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Mastering 21 Surya Kriya Steps – Activate The Sun Within You
Come join our community of like-minded people who are committed to living a healthier, happier life! We'll show you how to practice the 21 S
What Is Surya Kriya?
Surya Kriya is a breathing exercise that helps to clear your mind and body. It is a type of yoga that helps you relax and improve your overall physical and mental health.
Click here for detailed 21 Surya Kriya Steps!
sun yoga
Are you new to yoga? Are you looking for the different poses and postures of this miraculous pure yoga to stay fit? Well, you are at the right place.
sun yoga, sun salutation, sun salutation yoga, surya pranam, sun salutation steps, sun salutation for beginners, yoga sun
sun yoga, sun salutation, sun salutation yoga, surya pranam, sun salutation steps, sun salutation for beginners, yoga sun
“Try to act as saints and sages. Let your ego go and let your sainthood prevail. Calamities are nothing but challenges, challenges are nothing but a wakening call to improve our being, and improved being is nothing but God’s own self in us.” -Yogi Bhajan.
The last few days have been fraught with one challenge after another, calamity upon calamity, at least as far as I was concerned. My mom ’n pop marijuana delivery service has been undergoing quite a transformation in the last few months. One of the more fundamental changes is that we now have a full staff working with us instead of my partner Josh and I doing everything by ourselves. In the beginning this was a dream come true and brought with it relief and more free time. As the weeks went on it became more difficult to find reliable drivers and we had speedy turn over in the ranks, expect for a few loyal and capable gems that have done nothing but impress. Trying to get the last few shifts filled was starting to seem impossible, so I started feeling a little bit desperate.
Because of my desperation I overlooked it when one of our more flakey drivers, let’s call him The Flake “forgot to show up” for work two weeks ago. I didn’t like it but I figured I’d rather have him work some days than not have him at all. I was desperate after all. Then last week he blew off his shift again. Still my desperation was ruling my decision-making so I wrote an email explaining that he couldn’t do that again or I’d have to let him go. I would rather keep him on, but he would have to start being reliable. Then this past week he didn’t show up for his shift for a third time, without any notice at all. I had warned him to have more respect for the job and those who have to pick up his slack when he does this, but here he was, shirking his responsibilities again. So I finally ignored my desperate fear and followed the tug from my gut; I fired The Flake.
It’s funny, as a devoted fan of Melrose Place years ago I spent time when I was young dreaming about what fun it would be to fire someone. I pictured myself, a male version of Heather Locklear, in my power suit, passing out pink slips and one-liners with relish and ease. I was the star, and I had power. But in truth it’s not like that at all. Firing a person is not as pleasant or exciting as old 90’s soap operas would lead you to believe. It feels yucky. I don’t know quite how else to describe it. It wasn’t wrong or bad to fire The Flake, in truth he had to go. But there was no relish, no ease. I only want my business to run smoothly and I would have preferred to have a different outcome where The Flake learned responsibility and we hug and cry and learn and grow, and yadda yadda. But it didn’t happen that way. For the good of the company I had to let him go. It was the right decision as evidenced by the wave of relief that hit me when the deed was done. But it left a mark on my soul that lasted throughout my day.
I felt disrespected. I felt used. I didn’t feel powerful and I had no one-liner. Firing The Flake today had actually put my fire out. All I had was my company and my desire to see it succeed, and this guy was flying in the face of that. It’s hard for me to understand how someone could do this after being given an opportunity when they needed it. But I realize I don’t need to understand. His lack of competence has nothing to do with me so why was I taking it so personally? I am relatively new to this whole “being the boss” thing; it presents me with a whole new set of challenges, both in terms of paper work and people work. In this business it’s not like we can take out a craigslist ad. We have to trust the people we hire so we need to work with friends and friends of friends, and I was feeling like we had tapped those resources out. Desperation was seeping back in. I had fired him without any plan for covering the shifts whatsoever.
I won’t go so far as to say firing The Flake was in divine order, but it certainly was a relief and it brought more order to my life. I realized I would rather take on the shifts myself than schedule someone and make plans, only to have to break plans when they decide to be a flake. I am not desperate anymore, I am empowered. I began to understand this was the universe’s version of a training camp. I am learning to hone my skills and build a thicker skin. As my success continues to increase, so too will my work force, and I am not going to have the luxury of feeling wounded every time some flake doesn’t do what he is supposed to do. As this new revelation dawned on me the heavy energy I’d been carrying throughout the day began to dissipate. The clouds parted, so to speak, and almost instantaneously a thought flashed through my mind: there were two perfect candidates for the job who I knew from my daily mornings spent writing at Starbucks. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of them before.
