Customer Reviews

The Kundalini Yoga Experience: Bringing Body, Mind, and Spirit Together

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The most outstanding quality of this excellent book is its accessibility to both the novice yoga student and the experienced teacher. It is a rare treat to find a book on Kundalini Yoga which encourages the reader to work alone if there are no expert teachers around. It does this in a safe, confident and careful manner, leading the reader through the initial stages to the final, satisfactory stages of practising this powerful yogic system.

The book is set out in four parts :
1. Numerology and the chakra system
This aids the student in choosing which kriya and meditation to practice in order to balance the chakras.

2. Your practice - preparation for practice.

3. The kriyas and meditations - beautifully photographed and clearly explained with smiling, confident models.

4. Kundalini components - an essential explanation of yogic elements.

The book includes precautions, an excellent glossary, some concise tables explaining the chakras and our ten bodies.

As a teacher, I have used this book for several months, finding it so well produced, I can work from it very easily and I have also recommended it to my students.

This book is organized quite well. The layout is simple and straightforward. You are taken step by step in creating your own yoga routine. First, you learn about numerology and then use it to calculate which yogic bodies you need to work on. There are two meditations to choose from per yogic body. Next, you learn about the chakras and use a chart to rate your abilities within each chakra. You then use these scores to determine which chakra to work on first. Finally, you are shown how to compose an entire routine consisting of warm-up exercises, your personal kriya (chakra exercise), deep relaxation and wake-up sequence, your personal yogic body meditation, and a completion mantra. There is easily enough information in this book to provide for years of diverse methods of practice.

The book is also very well illustrated; all of the exercises are quite easy to emulate. The final section illustrates and expounds upon aspects of the exercises including breath, mantras, mundras, asanas, and bandhs.

Something to note also: this book is primarily an instruction manual. As such, it doesn't always adequately or fully explain everything presented. If you are, in fact, looking for a training guide and not a book that espouses the metaphysics of yoga, this is not really a problem.

It is not often you get to read a book that has been simply written in an authoritate manner by people who clearly walk the walk, as well as walk the talk. Well written, beautifully illustrated there is nothing to stop anyone who is interested beginning to learn the discipline safely and to their benefit with immediate affect. This book is much needed and is a credit to its authors, both of whom have been hard at work serving others over many years as they learned their trade through practice and service to others. This book has a refreshing approach where self diagnosis made easy and gifted to the reader in a way they can relate to and understand. True at a physical level but also for the emotions and for the intellect. Remedial measures are explained and made simple and then it is up to the reader whether to proceed or not, if they choose to then the remedial measures of today become the preventative means of tomorrow. Available in the USA and Canada as The Kundalini Yoga Experience and in the UK as Kundalini the Essence of Yoga - same book different title both by Guru Dharam Singh & Darryl O'Keeffe. Both the authors are real yogi's of our time yet follow a traditional lineage influenced by Yogi Bhajan, an unbeatable combination and a must for any bookshelf.

This is a simple and easy way to start a yoga practice. It provides several easy to follow and understand excercises, as well as several ways to aide in choosing which set to do. Wonderful Book!

I have been a practicioner of kundalini yoga for over 10 years, and a teacher since 2004. I love this book because it covers all the basics of kundalini and yet has some very creative sets. I especially love the way the book is organized. It clearly explains the order of a class and is beautifully organized by chakras--giving two to three sets of exercises that focus on each chakra. The only drawback I have found is that many of the sets are very, very challenging and are not easy to teach to beginners. . . most of them are not ideal for introducing someone to kundalini (although a few of them are quite fine). Beautifully layed out and photographed, lightweight and thin enough to travel with easily.

This book synthesizes quite well the purpose of Kundalini Yoga. The first part on numerology and chakras is well written and provides relatively unbiased information. Parts 2, 3 and 4 on the other hand stand a little behind the first part as neither Yoga nor Kundalini can be limited to Hatha Yoga, the purely physical part of Yoga most people understand of Yoga.

As correctly stated in part one, the purpose of awakening the Kundalini is not a question related to the physical plane, its purpose is to awaken another level of consciousness within. It's a spiritual issue. Awakening the Kundalini should not be done unless your spiritual consciousness rises at the same time. One should not try to raise the Kundalini without being correctly prepared to it (on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual planes), as it might be harmful. Playing with a tool one does not understand is dangerous.

Parts 3, 4 and 5 still provide useful information to start Yoga and meditation, but the book is not sufficiently self-contained to properly tackle Hatha Yoga.

So i'm rating this book 3 stars because of the lack of consistency between the first part that focuses on the spiritual and consciousness aspects, while the rest is too much focused on Hatha Yoga but without properly explaining the how's and why's. So either this book was aimed at being a compromise between the hidden and actual purpose of Yoga and the physical part of it (Hatha Yoga), or its authors do not understand Yoga as a whole.

I like this book because it allows one to create an individualized practice via the chakra questionnaire and yogic numerology. If one has no experience with kundalini yoga, it may take some time to become familiar with coordinating breath, mantras, mental focus, and movement, though it certainly is worthwhile. It just takes practice time to coordinate it all. There is plenty of material presented to work with. I have taken a few months of classes with a KRI (Kundalini Research Institute)certified instructor and find the book is helping me to bring the practice home for days I do not attend class. To find an instructor in your area is advised, as I believe the class structure lends itself well to using this book for home practice.
For kundalini yoga beginners I also suggest the book, Meditation As Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Forceas it delivers articulate definitions of the benefits of yoga for the bodymind. Peace to you.

The information provided on numerology and the chakras is amazing, but other than that, I didn't find this book particularly informative. I also wish it provided more of the actual history and purpose behind Kundalini energy.

this is a Good book for beginners and has many excellent kriyas and meditations. Also describes the Chakras and how they can be activated. Very informational too I'm excited to use it.

This is a good book for reference after taking a class. The photos are good for review. Some interesting info on the practice of Kundalini Yoga.