I’m interested to know what peoples opinions are on the hold of Mula Bhanda during asana practice, by this I mean holding it while doing other asanas.
Namaste
Various instructors drilled the thought Mula Bhanda into my practice until it became an effortless subtle beneficial permanence, than again mine was training from ashtangies of the 70?s.
No argument here… Moola bandha is held from beginning of practice all the way throughout the entire practice until savasana. Period. done.
How do you achieve this? Practice practice practice and many many years. Period. Done. Patience.
Om shanti
People often think that they can see the level of a yogi by just looking at his/her refinement of asana, but in reality it is elements like bandhas that illustrate an innate control over one’s body.
Thanks for the replies, I’m planning on attending an ashtanga class for a while - that will add to the informative responses here.
You are not an advanced yogi due to mola bandha. Usually root lock is done in advanced pranayama as otherwise the air will release that way even though you are not breathing out. As well as doing neck lock. But most people dont need to care about this as they cant hold breath for such long times anyway and one would not become more spiritual because of mastering some locks.
Asanas are only preparation for meditation. So someone mastering asanas could get a big ego from that. Yoga is mostly internal.
Perhaps you are right - the most usual tools are often fine and subtle instead of powerful - which is essentially the basis for my initial question. That being said, I’ve felt much calmer and with a more upward energy flow when applying the mola bandha during asanas - particularly sun salutations. It is my understanding that mola bandha will always prevent the leaking out of energy through the root, whether in pranayama or asana but that the use of it in asana is an ashtanga practice. Still undecided if that’s the route that will work well for me. Thanks for your input.
If we believe anything will work it will as the power is in the mind and your thoughts.
People can drink juice and if they believe it is alcohol they will feel drunk such powerful is the mind.
If you want to preserve your energy and dont let it leak out you should not even masturbate, the more energy preserved in the root before it goes up will put tension on your sexorgan and the want to release it , you will get horny and think about sex. Same goes if you want to raise your kundalini then you must preserve the energy and not indulge in sex at all not even masturbation for longer periods which means depending on the level of the person at least 1 month and have some of these periods where you abstain from this completely. Yoga is about self control so one must actually be able to control our sexorgans quite logical.
Energy will leak when doing asanas no matter what locks you use. This is why pranayama is step four in ashtanga 8 steps , to recover your prana and it must be done after doing your asanas 1/4th of the time doing the asanas. Anyone doing the pranayamas will know how effectful it is and it can cure many things.
Any yoga that has the steps of yama niyama asanas pranayama pratyahara dharana dhyana and samadhi can be called ASHTANGA. ashtanga is not a specific style of asanas but a complete system of yoga as tought by patanjali which he calls raja yoga. The king of yoga /and asanas are only preparation for meditation. i would say asanas is 5% of yoga which is very little. So by mastering asanas one would master 5% of yoga.
Ive done traditional ashtanga yoga i also tried vinyasa but the traditional does not talk about root lock. i never read any books stating it should be applied during the asanas or maybe i was just unlucky not have read this, i can however understand now why yoga has been popular in the gay culture.
As long you get the desirable effect though then keep it up.