I fired The Flake because I felt the tug, and I’ve learned to follow those tugs. Almost as if on a schedule the universe went from feeling confusing and desperate to feeling peaceful and sending me ideas. I asked the first of my two new recruits if she was interested in the job. She accepted. I then mentioned to her that I had a second position open and was thinking about asking another barista. Before I could finish my sentence she interrupted to suggest the very same person I was going to inquire about. And then she informs me that they are actually dating. I don’t know why it surprises me that things can work out so perfectly when that consistently seems to happen around me now since my gazing quest began. I guess it’s time I really start to trust the universe, and live in the present moment, at peace. I replaced The Flake with two new drivers, the universe answers in abundance again. Even when it looks like things are going wrong, they are, as Yogi Bhajan would say “wakening calls to improve my being.” Well thanks Universe, I’m feeling better already.
“If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” -Lao Tzu
SIDE EFFECTS: Shit can still go very very wrong.
BENEFITS: It turns out that when shit does go wrong it’s the universe giving us the gift of an opportunity to self-improve. So in a way, nothing can ever go wrong again, and that feels pretty damn cool.
“Meditation is not sitting with closed eyes. Meditation is: whatever you are doing, you are doing.” —Yogi Bhajan
Over the weekend I became an uncle. My niece Charlotte, who we call Charlie, was born on Saturday night after 18 hours of labor. Then on Sunday I celebrated at the Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood. Gay Uncle Brian, I like the sound of that. I have been steadily gazing either each morning or each night for all the days contained in the tenth minute, except for one due to morning and evening clouds. Each gazing session feels more substantial now, I think because it’s always longer than ten minutes. Ten minutes, a block of time. A chunk of life. A consequential section of my day reserved to gaze at the ball of fire, in direct contradiction to one of our culture’s most deeply held beliefs: looking at the sun can make you blind. While there is no conclusive scientific data to suggest you can go blind from looking at the sun, because it’s so goddamn bright, we don’t question that you can. It’s logical, it would seem, because if you try to stare at the sun at high noon it hurts, a lot. You do feel like you are going to go blind. So this belief has lasted centuries, virtually unchecked.
Even the data that suggests it might be unsafe specifically mentions UV light as the main cause for concern. During the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset the UV index is zero which means that in all likelihood it actually is safe to look at it during those times. Whether it can give me super powers like some of the ancient claims suggest remains to be seen. After almost ten weeks of gazing, though, I feel pretty confident saying it’s not harmful to the eyes. I can see better, both the visible world and the invisible world, and both are beautiful, and both are real. As the sun light continues to cultivate peace inside me, and make tranquility blossom I find myself enjoying the moments of my life more. And not just the big moments, like becoming an uncle, but all moments. I find wisdom as I watch birds. I find joy feeling warm grass on my back. I feel happiness from, in each moment, feeling okay. This is the invisible world mingling with the visible world, creating a cocktail of holy wine which makes me drunk with pleasure.
The visible: birds, the invisible: wisdom. The visible: grass, the invisible: joy. This new awareness of my external surroundings brings with it a new awareness of the invisible fortress surrounding my heart. And with awareness comes freedom. As I become aware of my inner walls, so illuminated by sunlight I begin to understand my patterns even more clearly. This awareness transforms behaviors that were once habits into choices. Once you are aware of something you do it becomes a conscious choice. Even if you still continue to do it you can no longer call it habitual, it is chosen. This empowers me to choose something else. This change in my demeanor and my disposition puzzles me. There has always been grass and there have always been birds, so what’s the big deal about ‘em now? The big deal is that I wasn’t present before. Sure, I walked on grass and I knew there were birds, but I didn’t care. My attention was distracted on my personal importance, on the story I tell myself about my own life. What was I going to achieve in life? What was I going to do today? Why can’t I find a lover who challenges my mind, fills my heart, and fires up my groin (not from STD’s but from passion) all at the same time? Now, as the sunlight burns through my inner smoke, I see that jumble of muddled thoughts for what it truly is: imagination, fantasy, invisible. And I start to live again, unbeknownst to even myself at first, in the present moment.
I hear birds singing at least twice a day now. They always sang and I usually turned up the volume on my television. Now they sing and they capture me, they speak to me. The sun is the unifying energy hanging high above our planet making everything grow. It is the one thing that all of life has in common. Whether you are plant or an animal, a flakey employee or a cheating husband, a weather pattern or a thought pattern, it is because of the sun that you are able to be what you are. So as I drink in more sunlight it seems to be tuning me to a common base frequency that all of life shares. I am daily reminded of our oneness again. Through the influence of the solar energy I truly feel the connection again between me and every single other thing in the universe. I seem to have a new and striking rapport with animals. They come to me and seek me out, I think to encourage me to continue on the quest, or maybe they can simply smell the sunlight on me; and they love that smell. My life is becoming a meditation because for the first time in a long time, I am doing what I am doing. I am present.
