You know, the teachings are not enough. They must be enlivened by Grace.  You can read the teachings. We read them in translation from the ancient texts, and you can read them for decades and never have a real experience.  You certainly will get understandings, aha moments, intellectual breakthroughs, but without any real depth.  The experience of your own Self is a feeling, not a thought.  It is a deep quality of beingness, not a….

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Root of Meditation“

Yoga explains that there is something worth finding, but it is located inside.  Yoga gives you a peek at it – a glimpse of your own Self.  And tools to attune yourself to your own Self – ways to progressively surrender into who you already are.  And yoga gives you proof.  Proof that there is a…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Expansive Experiences“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I wanted instant enlightenment. I didn’t get it.  I wanted the express elevator to the penthouse. I had to climb the stairs.

At least I knew where I was headed for I’d had amazing experiences after receiving Shaktipat from my Guru. This inner awakening showed me that there was more to me than I dreamed possible. I’d had a peek at Consciousness. It was a promise of my future. It made me willing to do the climb.

Like stairs with landings, at each new level I grew into expanded perceptions and profound understandings as well as progressively more and more bliss. Fortunately the bliss starts early. My early morning meditations anchored my day in an inner spaciousness. The bliss kept me in the game. 

I moved through the process very physically. As the energy of Consciousness climbed my spine, I experienced lots of kriyas, spontaneous physical movements. These are Kundalini, clearing away inner blockages.  After these clearings, my energy channels were more open to the flow of bliss.

I loved it all and wanted to share it, so I took Teacher Training. As a yoga teacher, I have helped thousands of people get free from pain. Our Svaroopa^® yoga poses come from my kriyas, thus using Kundalini’s intelligence for healing and empowering you on all levels. Best of all is the bliss. While pain might bring you in for a yoga class, it is the bliss that brings you back.

This is especially tangible after the closing Shavasana and Guided Awareness, particularly when you roll on your side and hear the short teaching being offered by your teacher. In that inner ease and blissful depth, the teaching rings with truth, giving you a new understanding of yoga – even a new understanding of your life. You are growing into Self. 

Vismayo yogabhumikah.[1] — Shiva Sutras 1.12

The stages of yoga are truly amazing.

Your inner process unfolds in predictable stages, like the blossoming of a rose. Your early experiences of bliss lead to a quiet inner peace that carries into your day.  It lies just under the activities of your mind. Like seeing into a lake with ripples on the surface, you discover an inner depth in the deeper waters. Your thoughts can no longer…

[1] Vismayo yogabhuumikaa.h

The feeling I had after my first yoga class was the beginning of how I always feel now. The peace, the awe, the inner vastness, the lightness of being, the ease and openness —­ I was experiencing Self.  My first yoga teacher didn’t give me words for it.  I could only call it “that yoga feeling.”  It made me want….

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Dedicated Time“

If you’re going through pain now, simply name it.  You are the one who is naming it. You’re not your pain. You’re the one who’s naming it.  Yes, you have to deal with it.  But you’re not your pain. You are more, so much more.  The best way to discover that you are more than your pain is…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Freedom from Pain“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Love is essential. It is Divine Essence, expressed outward.

Your Divine Essence is found inside, which yoga calls “Self.” When you are experiencing your own Self, your eyes shine with light and your heart overflows. Other people experience it as love, but you know that it is God, shining from within.

The only time you ever have a problem with love is when you look for it outside. When you feel empty and you want someone else to fill you, it never lasts. It might work for a while, but never for long. The reason is that you’re looking in the wrong place.

Getting love from outside is like trying to fill a dry well.  The way that wells work is this: you dig a deep hole that fills with water from underground. The source is called the “aquifer,” like an underground lake that comes from rainfall or snow melt that soaks into the ground.

If your well runs dry, and you have a water truck come in to fill it, the new water will soak in deeper, replenishing the aquifer. You cannot fill a dry well. The water must come up from a deeper source.

Love works in a similar way. It comes from deep within. In yoga, you base yourself in this deeper dimension of your own being, so you are always full. Not merely a well, you are a geyser! Your inner experience is sourced from your own Divine Essence, so you never run dry.  Thus you never look for others to fill you.

A friend recently showed me a photo of his new granddaughter. His face lit up. His voice changed. He giggled. I’ve never heard him giggle before. It was delightful!

What is happening here? The child is not old enough to say, “I love you, Grandpa.” He’s not getting love from the infant. He is tapping into his own essence and overflowing from inside.

Why doesn’t every child make him feel that way? Why doesn’t every person make him feel that way? For him, love is related to DNA. If there’s no shared DNA, there’s no love. It’s like you have to compare your genealogical charts before you allow yourself to feel love.  How limiting!

On Valentine’s Day, let your love expand to include everyone in your neighborhood, everyone in your town, in your county, in your state, in your country. How about everyone in the world? The way you do this is to dig deep so your well is being filled from the inside out.