Like Wow Man! I really hope you can handle what I’m about to lay on you. This is as heavy as it gets. You dig?

Why the ultra passé hippy lingo? Preparing to see the baby boomer relatives at the holidays? No. It is because this traditional yoga practice often brings on a certain kind of psychedelic bliss that can best be described as “trippy”. 

It was while I was enjoying the practice of Yoni Mudra that I first saw the shining circle of fire I think of as the eye in the pyramid. While performing this I have experienced many cool geometric fields of light work lattices, brilliant universes populated by star-like points of light and even inky blackness so intense that I had to repeat a mantra to keep me company so the fear of dark nothingness would not overwhelm me. This is not for the faint of heart. Read on if you dare, brave one.

Yoni Mudra is an effort to seal off all your senses and re-experience the quiet of the womb.Yoni is Sanskrit for “female reproductive organ” and the Yoni Mudra is a gesture designed to help one crawl back to this point of origin without actually leaving ones meditation cushion, chair or yoga mat. You can do it anywhere but it is usually done sitting upright after some relaxing breathing exercises that help to set a mood of receptivity. It can however be done cold with no preparation, as long as you have a few minutes to spare and are in the mood to experience the eternal void.

Here’s how:
Put your right thumb in your right ear and your left thumb in your left ear and spread your fingers wide as if you were imitating a moose’s antlers. Now wiggle your fingers and stick your tongue out. Oh wait that’s the nah, nah … nah, nah mudra. Ok, stop laughing and let’s get serious. The thumbs do start in the ears with the other fingers outstretched. Bring your index fingers to your closed eye lids. Put the tips of your middle fingers on either side of your nostrils. Finally, place your ring finger on your upper lip and your pinky on your lower lip. Inhale deeply through the nose and then more or less simultaneously, press the thumbs to close the ears off, exert gentle pressure on the eyes with the pointer fingers, shut the nostrils with the middle fingers lightly pushed in and squeeze the lips shut between the remaining fingers. Stay like this till you need to breathe. When you do, take a few breaths and enjoy whatever comes with your eyes closed. When you are ready for more, take a deep breath and press as before. Repeat this whole process a third time. After the last go round rest completely with eyes closed, watching the images in front of you change and shift. Open when you are done.

Peace Out!
Right On!
Keep the Faith!

Photo Credits: 3datelier.com,  Spiritualhealingportal.com

Ray has been a yoga practitioner since 1969.  An honors graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, his livelihood has been based on television production, art publishing and now yoga supply manufacturing and sales at YogaLifeStyle.com. Until 1997, Ray only shared his yoga practice with friends and relatives. Then he started teaching a class in his hometown of New Paltz,NY and soon after was offered the opportunity to participate in the inaugural teacher training program of well known master Sri Yogi Dharma Mittra. Ray recieved his certification and his Sanskrit name “Yogeshvara Om”, in September of 2000.
 In the lineage of Swami Gupta, our main credo is simply, “Be Nice.” According to Ray ” Through love and good intentions, discipline, hard work and faith, progress is assured.” More musings and yoga instruction like this can be found at Ray’s blog Everyday Yoga.