[QUOTE=Avatar186;78562]Discussion of ideas is greater than discussion of persons.
Discuss things impersonally. Discuss the personal in an impersonal manner.
[/QUOTE]
Point taken. I apologize for lashing out. I shared some very personal experiences and my ego did not appreciate them being questioned. I have received similar responses from friends that have no understanding of yoga and so some of my reaction was displacement. I’m not trying to excuse my behavior, just explain it. It is obvious Suhas Tambe has a lot of knowledge about yoga, thus his contemplations are desired and could prove to be very valuable to our paths.
I would love to hear more about your systematic approach
I prefer to hear what others have directly experienced rather than theory.
You and I think alike. First off, I don’t feel that I am qualified to teach anything except what I have done and my experiences.
I believe Siddhasana is extremely important and far superior to Padmasana (full lotus) pose. The first meditation course that I took (that ultimately ended up being a dead end of my spiritual practice for a few years), just said keep your back straight and practice Shambhavi Mudra. The instructor taught that it didn’t matter whether we sat on the floor or in a chair. I did feel some bliss created by some buzzing and throbbing in my Ajna, but obviously not enough because I lost interest in the practice.
A few months ago after reading Ennio’s Kriya book, I started practicing kriyas with my legs folded in front of me but not in Siddhasana. I made it a habit to read a few kundalini lessons a day from AYPsite.org. When I got to lesson 75 and read about Siddhasana, I tried it and immediately had an experience. I remember doing basic Kriya breaths which consisted of a few Moo squeezes, taking the breath up the spinal column imagining the breath changing colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple in Ajna) as it passes through the chakras, and holding the breath in Ajna for a few moments.
It only took one or two breaths and I started seeing fireworks in my Ajna. Once again this made me excited and I thought oh good I’m going to have an experience. But a couple of explosions was it and I again thought ?you blew it you fool, you let the mind in.? I later realized that the importance of the experience was conveyed. I was not sitting correctly ? the heel pressing into the perineum is extremely important to stimulate the Muladhara to send prana up the sushumna.
I was an avid cyclists for over a decade bicycling up mountains literally every day. I believe this thickened or strengthened my tendons, ligaments, cartilage or something so much that my knees are not that flexible. When I started taking yoga classes, I noticed that most people have far more flexibility in their knees than I do. Women are naturally more flexible but I was jealous of the men that could perform Padmasana (full lotus). I was so infatuated with the attainment of that pose that I remember traveling through Thailand and looking at the Buddha statues thinking why isn’t he in full lotus? He meditated all the time and had to be flexible enough. After this experience it dawned on me. Siddhasana ? Siddhartha Gautama was the Buddha’s real name. The pose is named after him. And of course he could easily sit in full lotus. He sat in Siddhasana not because he needed the Muladhara stimulus any more. Everything was on and open in his body. He sat in Siddhasana because it is the most powerful seated pose to awaken the kundalini. He wanted his followers to mimic him.
In retrospect, it is a blessing that my knees were not flexible enough to sit in Padmasana because I would not have turned my kundalini on if I could. I still cannot sit in Siddhasana correctly. I have one heel pressed fairly hard into my perineum but the other is not flexible enough to complete the circuit and press into my pubic bone.
It is my belief that some teachings have you do Maha Mudra in the forward bend posture because when you reach forward to touch your toes, you push your heel more firmly into your perineum. This sends prana up the sushumna. Most people reading this probably practice Siddhasana correctly. I didn’t and had no clue about the importance of it until this experience. I went back and read the books and sure enough they all explicitly said do this. Upon reading them, my thoughts always were ok, sit with the spine straight up. This experience has made me pay far more attention to all the nuances of everything to make sure that I am not missing a key component.
