[quote=The Scales;36166]Prana Vayu. Prana. The “winds”. Essential Breath. ‘the vayu’ . Vital energy. The Breath of Life.
I hesitate to say ‘chi’ but it’s most likely called ‘chi’. My taoist knowledge is elementary. But I do think ‘chi’ and ‘prana vayu’ are synonymous.
Any way - all same.
[/quote]
Hi Scales,
Thanks for the explanation & info. ,Cheers.
Very interesting.
What is this “Breath of Fire” i hear about?
Is it like a variation of Agni Sara Kriya?
You raise a really good question,and indeed one i queried at the beginning of the year, including with another poster on this forum.
I can tell you this:-
That I practice agnisara kriya.
That i’m not aware ,at least, of any practice i employ which i term “breath of fire”,just that it’s seems to be one of the trademarks of Yogi Bhajan’s “kundalini yoga” amongst others.Look like a great yoga though probably hard to find a good teacher for.
There does not seem much to distiinguish between the two practices.
Agni(belly,fire)
Sara(essence)
Kriya(movement or action)
& BOF is Agni prasana (joyfull.pleasiing,satsfying,theraapeutic?)
Because i’m not aware that i practice anything like BOF, I’m therfore not in the best position to know how it differs,including all the subtle nuances.We often see names of practices bandied about, together with variations like you say- then it can become a debate about the name ,but it does help if we’re on the same page,i.e with repsect to what it is we’re trying to reference.
However my understanding is this:-
[B]1)[/B]Basic version( or prelimiary stage 1)- ASK
In agni sara kriya, the breath is [U]passive[/U],in concert with the abdominal contractions,inhale-expand,exhale-contract.
In it’s basic, the mouth is open with the tongue hanging and dog-panting breath is employed.
This is also called Swana Pranayama btw.
Can be done standing,sitting and kneeeling.
Kneeling can afford larger volume of air with more eccentuation of expanded belly especially if you are somone more comfortable in vajrasana; this one however is done kneeling down with legs as [I]wide [/I]apart as possible (yet still anatomically comfortable) ,slightly forward hand on kness, arms straight , head can also be lowered a little(depending on whose pranayama you follow but it’s said to briing more of the contemplative back of the brain head/mind into operation rather than the calculative front head, and lowering head can assist in opening chest and both employing subtle neck bandha, stimulation of thyroud centres etc.Sitting is often encouraged as best and standing is done just like the standing version of uddiyana bhanda.
Also bear in mind that this can be employed as a preliminary to gaining uddiyana(& nauli) mastery which is how i’m doing it.
[B]2)[/B]Advanced -ASK
Done with retention say upt to 20-25 times, 3 rounds/batches but just starting of with 3 kriyas(1 round) to begin with, (until mastery is attained, and progressive daily conditioniing and accompnaying changes are realised)
As i sai i’m not in best potition to answer this as i’m not aware i practice anything that i term BOF.I think there is definitely waking up of abdominal musculature with the agni-sar kriya.That’s why i practice it.also stimulates abdominal organs as well and creates a heat or fire in the belly.Also i think the breathing may play a biiggger role and be more active in agni- prasana,aka “breath of fire”.
The differences i’m aware of in BOF are:-
1)The arching of the spine back
2)Breathing through the nose(**this is clearly the main dfference)
Perhaps someone else might chime in here who does actually practice something they term “Breat of Fire” or who does practise and/or teach ‘bhajan’ style “kundalini yoga”.
I’m thinking agnisara kriya is or may be more of a kriya for the belly(abdominal musclulature & organs etc) rather than BoF which may be more of an over-all purifier( for all the nadis) particularly because the breath is used differently.
The explanation Lotus gave above here was excellent & very informative.
