A guided meditation on moving energy up and down the spine while breathing deeply, framed as a way to face inner struggles the instructor calls the dark passenger. The practice draws from ancient yogis in the Himalayas and connects to a book chapter on confronting mental shadows through yoga.
I welcome you to the practice of immortality. I thank you for taking this step towards self-love. So let us begin. Just relax. You can close your eyes. It's all right. With meditation, the inner world becomes more beautiful than the outer world. Have the courage to close your eyes. Have the courage to take your awareness deep within. Within your mind, chant the mantra Om silently. Feel the vibration of the Om. The sound and the vibration coming from deep within, helping create synchronicity between each atom. And as the vibration of the mantra Om spreads throughout the body, feel your muscles relaxing more and more. Your awareness to your heart with me. Chant the mantra 3 times. Full breath in.
Om.
Feel just like In a serene lake, if you throw a stone, the ripples travel in all directions. In the same way, as you chant the mantra Om, from the center of your heart, the vibration travels to the whole body. And as the vibration travels, the whole body goes in a state of deep relaxation. Now, no need to speak the mantra, but connect your breath to to the mantra. Your awareness to your spinal cord and your brain, just your spinal cord, as if in your body nothing else exists. All the awareness to the brain and from the medulla oblongata, the spinal cord connected Feel the spinal cord going down, all the way down to the coccyx. Take your awareness to the brain. With the mantra Om, inhale and gently feel the awareness going down from the brain through the back of the neck, through each vertebra, As you inhale, the consciousness goes down to the coccyx region. When you have inhaled fully, all the awareness to the coccyx, and within the coccyx, feel a divine energy, a powerful energy, an ancient energy. And then with the mantra Om, exhale and gently let your awareness rise up through the vertebrae all the way to the top of the head. When you inhale, try to pull in the breath as comfortably as you can but as powerfully as you can. When you exhale, try to Push out the breath. Inhale and the consciousness goes from the head to the base of the spine. Exhale and the consciousness rises up from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Let us try.
Full breath in. Ooh.
Try to increase the control on your breath, and as the control on the breath increases, You will find you will have much better regulation of your emotions. You will be able to witness thoughts and emotions as they come and go, but try not to attach to any of the thoughts. Just hold on to the breath and visualize the breath as the flow of energy. As you inhale, a powerful energy goes down from the top of the head through the spinal cord to the base of the spine. And as you exhale, this ancient energy within the base of the spine awakens and rises up. Visualize this. Like a volcano exploding after millions of years. Your own inner strength and power with your exhalation slowly rising up through the spinal cord to the top of the head. And as this energy moves, let your body go deeper and deeper into a divine state of meditative relaxation.
O.
Exhale.
O.
Oh, oh, oh. Oh.
Oh. Oh.
Let everything else melt away. Only the spine and the breath remains. Let your consciousness go deeper within, and as the consciousness goes deep, you will find the inner universe will reveal itself. But even then, just witness your focus. Let it remain just on the breath, just on the movement of awareness from the head to the base of the spine, from the spine to the head. Just 3 more times, your breath as deep as it can be. Inhale.
Om.
Exhale.
Oh. Oh.
Oh.
Ooh.
Relax. Let go of your breath. Let go of the body. And as you feel this deep relaxation, let there be gratitude in your heart. Gratitude for this peace, happiness, and meditative bliss that you experience. Slowly, slowly come back. Move your fingers. Touch your hands to your beautiful face. And slowly open your wonderful eyes. Welcome back. This was the meditation from one of the most important chapters in the book, Facing the Dark Passenger. I would like to welcome you today to this session because today is a momentous occasion. Today is World Yoga Day, and no matter what yoga means to you, a time will come in your life when you yourself will face your own dark passenger. Dark passenger is this, this shadow that we carry inside us. Some people call it the karma, some people call it the mental health struggle, some people have their own names. And what happens when we see the dark passenger? Some are overwhelmed by it, some are consumed by it, but some are blessed with the strength, power, and education of yoga. They face the dark passenger and they come out the other side, conquering their inner demons, victorious, evolved. These are the people who we call heroes. Yoga has the power, the wisdom to make us the hero. Yoga is what gives us the strength and capability to fight our dark passenger, to overcome it, to heal No matter what emotional ailment we are suffering from. So today, on World Yoga Day, I would like to thank my ancestors and yours, the yogis who uncovered the secrets of yoga as they sat meditating high in the Himalayas. Under the banyan tree. As they did not see night and day, they just continued, persevered with a passion to unlock the secret of the mind, body, soul. Today we thank the yogis who left behind these secrets for all of us, the secrets that I spent my life studying, learning, practicing, mastering the secrets that every day I teach to you, and the secrets that I wrote in the book The Practice of Immortality. So today, in the World Yoga Day, let us thank those yogis. So thank you so very much for being here with me.
Namah Shivaya.
