Ego= self identification
I am a unicorn. A bad ass unicorn. 
[QUOTE=Suhas Tambe;78672]Initially, my experience was heavily grounded in the physical practices. Then, the challenge of asanas wasn’t stilling the body but doing impossible body oregami.
[/QUOTE]
I believe the purpose of the asanas is to open up the chakras, promote endurance, flexibility, and strength to prepare the body for long periods of meditation. I was first attracted to what I believe now is fluffy yoga that is designed more to promote presence, strength, endurance and flexibility. The Sivananda style that my instructor teaches lights up my body like a Christmas tree. I offered to explain my routine but nobody expressed interest and I don’t want to spend hours doing so if nobody cares to read about it.
The Masters’ teachings taught me to look inside. The physique doesn’t “exist” unless so perceived. In fact, the senses are factory-built into our body-processors without which we can’t know and beyond which we don’t know. We have to still that which obstructs knowing - and that is sense-based perception.
I whole heartedly agree, how do we still sense-based perception?
When we talk about khechari mudra, breathlessness, kundalini force, meditative state and related things, we need to examine which are the causes and which the effects. Mudras, for example, are essentially physical but designed to calibrate subtle nadis and force-fields. Breathlessness is a state, an effect of some process that makes it redundant for sustaining life. But it is also a cause of stillness which facilitates the states of meditation and samadhi.
I completely agree.
Stillness particularly is a state but most importantly it is a perceived state. Seen differently, and this is very important, if something is perceived to be ‘still’, it doesn’t matter if it is so, independent of perception. Trying to still the physical body is hence unnecessary. And impossible if we take to the levels of cells, molecules and electrons. It is for a reason that Patanjali mentioned “yoga is cessation of mind’s movements” and not body movements.
I most likely went overboard when I took it to a microscopic level, but the slightest movements give life to the mind. I agree that our experience is what we perceive it to be, not what is actually happening. After all, everything we experience in this world with our senses is maya. That said if we don’t have the ability to perceive ourselves as still, we must first still ourselves physically. I distinctly remember being in deep meditation and the thought came to me that if I wanted to go deeper I had to completely still my diaphragm. And again this would entail meditating for hours in complete stillness as the waves of air and tissue in my diaphragm slowly subsided. But I physically did not have the ability (sealing off the nasal passage) to still everything and so I could go deeper but not reach the ultimate goal. I keep thinking that if you can seal the nasal passage with the tongue, you can somehow put pressure into the diaphragm to help still it quicker. I don’t know the most effective way of doing that because I can’t seal the nasal passage yet.
Think of the ramifications of this. It is my belief that a baby is pure consciousness in the womb of its mother. The baby’s diaphragm is filled with fluid that stills the tissue in the diaphragm. As soon as it is born, it is given the “gift” of breath and the ego or mind comes alive filling it with thoughts and desires until it is “born again.”
There are several accounts in the bible of fasting such as Elijah, Moses and in particular Jesus (when he went into the desert ) who all fasted for 40 days. I don’t think Jesus would’ve done unnecessary acts. I know the Buddha tried the austerity bit and said this is not the path. That said most people would think that going without breath is an austere measure and speaking from experience I can say that I feel no lack. Does the yogi who has reached kechari stage 4 have the same view about food?
Taken from The Second Coming of Christ starting on page 170:
Through Kriya Yoga meditation, the consciousness is gradually transformed from identification with the inept and often treacherous physical body, with its love of breath and “bread,” to awareness of the inner astral body of self-renewing vibrant life energy, and thence to one’s ultimate nature as a soul image of God: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss…
Deep samadhi meditation is possible only when all bodily functions are stilled. Proper diet and fasting are helpful in conditioning the body for this state of quiet and interiorization. Jesus acknowledged this principle by fasting to spiritualize his body and free his mind during his forty days in the wilderness.
To meditate when the stomach is empty is a good practice because the energy that runs the nervous system is not then as busy with bodily functions. Meditation after heavy meals sets up a tug-of-war between the body consciousness and the soul’s superconsciousness. With a full stomach, the heart, lungs, and digestive and nervous systems are all engaged in digesting food, burning carbon, and maintaining circulation to the lungs to rid the blood of carbon dioxide. This keeps the subconscious mind busy, which in turn injects its restlessness into the conscious mind. Such invasion of the consciousness precludes inner God-communion. But when the inner activities of the body are still, the heart is calm. When the heart is calm, the life current is switched off from the senses, and the mind is freed from restless thoughts to concentrate wholly on God.
People who habitually overeat and never fast harness the life force in their bodies to a relentless activity of burning carbon and cleansing venous blood, overworking the heart and keeping the five sense-telephones constantly active. Fasting in connection with meditation slows the activity in the muscles, heart, circulation, diaphragm, and lungs by denying carbon and chemicals to the blood, thus helping to draw the attention away from the body and its functions. Metaphysically, fasting helps to open the life-giving inner source of Cosmic Consciousness and Cosmic Energy.
Long fasting should never be undertaken without the guidance and direction of a competent preceptor. Long fast (that is, for more than one day a week, or three days once a month or every forty-five days – taking sufficient fluids) is not necessary in order to demonstrate the vital sustenance of Divine Power. Nourish the body and spirit with meditation.
Continuing from page 587:
So long as man’s mind and life force are tied to the senses, he is at work. It is when he learns to switch off the life-force currrents in the nerves that connect the mind to the senses that he attains the true inactive state of transcendental Spirit. If “inactivity” is the measure of proper Sabbath observance, therefore, only the yogi who has reached the savikalpa samadhi state, wherein all bodily activity is suspended in the ecstatic trance of God-union, can be truly said to honor that commmandment.
The Gita points out an even higher state: the ulitmate stage of divine communion, nirvikalpa samadhi, in which the yogi retains his conscious oneness with Spirit without necessarily suspending the outer activity
[B]
I cannot recommend Yogananda’s book[/B] The Second Coming of Christ – A revelatory commentary on the original teachings of Jesus [B]enough[/B]. Words cannot express how blessed I feel having this great soul’s knowledge about the ultimate truth at my fingertips. At my level of understanding, the bible is incomprehensible. It is like a complicated knot full of parables, allegories, metaphors, and similes that I have a hard time unraveling. In addition to this you have to contend with translational issues or mistakes (obviously the bible was not originally written in the English language) and what I believe is purposeful obfuscation. That would entail a conspiracy though and so that can’t be true, right? Everyone knows that all conspiracy theories are the ramblings of kooks ;o)
Patanjali has given one process of how to still the mind which has a break through point of pratyahara - non-attachment. When we perceive we unsettle the potential energy of the perceived object and that resonates in our senses to trigger thinking.
Perceive - to become aware of, know, or identify by means of the sense.
When something stimulates us the energy of the stimulus starts us thinking about the stimulus.
When we think we get attached.
This causes us to make a conclusion – hey something is stimulating us
If we learn not to perceive by setting aside the thinking process the mind is made non-attached and our core is still.
If we learn not to be stimulated by the senses by not thinking about what is stimulating us, the mind does not make a conclusion – hey something is stimulating us.
How do you set aside the thinking process?
The objects of the world have life within and life spells movements.
Things in the world are made up of life that moves
By not attaching to it we achieve stillness which works on the primary cause.
By not making conclusions, the mind in not active.
Please dwell on this point of view.
How do you set aside the thinking process? I shut down the mind by stopping my diaphragm. What is your method?
One of the reasons I really like Satyananda’s approach is he says let the mind do whatever it wants to do, you do your practice. He doesn’t come out and say it in the book (he advises a guru) but the exercises in the book, result in the stoppage of the diaphragm. I was terrible at meditating prior to going breathless. My mind kept saying I don’t want to meditate, lets do something else. The only reason I made it to where I am at is because I kept my mind occupied doing pranayama exercises. Now it is the exact opposite. The clutter my mind produces has slowed so much that I would much rather meditate than engage the mind and perform breathing exercises.
I like Eckhart Tolle’s metaphor that explains how important the space is between the thoughts. Think of a room with many valuable things in it. But if you were to pick what is the most valuable thing in the room, it is nothing or no thing. Space is the most valuable thing in the room because without the space, the room would have no utility value or wouldn’t exist. The space is where the stillness is.
Quote: I believe the purpose of the asanas is to open up the chakras, promote endurance, flexibility, and strength to prepare the body for long periods of meditation. I was first attracted to what I believe now is fluffy yoga that is designed more to promote presence, strength, endurance and flexibility. The Sivananda style that my instructor teaches lights up my body like a Christmas tree. I offered to explain my routine but nobody expressed interest and I don’t want to spend hours doing so if nobody cares to read about it.
I believe I expressed an interest. Allow me to be 100% understood. I am interested in reading about your Routine.
Thank you.
I am interested as well. Most definatly.
How do you set aside the thinking process? I shut down the mind by stopping my diaphragm. What is your method?
Thinking process is resident in the brain and not directly connected with diaphragm (which remains a breathing apparatus). Secondly, there is no need to “stop” the thinking process, neither one is advised to do so through laborious efforts. We are talking about ‘setting aside’. Here’s Patanjali’s method as I understand (and practice):
[B][U]The model[/U][/B]: The ?thinking instruments? (brain, mānas, and buddhi) are different from the ?thinking process?. Electromagnetic vibrations arrive from the environment?re?ceived as sense impulses which travel throughout the nervous system by means of the spinal cord and enter the brain. These vibrations are transferred to mānas flowing over the memory pools and then to buddhi. The energy of the incoming sense impulses stirs the structure of predispositions and these impulses attract memory patterns from the past-experienced emo-tions. Ideal thinking would be a process wherein the mind acts only as a catalyst, however, the untamed mind brings associated emotions to create vibrant ?individualized? thoughts causing mind modifications.
[U][/U]In the construction of thoughts Buddhi brings in the intellectual layer that makes an indi-vidual?s signature on the thoughts, mānas brings in the emotional layer that is judgmental, and the brain brings in a highly physi?cal/ sexual orientation. Why does the mind indulge? Under the influence of tamas, mind conceals that the incoming impulses are mere appearances. Moreover, such a shallow percep?tion is further affected by a conditioned cognition?one that uses only known patterns in the memory. Lastly, the emotional gloss creates attachment to the objects, and the mind lets us believe that such colored and deformed perception gives us our ?only reality.? Such indulgent mind deserves to be kept aside. Sūtra 2.25/II.54 tells us that pratyāhāra is a process in which one consciously separates the mind from the thinking process and not allow them to engage and interact. This is neither an accident nor a psychic adventure; it happens at will. That is why it?s a breakthrough.
