My Tantric Kriya Yoga Guru, Grandmaster Sunyata Saraswati passed away at his home in North Carolina on May 22, 2014. He had been ill on & off for a while and I had not heard from him in several years. Please enjoy his BIO plus 2 Articles I wrote about my experiences with Cobra Breath & Sunyata, the Memorium at end by Mark & Patricia Michaels, and a Prayer.
BIO: Sunyata Saraswati aka Andre O. Rathel
devoted his life to the study and practices of Tantra from Hindu, Taoist, Tibetan, and Egyptian systems. In 1978 he was given the title of Goswami in India and appointed the lineage holder of "Babaji's Tantric Kriya Yoga". In America, title of Sifu from the Wu Chi Tao Temple Hong Kong, he studied Estoeric Tibetan Taoist Chi Gung, Nui Gung, and Martial Arts. In 2000, he was awarded title of Sigung Grandmaster 7th degree Black Sash for the development of "Tien Lung Tao" Way of the Heavenly Dragon Internal Gung Fu.
Sunyata co-wrote the book "Jewel in the Lotus"©1987 with Bodhi Avinasha, which is also the foundation of the Ipsalu Tantra Yoga Correspondence course. I completed all 3 Levels of Ipsalu & Teacher's Training, and went on to study Qi Gung White Crane with Sunyata & his then-partner, Mataji. I was selected to receive Advanced Tantric Rebirthing Training, only 12 of us finally became Certified, which included Craig Schwartz of Los Angeles, (we taught together from 2000-2006), and Mark Michaels of New York, who is now the lineage holder for Sunyata's Kriya Jyoti lineage and Babaji's Cosmic Cobra Breath, Mark is also lineage holder for Dr. Jonn Mumford aka Swami Anandakapila Saraswati.
*Ask me about seeing auras during the Babaji Initiation with Sunyata 310-306-9838 Marci
Cosmic Cobra Breath Opens my Third Eye
by Marci Javril, Yoga Educator ©1998
In the movie "Contact" (probably my lifetime favorite film), using a short wave radio from her home in Wisconsin, Ellie reaches the faraway land of Pensacola, Florida. She wants to go further - "How far can we reach, Dad? to Saturn?" - and she asks if she could talk to her mother, who has died. Her father answers "I don't think any radio could reach THAT far", and she is discouraged, but only from that point of reference. She wants to go further. And her persistence is wonderous devotion.
As a young girl, I explored science! I was transported in time by going into the deepest details of the inner workings of ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. "If it was a snake, it would've bitten you", my mom would say, commenting on my habit of touching first and asking questions later. This ability to focus became my intuitive meditation on the Now.
Growing up, I was encouraged and supported enthusiastically by my mother in my experimentations. I wanted to be an astronaut. But by college, the high school advanced classes & high grades in chemistry, physics and calculus eventually took a backseat to performing Arts - piano, gymnastics, ballet, musicals, summer stock & Junior Community Theatre company.
Away from home, I left traditional and went oriental, studying T'ai Chi Ch'uang with Dai Lui and became initiated into Mantram and Integral Yoga with GuruDev Swami Satchidanada in 1972. I traveled alot, joined dance & theatre companies, trained in AfroJazzBlues, and as I performed in a modern jazz company & did clinic practicums with depressed & schizophrenic people, I gained a college degree in dance therapy.
By 1979, I found myself magically studying with Emilie Conrad (Da'oud), micro-movement pioneer. She took me into Continuum: movement exploration that was transcendental in its deep analysis and yet total abandonment. Sound, breath, tissue and visualization blended into an integrated key that unlocked a timeless, boundless, effortless place that I could achieve thru fine tuning my body. Wow. I wanted more. I wanted to go further.
I had read Jolan Chang book "The Tao of Love & Sex" in 1976, my first explanation of where all that energy came from and how two people could ignite it together. OK, how did you get that regular guy to do woowoo things, especially in bed? Hmm. I took the insidious approach - I simply played with the energy unspoken, and waited for encouragement. But that became frustrating...
I learned Taoist principles self-taught by following instructions, charts and diagrams in Mantak Chia's many books, the first of which contained simple rejuvenation techniques, and the series evolved into sexual enlivenment practices, like "The MicroCosmic Orbit". In 1989, Elliot Tanzer's classes taught me about using sexual energy as a healing connection between 2 people, but I got lost in a difficult marriage for a few years.
Emerging from divorce, I explored sexuality, polyamory, swinging, and sex education, taking classes from experts, including: Lori Grace, Robert Frey, Patricia Huntington Taylor, the Muirs, Jwala, Mare Simone, the Carters, Francoise Ginsberg, Margot Anand, Deborah Anapol, Alex Lessin, and ultimately chose to train intensively with the Ipsalu "pink" Tantra path.
My first encounter with the Cosmic Cobra Breath was in November 1996.