SIDE EFFECTS: None
BENEFITS: I am living more mindfully and deliberately in the present moment, with only the tiniest cooperative effort on my part. I am going with the flow, finally, and when you do that you are basically carried down the river of life.
2 Months Complete
Today I reached another milestone, ten full minutes of gazing. I have officially been doing this for two entire months now so I find myself again looking back and taking an account of my life. Bottom line: it’s better than it was thirty days ago. It’s not better because circumstances have changed. I haven’t been offered a book deal or anything and my collective still skates by with just enough money to make it to next week, but still somehow I know my life is better. I feel better. I finished my early morning chanting today a little after 6:00am so the sun had a thirty minute head start to take her place high above the horizon and shine brightly. But to my surprise she was gentle today. Despite being thirty minutes into sunrise the light emanating from the molten core of our solar system was the most soothing and welcoming I had glimpsed in days. I feel like I just ran a marathon and the gentle sun today was my tall glass of water. I stood side by side with Brett on the little patch of earth surrounding the parking meters on Highland Ave in front of the Golden Bridge Yoga Studio. Traffic was whizzing past us on the street, and joggers were whizzing past us on the sidewalk. But we simply focused our eyes above it all and gazed. This promises to be a very good day, I think to myself. And I was right.
Brett and I had just made the decision yesterday to start a Farmer’s Market in the Golden Bridge parking lot and had a very productive planning meeting, all hopped up on sunlight and caffeine. Then as the day wore on our Farmer’s Market vision transformed into something more along the lines of an indian bazar where there will be artists, and musicians and face painters along with all the organic fruits and vegetables anyone could want. This new vision stoked the flames of my excitement even more. But where were we going to find all the vendors? Later that evening I was schedule to attend and art opening with my friend Kelly and upon our arrival I noticed it had a section with booths where many local artists where selling their products to the attendees. I collected contact information better than a hoover collects dust. The Indian Bazar was already off to a very good start.
My relationship to the Animal Kingdom has also been transformed since the sun-gazing began. On my post-gazing morning hikes with Nikki almost every single dog we pass comes up to me to say hello. Today in the park it was the same way. Birds fly low over my head and hover near by. At one point Nikki and I noticed a moth and starting discussing it’s wing structure and comparing it to a butterfly. In the midst of this it landed on the grass, and with the tiniest grain of sand eyes, stared straight at us. They say a moth is attracted to the flame so I wonder, has the sunlight set me on fire? About two weeks ago I was wandering home from the coffee shop blissfully after writing an entry in the blog and decided on a whim (read: tug from Infinite Intelligence) to make a pit stop in the park two blocks away from my house. I sat down on a bench and took out a book. Then I noticed out of the corner of my eye a tiny young bird and a beautiful golden yellow butterfly playing in a cluster of trees and bushes just a few feet away. The bird was brown with a splash of white on his belly. The butterfly was riddled with black speckles and perfect symmetry in his wings. I am not sure if they were playing with each other or just in proximity to each other, but they were carefree and beautiful. My attention had been captured. Over what must have been thirty minutes I sat transfixed on the dance of colors and shapes and life unfolding before my eyes. My heart was with their hearts. I didn’t know this at the time but I must have been making as much of an impression on them as they were on me…because they followed me home. Once I had regained my faculties I tried to dig into my book. But the words just seemed like senseless black smears on dingy paper compared to the butterfly and the bird. I closed the pages, gave the creatures a last wonder-filled look of farewell and headed home.
About a block and half from the park I stop to admire a family of black crows chowing down on something in a patch of grass. I must have startled them because in a rhythmic plume they rise like black smoke and spread out on the telephone wire above. They are safe there. With my eyes tilted toward the sky now I notice for the first time the same tiny bird and the same yellow butterfly hovering overhead. Where they following me? I laugh at myself for the thought because, that’s crazy, right? Who did I think I was, fucking Snow White. I shake this off and amble peacefully back to the house. As I’m rounding the bend toward my mailboxes a butterfly dives down from the sky and flys low past my face. It was him, the same bespeckeled butterfly. Instantly I being looking around and right over head the same tiny brown bird hovers. Almost in unison they seem to bid me a fond farewell because they both turn and fly off, seemingly now satisfied that I had made it home safe.
I am home safe. The sun has caused the entire universe to rally around me. I click into my place in the universe now like a small but essential cog clicks into a watch. I am a defining particle inside the atom that is our planet, without which the entire thing would be different. I know that now, and the more I believe it the more true and reliable it becomes. This first phase of the sun gazing (1-3 months) is said to be the emotional/mental phase, where all benefits are directed toward one’s mind and heart. Now two months deep into phase one I can say the sun has taken it’s scrub brush to my mind and heart and is washing them clean. I feel it. My friends and neighbors feel it. And it seems the creatures of the earth are starting to notice it too.