For reaching this milestone the secondary means of Yoga con?tribute collectively?yama-niyama compliance eliminates causes of alternating mind-states, āsana steadies and stills the physical body to remove any residual agitations, and prāṇāyāma?s regu?lated breathing does the same to the astral body by eliminating the sentimental swings.
But what happens to mind is even more significant. All along, mind has been actively participating in the thinking process to generate knowledge even if it is conditioned, individualized and sentimental. Through the Yoga practices, mind evolves into its original self, the Universal Mind, and starts sourcing spiritual knowledge. Thus, in a dramatic turnaround, the brain and its part?ners stop creating defective knowledge and become users of exact knowledge. Mind can return to its original role of a catalyst and not indulge. This is non-attachment.
It is tough to control the sense organs that owe their natural out?bound tendency to a human legacy of millions of years. Instead of reining in the sense organs, it is easier to snap the link between sensing and thinking. This inattention results rather from a relaxed indifference.
Pratyāhāra is considered a breakthrough because, in that state, the freedom from longing for all objects eliminates the outward bound orientation of your perception. Instead of repeatedly forc?ing your attention inward, your perception would come to re?side there peacefully, at will. Desires are defused, perception is direct and independent of sensing, the sense organs are retired and mind is no more agitated.
Our usual reflex thinking directly connects the sense organs with the organs of action, resulting in an automated behavior / response. With the sense organs withdrawing from attachment to objects, the organs of activity are relieved of their bondage of compulsive habits and are brought under full conscious control. One develops a relaxed indifference toward objects, people, and events that, until then, had held you captive. But it all happens in several progressive phases.
First, there is an involuntary pause, Nirodh pariṇāma, (a state of mind transformation, is the silenc?ing of the senses) in this sequence:
? The brain reacts to that which is seen (saṃskāra).
? Then follows a moment of restraint (nirodha).
? Then ensues a moment wherein the mind responds to both these factors.
? Both factors momentarily hold each other out and the perceiving consciousness has full sway over that mo?ment (Sūtra 2.27/III.9).
A complete subjugation of the sense organs neither happens sud?denly nor is sustained for a long period. At first, the snapping of the link between sensing and thinking happens in a flash, for a fraction of a second. Though this pause leaves a beautiful memo?ry, it remains an involuntary occurrence. You need to cultivate the ability to interrupt thinking by a willful pause in order to hold on to that.
Then a response leads to a willed pause in this way:
- You are concentrating on some object and are slowly be?coming aware of the act of concentrating itself. To that awareness, the act of concentration becomes an object. This stimulates the mind into thought-forms and results in mind modifications.
- But now any modification is immediately followed by a different awareness, a need to control the modifications, and this brings in your will to stop the form creation, and the mind momentarily ceases to modify itself. But this control itself generates mild modifications.
- The above ?modify and control? sequence goes on for a while, but you persist and eventually manage to be aware of both triggers almost simultaneously.
- Then it happens?a willed pause. Both sensing and will?ing are delicately balanced and consciously suspended. Neither the object nor the controlling creates any mind modification. Your awareness suddenly elevates itself be?cause there is no medium for perception.
Any effort to control the mind is counterproductive, because the controlling thoughts create mind modifications and increase the mind turbulence. Early attempts at concentration become frustrating, because even with the eyes closed and the body stilled, either the object of meditation (if one has such an object) or the awareness of your act of meditating itself creates mind modifications. The thinking instruments and the thinking process have no agenda of their own. But, once the thinking instruments and the individual thinking process are so equipped, it is easier to apply the will to excite or inhibit the nerves and thus control the thoughts and actions. This ability further facilitates a willed pause that leaves space for the arising of spiritual perception.
Eventually, it is cultivation of habit from what first occurs as a one-of-a-kind involuntary flash. This is a long and often frustrat?ing process. But despite its momentary nature, the initial vision is alluring enough. The vision is life-changing. The so-called esoteric becomes a viable way of life. The abil?ity to separate the thinking instrument and the thinking process takes root at long last. When this becomes a habit and mind?s thought-form making tendency is arrested, that eventually re?sults in a constant ability of meditation (Sūtra 2.29/III.11). The brain is not activated, as they used to even at the slightest sensory provocation, and thus the thought-churning tendency is voided.
[B][U]The practice[/U][/B]: One needs a dual approach.
-
Watching the thoughts with the thoughts: Only by knowing the thinking process more subtly can we control it. From time to time, we have to bring our thoughts under the microscope. The big advantage is that at that very moment the thought-chain is broken. Then, one should make a note (mental or written) of the thought and trace it backwards. On that pathway, we recognize a lot of branching out or diversions. That?s typical perpetuation of thoughts. Then, we should pick up 3 to 5 such diversions and trace what caused it. It would invariably something emotional, and something in deep memory. At this moment, one would always find an opportunity to space thoughts and eventually widen it further into a pause. Care should be taken in not pressing any harder as that itself causes more thoughts. As well as remember to apply slight efforts of will to suspend thoughts.
-
Raising an antenna to the Universal Mind: Through a well-directed practice, one should activate bindu and sahasrara chakra. These chakras, when supplied energy, tend to derive intelligence from the Universal mind and provide it to the thinking apparatus. This reverses the flow ? the brain becomes a custodian of unconditioned knowledge, rather than the manufacturer of faulty experienced-based knowledge. This makes the thinking process redundant and dispensable.
@Suhas Tambe you are either a very well studied intellect or a Yogi, perhaps both but either way I am convinced you know what you are talking about.
Your contributions to this thread are priceless. Thank you.
@Suhas Tambe Ah I see you are both. I just purchased the book on Amazon this should be very interesting. It is Scheduled to arrive Thursday 2012-10-18.
[QUOTE=Suhas Tambe;78776]Thinking process is resident in the brain and not directly connected with diaphragm (which remains a breathing apparatus). [/QUOTE]
I agree that the thinking process is resident in the brain. I disagree that there is no connection. I feel as if the mind is powered by the energy created by the diaphragm’s movements. How that is possible is beyond me. I don’t have a good understanding of how we are wired but I suspect the answer lies there.
Secondly, there is no need to “stop” the thinking process, neither one is advised to do so through laborious efforts. We are talking about ‘setting aside’. Here’s Patanjali’s method as I understand (and practice):
The model: The ?thinking instruments? (brain, mānas, and buddhi) are different from the ?thinking process?. Electromagnetic vibrations arrive from the environment?re?ceived as sense impulses which travel throughout the nervous system by means of the spinal cord and enter the brain. These vibrations are transferred to mānas flowing over the memory pools and then to buddhi. The energy of the incoming sense impulses stirs the structure of predispositions and these impulses attract memory patterns from the past-experienced emo-tions. Ideal thinking would be a process wherein the mind acts only as a catalyst, however, the untamed mind brings associated emotions to create vibrant ?individualized? thoughts causing mind modifications.
In the construction of thoughts Buddhi brings in the intellectual layer that makes an indi-vidual?s signature on the thoughts, mānas brings in the emotional layer that is judgmental, and the brain brings in a highly physi?cal/ sexual orientation. Why does the mind indulge? Under the influence of tamas, mind conceals that the incoming impulses are mere appearances. Moreover, such a shallow percep?tion is further affected by a conditioned cognition?one that uses only known patterns in the memory. Lastly, the emotional gloss creates attachment to the objects, and the mind lets us believe that such colored and deformed perception gives us our ?only reality.? Such indulgent mind deserves to be kept aside. Sūtra 2.25/II.54 tells us that pratyāhāra is a process in which one consciously separates the mind from the thinking process and not allow them to engage and interact. This is neither an accident nor a psychic adventure; it happens at will. That is why it?s a breakthrough.
For reaching this milestone the secondary means of Yoga con?tribute collectively?yama-niyama compliance eliminates causes of alternating mind-states, āsana steadies and stills the physical body to remove any residual agitations, and prāṇāyāma?s regu?lated breathing does the same to the astral body by eliminating the sentimental swings.
But what happens to mind is even more significant. All along, mind has been actively participating in the thinking process to generate knowledge even if it is conditioned, individualized and sentimental. Through the Yoga practices, mind evolves into its original self, the Universal Mind, and starts sourcing spiritual knowledge. Thus, in a dramatic turnaround, the brain and its part?ners stop creating defective knowledge and become users of exact knowledge. Mind can return to its original role of a catalyst and not indulge. This is non-attachment.
This is good stuff! The impulses from the individual’s sensory perception is filtered through a mechanism that is influenced by the current body and it’s stored history of retained memories. This influences the experience bringing the mind into the picture as it tries to gain an understanding of the perception using the history it has cataloged.
As long as your consciousness is plagued by the breath and the senses it cannot perform its proper function and is dominated by the mind. The breath gives life to the ego which is your thoughts on your life situation, a time based reality. Your mind then spends a good deal of time in the past and future, neither of which you are interested in. As long as the consciousness is plagued by senses, your mind is focused on body awareness that makes you believe you are a separate individual. The breath and the senses block your consciousness from it’s most important job which is to tap into God consciousness and the all knowingness that it provides.
The goal is to shut down everything that is causing us to think we are having an individual experience and to turn on our communication system to God consciousness. So when your kundalini is completely functional, you tap into universal knowledge and discard your experience as an individual, realizing you are one with all. The rewards from this knowingness are so much greater than anything that could be gained by experiencing life as an individual. And so you start working for the good of all humanity and realize that God is the doer, you are just experiencing his work through you. You gain complete understanding of the temporary nature of your body, a prison that is the cause of your consciousness’ feelings of separateness. In this state, your former desires and discomforts are either washed away or become trivial to you in the grand scheme of things.
This is why Satyananda writes that there are essentially two types of human beings: those who are on the pravritti path and those who are on the nivritti path. A man following the pravritti (outward) path looks away from bindu towards the outside world. He is almost entirely motivated by external events. This is the path of most people today and it leads away from self-knowledge and into bondage. The other path, the nivritti (reversed) path, is the spiritual path, the path of wisdom. On this path the individual begins to face the bindu, turning in towards the source of his being. This path leads to freedom. The path of evolution is the pravritti path of manifestation and extroversion. The path of involution leads back along the path that has produced your individual being. It leads back through the bindu to sahasrara. In fact, the whole purpose of yoga practice is to help direct your awareness along the involutionary path.
You definitely helped me gain a deeper understanding with this post. The funny thing is, I had all the information, you just helped me put it together better.
It is tough to control the sense organs that owe their natural out?bound tendency to a human legacy of millions of years. Instead of reining in the sense organs, it is easier to snap the link between sensing and thinking. This inattention results rather from a relaxed indifference.
Pratyāhāra is considered a breakthrough because, in that state, the freedom from longing for all objects eliminates the outward bound orientation of your perception. Instead of repeatedly forc?ing your attention inward, your perception would come to re?side there peacefully, at will. Desires are defused, perception is direct and independent of sensing, the sense organs are retired and mind is no more agitated.