Another aspect that I think contributed to my awakening is that I haven’t blown my load in over two months. In all seriousness, I think there is a connection. I have read that sperm has the same make up of bindu, so it drains your life energy when it is expended or something like that. I have a thought (misplaced???) that the newly created sperm are going to need some energy to fulfill their mission so they help themselves to the prana that is suppose to be rising up and opening up your chakras. Or maybe the sperm is created out of the prana itself depleting it for hours or days what should be going up your sushumna. Yogananda says that sexuality is the greatest impediment to a males spiritual progress.
One of my favorite Lahiri quotes was when asked when in his yoga path did he stop thinking about sex; He replied that he will stop thinking about sex when he is six feet under. Reading that made me love Lahiri even more and shows you that even the great masters succumb to worldly temptations. Another great Lahiri quote is ?Nobody is a sinner; the mind itself is the sinner when it becomes outward away from the Kutastha.?
That said I have not curtailed my sexual activities at all. A friend loaned me Mantak Chia’s book the multiorgasmic man right about the time I started practicing Kriya. The AYPsite has a section on Tantra that teaches the same thing free. The tantric technique of separating orgasm from ejaculation is just Vajroli mudra and Uddiyana bandha. I’ve learned that the Uddiyana part is more important than the Vajroli. When you pass the point of no return, you employ Vajroli mudra and exhale slowly into Uddiyana and then exhale again and then exhale again (for a total of 3 times) and finally stretch like a cat taking the energy up the spine. I still have small mistakes but I’m not ready to give up that part of my life yet. Until you master the technique it is good to press into the perineum with your thumb and fingers as a backup. I don’t think I’ve had a full ejaculation in 4 months. I feel an incredible amount of current in missionary position with lips or tongues engaged and also hip to hip contact feels likes sparks going off. Many times during the act I get dizzy with bliss and have had to stop and rest for awhile. I also enjoy sex so much more because you stop focusing on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and instead just focus on being with another divine spirit. I don’t know for sure but I think sex has actually aided in my awakening.
The whole thing about yoga, sex and abstinence has to be one of the greatest ironies of all. (The Christian and Catholic religions are a great irony to me as well) Don’t spill your seed young man! Yet at the same time you’re suppose to rub what physiologically is similar to a clitoris on your nasal septum for hours on end while internally performing Nadi Shohana? When I first read about this I thought you can’t make this stuff up. I remember when I first listened to Yogiraj Siddhanath talk about spending 12 hours at a clip performing Nadi Shohana to balance his nadis. At first I thought this guy’s dedication is amazing. Now I wonder if it is like playing with yourself in a state of orgasmic bliss for 12 hours.
And I wish I had a systematic approach but I feel like I am just winging it. At this point I’m going to dance with the one that brought me to the prom and that is Satyananda. I’ve been doing his exercises to open my Ajna. Somedays I feels blissful pulses and others a peaceful bliss.
The exercises are Jala neti everyday. Trataka on a candle ? I do 5 ? 15 minutes depending on how I feel ? never any pressure to do more. Shambhavi mudra ? but I always try to go into Shambhavi and kechari whenever I can so this is no new practice. I’m in kechari most of the day. The main workhorse is Nadi Shodhana for as long as you can. Motoyama would get up at 4 in the morning and do it for an hour. I don’t think I’ve done more than 20 in my life at a time so I guess I’m slacking in this department. Maybe in a week or two I will become more diligent and practice Nadi Shohana for 30 minutes and basic Kriyas for 30 minutes for an hour total. Right now I am content to relax and meditate in breathlessness. I realize that I’m resting on my laurels so to speak but I get a lot of bliss out of it. I know that this is not the end goal.
Satyananda has a advanced form of Nadi Shohana where the inhale / kumbhaka / exhale / kumbhaka time is 1/2/2/1. You go into Jalahandra Bandha and Mula Bandha on the inhale kumbhaka and Maha Mudra on the exhale kumbhaka. (Maha Mudra is Jalahandra, Uddiyana, and Mula Bandha all together).
