Thank you for your response. Although I disagree with most of what you wrote, it allows me to expand on my experiences and my current thoughts.
I live in Panama City, Panama overlooking the ocean in one of the high rises. I started meditating about 4 months ago after reading Ennio’s book. I started doing internet searches on the some of the terms in his book that I knew were distinctive to Kriya Yoga and found that there are several different methods of obtaining enlightenment or God consciousness. The ones I focused on were Kriya Yoga (Yogananda), Kundalini Yoga (aypsite.org), and Kundalini Tantra (Satyananda Saraswati). Because I am not so far advanced in my studies, I thought I would study the pranayama techniques of all of them and then follow the path that I identified the most with.
Every time I tried to meditate, my overactive mind would take over and distract me so my meditations were not that deep. I resolved to spend just 20 minutes in the morning and night everyday practicing the pranayama and then a few minutes of meditation afterwards. I quickly began to enjoy these sessions and started looking forward to them because my mind was busy doing the various breathing techniques and so didn’t distract me with worldly thoughts or desires. I started having various experiences and enjoyed the time “feeling” my body and the effects of the pranayama.
One of the first pranayamas that I practiced in my life was breath of fire in my yoga class. The method I used is 100 to 200 forceful breaths and then relax in Siddhasana and Sambhavi Mudra holding my breath until my body told me it was time to start breathing again. A normal session that I began doing 4 months ago would start with Talabya Kriya, some breath of fire, alternate nostril breathing, Om’s in the chakras, spinal breathing (kriyas), basically I would go from one exercise to the next and if I felt good doing one thing I would stick with it. After a few weeks of doing some spinal breathing, I started feeling current. Experimenting, I then started doing a Satyananda Kriya that involves holding the breath and concentrating on Shambhavi Mudra, Kechari Mudra, and Mulabandha. I had to stop doing this because some force would pull my tongue to the back of my throat and gag me. I quickly realized that my frenulum was much longer than most people’s almost reaching to the tip of my tongue and that I was tongue tied. Doing this Kriya was activating something and trying to pull my tongue up into the nasal pharynx but because of my frenulum, my tongue was not going up. This caused my tongue to bunch up and the back of it was stimulating my gag reflex. A few days later I started doing a different Satyananda Kriya, an exhalation exercise that involved Maha Mudra. While retaining the breath outside the body I would focus on Nasakagra Mudra, Uddiyana Bandha and Mula Bhanda. By doing cycles focusing on different parts of the body, you don’t pay attention to the breath and it allows you to hold the breath a lot longer.
The first time I did this I realized that this is a very powerful exercise, I wonder what would happen if I combine this with my inhalation exercise of Shambhavi, Kechari, Mulabhanda. Which I did and then proceeded to do 3 cycles of them together – First exhale into Nas, Udd, and Moo; then inhale into Sham, Kech, and Moo. After three cycles of this during which I saw lights in my chakras, I thought that was really powerful and went into Siddhasana (I was always sitting in Siddhasana) and Shambhavi Mudra waiting for my body to tell me it is time to breath again.
I immediately heard what I thought at the time was a large Jet airplane flying extremely close to my building. The noise got louder and louder and I thought my god not only is that plane going to hit my building, it is going to hit my very floor! And WHOOSH, it sounded like it flew right over me. I thought that was weird for a plane to be flying so close – normally they fly a few miles out over the ocean and turn past where I can see them to land at Tocumen Airport. I was feeling a lot of bliss and didn’t even think to get up and look for the plane. I then started watching a boat out on the horizon. After it crossed my field of vision I realized that I was not breathing and had not breathed for about 15 to 20 minutes. I sat in the breathless state for another 20 minutes until I got up and nervously but with much elation paced around my condo for 30 minutes or so until I went back out onto my balcony to see if I could go breathless again. I then continued to do this until about 3 in the morning after going breathless 5 or 6 times.