Our usual reflex thinking directly connects the sense organs with the organs of action, resulting in an automated behavior / response. With the sense organs withdrawing from attachment to objects, the organs of activity are relieved of their bondage of compulsive habits and are brought under full conscious control. One develops a relaxed indifference toward objects, people, and events that, until then, had held you captive. But it all happens in several progressive phases.First, there is an involuntary pause, Nirodh pariṇāma, (a state of mind transformation, is the silenc?ing of the senses) in this sequence:
? The brain reacts to that which is seen (saṃskāra).
? Then follows a moment of restraint (nirodha).
? Then ensues a moment wherein the mind responds to both these factors.
? Both factors momentarily hold each other out and the perceiving consciousness has full sway over that mo?ment (Sūtra 2.27/III.9).A complete subjugation of the sense organs neither happens sud?denly nor is sustained for a long period. At first, the snapping of the link between sensing and thinking happens in a flash, for a fraction of a second. Though this pause leaves a beautiful memo?ry, it remains an involuntary occurrence. You need to cultivate the ability to interrupt thinking by a willful pause in order to hold on to that.
Then a response leads to a willed pause in this way:
- You are concentrating on some object and are slowly be?coming aware of the act of concentrating itself. To that awareness, the act of concentration becomes an object. This stimulates the mind into thought-forms and results in mind modifications.
- But now any modification is immediately followed by a different awareness, a need to control the modifications, and this brings in your will to stop the form creation, and the mind momentarily ceases to modify itself. But this control itself generates mild modifications.
- The above ?modify and control? sequence goes on for a while, but you persist and eventually manage to be aware of both triggers almost simultaneously.
- Then it happens?a willed pause. Both sensing and will?ing are delicately balanced and consciously suspended. Neither the object nor the controlling creates any mind modification. Your awareness suddenly elevates itself be?cause there is no medium for perception.
Any effort to control the mind is counterproductive, because the controlling thoughts create mind modifications and increase the mind turbulence. Early attempts at concentration become frustrating, because even with the eyes closed and the body stilled, either the object of meditation (if one has such an object) or the awareness of your act of meditating itself creates mind modifications. The thinking instruments and the thinking process have no agenda of their own. But, once the thinking instruments and the individual thinking process are so equipped, it is easier to apply the will to excite or inhibit the nerves and thus control the thoughts and actions. This ability further facilitates a willed pause that leaves space for the arising of spiritual perception.
Eventually, it is cultivation of habit from what first occurs as a one-of-a-kind involuntary flash. This is a long and often frustrat?ing process. But despite its momentary nature, the initial vision is alluring enough. The vision is life-changing. The so-called esoteric becomes a viable way of life. The abil?ity to separate the thinking instrument and the thinking process takes root at long last. When this becomes a habit and mind?s thought-form making tendency is arrested, that eventually re?sults in a constant ability of meditation (Sūtra 2.29/III.11). The brain is not activated, as they used to even at the slightest sensory provocation, and thus the thought-churning tendency is voided.The practice: One needs a dual approach.
- Watching the thoughts with the thoughts: Only by knowing the thinking process more subtly can we control it. From time to time, we have to bring our thoughts under the microscope. The big advantage is that at that very moment the thought-chain is broken. Then, one should make a note (mental or written) of the thought and trace it backwards. On that pathway, we recognize a lot of branching out or diversions. That?s typical perpetuation of thoughts. Then, we should pick up 3 to 5 such diversions and trace what caused it. It would invariably something emotional, and something in deep memory. At this moment, one would always find an opportunity to space thoughts and eventually widen it further into a pause. Care should be taken in not pressing any harder as that itself causes more thoughts. As well as remember to apply slight efforts of will to suspend thoughts.
Good luck with that path. I tried watching the thinker with my first meditation teacher. My mind was just too restless and now it is becoming less of an issue. I think the Kriya - Kechari turn on your kundalini and shut down the diaphragm is an easier path. At least for me it was. I’ve read that you go into your spine in kechari stage 2 and you learn to shut the senses shut down one by one. I remember in Yogananda’s autobiography he wrote that as a child he would practice this. Page 109 in Autobiography of a Yogi ?in the first stage of samadhi (sabikalpa), the devotee shuts off all sensory testimony of the outer world.
- Raising an antenna to the Universal Mind: Through a well-directed practice, one should activate bindu and sahasrara chakra. These chakras, when supplied energy, tend to derive intelligence from the Universal mind and provide it to the thinking apparatus. This reverses the flow ? the brain becomes a custodian of unconditioned knowledge, rather than the manufacturer of faulty experienced-based knowledge. This makes the thinking process redundant and dispensable.
I really like this concept! I imagine that initially it comes in as ?feelings? or intuition. As the connection grows it eventually turns into God consciousness. How do you activate your bindu and sahasrara?
[QUOTE=Seeking;78765]Quote: I am interested in reading about your Routine.
[/QUOTE]
Here is my salutation vinyasana that I start my practice with – you can go as fast or as slow as you want but stay with the breath. Every movement is done while either inhaling signified by (I) or exhaling signified by (E):
Start off the vinyasana in standing namaste
- (I) Hasta Uttanasana
- (E) Standing Forward Fold
- (I) Urdhuva Uttanasana (keep tips of fingers touching the toes)
- (E) place the hands on the ground, float the feet back and lower into Chaturanga Dandasana
- (I) Upward Dog
- (E) Downward Dog
- (I) One legged Downward facing Dog (raise one leg into the air)
- (E) One legged Downward facing Dog Bent Knee version (bring the raised leg over the body opening the hip.
- (I) Runner’s pose (bring the raised leg all the way into runner’s pose
- (E) Triangle Pose
- (I) Warrior I
- (E) Warrior II
- (I) Tree Pose
- (E) Warrior III
- (I) Half Moon Pose (normally this pose is entered with an exhale)
- (E) Drop both hands to the ground, raise the extended leg as high as you can – I don’t know the name of this pose
- (I) Crescent Moon Pose
- (E) Side Angle Pose
19 (I) Reverse Warrior Pose - (E) through Chaturanga Dandasana until the body is lying on the ground
- (I) Cobra Pose
- (E) lower to the ground place the arms at your sides, palms facing the ground
- (I) Locust Pose
- (E) Lower to the ground place the hands back near the shoulders
- (I) Upward Dog
- (E) Downward Dog
27 Look between your hands – jump or float the legs forward then (I) Urdhuva Uttanasana (the third pose in this series) - (E) Standing Forward Fold
29 (I) Hasta Uttanasana (the first pose in the series)
30 (E) Standing Namaste
Repeat the vinyasana on the other side of the body.
Here are some pictures of the poses - you have to cut and paste
- shutterstock.com/s/"hasta+uttanasana"/search.html#id=104722715&src=7ce7c1c7b83e5654c6e3ff9d27c5a007-1-2
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttanasana
- yogabasics.com/forward-bending-poses/upward-forward-fold.html (note - keep hands on the floor)
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturanga_Dandasana
- yogajournal.com/basics/2338
- yoga.isport.com/yoga-guides/how-to-do-three-legged-downward-dog-in-yoga
- This is taking too long to find pictures – hopefully you already know these postures – if not ask me and I will send a link. A few more posts and I will be able to post the actual links so you wont have to cut and paste.
This gives you a taste of the type of practice I like. I usually do 10 or 20 depending on my energy levels and the time I have for practice. I then go into the rest of my routine that is heavily influenced by my instructor’s Sivananda background. If somebody practices at least 10 of these and posts that they like it and want more of my routine, I will spend the time to outline the Sivinanda practice. When I’m feeling lazy I will do Pawanmuktasana which I learned from Motoyama. According to Motoyama, this series promotes the unimpeded flow of prana through the nadis, primarily by releasing the blockages in the joints. This is a much easier practice that I do with my mother or other people that don’t want to be challenged as much physically. I also do some seated asanas with this. Here is a youtube link:
They also have a Pawanmuktasana series II and III that I intend to learn and add to my tool kit. There are many things that I would like to read, learn and practice. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with my list of things to do. Other times I feel so blessed to have so much good information available to learn.
Another practice that I’ve benefited from is Anmol Mehta’s spinal warmup. If your back feels tired or hurts this is a good 5 minute series to practice before meditation. This guy’s generosity of putting so much information out for free is inspiring:
The vagus nerve connectes lungs,stomach,liver,heart. This is all around the area of diaphragm. A moving diaphragm would stimulate this nerve. This nerve is also connected to memory.
[QUOTE=Avatar186;78826]The vagus nerve connectes lungs,stomach,liver,heart. This is all around the area of diaphragm. A moving diaphragm would stimulate this nerve. This nerve is also connected to memory.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for that. It doesn’t surprise me one bit. What I’m saying is not that outlandish:
I feel as if the mind is powered by the energy created by the diaphragm’s movements. How that is possible is beyond me. I don’t have a good understanding of how we are wired but I suspect the answer lies there.
After all we are doing these exercises that open up our chakras and when they are completely open, they power up part of the brain that is not being used right now. So what is so extraordinary to think that a powered up diaphragm isn’t powering up the part of the mind responsible for our time based reality; the ego, memories. And taking this thought a bit further, that the electrical impulses bringing the sensory perceptions to the mind aren’t also powering up the part of the mind that is responsible for our present based reality.
I have a friend with special benefits that recently left Panama to visit her family. It had been several weeks since I had last seen her and I was due to pick her up at the airport in a few hours. I kept having to look at my watch because I am not very good at judging what time it is any more. I remember looking at my watch thinking I don’t have to go pick her up for two hours. That is great, I have plenty of time to do what ever I want. I can read. I can meditate. What do I want to do right now?
The reason I bring this up is because prior to going breathless the only thing that I would’ve been focused on was the fact that I soon would be one with another divine being. I don’t think I would’ve thought of it in that manner but you get my point. Since that was several hours away and my mind was shut down, the anticipation of future based pleasures did absolutely nothing for me. It is too much of a coincidence that every time I shut down my diaphragm, that my mind also shut down.
The books all say we are not the mind, we are consciousness. The consciousness has access to the universal truths through the ajna. The mind is suppose to be a tool of the consciousness. It’s job is to tell the consciousness what is going on in the body. Somehow the mind has taken over the consciousness making us believe that the mind and body is all you are. You can intellectually believe that this is not true but until you actually shut down the mind, you cannot utilize the full resources of the consciousness and therefore this is not truth to you but merely beliefs. The contents of the mind is made up of current sensory perceptions and stored sensory perceptions.