I also am very dedicated to achieving kechari stage 2 and am now doing about 500 Talabya’s a day in addition to some tongue circles, stretching and milking exercises. I have noticed a change in the ability of my tongue. It is starting to curl more and the frenulum tendon is no longer taut and what is limiting my progress. I therefore am going to stop cutting my frenulum for the time being as I don’t think this is the limiting factor any more.
I also practice a fairly advanced form of Sivananda Yoga Asanas several times a week that I will explain in detail later if someone expresses interest
Yoga has six different schools and several variations and approaches. Patanajli documented a path called Raja Yoga, (royal yoga). It is so called for a reason. At the base of Vedic literature is a concept of the subtle manifesting in gross in successive subtle-gross casscade. Corollary is that (relatively) subtle is a cause of the gross. The spiritual path of self-realization works in the reverse. By experiencing the gross one gains knowledge of the subtle. Corollary is - the subtle is the best position to control the gross.
It would not be wise for me not to participate in a game of yoga jeopardy with you.
This bears on the khechari in two ways. Can the practice deliver the ultimate state of samadhi? Potentially, it does. How durable that would be? results will be quicker but the change agents being predominantly physical, less durable than bhakti, dhyana or raja.
When I first started going breathless I noticed a difference of intensity when I meditated. When I would go breathless from breath of fire there was a lot more turbulence floating around in my diaphragm than when I would go breathless from using a Maha Mudra techniques which is stretching out the diaphragm. Again the tissue in the diaphragm feel like reeds in the ocean and as water moves over them they all start to move one way, the breath hits the back of the diaphragm and then they all start to move the other way. I hope my metaphor is conveying what I feel in my body correctly. I remembering thinking at the time that the slightest bit of movement has to be completely stopped even on a microscopic level for me to reach samadhi. And there is no way that is possible with completely sealing off the nasal passage.
Nowadays I don’t feel much difference in my breathlessness because it happens all the time and I don’t really control it. I wake up in the morning and I’m breathing. I look down at my diaphragm and it flutters for a few seconds and stops. And so I know that the autonomous nervous systems makes you breathe and as soon as my consciousness takes over, the diaphragm stops with no effort on my part. I wonder if this is why advanced yogis don’t sleep. There is something in the breath that they don’t want pumped inside them when they sleep?
This is from Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath’s book Babaji, the lightning standing still page 228:
Those who have mastered this mudra can penetrate their tongue up the hollow of the throat to near the midpoint of the eyebrows. Above this is the third ventricle in the brain, which is like an inverted well, dropping the nectar on the tongue.
All people initiated into advanced Kriya Yoga can avail of this nectar to retard the aging process of their body cells and simultaneously attain the state of samadhi. We must understand that in the true Kriya Yoga teachings, the khechari mudra is a must because it blocks the ida-pingala channels and assists in the opening of the sushumna channel, forcing the pranic breath to enter the central channel and bestow self-realization on the practitioner of Kriya Yoga. It is also one of the mudras, which sets apart the true Kriya Yoga teachings from that of other teachings of yoga which are not the true Kriya Yoga. In all Kriya Yoga practices, the khechari mudra is always used to ensure the rapidity of spiritual evolution.
Here are some testimonials of space cadets that put a natural or should I say organic version of the amrit, DMT or in this case it is called ayahuasca into their body ? you have to cut and paste the link ? I don’t have enough posts yet to post links:
templeofthewayoflight.org/video-testimonials/gallery
I have no interest in the thoughts of what a doctor might think. I wont see a doctor unless I have a broken bone or something like that. I don’t like who writes the textbooks that the doctors ?learn? from. I would be more concerned if I was the one stopping my breath all the time but I’m not. Something has changed in my body and I have no control over it.
I just spent several hours writing the above information so I hope somebody benefits from it.
Does anyone get that last Jab? Here is a hint there is a coconut demanding traveling false guru from india at the end of that jab.