SIDE EFFECTS: You may fritter away an afternoon captivated by the marvels of nature in your back yard or the local park. BENEFITS: The marvels of nature in your neighborhood are going to take a shine to you, and may even follow you around from time to time.
I picked Nikki up again this morning after my chanting session and we made our way to the top of the mountain to gaze and hike. My weary legs didn’t want to hike today, but my love handles did. So with love I got a handle on my indecision. Nikki and I made our way to our usual cactus covered temple, gazed at another whiter brighter ball of fire today and then took a hike.
As we hiked my skin baked in the sun and I felt alive. We were surrounded by nature even though we were surrounded by the city. The canyon and the early morning hours are both like an oasis from the hurried, scrambled pace of city living. I am not in Los Angeles at those moments, I am in love. In love with life, and every day more and more in love with myself. We hiked slower today because of the cries of our thighs, and at this more measured pace we noticed things. The clouds had formed a thick line above the horizon. It was beautiful. The canyon is blooming with many types of flowers I had never noticed before. There were red ones, white ones, yellow ones. It was a smorgasbord for the senses. This same buffet of beauty was here yesterday but my awareness was not. Awareness, it seems, is the deciding factor between what we experience and what we miss. Kundalini yoga is nicknamed “the yoga of awareness” because the exercises and techniques are all designed to produce a mental state that is more peaceful and receptive, able to appreciate the details as well as the broad strokes.
I accompanied my friends Nikki and Kelly to look at a property they were thinking about renting. The house was currently occupied by two special effects artists so there were many unique details to feast my senses on. They had a green room in their garage so they can make videos in front of that screen and make it seems as if they are anywhere. They have a masked mannequin in their shower stall that scared the crap out of both Nikki and myself as we toured their home. A wall in their hallway was fur covered, and fascinating. Amidst all of this unique odd-ball creativity one particular detail jumped out at me most. In one of the bedrooms there were bull horns mounted on the wall. Jammed into one of the antlers was an empty box of Hungry Man TV Dinner. As I processed what I was looking at I felt this internal tug that said, look again, there’s more. I am sensing those tugs more clearly and more often since sun-gazing began and when I follow them I am always amazed in some way, so I did a double take. Suddenly the message was clear. The universe was telling me to take the bull by the horns and stope eating food that isn’t good for me, to stop being such a hungry man, and p.s. stop watching so much television. The Hungry Man TV Dinner jammed on Bull Horn art had served it’s purpose, I got the message. So now, I figured, he could take that god awful thing off his wall.
Over the last few days I had been literally bingeing on TV and tasty treats . I don’t usually do that anymore, it was a resurgence of a past habit that I just embraced last week. Four days and twenty episodes of Arrow later the universe was chiming in. I don’t need to binge on the things I enjoy anymore, I can enjoy them from my new place of awareness. Hmm, I wasn’t aware of that before, that actually sounds nice. But as happens with habits the afternoon turned into the evening and I turned on the TV. I had two more episodes of the season left and I wasn’t going to let some off the wall message from the universe that had been mounted on a wall get in the way of my season finale. The universe always has to have it’s way though. Every link I tried to access would freeze or time out. Finally the links started popping up with a message that I wasn’t connected to the internet. I try youtube and that’s working just fine. So I try my links again, no internet. So I try youtube, internet is working in full force. I try again: links, no; youtube, yes. What the fuck was happening? Then I remembered the bull horns and I thought bullshit. I want to watch Arrow. But the Universe had spoken. In a bit of a huff and against my will I turned my attention to youtube.
As I browsed I found many exciting links and videos about sun gazing. Within minutes I was fully absorbed in my explorations on youtube and even started posting comments on some of them, which if you know me, is something I never do. I don’t even have Facebook. I went to sleep feeling blissful from all the new information I had been absorbing. I didn’t need to watch Arrow because I had been shot with cupid’s arrow to reawaken my love for my research into this practice. When I woke up, on a whim I typed “sun gazing” into google and to my amazement one of my comments on one of the videos was the second listing in the search results. How was that possible? It wasn’t even an actual video, it was just a comment. And it was only posted fourteen hours ago. As giddiness over takes me because of the exposure this could mean for the blog, I already know how it happened. I followed a tug from the universe, although not willingly at first, and my subsequent actions had been blessed. Them’s the rules, folks. I didn’t make ‘em, but I’m sure glad I’m learning them now. When the universe tugs at me now, whether from bad art or mozart, I’m going to make sure to listen.
SIDE EFFECTS: When you listen to the intuitive messages sent from the universe you may not get to watch the season finale of a show you love.
BENEFITS: In place of the season finale, your moment by moment existence starts to become more exciting than any cliffhanger you can watch on TV