Connecting with Your Shakti ~ A Guest and Giveaway!
Today, I am very happy to share the good news about an exceptional new book on meditation—one with a rather unconventional approach—though quite succulent!
I love this perspective and have dabbled a bit over the years with shakti energy, primarily in yoga classes, so this book is a real treat!
I am pleased to feature a few thoughts about the book, as well as Ms. Kempton's suggestions on how we can connect with our shakti.
Enjoy!
Sally Kempton calls the deepening meditation practice that comes by awakening the shakti, “A rendezvous with yourself."
"The real gift is that it can move meditation from a good-for-my-health obligation to an exciting quest that promises to transform our vision and take us to a new level of awareness. The awakening can be subtle or dramatic, but the shakti stirs our hidden resources of understanding, insight and love."
For meditators frustrated over a mind that won’t quiet down or a practice that won’t unfold according to expectations, Kempton counsels moving beyond technique and paying close attention to our own inner energy. “Shakti becomes elusive when you ignore it,” but leaps up to meet you once you begin to attend to it.” She shows us how to recognize the shakti’s subtle signs and how to follow its lead to the adventure meditation was meant to be.
How do we connect to shakti? Here are a few of the many tips Kempton offers:
• To invoke the shakti, begin your meditation with a prayer and an invitation.
It can be elaborate or as simple as “Shakti, please show me how you want to meditate today.”
• Shakti may manifest as a subtle vibration, a throb, a sound or a glow of light. Sometimes the sensation is especially strong in one area of your body—in the heart, between the eyebrows, at the top of the head. Allow your attention to go to that center. Focus.
• Pay attention to feelings, insights, images and realizations that arise. Speak to whatever comes up. Ask the energy, “Where do you wish to take me?”
• Wait with alertness and without expectations for the answers that arise from the inside. An answer may come as an insight, as a verbal direction, as a very subtle feeling, or as an impulse to do a particular practice or focus in a particular way.
• Don’t worry about whether you have the right answer. Trust that whatever comes up is your answer from the shakti. If nothing else arises, continue to focus on the vibration as you are experiencing it. Let it draw you deeper and deeper into its field of vibration. It is taking you to the essence of who you are.
Have you experienced Shakti in your meditation or yoga practice? How?
Leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for Meditation for the Love of It.
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Want to hear Sally Kempton speak about meditation and awakening kundalini energy? Check out this 2-part interview/recording at Sounds True.
Ms. Kempton appears courtesy of her publisher, Sounds True.
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8 comments:
Jan,
I appreciate you (and Sally!) introducing this different approach to meditation. I am one of those people who has trouble quieting my mind, and creating a daily meditation spiritual practice. So this perspective sounds very intriguing!
It is a very gentle approach, Coleen, and I do think we each have to find our way with meditation. As you know from Dharma Sisters Circle, my own meditation practice has shifted immensely by honoring that very fact. Getting rid of the "shoulds" and the "I must be disciplined!" mindset and embracing a gentler approach. I hope you are finding yours...
I've experienced something like she describes here, while attending an evening listening to someone 'play' crystal bowls. Very cool experience.
Big Hug, to you!!!
This is truly wonderful Sally and Jan. I, too thought meditation was supposed to be this rigid static thing, and totally negelected my fluid nature and inner feminine wisdom.
Now, I start with a body scan, and instictively say somehting like a prayer or wish to lead me to the place in my body or experience that needs attention or has somehting to share with me.
I'm so glad you wrote about this!
Carolynn,
Your experience sounds wonderful. I have an acquaintance in Florida who gives concerts with singing bowls. I have one of her CDs and it is amazing how it can put you into an "altered state" of being and receptivity. I have not witnessed her doing one of the concerts live yet - I hear they are awesome! You were very lucky, I'd say. xo
Mermaid, thanks for sharing! I like your idea of a body scan and then connecting with your sacred self in this way before you begin your practice. Beautiful!
Hi, Jan, As you know, the Good Church Lady in me often butts heads with the BC in me. I didn't know what to think about this Shakti thing until I read what follows from the link below. Now I have a clearer understanding from language with which I am familiar and look forward to beginning this practice: The Shekinah is held by many to represent the feminine attributes of the presence of God (shekhinah being a feminine word in Hebrew), based especially on readings of the Talmud and the Kabbalah. The word 'Matronit' is also employed to represent this usage. Comparative Religionists suggest a comparison to shakti, the female energy of Hindu gods, and to the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit.
http://www.thenazareneway.com/feminine_god.htm
Thanks for yet another invitation to go deeper.
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