Gongs to the Rescue Perhaps the most common symptoms of spiritual malaise today are substance abuse and addictive behavior. Many researchers and therapists have recognized this connection between abusive addictions and spiritual disconnection, including psychiatrist...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Mercury Retrograde in Vedic Astrology Mercury Retrograde – The Good News Mercury begins the first of its three annual retrogrades for 2020 on February 16 and ends about three weeks later on March 9. Most people dread these...
The Secret of Consciousness In 1977, one of the first books to be published about Kundalini Yoga was “The Experience of Consciousness,” a small collection of lectures and meditations by Yogi Bhajan. The book is almost impossible to find today, yet it explains the...
The Perfect Gong for You People always ask me what is the best Gong for them? There are the practical questions of course: the cost, the size, the manufacturer, and so on. Yet the real question to ask: Does the Gong match your vibration, your frequency? Every object...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Saturn Makes a (Big) Move in Vedic Astrology Saturn Makes a (Big) Move This January 23rd, Saturn moves into the Vedic sign of Capricorn, and it affects us all in significant ways. Saturn, the slowest moving of the visible planets,...
The World’s Shortest Kundalini Yoga Practice It’s no secret that having a consistent and constant Kundalini Yoga practice is essential to physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. A daily sadhana will carry you through all the changes, challenges, and...
Gongs to the Rescue! Many of us see the Gong as an instrument of transformation, meditation and deep relaxation. Yet one of the early uses of the Gong was for rituals, ceremonies, and for removing or defending against negative energies, such as acts of nature and what...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Winter Solstice in Vedic Astrology Winter Solstice and the Light of the Soul Winter Solstice arrives at 10:19 pm CST on December 21st for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. In Vedic astrology, winter solstice is the...
Prosperity Flows: The Mantra That Works! Prosperity can be defined as not simply having the abundance you need to fulfill your needs, but to realize that all your needs are pre-fulfilled. Yogi Bhajan, the master teacher of Kundalini Yoga, said this about prosperity:...
Play the GONG, Heal the World With Jupiter entering the sign of Sagittarius this month (see my current Astrology newsletter), opportunities abound for learning, teaching and travel to foreign lands for spiritual advancement. And this is especially true for gong lovers...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Feeling Fine with Jupiter in Vedic Astrology Feeling Fine with Jupiter Jupiter is regarded as a positive influence in most people’s lives, and that is especially true this month as it enters it’s the Vedic sign of...
Kundalini Yoga: An Adventure in Consciousness When I first began practicing yoga in 1967, I found a book called Be Young with Yoga. Since I was only 17 at the time, I was actually more intrigued by the book’s pictures of women in leotards than with staying young. But...
Too Many Gongs? Is it possible to have too many gongs in your life? Have you ever said during a gong relaxation where more than one gong was playing: “Stop! Stop! There are too many gongs! I can’t hear them all.” Can you have too many gongs of your own to play? Do you...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Your Birthday in Vedic Astrology You Say It’s Your Birthday! The most important day of your life is the day your soul chooses to come into embodiment. In other words, your birthday. On this day, the planets and stars are in a...
The Master of Kundalini Yoga Yogi Bhajan is often called the “Master of Kundalini Yoga,” a title that was given to him at the age of 16 by his teacher, Sant Hazara Singh. The title of “Master” is often used to describe someone who has expertise in a particular area or...
The Sound of Earth “It has dimples!” she said as she looked at my gong. The Earth Sound Creation Gongs certainly look different from any other gong. They are distinguished by a pattern of small nipple protrusions all over the front of the gong, producing a seemingly...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Mercury & Venus in Vedic Astrology Waltzing with Mercury or Twerking with Venus? Until the end of this month, Mercury and Venus are dancing together through the Vedic sign of Virgo. The question is: who is leading and what does...
Meditation to Know the Unknown This month I completed my favorite 2 ½ hour meditation for what I believe to be the 36th time: Kirtan Kriya or the Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation. Yogi Bhajan called this meditation the way to “experience your own infinity … to know the...
Magical Moon Gongs Of all the planetary gongs played by yogis, sound healers, and therapists, the Moon Gongs may be most divinely human of them all. Even more the Sun, and especially in non-Western cultures, it is the Moon of all the heavenly bodies that has had the...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Where’s Your Passion in Vedic Astrology? Where’s Your Passion? When lovers meet and the fires burn bright, passion rules the day. But the question is: what is that passion? Is it a physical passion? An intense interlocking of...
