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Q Uando I embarked on the study path of the song, I thought the voice was the end. Then I discovered how much the voice is actually the vehicle. And more and more frequently I happen to use it as a means.
During pregnancy I met my Kundalini Yoga teacher, I practiced and rediscovered the aspects of breathing and the voice that lately escaped me or that I did not know. I therefore thought of asking some questions to Simran Kaur , my teacher, and give you friends of Siing.net this interview.
Yoga the practice that changes your life
Yoga the practice that changes your lifeGiulia Mattioli: first of all, thanks for accepting this invitation. Can you introduce yourself to friends of the Sing.net portal? Tell us shortly what you do and what path has brought you so far.
Simran Kaur: My name is Laura Zorcù, but my spiritual name is Simran Kaur. Dress and work in Bologna for many years, but I am Tuscan of origins. I met yoga in 84/85, in 86 I met our master yogi Bhajan and I studied several years with him. I took the spiritual name and from there it started a little my path.
It was then the meeting with Guru Dev Singh, the first teacher of Sat Nam Rasayan, a healing technique, who led me to deepen even Yoga better. My passion has always been healing. So I became a teacher of both Sat Nam Rasayan and Kundalini Yoga, then trainer.
Subsequently I did the school of massaphymiotherapy, which allowed me to be a health operator recognized by the Italian health system and thus began my search for an alternative massage technique that was combined with what I had been doing for some time, that is, yoga and Meditation.
Then I studied and became a former of the "Bones for Life" method which is a method of postural realignment born from Feldenkrais and dedicated a lot to women because it takes care and prevents osteoporosis. In general I have always dedicated myself a lot to healing, in particular of women: young, elderly, in pregnancy and post-parto. My master Yogi Bhajan believed that women were the "first teacher", who were the basis of our society.
In the meantime, I studied crystal therapy, the purification of the stones with a healing intention, the creation of the "bad" for meditation. This path that I have done here and that I am continuing I must say that it is truly stimulating because it allows you to study continuously, to always be on the way, you always have something new to discover, to know.
GM I would immediately ask you some clarification on the concept of vibrant universe. Can it be useful to start from here to go into the topic "voice and meditation"?
Sk Vibration belongs to everything around us. Even the inanimate things around us have a vibration, the universe vibrates because in any case it resonates with everything that happens around. Just as for the breath, you can become more aware of how the vibration of a person, a thing or an event moves to understand their effects on a physical level, at a mental and spiritual level. So becoming aware of the vibration of things allows you to be more listening to the essence of vital energy, to resonate with this energy.
GM you talked about the breath. For the singer, breathing, awareness of the breath is very important, drawing energy from the breath to produce the sound.
Sk us in Kundalini Yoga we use the breath to connect with ourselves. Pranayama is essential because by expanding your breath you have the opportunity to cure yourself, to go to dissolve physical tensions and use the sound in a more conscious way. Sometimes the vital energy that lies in the body is blocked or asleep. Every experience we live in life brings with it of the tensions and emotions that we go to accumulate in the body. When we practice Yoga the movements we do or the positions we keep are always combined with breathing. In this way, the accumulated or blocked emotions are released and therefore you are restored or to create an internal space for which you feel more relaxed, freer and consequently more in tune with yourself.
The importance of the voice in meditation
GM What is the function of the voice in meditation and yoga?
Sk The voice manifests our personality very much, our emotions. We in yoga use the voice as a vibration, to be able to enter a meditative state. So the voice becomes more a research tool, to go and see how your body and mind resonate. Depending on how the voice vibrates you can get to understand what your deep tensions are, your emotions and even solve them, relax them and this allows you to feel in greater balance with what surrounds you. The interesting thing is that this produces a state of meditation. So here is a difference: the normal voice (spoken and sung) has many colors, many facets, many styles and intentions, while the voice used in meditation is more "vibration that moves energy". So we use the vibration produced by the voice to become more aware of Prana (or vital energy) that moves in us and thus enter a meditative state.
GM what can this meditative state be used for?
Sk this meditative state serves above all to know our infinite part, therefore to reconnect with our soul and feel part of the universe. We have this means which is our physical body to have a concrete experience in the world. In other words, life is the only possibility for our infinite soul to have an earthly experience. But in any case we remain infinite and the awareness of this allows us to be even more real and more present. We can thus develop a part of the mind that is the "neutral mind", in which we are no longer reactive towards what happens in life but we enter a state of listening that allows us to hear what that relationship or that experience produces in us. In this way we can relax and see better what is the essence of that experience, than that relationship. This listening training allows us to be present, to be ourselves and to remain in the "here and now". Yes, what we do through yoga is to awaken to be able to be very present in the "here and now", because only in this way can we fully enjoy everything that happens in life and grasp the messages that invite us to make certain paths. If you run, do not listen, do not hear and go ahead with your head down, all this you lose it and you also lose contact with yourself. So in the end you find yourself anxious, in crisis or you don't recognize yourself anymore.
