your eyes, not looking too sharply. “Gazing.” You’re just watching. You’re letting go.

Then you might try closing your eyes again—opening them—you know. Whatever is comfortable for you.

So you’re gonna start by focusing your attention back here for a few moments. And then just feel this energy moving into your hands anyway you want to, as long as it gets there.

And then you’re gonna feel it coming back from the hands, right into the heart, right into the psychic center.

And then it just dissolves. It radiates through your whole being there.

What we’re doing is taking an occult energy, bringing it into a place—it’s like an amplifier, it’s amplifying—in the chakras and the hands, and then we are neutralizing it, and spreading it through the being.

And again the hands can be in any position. It doesn’t matter. The energy flows. And that would be good.

So please sit up straight and close your eyes for a moment. And focus around the back of the neck to start out with. And let us begin.

[Zazen music plays and the meditation begins. It lasts almost 20 minutes.]

ॐ

Could you guys stand up for a minute? Stand up. [Audience applause.]

Thank you. [Audience applause, continuing.]

On guitar, Joaquin Lievano! Bass and synthesizer, Andy West! A lot of synthesizers, Steve Kaplan!

Two Blisses, lots of astral beings, lots of energy. Thank you very much. Good night. Get one of our free brochures on the way out. Hope to see you again.

Namaste.