I wanted to take the Level 2 course coming up in Jan. '97 in Cancun, but need to prepare by getting Level 1 through the correspondence course. Bodhi Avinashi and I arranged for a Monday phone call Initiation into the Cobra Breath. We planned it may take one hour or more to completely understand the process, and she walked me through it, step by step.
The immediate sensation of rushes of energy were quite pronounced, and I found myself vibrating even while standing. These I discovered later are called kriyas - little streamlets of Shakti energy racing up through the tissue - like bubbles escaping from below you in water- they tickle, pour and flow upward, creating a pulsing. This became magnified more each time while doing the strong Muladhara Bandha within the Cobra Breath. It intensifies the orgasmic quality into a very pleasurable rush.
But truly awesome was my experience of the Shiva energy flowing down - first, being rather poured into the crown lilypad area, floating like a beautiful butteryvelvethoney beret, melting outward until it falls over the edge, drawn in thru the Bindu. The vortex of Shiva is intensifying as He comes so close once again to Shakti, as He reaches the medulla to greet Her, thus the shape of the cobra's head! and then rapidly accelerated by the magnetism of polarities, Shiva shots down, whacking my sacrum with a Force - as if someone was shaking a wooden bridge, knees loose, staying steady, yet feeling like flying, falling, flaying, floating, undulating spontaneously.
That was the third full Cobra Breath. Whoa! Now this was something special, I decided.
I only did 7 Cobra Breaths that first day. That was enough. The next day I did 7, each one more full of power - as though a rafter full of birds went flying, rocking the house, birds shrieking off the electric wires at the sudden rush of wind, soaring in the new heights - as tho' the disruption of balance was a welcome act of Goddess, forcing them into intricate woven configurations, dancing in the pockets of loft and lull. So went my first two days of practice.
Just previous to meeting Bodhi, I had been studying spiritual healing as continuing education & training for my professional career as dancer/bodyworker, with Brazilian clairvoyant & medium Fatima Castro. We had learned many hierarchies of healing, including the subtle body layers, chakras, and energy flows. So far in my massage and intuitive work, I had many talents for hands-off "palpation" or sensing of the energy vortexes and textures. But I had not yet actually seen any of these sensations manifested as a color (except for very occasional flashes of blue at Truth moments).
I have spent many hours in subtle energy states, dealing with what "feels" like Light forms in the auric field of my client. They are veils of energy fabric - like scarves I could touch, manipulate, unravel and shred or dissolve like cotton candy - and yet I was blind to "see" them.
The second day, after being Initiated into the Cosmic Cobra Breath, I came to SEE these forms of Light as Color - I became clairvoyant. My third eye opened. I had been prepared to receive a strong impact by having already tuned up my receptors, studying healing work for many years. My life's work and exploration had been shifted into a new perception and perspective for me, by this Initiation. I was ready for a change of view.
Here's how it went down...
I went to my Tuesday night class with Fatima's advanced students, some of us acting as Healers, some as Healees. I sat in my usual chair on the side of the room for the session, blinking, unbelieving, looking at clouds of pink light dancing and forming around the chest area? of the client lying down.
Then, as Tracey brought her hands together to form a shiny, golden triangle, lowering them down to the table, a green funnel poured out of the woman's chest, transforming the triangle. Whoops! I said to myself. Now THAT was not due to my contact lens being foggy, or the light source being affected by someone's shadow - my normal explanations for change-of-light phenomenon. More colors appeared throughout the session.
Needless to say, I pursued the possibility that I was suddenly seeing auras...! Yes, that seemed to fill out, concurring more and more. Over the next year, it came and went at first. Haltingly, sparingly, then more often.
Now seeing color as a result of someone changing "states" can be an ordinary occurrence for me. It's actually fascinating, and the scientist inside me is still researching, confirming, and questioning.
*Ask me about seeing auras during the Babaji Initiation with Sunyata 310-306-9838 Marci
Tandem Bliss Riding
©1999 by Marci Javril, Vitality Expert
Attending the Yoga of the Seven Mudras with Sunyata Saraswati and Mataji was an exquisite experience. Attending also was my tantric partner in an agreed exploration of deepening - indeed a wonderful companion, friend and lover. We joined for the week only (he would return to an East coast relationship), bonded by our commitment to expand our inner awareness thru cultivating our individual and shared Kundalini energies. To be instructed masterfully by a team of very earthy and heavenly spirited twosome was equally blissful. This lesson in solo and dual cultivation came to each person in its own unique manifestation. For me, it was idyllic.
The atmosphere of concentration, freedom, thoughtfulness, thoughtlessness, sun, heat, focus, expansion, and lots of time for me in the water! was a heady mix - enough to create a throb inside of me that became a thundering. The incredible richness of techniques and ancient traditions, the life experiences and teachings that were conveyed in the course left one wondering what an avalanche might be hidden in their home library.