Are You Kundalini Curious? When my wife and I owned five yoga centers years ago, we offered all types of yoga. Of course Kundalini Yoga was our “favorite” and our personal practice, and we needed to come up with some answers for the students who came to our centers...
True Gong Love: 5 Countries, 3 Weeks I am writing this on the day after completing a 21-day Gong Training tour of Europe with my wife. We met the most amazing gong friends, students and gong makers in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and England. It was a whirlwind...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: From Emotion to Devotion in Vedic Astrology Emotion to Devotion My teacher Yogi Bhajan once said, “You have two choices with emotions. An emotion can either become devotion or commotion.” This is certainly true from July 22nd to...
Kundalini Yoga: What’s the Angle? When I first began teaching Kundalini Yoga 45 years ago, I remember the teacher in my ashram told me, “Kundalini Yoga is the science of angles and triangles.” That sounded wise and mysterious. I liked science, being a one-time physics...
Take This Gong Outside! With the approach of Summer Solstice, I got the following email: “I was invited to a yoga festival to play the gong during relaxation. Any advice about playing the Gong outside?” First of all, playing the Gong outside is amazing. The ambient...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: The Sun Made Me Do It in Vedic Astrology The Sun Made Me Do It Summer Solstice arrives June 21 in the Northern hemisphere at 10:54 AM US Central time with the Sun in the Vedic sign of Gemini. In Vedic astrology, the Sun enters...
40 Ways to Do 40 Days In almost every spiritual tradition, there is an understanding that a profound change in consciousness generally requires 40 days to accomplish. The story of Jesus Christ fasting in the wilderness for 40 days, the parable of the great flood for...
A Small Gong Is Good to Hold Many people start their gong playing career with a mid-size gong that can produce a wide range of sound. The 24” to 32” gongs are the friendliest to learn to play, not as hard to control as a small gong and easier to manipulate than a...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Talking About Your Spirituality in Vedic Astrology Talking About Your Spirituality This month brings an 18-month focus into everyone’s life around understanding the proper balance between intellect and spirit. Can you talk the...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Your Life with Jupiter in Vedic Astrology Your Life with Jupiter – A Preview Would you like to get a glimpse at your life from November 2019 through most of 2020? At least one area of your life? For the first 3 weeks of April,...
Three Kundalini Practices You Must Master By some counts, there are over 3,500 Kundalini Yoga practices one could do. Yet there are three practices that when done regularly are really all you need. These three Kundalini Yoga practices do it all. They balance the five...
THE SOUND OF THE GONG When we hear the gong for the first time, it challenges us to experience sound in a surprising and almost totally unique way. It is unlike any other musical instrument, both in how it behaves and how it interacts with the listener. All musical...
The First Step to Happiness: Commitment For any type of yoga, the most important indicator of success is the ability to commit to a daily practice. In Kundalini Yoga teacher training, we learn that in life, the first step to happiness is commitment. With...
Writing about what you love is easy. After writing three books about the Gong, and working on my fourth, I’m passing the 100,000 word mark about this amazing instrument for healing and transformation. Yet in some way, all that really needs to be written about the Gong...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Mercury Retrograde in Vedic Astrology Marvelous Mercury Retrograde Well we might as well be excited about it! Mercury is making its first retrograde of 2019 starting March 5. Mercury’s retrograde journey takes it backward from the...
The Magic Mantra All mantras are magical. Indeed, some of the earliest uses of mantras were to control the elements, appease the planets, or to awaken latent powers. But there is a mantra in Kundalini Yoga that is sometimes called the “Magic Mantra” because it...
Know Gong, No Pain When I train people in Gong Therapy and sound healing, I always learn new ways the Gong is helping people in their healing journey. From diminishing addictive responses to enhancing glandular activity, the gong can play an important role as a...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Mars to the Max in Vedic Astrology Mars to the Max On February 6th, Mars enters the Vedic sign of Aries where it remains until March 22nd. Mars in Aries is like Lady Gaga on the red carpet at the Golden Globes award. Both are so...
Happiness Is a Warm Sat Nam When was the last time you felt really happy? Hopefully when you just finished reading the last sentence! Because happiness is not a condition we achieve or something we once had. It’s simply an acceptance of our natural state in the...
The Gong From Another Planet Planetary Gongs, or gongs that are tuned based upon the orbital considerations of the planets, are very popular with people I teach. The planetary gongs are said to bring the various astrological attributed of the planets into our lives...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Super Blood Moon Total Eclipse in Vedic Astrology Super Blood Moon Total Eclipse! On January 20th at 10:41 pm Central Standard time, we will experience one of the most dramatic lunar eclipses of the decade. The complete blackout of...