When the mind is focused on the stored sensory perceptions, you focus on a time based reality. Your life is consumed by memories or a fantasy based future. I believe shutting down the breath takes care of the stored sensory perceptions or the time based reality. The next step is to shut down the current sensory perceptions or body awareness which gives us our present “reality”. I believe the ability to do that comes after the achievement of kechari stage II and so I can’t speak intelligently about this. Most of the senses the body has, sight, hearing, smell and taste are near the tongue. I have read that a circuit is completed when the tongue enters the nasal pharynx. What does this allow us to do?
I don’t remember where I read this metaphor but it is a good one. The mind’s ability to perceive the world is very limited like looking out one window of a building on a large university’s campus and then trying to relate what is going on on the entire campus. Since the view is so limited, of course you are not going to get a complete picture of what is happening. You might not even understand correctly what is happening right before your eyes because something could be taking place right behind the objects you’re viewing.
The consciousness knows the minds limitations. Unfortunately for us, the mind has somehow hijacked the consciousness’ control and tricked it into thinking that the mind is all that there is. Therefore it is up to us to unplug everything that is supplying the mind with energy until it shuts down and consciousness regains control and subjugates the mind back to its proper role. And that again is telling the consciousness only what is happening within the body. I recall reading several yogis claiming their former selves no longer exist. They killed the mind. How did they do that? Is that the ultimate goal?
I believe the mind is powered by the breath and the senses. I don’t know how our digestive and circulatory systems fit into the picture. The energy created by the diaphragm’s movements give power to the mind. Does the energy created from impulses of the senses power the mind too? Again according to Yogananda, the first level of Samadhi is when you can shut the senses down. I think that is when a true understanding of what is consciousness and what is mind begins. Not a complete understanding but you realize that you are not this body or mind. I’m sorry if I keep regurgitating the same information over and over, I’m just trying to gain a better understanding. And I’m never going to get it until I experience it so this is a fool’s errand.
That said I a glad my practice doesn’t involve thinking about the thinker think and waiting for the thinking to become an object. Because in my line of thinking, thinking about thinking is not all that it is thought to be. And so if you think that I should start thinking this way, I say think again. I think that I’ve done all the thinking about thinking this way I’m going to think in this lifetime. All joking aside Suhas, you’re a better man than me if you can make it on that path. I don’t like the sound of “early attempts at concentration become frustrating” and later “this is a long and frustrating process.”
I don’t count how many Talabya Kriyas I do a day. It has to be at least a thousand. I do it in the elevator, in my car, walking to the gym, pretty much whenever I’m alone and don’t think anyone can see me. My tongue no longer hurts from contact with my bottom teeth and I can easily do hundreds at a clip. I no longer count because what is the point? The goal is not a specified number, the present goal is the nasal pharynx and the ultimate goal is Amrit. I noticed that my tongue is starting to curl more and believe this ability comes from whipping the tongue around in practicing Talabya. I am knocking on heaven’s door so to speak because I can now take the tip of my tongue and press it repeatedly into the the soft skin that will soon support it in stage II.
Have you practiced your Talabyas today?
I just joined to thank you Mr. Umunhum for your thoughtfulness in posting your initial experiences and sharing your knowledge. I sincerely appreciate your discourse! You too Seeking, as your thread on Khechari has been very illuminating and led me to this post. Thank you!
I am currently working out of the Systematic Course by Satyananda. Hearing about your techniques and findings is confirming my direction and I really can’t thank you enough!
I hope to contribute more as I start progressing deeper. At this juncture, however, I’m merely a novice practicing asana, pranayama, mudras and bandhas. I haven’t yet moved into full kriya practice even though I have had a couple of instances of intense kundalini energy surges in the past and practice bandhas every morning for instantiating kundalini flow although that practice is very brief unfortunately as time doesn’t allow for more. The afternoons and evenings have been devoted to practice as time allows.
Umunhum, please do post more of your asana practice as it seems you have found considerable refinement there. I’m still struggling a bit with how to fit everything in. Which is fine, since I have the rest of my life to practice. However, being eager, I’m excited to get going and digging deeper.
I was reading Kundalini Tantra (p. 183) by Satyananda last night and came upon this piece of information in case anyone cares:
There have been many reports of people who have entered into states of hibernation or suspended animation underneath the earth. This phenomenon has been verified many times under strict scientific observation. This human hibernation has been witnessed for periods as long as forty days. Not all cases have been genuine, but when authentic, they have been carried out exactly in the following manner. Initially pranayama is practiced assiduously, until kumbhaka has been perfected. At this stage, khechari mudra is performed. [B]This is not the simple form of khechari as performed in kundalini yoga sadhana, but the practice from the hatha yoga tradition in which the root or frenulum of the under surface of the tongue is gradually cut and the tongue is slowly elongated and inserted into the nasopharynx. It blocks off the passage as a cork seals a bottle. The whole practice is perfected over a two year period.[/B]
By this practice, the drops from bindu fall to vishuddhi and subsequently permeate the whole bodily system. These drops of nectar maintain the nutrition and vitality of the bodily tissues while simultaneously arresting the metabolic processes of the body. When the metabolism of the cells and tissues of the body is suspended in this way, oxygen is no longer required and cellular wastes are not produced. Therefore, the person who hibernates can live without breathing for quite an extended period of time. Even facial hair does not grow during the period of hibernation.
Disclaimer: I’m in no way advocating this practice and only reciting for informational purposes only. Please contact a yoga expert before undertaking any yogic practice.
[QUOTE=StillOne;79093]I just joined to thank you Mr. Umunhum for your thoughtfulness in posting your initial experiences and sharing your knowledge. I sincerely appreciate your discourse! You too Seeking, as your thread on Khechari has been very illuminating and led me to this post. Thank you!
I am currently working out of the Systematic Course by Satyananda. Hearing about your techniques and findings is confirming my direction and I really can’t thank you enough![/QUOTE]
Thank you for your post! I am very happy to read that someone finds value in my efforts. I too have purchased the Systematic Course but have not opened it yet. I am currently on my second reading of Kundalini Tantra and also reading Yogananda’s Second Coming of Christ. When I finish reading Kundalini Tantra I plan on reading the Systematic Course. I have deep admiration for both Lahiri, Yukteswar, Yogananda linage and Sivananda, Satyananda linage. I feel as if I have gotten inspiration, theory and an overview from Yogananda and the nuts and bolts of what to do from Satyananda.
After reading Autobiography of a Yogi, I tried to get lessons from SRF. They basically said that I had to meet with them in person and later they could mail the lessons to me. I do not receive mail in Panama and so this was not an option for me and inquired about email lessons. They said they are not set up to do this. I thought that this doesn’t seem right. As important as this is, how could they not have this set up? I later learned more about the secretive nature of SRF.
I was very interested in learning what a kriya breath was especially after reading that doing one properly was the equivalent of 1 year of normal spiritual evolution. I bought Norman Paulsen’s book Sacred Science for $100 on amazon just so I could learn what a Kriya breath was. After getting the book I did some internet searches on a few terms in the book and found Ennio’s site and books and immediately knew that this is what I’ve been searching for. I identified so much with his story because I experienced some of what he wrote in contacting SRF and couldn’t believe how they operated.
I was so excited to learn what a Kriya breath was and to start practicing them. I loaned the Sacred Science book to my yoga instructor after reading it. It is mainly a fluff book with instructions on how to do a Kriya breath that Babaji personally taught him. The SRF people say that he changed a few things and it is not a true Kriya breath, to which I thought poppycock! Why all the secrecy? After a week I kept badgering my yoga instructor to return my book because I just read it real quickly once and wanted to read it again. I think he loaned it out to someone else and loaned me Kundalini Tantra as kind of a “here read this until I can get your book back to you.”
The Kundalini Tantra is far more descriptive of how to open your chakras and had 20 different exercises that were called “Kriyas” and so I thought I have to read this book. And you know the rest of the story if you’ve read my posts. Both linages have so far been invaluable to me and I don’t like the idea of only receiving information from one source. Especially because you can’t actually meet the Guru. I believe Talabya Kriya is extremely important for the development of your tongue. Satyananda does not practice this. In reading the 108 advices of Lahiri, he wrote about the importance of Kechari enough times to make me think that this mudra is extremely important. Upon reading more about it from other sites, I thought this is the key to everything. Yet the current chapters of SRF don’t teach it? What is going on? In Norman Paulsen’s book he wrote that Yogananda would teach it to advanced students only. He being one of them.
I love the fact that Sivananda told Satyananda to give yoga to the world. No secrets, write about everything. And so to honor this great soul, here is 2 minutes of Satyananda chanting:
Umunhum, please do post more of your asana practice as it seems you have found considerable refinement there.
I am no expert and don’t know what role asana practice played in my awakening. I wrote down a spreadsheet while reading Kundalini Tantra which postures open up which chakras. I quickly noticed that my yoga instructor’s practice hits them all and has several variations of many of them. This weekend I will try to give a detailed explanation of his routine. Has anybody practice my salutation vinyasana?
Here are the asanas to open up the chakras according to Satyananda:
Muladhara - Bridge, Wheel, Locust, Head to Knee
Svadhishthana - Cobra, Triangle, Twist, Locust, Bow, Camel
Manipura - Bow, Cobra, Boat, Wheel, Cat – Cow, Forward Bend, Camel, Agnisar Kriya, Nauli
Anahata - Fish, Camel, Cobra
Vishuddha - Shoulder Stand, Fish, Plow, Cobra, Bridge
Sahasrara – Headstand
Notice that most of them are back bends?
I was reading Kundalini Tantra (p. 183) by Satyananda last night and came upon this piece of information in case anyone cares: … the root or frenulum of the under surface of the tongue is gradually cut and the tongue is slowly elongated and inserted into the nasopharynx. It blocks off the passage as a cork seals a bottle. The whole practice is perfected over a two year period.
I had white skin that looked like the equivalent of a hymen under my tongue. There is no way I could’ve sealed off the back of my throat if I didn’t cut it away. Now the skin under my tongue is completely red except the calloused part that keeps coming in contact with my lower teeth from the hundreds of Talabya I do daily. I have stopped cutting for the time being because my frenulum doesn’t feel taut when I curl my tongue back and touch my uvala. In the last 3 days I have acquired this ability. If I think my frenulum is restricting my tongue, I will start cutting it again.
From page 223 of Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ:
Thought is human consciousness in vibration. Human consciousness is delimited God consciousness in vibration. In the process of thought man’s consciousness vibrates. One whose consciousness vibrates under the control of Maya, the cosmic hypnotist, remains fixated upon finitude. Through psychophysical techniques of yoga one can regain mastery of his mind, stilling the restless thought vibrations of human consciousness and entering the ecstasy of God-consciousness.*
*Be still, and know that I am God.
I am an egg, a beginner on the Path. I have practiced SRF kriya for 15 years but have recently discovered the deeper and more powerful kriya taught by Lahiri. I am finding gratifying progress in the forest of the chakras, and in kechari.
