If you are new to yoga, you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed by just how many different kinds of yoga there seems to be. While it is great that the practice of yoga is able to tap into so many different mindsets and personalities, as a new student, you'll most likely want to begin with a style that gives you something of a sense of all yogas, before you choose a more specific one. With Arhatic yoga, founded by the late Master Choa Kok Sui, a multitude of yogas are brought together to create a practice that is rich in spiritual healing.
Yoga of Synthesis
Arhatic yoga is like a melting pot. It even has multicultural roots, with Chinese, Indian, and Tibetan origins. Whereas some yogas emphasize love and others emphasize knowledge, Arhatic yoga aims to bring forth the best qualities of its practitioners through purification. The word comes from the word Arhat, which means highly evolved being. Simply put, the goal of Arhatic yoga is to make yourself the best possible person you can be.
Living Your Practice
One of the most important things to realize about Arhatic yoga is that you must embody the teachings of it as you go about your day, even outside of the self-contained solitude of meditation and chakra healings you will undergo. Don't let this scare you off; by allowing yourself to be conscious of your practice as you go about your daily routine of commuting, working, or running errands, you can fulfill yourself even more during your individual practice and bring a newfound light into your life and the lives of those around you.
Purification and Meditation
A primary tenet of Arhatic yoga is the importance of purification, particularly in conjunction with meditation. Though meditation has long been held in high esteem as one of the best ways to achieve spiritual healing, Arhatic yoga holds that without purification, a meditation session is not going to have its intended effect. In fact, it is believed that not properly purifying one's auras before a meditation practice can backfire by causing the negative emotions to be exacerbated, rather than dissipating.
Auras, Chakras, and Kundalini
At its core, Arhatic yoga is about making one feel better, but the practice does not mean
everything is made better all at once. One's individual body must be paid attention to, along with the area's that are feeling in the most need of healing. Think of like you're cleaning your home; if your kitchen is a mess with dirty dishes that are piled in the sink and trash and recycling that needs to be taken out, you can't simply scrub the countertops with soap and a sponge, then spray some nice-smelling air freshener and declare that everything is fixed. It might be slightly less repugnant, but it didn't help in the long run. Similarly, with your own mind and body, you must cleanse the areas in most need of healing by removing what is causing them to be dirty in the first place.
Your aura is host to your energies. If you're feeling bad, guess what, your aura is feeling even worse. The purification aspect of Arhatic yoga comes through techniques that purify your aura through removing negative thought patterns and ideas that are detrimental to your spiritual well-being. From there, you can proceed to bring forth the values and thought patterns that make you a more spiritually awakened person.
While your aura needs to be cleansed, your chakras need to be enlargened through Arhatic yoga. To continue the analogy of the dirty kitchen, consider your chakras to be like a decorative piece, like an attractive bouquet of flowers. If you put it out when the kitchen was still dirty, it would look nice, because flowers look nice in just about any circumstance. However, it would be a bit sad, because its full potential would be neglected. If your kitchen is clean, the flowers will look more beautiful; if your body is purified, your chakras will be able to be enlargened so much more.
Chakras are simply energy centers. While your aura is more encompassing of your whole self, chakras have individual functions within your body, which work to create your aura. If your chakras are cooperating, then you will have a strong aura. Focus on your chakras individually and work hard to not allow any of them to fall by the wayside. Just like one bad apple can ruin a bunch, one bad chakra can ruin an aura, and subsequently, one's overall sense of self and well-being.
Once your chakras and auras have been purified, you are likely to feel some sort of awakening of what is known as Kundalini energy. This is the energy that is needed for your body and brain to evolve. Sounds important, right? Well, it might be more than a bit overwhelming to you, as you didn't realize you had this power inside you. This can result in so-called Kundalini Syndrome, in which the awakening of Kundalini energy creates overwhelming bodily sensations. Be aware of these before practicing and consult with your teacher about any concerns you might have.
Conclusion
If you are able to find an Arhatic yoga class, you are well-advised to take it. You are bound to find new spiritual awareness and an awakening of a self you might have not known was within you previously.