Many of the exercises were headed toward manifesting a deep enough, intrinsic understanding of the energy flows, so that techniques would become more second nature during times of heightened lovemaking - the way one learns to rollerblade thru many terrains, up, down, in sand and wet - learning to guide the energy no matter where one is taken. And allowing oneself to be taken. Learning to let go, keep it simple, and let the energy teach you as you ride it. Surrender, but not to a guru. To oneself.
This surrender and focus, this dichotomy of completely giving and yet unattachment - is truly a meditation for me in my life as a tantrika. I found myself flowing, smoothly, softly, easily, feminine, receptive, strong, quieter, confident, cheerful, unrushed, happy to know my own needs, easy to accommodate, patient, gleeful, sharing freely and fully, and he, too, offering himself, agreeing to be in the Temple together, and above all - highly sexually charged.
This became a state of bliss that I grew to describe as the most comfortable feeling I've ever had.
And I began to feel a deepening sense of Connectedness - to my inner landscapes and planetary travels (the Lights and Colors, my friends, I can tell stories!) - to my partner in his magnificent attentiveness, tenderness, affection, and consideration for all my needs, and he was the most gracious healer and ShivaDaka I could've dreamed up - to all the others in the group and their dramas and how much we really are the same, and how permeable Love can become - to Sunyata and Babaji and all my mentors, teachers, parents, and savants, and the exquisite Now-ness of all teaching.
My Left finger is still tingling, Sunyata. And the three levels of Lights along the forehead are still there, brilliant and spinning. And the heat emitting from my hands when I go to lay them close to someone, and the melting when I "Talk to the Brain". The new levels of Cobra Breath extend the orgasmic state into a different texture, and epiphanies, visions, words, and phone calls occur.
We all created a vortex there that is even now spinning off onto my table, my friends, lovers, family, people that I see at the postal box, the coffee place - there is a rush of connectedness that comes thru, like the hot Mexican night air, blowing across our sweated bodies. The practices, the Qi Gung, the movements, rituals, shares, lectures, and learning and reviewing Breath sequences all fused into a glowing week long orb of making love (in many more ways than one) all the time while creating Love's bodies and was a divine experience. I am so fortunate to have a chance to find this.
Especially now, as the world has so much struggle and suffering. I remember the worst part of my life, only 5 years ago, held captive by my machismo, maniac husband. I know the terror of living in fear, not knowing what explosion of emotion might occur to rock my world. And that seems so distant now. Tantra has given me a perspective on what could never be again in my life.
Altho I know that politically we are all pawns at the Immigration border, the rags on our backs our only friends. What we are left with, is our inner Vitality, our pilot light - what we as Tantrikas are cultivating, aren't we? And I'm finding it fascinatingly playful to weave the principles into my daily activities. Watching the laundry, the children skateboarding, the news... And so I ask you - are you a survivor? Are you one to look down the ugly road of misfortune and not getting what you think you want, of hidden mutinies racing forward? Do you look toward the adaptability, opportunity, and winability?
If we could all come from abundance, we would reduce fear. Love as Nature doesn't notice that the dandelion seeds will all fall for naught on the asphalt. She isn't stingy with the petals just because She sees they couldn't survive after they're set abreeze. Love knows no bounds, no limits. And so I decided to feel my intrinsic Abundance (Connection to comfortable) more often. Instead of wondering when the "right conditions / Beloved / my turn " would show up, I know that actually, Bliss is within me all the time.
I am Loved. I am Shakti Love. With a partner or solo, the dance is always one of embracing opposites, inner and outer, self and other, and revealing that unconditional Love for each person.
I've written a poem to express my gratitude for having such an opportunity, and my meditation on the transformative journey that awaits me...
Tandem Bliss Riding ©1999 by Marci Javril
all I know is
I want more
whether it's with you
or someone I knew before
or always someone new
or someone forever more
now I know it's true that
two plus two is more than four
Ah! it makes me feel
the states that I've been longing for
what is really real...?
abundance says
there's always more
- mj 7 march 1999
Much Love and Namaste to the Cobra Family.
May we continue to connect in Love and Light for the highest Good.
We recently learned that Sunyata, who was one of our early teachers, passed away this week. Sunyata was a complex man. He had been ill for many years and defied all medical expectations. He was the person most responsible for popularizing Naga Pranayama or Cobra Breath and for recognizing its sexual applications. For this and many other reasons, he had a profound influence on American Tantra.
On a more personal level, we're forever indebted to him for passing some of his knowledge onto us, empowering us, and most of all, for encouraging us to study with our Guru, Dr. Jonn Mumford (Swami Anandakapila Saraswati).
Om, Om, Om, Om, Om, Om, Om.
Universal Prayer for Enlightenment and Immortality
In this mantra the devotee prays to the Lord for freedom from ignorance and attainment of immortality.
Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Maa Amritam Gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
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Oh Lord,
lead me from untruth to truth,
from darkness to light,
from death to immortality.
Peace, Peace Peace.
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