In reading these posts, I am astounded by the complexity of concept and knowledge being described by some yogis who have made vast leaps of spiritual progress in a very short time of practice. They have my admiration. I would love to make such fast and profound progress. However, in these recent exchanges of posts, I feel like I am detecting a pissing contest, much reminescent of our old Nemesis EGO, which surely would not be acting with such power and prominance in ones of such spiritual attainment. I am not doubting their accounts of Experiences or their understanding of esoteric kriya techniques ( which I really do admire and even envy). I just wondered at the very plain displays of ego. But I don’t know. I am an egg…
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175] Thank you for your post! I am very happy to read that someone finds value in my efforts. I too have purchased the Systematic Course but have not opened it yet. I am currently on my second reading of Kundalini Tantra and also reading Yogananda’s Second Coming of Christ. When I finish reading Kundalini Tantra I plan on reading the Systematic Course. I have deep admiration for both Lahiri, Yukteswar, Yogananda linage and Sivananda, Satyananda linage. I feel as if I have gotten inspiration, theory and an overview from Yogananda and the nuts and bolts of what to do from Satyananda. [/QUOTE]
I think it’s more than just me that’s finding value in your contribution, Umunhum! This thread has had over 1200 hits!
Like you, I was drawn to deepen my research in yoga after reading the Autobiography of a Yogi.
I’m not sure if you actually need the Systematic Course at your level… However, it would be a nice cross reference for you since some things are described slightly differently from sources. I’d certainly encourage you to read later in that book on the kriyas that you’ve been doing. There may be pieces of wisdom there for you.
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175] After reading Autobiography of a Yogi, I tried to get lessons from SRF. They basically said that I had to meet with them in person and later they could mail the lessons to me. I do not receive mail in Panama and so this was not an option for me and inquired about email lessons. They said they are not set up to do this. I thought that this doesn’t seem right. As important as this is, how could they not have this set up? I later learned more about the secretive nature of SRF.
I was very interested in learning what a kriya breath was especially after reading that doing one properly was the equivalent of 1 year of normal spiritual evolution. I bought Norman Paulsen’s book Sacred Science for $100 on amazon just so I could learn what a Kriya breath was. After getting the book I did some internet searches on a few terms in the book and found Ennio’s site and books and immediately knew that this is what I’ve been searching for. I identified so much with his story because I experienced some of what he wrote in contacting SRF and couldn’t believe how they operated. [/QUOTE]
I too have read Ennio’s book and almost decided to abandon Satyananda but felt that I should complete Satyananda first. I think Ennio provides much insight and it’s certainly a great work. I have not read Paulsen.
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175] I was so excited to learn what a Kriya breath was and to start practicing them. I loaned the Sacred Science book to my yoga instructor after reading it. It is mainly a fluff book with instructions on how to do a Kriya breath that Babaji personally taught him. The SRF people say that he changed a few things and it is not a true Kriya breath, to which I thought poppycock! Why all the secrecy? After a week I kept badgering my yoga instructor to return my book because I just read it real quickly once and wanted to read it again. I think he loaned it out to someone else and loaned me Kundalini Tantra as kind of a ?here read this until I can get your book back to you.?
The Kundalini Tantra is far more descriptive of how to open your chakras and had 20 different exercises that were called ?Kriyas? and so I thought I have to read this book. And you know the rest of the story if you’ve read my posts. Both linages have so far been invaluable to me and I don’t like the idea of only receiving information from one source. Especially because you can’t actually meet the Guru. I believe Talabya Kriya is extremely important for the development of your tongue. Satyananda does not practice this. In reading the 108 advices of Lahiri, he wrote about the importance of Kechari enough times to make me think that this mudra is extremely important. Upon reading more about it from other sites, I thought this is the key to everything. Yet the current chapters of SRF don’t teach it? What is going on? In Norman Paulsen’s book he wrote that Yogananda would teach it to advanced students only. He being one of them. [/QUOTE]
Interesting observations. I didn’t consider Talabya Kriya until coming upon Seeking’s post in this forum which led me here. Now I clearly see it’s importance. It is interesting since in much of Satyanada’s kriya instruction that Kechari is mentioned that they wouldn’t explain more.
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175]I love the fact that Sivananda told Satyananda to give yoga to the world. No secrets, write about everything. And so to honor this great soul, here is 2 minutes of Satyananda chanting:
youtube.com/watch?v=7Je858eqwUw [/QUOTE]
Indeed! Brilliant! I think with people seeking out such wisdom and with the state of technology now, that having such profound knowledge at hand is very important… especially considering the state of the world.
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175]I am no expert and don’t know what role asana practice played in my awakening. I wrote down a spreadsheet while reading Kundalini Tantra which postures open up which chakras. I quickly noticed that my yoga instructor’s practice hits them all and has several variations of many of them. This weekend I will try to give a detailed explanation of his routine. Has anybody practice my salutation vinyasana?
Here are the asanas to open up the chakras according to Satyananda:
Muladhara - Bridge, Wheel, Locust, Head to Knee
Svadhishthana - Cobra, Triangle, Twist, Locust, Bow, Camel
Manipura - Bow, Cobra, Boat, Wheel, Cat ? Cow, Forward Bend, Camel, Agnisar Kriya, Nauli
Anahata - Fish, Camel, Cobra
Vishuddha - Shoulder Stand, Fish, Plow, Cobra, Bridge
Sahasrara ? Headstand
Notice that most of them are back bends? [/QUOTE]
I have done a similar vinyasa before. At the moment I’m having some shoulder difficulty, so I’m avoiding all downdog/updog sequences. I hope that I can resume this shortly but it has been pestering me for awhile. It’s interesting creating a warm up sequence that doesn’t use these postures!
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175] I had white skin that looked like the equivalent of a hymen under my tongue. There is no way I could’ve sealed off the back of my throat if I didn’t cut it away. Now the skin under my tongue is completely red except the calloused part that keeps coming in contact with my lower teeth from the hundreds of Talabya I do daily. I have stopped cutting for the time being because my frenulum doesn’t feel taut when I curl my tongue back and touch my uvala. In the last 3 days I have acquired this ability. If I think my frenulum is restricting my tongue, I will start cutting it again.[/QUOTE]
I’ve begun doing Talabya. At the moment I do not plan on cutting my tongue. However, after a few months if I don’t see much progress I may start.
[QUOTE=umunhum;79175] From page 223 of Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ:
Thought is human consciousness in vibration. Human consciousness is delimited God consciousness in vibration. In the process of thought man’s consciousness vibrates. One whose consciousness vibrates under the control of Maya, the cosmic hypnotist, remains fixated upon finitude. Through psychophysical techniques of yoga one can regain mastery of his mind, stilling the restless thought vibrations of human consciousness and entering the ecstasy of God-consciousness.*
*Be still, and know that I am God. [/QUOTE]
I’ve been interested in reading this book and most definitely will do so at some point.
Thanks again for sharing.
[QUOTE=Dr Baba;79254]I am an egg, a beginner on the Path. I have practiced SRF kriya for 15 years but have recently discovered the deeper and more powerful kriya taught by Lahiri. I am finding gratifying progress in the forest of the chakras, and in kechari.
In reading these posts, I am astounded by the complexity of concept and knowledge being described by some yogis who have made vast leaps of spiritual progress in a very short time of practice. They have my admiration. I would love to make such fast and profound progress. However, in these recent exchanges of posts, I feel like I am detecting a pissing contest, much reminescent of our old Nemesis EGO, which surely would not be acting with such power and prominance in ones of such spiritual attainment. I am not doubting their accounts of Experiences or their understanding of esoteric kriya techniques ( which I really do admire and even envy). I just wondered at the very plain displays of ego. But I don’t know. I am an egg…[/QUOTE]
Your post epitomizes the importance of me to continue to post the way I do. In what pursuit can someone be practicing something for 15 years and still be a beginner?
Since Lahiri is your guru, spend the time to read his 108 pieces of advice:
http://www.sanskritclassics.com/advent.htm
Pay particular attention to his first piece of advice like I have done and meditate on it. It is my belief that Lahiri was incapable of presenting false information. And so knowing that and the importance of this subject matter, what would be your reaction to someone stating to you that you are presenting a wrong path? And keep in mind that I’m not posting information to impress anyone or win an argument. I post information in the hopes that it will help people advance on their spiritual path. And so I felt it was extremely important to let the reader know how much I disagreed with the wrong path comment.
Having the ability to go breathless anytime that I want to does not mean that I don’t have an ego. It just means that I have the ability to shut it down anytime that I want to. When I think about what I’m going to write, my life, or engage the mind at all, my ego is present. The difference is now I have a choice whether to engage it or not. It is not forcing thoughts into my consciousness unless I want it to.
The breathless state to me does not mean that breath is not coming in and out of my body. A very subtle amount is still going in and out of my nasal passage. It is not being pulled in or pushed out by my diaphragm. I don’t know what is drawing it in but if I close off my nasal passage with my fingers, my body will signal the need for breath and my diaphragm will kick in. There is no way I am getting anywhere near the amount of oxygen from the breathless state into my body than I get when my diaphragm is pumping. It is a trip to sit and watch your diaphragm and see and feel that it is not moving and having no urge or desire to move it for hours at a clip if I want to. If I suddenly have an urge to breathe, I normally can go into nasikagra mudra (nose tip gazing), and the urge subsides. This tells me that the yogis are right and that this mudra has the physiological effect of opening up the Muladhara and it starts pumping more prana up the sushumna.
I’m not sure if you actually need the Systematic Course at your level… However, it would be a nice cross reference for you since some things are described slightly differently from sources. I’d certainly encourage you to read later in that book on the kriyas that you’ve been doing. There may be pieces of wisdom there for you.
I’m not that advanced. I’m just a regular schmo that stumbled on to a technique that shut down my diaphragm. I still need to clear my nadis, sushumna, open up my chakras and raise my kundalini. I can tell you from experience that there is no comparison to meditating in the breathless state to meditating when breathing. One is an effortless endeavor and the other is pure torture just seeing how long you can stand it. (I’m overstating this a bit - I enjoyed my meditations sometimes) The only thing that stops me from meditating longer now is pain from my knees. And I love #25 of Lahiri’s pieces of advice. My yoga instructor told me about one of the Buddha meditations he did on one of his Vipassanas (10 day Buddha silent meditation course). He said in one of the meditations (one hour), he was instructed not to move at all regardless of what the body told him. Ignore all pain. Both Ennio and Lahiri say don’t do this. Lahiri pieces of advice #25:
If you feel pain [during the Kriya practice] in the body, then understand that the practice is not going well.