I now know that there was no plane. The noise was something inside me turning on. The next day in my yoga class I noticed that I went breathless during a round of breath of fire and also in Shavasana at the end of class. When I got home, I did a simple round of breath of fire and immediately went breathless. I then realized that something had changed within my body and I no longer needed to do Maha Mudra or the sham, kech, moo Kriya to attain breathlessness. A few days later I realized that my body kept going into breathlessness on its own to finally not breathing at all. When I wake up in the morning, I am breathing. If I watch my diaphragm it will flutter for a few seconds and then stop within a minute or two of waking. If I walk up a hill or exercise (place a demand on my body for more oxygen), my diaphragm immediately kicks in and I start breathing. If I close off my nose with my fingers, my diaphragm will start moving. The breathless state to me doesn’t mean stopping all air from coming into the body, a subtle amount is coming in through my nose but it is not being pushed out or pulled in from the vacuum created by my diaphragm. I believe that my body is living off of more prana and less oxygen now that my kundalini is active.
Stopping the diaphragm is extremely important because your egoic thoughts (or life situation) is tied to the diaphragm. The ego needs time to exist – a past or a future. You are consciousness and exist only in the present moment. I have not read this in a book or been told this by anyone, I have experienced this. I don’t understand all of it yet but I know my thought patterns have completely changed since activating my kundalini – time no longer exists in my thoughts. The only thing that matters to me is this present moment.
My thoughts have slowed considerably giving me more space to enjoy the present moment and they are made up mostly of sensory perception. I no longer have an egoic mind telling me that I don’t want to do this, I would rather do something else when I meditate. Now my thoughts when I meditate compose of sensory perception – the ocean breeze is nice, I love the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks, the birds are loud today, my knee hurts. I cannot go for more than a few hours without meditating for at least a few minutes because I get so much enjoyment and bliss from meditating.
That said I now know that my meditations are going to become even stronger when I reach Kechari stage 2 and can shut off my senses. Everyday I practice Talabya and cut my frenulum a little bit to reach this next milestone. I have read that you shouldn’t mutilate yourself to seek god but I believe that this is the blood of Christ. There is no difference to me of practicing Talabya Kriya and cutting your tongue with a razor – they are the same thing. One uses a razor, one uses your teeth the cut the frenulum
(Oxygen is like a fuel.
Without it, consciousness and the mind/brain will barley expand/grow, if at all.
Achieving a breathless state can have a number of uses, but more or less what it is representative of, is an extraordinarily low metabolism. Useful for hibernating for long periods of time without food or water… but not much else. Though, do not mistake a breathless state, for a breath with an extremely long pause.
Breath is life.)
The above statements you wrote are complete nonsense to me. I turned my kundalini on by shutting off my diaphragm. And again I can’t explain it but I have experienced it and I know that the egoic mind is somehow tied into the diaphragm. Also I am not mistaking long pauses in my breath with the breathless state. I can feel my diaphragm. I can feel that it is not moving and I also know that I have no urge or desire to make it move. I can breathe if I want but there is no need to do so.
I believe I took the shortcut to the state of breathlessness. You can meditate for years slowly controlling your thoughts and slowing down the breath to the point where is slows so much that your kundalini turns on. Or you can disrupt the flow of your diaphragm by doing various pranayama exercise that still it long enough to turn on your kundalini. This is what I believe I did – and I did not read this any where. I meditated on what is happening to me and this is the answer I was given.
(As far as your question, it’s not really answerable. )
Of course it is answerable. What I want to know is can I clear up my nadis, sushumna, and chakras quicker by doing pranayama exercises or meditating in the breathless state.
( If you have a desired mental/conscious state you are trying to reach, then you should be able to answer your own question)
I am trying to reach God Consciousness. And I would rather not have to reinvent the wheel and that is why I ask the question.
Seeking – I continue to do various pranayama exercises. The challenge I have is that in the Kumbhaka state of the pranayama exercises I do, I always go breathless now. And so I wonder if I’m suppose to stop doing the exercises and just meditate in the breathless state. Or will my Nadis, Sushumna, and Chakras be opened up quicker continuing with the exercises. My natural inclination is just to meditate in the breathless state because that is what my body keeps doing. I only practiced for 6 weeks before I went breathless and feel as if I know nothing about what I am experiencing.