The Mysterious Chakra Gongs Yoga teachers and sound healers often work with the chakras, or energy centers, in their sessions and classes with students and clients. And of course the Gong is also often used in these healing environments as well. There are many ways to...
Heal Yourself, Heal the World: Yogi Bhajan on Winter Solstice Yogi Bhajan, the master teacher of Kundalini Yoga, often said that the two most important times of the year to meditate are the days surrounding summer and winter solstices. Here is a portion of one...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Winter Solstice Arrives in Vedic Astrology Winter Solstice Arrives December 21st On the longest night of the year and the shortest day, the day of Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere, we celebrate the return of the Sun as...
Gongs Are Priceless I train people all over the world how to play the gong. And by the end of first day of training, everyone wants to buy one. And then everyone finds out how much a nice gong can cost. The reality is that for a higher quality European made gong (the...
Ignite Your Fire As the seasons change with an occasional frosty morn, our attention turns to the warm and cozy. Warm foods, heated yoga classes, and fireplaces become attractive as we bring more fire into our lives with the approaching winter months. Fire is an...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Time for a Karmic Overhaul in Vedic Astrology Your Brain On Mercury Retrograde “Mercury goes retrograde” is the Chicken Little chant of astrologers. Don’t sign contracts, don’t buy a phone, don’t move, don’t get married, don’t plan...
Stay in Bed – Do Yoga Having trouble getting up for your morning practice? Just want to climb into bed instead of doing that evening meditation? My advice: do it in bed. In Kundalini Yoga, there is a short three-part morning exercise that we teach all of our...
The Chau Gong: Honorable Ancestor The Gong that has the longest history of continuous use, as well as being the most prolific and popularly played, has its origin in the Han Dynasty of China (206 BC to 220 AD). This was the Golden Age of China, comparable to the...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Jupiter in Scorpio & Lover Come Back in Vedic Astrology Jupiter in Scorpio and Lover Come Back! October begins with a beautiful triangle of Mars, Venus and Mercury in very favorable signs, giving us the energy, creativity, and...
Do You Want to Keep the Change? I often joke that as a Yogi, it helps to believe in reincarnation because it seems it must take several lifetimes to discover all that Yoga has to offer. When going to Kundalini Yoga classes on a regular basis, you will discover that...
Sleeping with the GONG Have you ever heard anyone snoring during a gong relaxation? It can be a little annoying, especially if it turns out to be yourself. Yet it does seem natural to zonk out during a deep relaxation. But if you do sleep with the gong, you may be...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Got My Venus Back in Vedic Astrology Got My Venus Back! After spending a month in the Intensive Care Unit, Venus is finally well again. August was a debilitated month for Venus in Virgo, creating problems in relationships and...
Be Bright, Wear White, Spread Light Ever wonder why Kundalini Yoga teachers wear white clothing when they teach? I began wearing white clothing in 1994 ago after I returned from a Summer Solstice White Tantric course. Almost 25 years later, I still wear all white...
Gong On the Run: Moving Into Sound For most people, listening to the gong is a static experience. You relax on your back, a single gong is played in one position, and of course magic happens. But what if you could hear the gong in a different way? What if the gong...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Venus in Virgo in Vedic Astrology Virgin Lover: Venus In Virgo August begins with Venus entering the Vedic sign of Virgo where it remains all the way until the end of the month. Venus is the planet of sensuality and love while...
Kundalini Summer Time Cleanse Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga, possessed the royal teaching majesty of a Leo and the healthy diet consciousness of a Virgo. And in those roles, he often gave his yoga students special diets to follow to support them in their...
Gongs for Cats, Dogs, Whales and Eagles Yes, I am finally doing it – writing about Gongs and pets (and actually all other beasts). After all, why should only humans get to be gonged? In my gong training courses, I almost always get the question: “Will my cat or dog...
Welcome to Cosmic Vibes! THIS MONTH: Talking about your Relationships in Vedic Astrology Talking About Your Relationships July brings us a partial solar eclipse on the 12th and a total (and extra-long) lunar eclipse on the Full Moon of the 27th. Our friend Mercury...
Gong with the Wind, Roar like a Lion The most common and widely available gong in the world sometimes gets no respect. I’m referring to what is popularly called a “wind gong” or perhaps more properly called a “Feng” and sometimes referred to as a Lion Gong. The wind...