This and Ennio’s account of many yogis needing knee surgery makes me stop all practice if I feel pain. Sometimes when I sit and feel rooted, I feel as if I can sit and meditate for hours and there is nothing that I would rather do. It makes me wonder if I will be meditating for hours at a clip when I achieve kechari stage 2. I believe prior to going breathless that you should spend the bulk of your time on pranayama exercises and just a token amount of meditating. There is no sense in wasting your time fighting the mind, develop the skills necessary to shut it down. This means practicing Talabya Kriya, breath of fire, Mahamudra, Agnisar Kriya, and regular kriya breaths (some with kumbhakas with moo’s or similar techniques to take your mind off the pause). If you practice 20 minutes in the morning and night, I would dedicate 15 minutes of that to pranayama and 5 minutes to meditating in Siddahasana, Shambhavi and Kechari mudra using the mantra Aum (Om) or I am in your Ajna.
I too have read Ennio’s book and almost decided to abandon Satyananda but felt that I should complete Satyananda first. I think Ennio provides much insight and it’s certainly a great work. I have not read Paulsen.
When I first got Paulsen’s book I flipped right to the pages that describe what he called the ?Kriya Breath? taught to him by Babaji. Squeeze your anus three times, inhale a breath up your spine and imagine it changing colors as you go up to your Ajna, hold the breath at Ajna and squeeze your anus three more times, then exhale the breath back down the spine as it changes colors and exits your anus as red. I thought is this some sort of sick joke? Then I look at the book cover and it says it should cost like $21 not the $100 I paid for it. Two weeks later I was definitely feeling current going up and down my spine thinking there’s no doubt that there is something to this. And searching a few terms in the book led me to Ennio’s book so it was probably the best $100 I ever spent. I think other books I’ve read have a lot more content to them though.
Interesting observations. I didn’t consider Talabya Kriya until coming upon Seeking’s post in this forum which led me here. Now I clearly see it’s importance. It is interesting since in much of Satyanada’s kriya instruction that Kechari is mentioned that they wouldn’t explain more.
Talabya is critical for stretching out the tongue for kechari. Maha Mudra and breath of fire or Agnisar Kriya for strengthening the diaphragm. And regular Kriyas for getting the current flowing. This is what I focus on.
Indeed! Brilliant! I think with people seeking out such wisdom and with the state of technology now, that having such profound knowledge at hand is very important… [B]especially considering the state of the world[/B].
Watch 13:50 to 15:00 ? just 1 minute and 10 seconds:
WTF is going on?
I’ve begun doing Talabya. At the moment I do not plan on cutting my tongue. However, after a few months if I don’t see much progress I may start.
I said the same thing. I think I made it 2 weeks and started cutting but I literally was tongue tied. If you’ve got white skin under your tongue, I think it needs to go.
I’ve been interested in reading this book and most definitely will do so at some point. (Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ)
This book should be in everyone’s house!
Couple things id like to add uma. First off I stayed up very late and read this entire thread, your brilliant. I could have read the dialogue between you and the other smart guy who was writing back to you all day. Both are you are people I wish I knew on a personal level. Have you ever read the up on taoist theory and the small and large heavenly cycle breathing techniques. It says that once you reach this breathless state which you have attained but through a different series of exercises, that the cells of the body have been transmuted through an alchemical process to where they are able to exist only on the energy which circulates throughout the universe, rather than on the grosser need to oxyygen which is presently felt. It’s at this point that the “normal” laws of time and space no longer bind the individual to this body or earth. Second off I hope I don’t offend but I feel people are throwing the term guru around loosely. This is from the book be here now by dr. richard alpert who transformed to hari dass baba. "[B]At certain stages in the spiritual journey, there is a quickening of the spirit which is brought about through the grace of the guru. When you are at one of the stages where you need this catalyst, it will be forthcoming. There is really nothing you can do about gurus. It doesn’t work that way. If you go looking for a guru and you are not ready to find one, you will not find what you are looking for. On the other hand when you are ready, the guru will be exactly where you are at the appropriate moment. All you can do it purify yourself of body and mind. Each stage of purification will make you sensitive to new levels of perception. Finally you arrive at a level where the guru is. Question: Does everyone have a guru? Answer: Yes, however, you may or may not meet your guru on the physical plane in this lifetime. It isn’t necessary. Since the relation between a guru and disciple is not on the physical plane, the guru can act upon you from within yourself. YOu may meet him thhrough dreams or visions or merely sense his presence. However, it is only after much purification that you will honor these meetings rather than rejecting them in favor of the more gross manifestations. There have been many saints who realized enlightenment without ever meeting their guru in a physical manifestation. [/B][B][/B]. So My point is not to offend that people are loosely using the term guru where the term teacher or guide should be used instead of guru.
Satyananda Saraswati is a good philosopher, just that… philosophy… hes from vedanta lineage, vedantis dont know nothing about yoga, cause yoga emerged into tantrik culture, so if you want the real pratical knowledge of yoga , search tantrik sadhaks if you want vedanta philosophy search vedantis, but if you mix them… oh no , you get big confusion and learns nothing…
[QUOTE=green3321;79668]Couple things I’d like to add uma. First off, I stayed up very late and read this entire thread, you’re brilliant. I could have read the dialogue between you and the other smart guy who was writing back to you all day. Both of you are people I wish I knew on a personal level.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for that! That is quite a complement!
Have you ever read the up on Taoist theory and the small and large heavenly cycle breathing techniques. It says that once you reach this breathless state which you have attained but through a different series of exercises, that the cells of the body have been transmuted through an alchemical process to where they are able to exist only on the energy which circulates throughout the universe, rather than on the grosser need to oxygen which is presently felt.
I have not read up on Taoist Theory. If you can recommend a good book, I would be interested in reading it. I don’t have a full understanding of what is happening in my body. I know that I am not getting anywhere near the oxygen into my body that I got before I started going breathless all the time. I definitely still need oxygen because anytime I tax my body with exercise, I immediately start breathing. I have read that you need oxygen to digest food and so that maybe why a small amount is being drawn in but I am speculating on this. I feel good, peaceful, and don’t think my intellectual capabilities are suffering. My concept of time definitely is. If someone asked my what I did last Tuesday, I wouldn’t have a clue. If I saw the new James Bond flick, I definitely would remember seeing it and the details, just not when I saw it.
It’s at this point that the “normal” laws of time and space no longer bind the individual to this body or earth.
I have not advanced to this stage yet. My meditations are very enjoyable but dominated by my senses. Sound is the most disturbing. Birds, the ocean waves, and the noise from construction workers building two houses right in front of me distract me. I love the ocean breeze but it is a distraction. I noticed that I am able to see prana everywhere now. It is very easy to see above the ocean in the sky. About 80% of the people I show can see it. It is easiest to see when the sky is mostly clear with scattered clouds. Look into the blue sky near a cloud for very small sparkles of light. Then follow one of the sparkles with your eyes. They dance around rapidly and disappear. You will quickly lose the sparkle that you are following as you notice it passes 20 more small sparkles of light that your eyes will start following instead. Then you notice that there are millions of sparkles (prana) all around you. I remember when my yoga instructor first showed them to me and I immediately saw them and remembered watching them as a small child.
Second off I hope I don’t offend but I feel people are throwing the term guru around loosely. This is from the book be here now by dr. richard alpert who transformed to hari dass baba. "At certain stages in the spiritual journey, there is a quickening of the spirit which is brought about through the grace of the guru. When you are at one of the stages where you need this catalyst, it will be forthcoming. There is really nothing you can do about gurus. It doesn’t work that way. If you go looking for a guru and you are not ready to find one, you will not find what you are looking for. On the other hand when you are ready, the guru will be exactly where you are at the appropriate moment. All you can do it purify yourself of body and mind. Each stage of purification will make you sensitive to new levels of perception. Finally you arrive at a level where the guru is. Question: Does everyone have a guru? Answer: Yes, however, you may or may not meet your guru on the physical plane in this lifetime. It isn’t necessary. Since the relation between a guru and disciple is not on the physical plane, the guru can act upon you from within yourself. You may meet him through dreams or visions or merely sense his presence. However, it is only after much purification that you will honor these meetings rather than rejecting them in favor of the more gross manifestations. There have been many saints who realized enlightenment without ever meeting their guru in a physical manifestation. . So My point is not to offend that people are loosely using the term guru where the term teacher or guide should be used instead of guru.
I really like the idea of a guru and wish that I had one (physical). That said I don’t know what I would do if my guru told me that what I’m practicing is too advanced for me and advocated hours of something I felt was mundane. The AYPsite.org says the guru is in you after each lesson. Strangely enough, I feel like I am being guided. I even feel like I’m being guided in what I post.
Satyananda Saraswati is a good philosopher, just that… philosophy… hes from vedanta lineage, vedantis dont know nothing about yoga,
I don’t believe this is an accurate statement.
if you want the real practical knowledge of yoga , search tantrik sadhaks if you want vedanta philosophy search vedantis, but if you mix them… oh no , you get big confusion and learns nothing…
If you can recommend a good book on vedanta philosophy or more importantly practices, I would be interested in reading about it. I believe all forms of yoga are complementary and all efforts to find God are rewarded. Obviously some practices are more powerful for some people than others. The trick is to find out what works for you. I believe all seekers experience a lull in their progress and think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. They then jump on a different practice possibly right before a major breakthrough. I believe this is why a guru or guidance is important. Unfortunately this has turned into SRF members not being allowed to talk about their practice or practice kechari which I don’t understand.
I have called several of Satyananda’s schools and believe that I will go to Colombia to study more of his techniques. I am waiting for the director to return on Nov 23rd to see if I can get some individualized lessons. The normal course is to spend the bulk of the first year practicing asanas which I believe I’m already proficient at.
I tapped into this site a few days ago:
Here is another site with some videos of HRM:
HRM performs Trataka on the sun during the first hour after sunrise or the last hour before sunset. His pineal gland has been measured at 2 ? times the size of a normal person’s and it normally shrinks with age. Apparently he was busted eating food at an Indian restaurant which doesn’t help his credibility but doesn’t discount everything he says.
Yogananda also talks about the sun – taken from page 416 of Yogananda’s book The Second Coming of Christ:
The primary medicine of the future will be rays, the vibratory nature of which is more compatible with the molecular atomic nature of the human body. Healing rays can reach into the atomic disorder of cells in chronic diseases. There is also much healing energy in the sun’s rays, though the harmful effects of overexposure must be avoided.
