Vancouver, Winter 2015
I arrived at a church hall in Kerrisdale on a Saturday morning in November to a sea of white bodies and white head wear. There was a feeling in the air similar to a line of people waiting to bungee jump or parachute out of a plane. The head count was estimated at 200. Energy was buzzy with eager anticipation, and some fear from first timers who had heard stories of the extremities to expect of this day.
There was a large group of us from the Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training course with Yoga West, Vancouver. A one day White Tantric Yoga Course is mandatory to graduate the Kundalini Yoga teacher training course, as taught by Yogi Bhajan. There were also many people there not on a teacher training program. Some had been to many White Tantric Yoga days in other places in North America, and some in other countries. We were a combination of total newbies and of old students of this practice. My group had all heard stories of how this practice takes you beyond your mind’s ideas of physical limitations, and merges you with spirit, which knows you are unlimited, and therefore it will be your spirit that helps you to keep going for over an hour sometimes, with exercises that in a regular Kundalini Yoga class may be done for just a few minutes. We all confessed some nervousness and worry before. However, I think it was agreed by many of us, that it really wasn’t that bad… and for some of us the benefits were radically huge very soon afterwards.
The day began with us seated in rows facing our partners, forming a chain. The facilitator/esteemed spiritual teacher sat on a platform at the head of us. She described a stream of cosmic energy moving above our heads, gathering suffering, grief, pain, our karma. If there was anything in particular we wanted to chuck out into this stream we were invited to do that. This stream would then form a point and flow straight to the teacher, who would then, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, direct the flow to the Golden temple, a place where the divine abides. We were handing it all over to a spiritual teacher to hand to God/the divine energy of creation, for a kind of purification.
We were guided to choose an intention for the day. I chose to see life through eyes that were not coloured by any pain of past experiences. To dump all into that cosmic stream. I realized this was a pretty big request…
I had 4 days afterwards of experiencing a highly charged powerful sense of being in a very clear way. I felt as happy as a child, when it came to my birthday, a few days later. It really was as if I was seeing through eyes of no past pain. I felt held by a sea of angels, but at the same time like the angel was me. It was quite incredible. I’m 48yrs old, and I felt as energized as I use to when I was in my early twenties. I was free of some usually very apparent to me, feelings of self punishment and regret. I walked up a steep hill on a walk I do often, and I didn’t notice the steep hill at all! I walked it as if it was flat land.
Additionally, Guru Raj, one of our teacher trainers, told us the last YTT week-end, that life can get a little crazy while doing this course, things will change. On that note, I have longed for my daughter and granddaughter to come to live in Vancouver from the UK for quite a while, and suddenly, on day five after White Tantra, and on day 32 of 40 days of our Kirtan Kriya meditation commitment, I received a call from my daughter. They are suddenly moving to live in Vancouver next Monday…
The extent of what I have needed to organize last minute has been quite huge! But this is wonderful news...
The facilitator for the day, Sardarni Guru Amrit Kaur Khalsa had such a grace and gentleness about her. It was very inspiring to see gentleness in a strong position working so powerfully and effectively to help others.
Kerry Bjarnason in my group in the YTT program said this about White Tantra:
I loved, loved, loved it. I would go again in a heartbeat. Very good experience for me on the personal, partner, group energy levels. Certainly confirmed my belief in the veracity of the 1st sutra
(The first sutra: Recognize the other person is you)
Me: (to my partner of the White Tantric Yoga Day, Simone from Calgary)
What is your understanding of why this one day course is considered compulsory by Yogi Bhajan for teachers to graduate?
Simone Zabik: To activate discipline and emphasize the importance of caliber to my current state of mind within the practice of Kundalini yoga. It is 100% imperative that each teacher must experience this as life is a sequence of experiences. As yogi Bhajan declared – “keep up and you will be kept up.” White Tantric is done with reverence thus personal karma is let go of. This is essential in developing caliber to teach Kundalini Yoga, as a teacher must truly live each moment in reverence and whole heartedly practice this.
by Maya Lee
For more information on White Tantra Yoga, visit http://www.whitetantricyoga.com