GM What is a mantra? What features does it have? What does the words contained in the mantra mean?
Sk do not focus so much on the meaning of the mantra, but rather on what a mantra is: a mantra is a key, it is a vibration that produces a state. It is a sacred word, sacred because through its vibration it manages to change the state of your consciousness and therefore to bring you to a certain space of consciousness. Each mantra has particular characteristics. The literal translation of the mantra is not so interesting, because sacred words have nuances, which are really difficult to translate literalmeate in our language. For example, the word "love" can be described according to the type of love, its intensity and the situation in which it is felt or expressed. The interesting thing of the mantra, rather, is the one it produces through its repetition, because the language when repeating a certain word touches some points of the palate and this is to stimulate different brain areas. So each mantra is specific for something, each mantra moves a specific emotion or takes you to a specific state of meditation. This is in poor words a mantra. And it can be experienced in different ways: it can be sung, listened, or thought. Through all these ways you can perceive the vibration of that mantra.
GM So even if only thinking about mantra I perceive its vibration and can have an effect on my meditative state?
Sk yes, even if just thinking about it. Even if the language physically does not touch the points of the palate that we said, however at mental level leads you to put all your attention in a certain direction and therefore leads you to make a meditative experience. And very often meditations are combinations of position, breathing, repetition of the mantra and eye concentration. All this pushes your "system" to stay, and when you are for a certain time in that particular state a specific experience is produced. A meditative condition.
GM So can you confirm that being in a circle with multiple people and acting or singing a repeated sequence of sounds with concentration and awareness can constitute a sort of meditative experience?
Sk certain, in yoga we use a lot the sound just to connect. Before starting we make a mantra vibrate and make this mantra vibrate we need it just to connect between us, to create a "field", a condition in which we are together and we can have a shared experience. In the experience of being together there are those who guide, there are those who follow, but at that moment the experience has an ensteenth that is for everyone at the same level. In the sense that when the group is united through vibration there is also an equal experience. There is no longer a difference between the group's individuals, but there is one. In this "field" there is also protection, in the sense that what happens in the group at that time of union always happens safely, for good. Everyone puts his vibration, his intention, and if the intention is positive, create a protective situation: nothing bad can happen at that moment in the group.
GM who practice yoga uses the verb "vibrate" instead of "singing" a mantra. What is the difference between spoken and sung voice and meditative voice?
Sk as we have already said, the difference lies in the fact that the normal voice is the expression of emotions, the manifestation of what we are and that we are experiencing. It is communication in relation to the other. Instead, the voice in meditation is a tool that allows us to connect, with ourselves, with our being infinite and with the universe. In meditation the voice is a research tool, intimate and aware. Let's not forget that, as we have already mentioned, in meditation the voice is also a healing tool, because it goes to free tensions that are also at the origin of inconvenience.
Could GM
Sk the singer actually when he sings and is truly connected also realizes a form of meditation. It depends on how you sing, on the intentions you have while singing. If the intention is to put the voice out is an account, but if instead the intention is to listen to the voice, and make your being vibrate through your voice according to the universe that surrounds you then it becomes almost a form of meditation. Even physically when you sing you feel that a channel opens, you have the feeling of being a vibration channel. When this is the case and everything is open, the heart opens and expressing the voice through the heart. And when this is the case, that comes and comes far away. It is said "a mantra to get to your destination must be recited with the belly (or with the heart)". Because if you start from the mouth, with your throat closed, your voice and the meaning of the words you say fall after a few centimeters; But if you do it taking your breath from the belly, making this channel vibrate starting from the belly then the words you say really come to your destination, your vibration comes deep and far away.
GM be useful to practice yoga for a professional singer or actor? Why? Can artistic expression be improved through the practice of yoga?
Sk yes, it can be very useful because in any case yoga is a path of self -awareness and it is for everyone. It's not a gymnastics, it's not a religion. In the yoga you are called to listen to you, to recognize yourself and also to perceive what your basic personality is. It can help you understand that there are "more" and "minus", that there are always opposites even in the most banal things. The singer can basically do yoga in order to have greater awareness of himself, his breath, his vibration, the flow of his vital energy. In this way, it can notice in time of the blocks that it can have, understand that once they have solved them do not disappear forever but it may be that they return to manifest themselves. We all have them. Because we are "emotional", we accumulate emotions, therefore these emotions always produce tensions in us. It is inevitable. The body, the mind, the spirit are always united and there is always a resonance between these three aspects.
Thanks Simran Kaur. Sat Nam!
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