My current focus is to attain Kechari stage 2 and do exercises to open up my Ajna. Performing Trataka on the sun is far more powerful than doing it on a candle. I have been practicing Trataka on the sun for 5 days now. The first day I did three sets of 20 seconds on my balcony. I then realized that I need to be barefoot on the earth (sand, dirt or rocks) for this to be effective. Also it seems to be hazy with low level clouds at night that prevent sun gazing so I have to wake up at 5:40 in the morning to catch the sunrise. I have been doing a quick Jala Neti before walking down to a local park and standing in the sand. I have been doing 3 sets of 1 minute the first few days. Today (day 5) I did 1 set of 2 minutes and 2 sets of 1 minute (I know I’m doing this more than what is initially recommended). This is a very powerful exercise! I will continue to do this for the next few months building up to 1 set of 3 – 6 minutes straight.
Afterwards I’ve been going to Park Omar, a local park with a 4 kilometer par course, and slowly jogging the 4 kilometers. I’ve been running in kechari with my mouth completely closed for the entire jog. I don’t know why I started doing this or what effect it is having on me but I like doing it. Also I’ve been putting a glass pitcher of distilled water (get off the fluoridated water people!) out on my balcony in the sun every morning and drinking it throughout the day. I have no idea of the benefits of this either – just following the advice of HRM.
From page 385 of Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ:
When through the help of wise men, souls are transferred from the brine of material desires to the sweet waters of Bliss, they bring rejoicing to the august Giver of Life. God loves to see His sons consciously seek Him, and He is extremely pleased when one influences others to come unto Him. When a reformed Spirit-bound soul inspires another spiritual fugitive to return to God, that service to a fellow being is considered the highest human duty.*
*”Whosoever shall impart to My devotees the supreme secret knowledge, with utmost devotion to Me, shall without doubt come unto Me. Not any among men performs more priceless service to Me than he; in all the world there shall be none dearer to Me” - (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita – page 68 – also by Yogananda)
I will say it again – I cannot recommend Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ enough. That said, I don’t bother telling my experiences to people who are not interested. It is much more productive telling them to someone who is interested than trying to gain the interest of someone who is not. This reminds me of a sales slogan – it’s easier to find someone who will say yes than trying to convince someone who says no to say yes. I believe some people don’t walk the path because they believe some cherished thing they do is a sin and will have to give it up. I am not ready to give up all my sensual pleasures yet either but I know that the pleasure I receive from maya is nothing compared to what lays in store for me.
When Jesus said Repent, he didn’t mean stop doing what you are doing, you are guilty of sin. He meant seeking pleasure in transitory things (maya) ultimately leads to dissatisfaction. The only way to find true happiness is to form a relationship with the divine.
You are born to sin! Of course you are, your consciousness was placed in a nonfunctional body. Unfortunately most people don’t understand what sinning is. Sinning is perceiving the world with the limited 5 senses, the mind, ego and intellect. As long as you use the 5 senses to create the world you are experiencing, you are a sinner. When your Third eye is open, you will create an entirely different world. When Jesus looked upon the ocean through his opened Ajna, he saw vibrating energy. And since he himself was vibrating energy, he could walk upon it. When we look at the ocean, we see water and so the physical world our thoughts create would drown us if we attempted Jesus’ feat with our unopened third eye.
Lahiri also explains this in his 108 pieces of advice – number 93:
http://www.sanskritclassics.com/advent.htm
- Nobody is a sinner; no one is holy either; if the mind is put into the Kutastha, then, there is no sin; otherwise, if the mind is outward, there is sin; in other words, when the mind is not in the Kutastha, it is in sin.
The various churches have contorted Jesus’ teachings to make you believe you are a sinner if you desire sex, money and other things. And these are sins but only because they are worldly desires. You are not of this world and so no worldly thing has anything to offer you. Believing the world has something to offer you is the sin – or missing the mark as Eckhart Tolle says. You are apart from the Divine when the mind is supplying the consciousness with demands and information. Liberation from the mind is the purpose for our life here. The mind is a desire creating factory and gives you one desire after another and says we will be happy when we achieve or acquire this or that. This is nonsense. The world is made up of nothing more than various electricities that are interpreted in the body. If you eat the right food, have sex with the right pretty girl, acquire enough gold or whatever else your mind desires; your mind gives you some temporary pleasure and then it wants something else. Once you shut down the mind, your true nature unfolds which is unconditional love, peace and bliss. The mind is a miser giving out very little pleasure compared to the Divine. The mind enslaves us. It makes us think that we are the body and that our happiness comes from outside of ourselves. This is the false duality. The kingdom of heaven is within. We are always only experiencing our self.
That said as David Hawkins says you have to love the mind. You wouldn’t be here today without it. We are on our 2,000,000th life according to some yogis I’ve read. We’ve got an entire history stored in our sushumna of various incarnations of various animals only having the desire to kill, eat, and fuck. Your mind is what is left of your evolution from an animal and you wouldn’t have made it to this stage of evolution without it. You can revisit these electrical experiences when you go deep into meditation according to some yogis. All your sensory perception first go through what the experts say is a reptilian brain that is only interested in survival and procreation. The reptilian brain only thinks of three things. Can I eat it? Will it eat me? (Is it dangerous?) Can I fuck it? Your lower chakras are the sex and stomach chakras. Your higher chakras are the heart, throat and third eye - love, wisdom and intelligence. This is Heaven or Hell. We are living in Hell as long as we identify with the mind and body and keep our energy in the lower chakras. The various churches would have you believe that if you don’t give them 10% of what you earn that you will be sent to the very place we are currently living in.
Your mind will die with the body one day, you will not. The characteristics of your next mind or ego you receive will be similar to the one you have now as your mind is a combination of your history of electrical experiences (your built up karma ) and the family and culture you are born into. The goal is to kill the mind and become just presence before the body dies and takes the mind with it. You are not your karma, you are presence not experiences. That is your true nature, the mind makes you think that you are experiences or your life situation. The reason spiritual growth is the most important thing you can pursue is because it is the only thing you will take with you into your next life. Your progress takes place in the astral body which you take with you into your next incarnation. Any achievement made in the physical world dies with the body.
I definitely turned my Kundalini on from doing Satyananda’s exercises. This is from the book Moola Banda – The Master Key Page 1 Paragraph 1:
In the Yogataravali Sutras it is said: Jalandhara bandha, uddiyana bandha and moola bandha are situated in the throat, abdomen and perineum respectively. If their duration can be increased then where is the fear of death? By the practice of these three bandhas the dormant kundalini awakens and enters into the sushumna. The breath becomes still (kumbhaka). With the performance of these three bandhas the exhalation and inhalation ceases to function. With this the senses become purified and kevala (enlightenment) takes place. I pray for that knowledge residing in kevala kumbhaka.
I was right about the breath being linked with the mind – from Ramana – Who Am I?:
Are there no other means for making the mind quiescent?
Other than inquiry, there are no adequate means. If through other means it is sought to control the mind, the mind will appear to be controlled, but will again go forth. Through the control of breath also, the mind will become quiescent; but it will be quiescent only so long as the breath remains controlled, and when the breath resumes the mind also will again start moving and will wander as impelled by residual impressions. The source is the same for both mind and breath. Thought, indeed, is the nature of the mind. The thought “I” is the first thought of the mind; and that is egoity. It is from that whence egoity originates that breath also originates. Therefore, when the mind becomes quiescent, the breath is controlled, and when the breath is controlled the mind becomes quiescent.
I was describing my experiences. Every time my breath would stop, my mind would stop. I haven’t transcended the senses. I made it to kechari stage 2 about the beginning of April. I didn’t cut my frenulum at all in the months of December, January and the first few weeks of February. Finally I realized that I wasn’t going to make it to stage 2 unless I started cutting again. This is from Kundalini Yoga by Sivananda:
http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/kun1.html
The lower part of the front portion of the tongue, the frenum lingua, is cut to the extent of a hair’s breadth with a sharp knife once in a week. Afterwards powder of turmeric is dusted over it. This is continued for some months. This is Chhedan.
Afterwards the Yogic student applies butter to the tongue and lengthens it daily. He draws the tongue in such a way that it is similar to the process of milking the udder of a cow. This is Dohan.
When the tongue is sufficiently long (it should touch the tip of the nose) the student folds it, takes it back and closes the posterior portion of the nostrils. Now he sits and meditates. The breath stops completely.
Sivananda was a fully realized yogi, a medical doctor, the guru of my beloved Satyananda, and just like Lahiri, received personal Kriya Yoga lessons directly from Babaji. And so the debate to cut or not cut is over in my mind. I cut until I reached stage 2 and continue to cut today.
Stage 2 was awkward at first. My tongue kept popping out. I could only keep it in the pharynx for about 30 seconds. It took about 2 weeks before I could hold it for a minute. Doing pranayama it would always fall out whenever I would lockout into maha bandha. Finally I got tired of pussyfooting it around and just started shoving my tongue up there. This was about the first week of May. And now I realize it is liking breaking in a virgin. I did the worst possible thing you could do, soft and slow and just prolonged the discomfort. You just have to start pushing your tongue up as far as you can. When you get to the later stages the base of your tongue is going to be where the tip of it is now and so the pharynx is going to stretch out a lot further. Not only that but it took me about 6 weeks to find my clitoris. At first I would get a feeling like when you put your tongue on a 9 volt battery. Just a little tingle. I thought is that it? I guess it’s going to get progressively more sensitive. But my tongue would fall out after 20 seconds or so and that was it. Clunky is a good word for it that the AYPsite uses aptly. Then I read that you are suppose to push the pharynx forward and that exposes the secret spot.
It’s just like when your press your hand on a woman’s pubic bone pushing her skin up exposes her secret spot! And so rubbing your tongue back and forth at the top of your nasal septum creates a tingling feeling that sometimes feels buzzy and trippy. It draws your attention inward. I haven’t got my tongue across the whole thing yet so I don’t know if I’m experiencing everything there is yet. And I don’t think I am. One thing I found is that the reason your nasal passage gets blocked up is a flap of skin covers the top part of your passage. It is the trippiest thing. And the flap of skin switches with your nadis every 90 minutes to 2 hours. I can stick my tongue down the nasal passage way to feel which part of my brain is dominant right now by feeling which nostril has the flap covering it. They say you are suppose to meditate when the right brain is dominant or the left nostril is open. I can’t do internal nadi shodhana yet because I can’t reach the top of my nasal hole to block it with my tongue yet.
I’ve had several experiences when meditating where my back felt like the trunk of a tree. While rubbing the secret spot and sitting breathless in shambhavi mudra suddenly my back would raise up straightening out and then feel like it was made out of stone. I just started practicing an entire yoga asana session with my tongue rubbing my secret spot and try to spend several hours a day with my tongue resting there.
The next goal is to figure out how to shut off the senses so that I can get to the first level of Samadhi. I read that the weight of the tongue on the nasal pharynx pulls on part of the brain and pinches off the circuit where the nerve signals travel from the sensory organs to the mind to decipher what is going on. I also read that you have to push on this circuit with the tongue and that cuts off the sensory perception signals from reaching the mind. The latter sounds more realistic but I don’t know where to push or if my tongue is long enough. I need to get more diligent about tongue stretching exercises. I don’t know if I milk correctly. How many times or how long should I milk my tongue?
With my kundalini on and my Muladhara open the next chakra I need to focus on is Svadhishthana. Satyananda’s Tantra book has basically only two exercises for the sex chakra - ashwini and vajroli mudras. So I put this song on and just have a ball fooling around with ashwini and vajroli mudras:
No instruction needed, just go with whatever rhythm you like. The asanas to open the sex chakra are cobra, triangle, twists, locust, bow, and camel.
Next is the Manipura Chakra and I’ve read that mastering nauli is the key opening that. And after that Shakti Chalana is the method to pull the kundalini up the sushumna:
Notice how she locks out her stomach in uddiyana bandha.
Once the kundalini makes it to the Anahata it rarely descends. Of course I’m just spouting out book knowledge. Even though I don’t know what I’m doing, I still feel like I’m being guided. I gave up on my sun gazing. I did it for 5 months and got up to 30 minutes but then the sun shifted and I could no longer watch it come out of the ocean from my balcony. I bought a earthing mat so that I would be grounded. Now I have to drive 30 minutes from my house and on days when there are clouds it is a real bummer. And you never know if there are going to be clouds until the sun is just about to rise. In returning home I would hit the morning commute and the traffic was terrible. When the sunrise shifts back to where I can watch it from my balcony, I will practice trataka on it again.
I called several of Satyananda’s schools. The school in Colombia is ran by a swami named Maria who studied with Satyananda. She said she basically teaches the book Asanas Pranayamas Mudra Bandha. She said I was doing things way too advanced and I should just do some basic postures with bastrika, breath of fire, nadi shodhana for my pranayama. I told her that was impossible at this point. I have been practicing a very advanced form of Sivananda asanas for many years now and I want to continue my pranayama. I then called an Australian Ashram and talked to a swami there that had been there for 12 years and she didn’t know what Kriya 6 and Kriya 7 from Satyananda were. These kriyas are in many of Satyananda’s books. She suggested I call India and go there.
I looked into going to India but they just started the 12 month annual english course. Then I found out that The Systematic Course on Yoga and Kriya was written by Swami Nishchalananda out of England. Granted he borrowed heavily from Satyananda’s Kundalini Tantra and was his disciple for 12 years. So I looked into going to England to study at his ashram but they just started a 18 month course. And so I resolved to study and do my own thing for awhile. When the student is ready the teacher will appear type of thing.
I knew that I wasn’t the only schmo ever to combine Kriya 6 and Kriya 7 together and so when I found this I freaked and immediately adopted it as my Sadhana. Of course I had to tweak it here and there:
This is a pretty intense sadhana. I wake up every morning at 4:30 for brahmamahurta, do my toilet duties, scrap my tongue with a tongue scraper (you must buy one of these http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Tungs-Products-Stainless-Cleaner/dp/B00064JGBO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370435604&sr=8-1&keywords=tongue+scraper ), brush my teeth, practice amaroli, jala neti, roll around on my yoga ball in wheel pose for 5 minutes. Do headstand and several variations of it for 5 minutes then pranayama:
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First I do 11 rounds of nadi shodhana, anoloma veloma or alternate nostril breathing which ever you call it. The first 4 rounds I do maha bandha and while holding the exhale do 20 bastrika stomach pumps and then while holding the inhale jalahandra dynamic chin pumps with 5 circles. The next 4 rounds exhale the same, inhale chaturtha pranayama (which is just going through your chakras breaking the tissue paper that I mentally create for each chakra on the way down and then back up). Then the last three rounds just like the first four – exhale into maha bandha then do 20 bastrika stomach pumps and inhale into dynamic jalahandra with 5 circles of the head.
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I then do 100 Breath of Fire with the last one exhaling right into Kriya 7
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I then do 12 rounds of exhaling into Kriya 7 and inhaling into Kriya 6. This is the Sham – Kech – Moo to Nas - Udd – Moo I wrote about months ago. I do 8 cycles of chakra rotation before inhaling or exhaling.
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I then exhale into maha bandha and perform 20 bastrika stomach pumps with the breath outside then inhale into Kriya 10 for two rounds, back to maha bandha on the exhale and some bastrikas. Then the next two rounds I do Kriya 11 theses are in Kundalini Tantra and also listed on Manoj’s video. I do a total of 12 Shamukhi mudra breaths doing these alternating kriyas – 6 of each. For Kriya 10 I like to rest my tongue on my septum and squeeze off 20 moos feeling the current go up. For Kriya 11 I’m not big on the green snake. I just do 3 – 4 circles touching my chakras down awarohan and then up the arohan.
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14 internal Om’s – mouth is closed, kechari sealed off throat, humm Om on the exhale and imagine the breath is exhaling out of my Anahata Chakra.
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The lords prayer, 5 Jesus prayer, salutations to Yogananda, Yukteshwar, Lahiri, Babaji, Ennio, and Norm Paulsen, salutations to Satyananda, Sivananda, Babaji, My Yoga teacher, Manoj, and Nithyananda, Salutations to my mother, father, brother, sister, relatives, friends, lovers, teachers, fellow students, all the people of the world, Repeat all the salutations
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I chant Satyananda’s chant 3 times:
Jalahandra Chin Pump:
http://www.aypsite.org/139.html
Kriya 6 and 7 can be found on manoj’s site or doing a search for Kundalini Tantra pdf on any search engine - Satyananda puts it out for free.
A question posed to me was how do you feel the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chakra?
It is easy to feel the 2nd chakra. You just squeeze the muscle you use to cut off your urine. You should be separating your orgasms from ejaculation. This is another way to build chakra awareness there. As I stated in an earlier post, Yogananda says that sex holds back most men from spiritual growth. Do not let the creative power of the universe needlessly escape out of your body. Don’t spill your seed! This energy is reabsorbed into the body, combines with prana and clears out your sushumna. I have read that it takes the body 2 weeks to a month to replenish the sperm lost in one ejaculation. Do an internet search on Brahmacharya and Sivananda if you want to know how important this is. Sivananda is a bit too hardcore with Brahmacharya for me, I like Satyananda’s approach better. Have all the sex you want but you must learn to separate your orgasms from ejaculation. When I first started practicing this I felt a soreness in my penis. This went away after a week or two. I think it was from using muscles that I never used before. The teachings of Babaji Mantra linked above is a great exercise to build awareness. Listen to that and practice Vajroli Mudra.
The 3rd chakra is also easy to feel. You should be practicing Maha Bandha every sadhana. Maha Bandha consists of Jalahandra Bandha, Uddiyana Bandha and Mula Bandha. Uddiyana Bandha should build chakra awareness in your stomach. If it doesn’t (and I don’t know how that is possible) then you should practice bastrika with the air exhaled. This will make your stomach sore for a few days when you first do it. I do 20 pumps 34 times (22 in exercise 1 and 12 in exercise 4) in my morning sadhana for a total of 680 bastrika pumps every morning. My stomach has ripples all the way through it. I still haven’t mastered nauli. That is something that I want to learn this year.
Maha bandha, sitting and Siddhasana, and kechari with the throat sealed off is one way to turn on your kundalini. So Maha bandha is extremely important. While sitting in Siddhasana I turn my hands so my thumbs are on the outside of my thighs and my fingers are on the inside and straighten out my arms using them as a brace to squeeze everything I can out of my diaphragm when I go into Uddiyana. First you exhale everything you’ve got in your lungs then you pull your stomach in then up. You should feel a locking out of your stomach. note This is extremely important – you should feel a locking out of your stomach and then do some bastrikas to really build awareness. On the inhale I will open up my arms laying my arms back on my legs with the palms facing upwards. Hopefully you understand what I’m doing with this description. You can Inhale and exhale in and out of Maha bandha doing a quick 5 reps and then do 5 slow ones holding the breath as long as you can. Point being practice Maha bandha as much as you can. I do my morning sadhana the same every morning and just play around with various exercises at night.
The 4th Chakra is a bit harder. I always think of a lover and kind of push my chest out. When I first started listening to Eckhart Tolle and my first reading of the Bhagavad Gita made my chest swell and feel so good and that it built a lot of awareness there for me. One of my favorite things to do is Meditate in the breathless state and do Cartartha Pranayama up and down my chakras. I like listening to this Mantra:
Om Na Ma Ha Shi Va up the chakras with Va in Ajna and then the air rushes out the crown and start back at Muladhara with Om. When I first started doing this I couldn’t keep up with the mantra until instead of going up with the syllables, I would go in and out. So you start with the air going in with your anus with Om, your out with your sex with Na, your in with your stomach with Ma, your out with your chest with Ha, your in with you tongue with Shi and out with you Ajna with Va and then slip out your crown. Hopefully you understand what I mean. The in out in out in out of doing this almost makes you think of your kundalini as a snake. Hmmm, where have we heard that metaphor before?
Another question was how long and what did I practice before my awakening. I practice a fairly advanced form of Sivananda Yoga 3 times a week and light floor exercise the other days for about 5 years and only practiced various pranayama exercises for about 7 weeks before my kundalini turned on. The only pranayama I practiced before the 7 week stint was 2 rounds of Breath of fire about 150 exhales per round before yoga and I would always sit with my breath held after a round waiting for my body to tell me it is time to breathe again. As I think Avatar stated, breath of fire decarbonizes the blood and so you shouldn’t have to breathe for about a minute or so after a round. Another aspect that I think contributed to my awakening was I felt very grateful during that time period. I remember also reading Norm Paulsen’s book and him saying you must demand from the divine that you want to know who and what you are. That you want a relationship with the divine. You have a right to know the truth about yourself and your creator. No more games – I will make the effort but I want to know the truth about what I am.
I got my current reading list from David Hawkins.
I listen to his videos on youtube and had to buy A Course in Miracles on his recommendation. I am currently on day 33 in the book.
I highly recommend listening to videos on youtube by David Hawkins. His video on stress, aging, the ego and many others are all priceless. Here’s one on sex:
Currently I’m reading Play of Consciousness by Muktananda. You pick up tips from reading books of masters. I learned that you must surrender to the fact that your body is not yours and it is necessary to sit in full lotus for 3 hours to purify all 2 million of your nadis, among many other things so far from this one. I still have problems with my knees but sit every morning in Siddhasana for 90 minutes of pranayama.
I highly recommend doing some of this guy’s Yoga Nidras:
My favorite ones are Yoga Nidra 1 and Yoga Nidra Om This puts you in a very relaxed state of mind. Once you start habitually going into these relaxed states they are easier to return to in meditation.
Hope you find my ramblings useful!