Spinal Breathing Pranayama (SB) is a powerful breathing technique that should be practices right before the meditation session, making our deep meditation (DM) more powerful.
DM and SB are two distinct techniques:
· Do not combine them, but practice SB, then DM.
· DM cultivates the rise of pure bliss consciousness.
· SB cultivates the flow of prana, promoting the rise of ecstatic conductivity in our nervous system.
· DM is the most powerful practice, and could stand alone, if we are not inclined do add other practices to accelerate our progress.
· SB opens up and fertilizes the soil of our nervous system; SB accelerates the growth of the seeds planted by DM.
· Without a meditation practice to follow it, SB will promote the growth of anything that happens to be around, such as desires, thoughts, emotions, and in time it will mean less progress on the yoga path; SB followed by DM will considerably accelerate the progress.
Instructions:
Sit comfortably with back support, and close your eyes just as you do when you meditate. Now, keeping your mouth closed, breathe in and out slowly and deeply through your nose, but not to the extreme. Be relaxed and easy about it, breathing as slowly and deeply as possible without discomfort. There is no need to be heroic. Work your muscles so each breath begins in your belly and fills you up through your chest to the top of your collarbones, and then comes back down slowly. Next, with each rising inhalation of the breath, allow your attention to travel upward inside a tiny thread, or tube, you visualize beginning at your perineum, continuing up through the center of your spine, and up through the stem of your brain to the center of your head. At the center of your head the tiny nerve makes a turn forward to the point between your eyebrows. With one slow, deep inhalation let your attention travel gradually inside the nerve from the perineum all the way to the point between the eyebrows. As you exhale, retrace this path from the point between the eyebrows all the way back down to the perineum. Then, come back up to the point between the eyebrows with the next inhalation, and down to the perineum with the next exhalation, and so on.
-Start by practicing SB for 5 minutes before each of your two daily Deep Meditations (DM). Gradually work to 10 minutes of SB.
-Do not mix SB and DM. First we do SB, then DM.
-Do not get up between SB and DM. At the end of SB, rest a minute, then start your mantra.
-If you know full yogic breath, do it during your practice of SB. This will slow your breath even further, and help calm your mind.
-You may experience increase heat and sweating during SB. This is due to the rise of prana. It is a normal thing, and it will subside with practice.
-In time, you might notice a change in the digesting process, as the prana brought up by SB mixes with air and food, and promotes a new way of nourishing the entire being. Because of this, there might be more gargles in the abdomen. You might notice also an increasing inner luminosity.
More lessons of Advanced Yoga Practices at www.aypsite.com The first 100 of over 400 lessons are free online. All the lessons, with additions, including audio versions, books and audiobooks are available at www.aypsite.come/plus.html
Good habits:
Take at least 10 full yogic breaths every day.
Eat healthy, whole foods, and get enough rest.
Do something for someone else every day – even if it is only a good thought. You will be the first one to benefit. In yoga, this is called seva (service) and it is an essential part of the yoga practice.
We should use only one object for deep meditation - our mantra. And we do not cling to it. We only favor it, and we allow it to change and refine as we go inward. Sound is particularly effective because it refines easily in the mind to finer and finer vibrations, and can be picked up easily and gently with the attention very deep inside. Meditating on physical objects, symbols, pictures, or meanings of things is not as effective as sound for going deep. This is not to say it can't be done with these other objects. It is only that we should choose one way and use that with effectiveness. The sound of the mantra is very easy to refine to penetrate our depths of inner silence, using the procedure described early in the lessons. Then we are quickly cultivating inner silence in our nervous system, which is the cornerstone of all enlightenment. Yogani
Like tangled hair,
The circular delusion
Of beginning and end,
When straightened out,
A dream no longer.
Dogen
DM and SB are two distinct techniques:
· Do not combine them, but practice SB, then DM.
· DM cultivates the rise of pure bliss consciousness.
· SB cultivates the flow of prana, promoting the rise of ecstatic conductivity in our nervous system.
· DM is the most powerful practice, and could stand alone, if we are not inclined do add other practices to accelerate our progress.
· SB opens up and fertilizes the soil of our nervous system; SB accelerates the growth of the seeds planted by DM.
· Without a meditation practice to follow it, SB will promote the growth of anything that happens to be around, such as desires, thoughts, emotions, and in time it will mean less progress on the yoga path; SB followed by DM will considerably accelerate the progress.
Instructions:
Sit comfortably with back support, and close your eyes just as you do when you meditate. Now, keeping your mouth closed, breathe in and out slowly and deeply through your nose, but not to the extreme. Be relaxed and easy about it, breathing as slowly and deeply as possible without discomfort. There is no need to be heroic. Work your muscles so each breath begins in your belly and fills you up through your chest to the top of your collarbones, and then comes back down slowly. Next, with each rising inhalation of the breath, allow your attention to travel upward inside a tiny thread, or tube, you visualize beginning at your perineum, continuing up through the center of your spine, and up through the stem of your brain to the center of your head. At the center of your head the tiny nerve makes a turn forward to the point between your eyebrows. With one slow, deep inhalation let your attention travel gradually inside the nerve from the perineum all the way to the point between the eyebrows. As you exhale, retrace this path from the point between the eyebrows all the way back down to the perineum. Then, come back up to the point between the eyebrows with the next inhalation, and down to the perineum with the next exhalation, and so on.
-Start by practicing SB for 5 minutes before each of your two daily Deep Meditations (DM). Gradually work to 10 minutes of SB.
-Do not mix SB and DM. First we do SB, then DM.
-Do not get up between SB and DM. At the end of SB, rest a minute, then start your mantra.
-If you know full yogic breath, do it during your practice of SB. This will slow your breath even further, and help calm your mind.
-You may experience increase heat and sweating during SB. This is due to the rise of prana. It is a normal thing, and it will subside with practice.
-In time, you might notice a change in the digesting process, as the prana brought up by SB mixes with air and food, and promotes a new way of nourishing the entire being. Because of this, there might be more gargles in the abdomen. You might notice also an increasing inner luminosity.
More lessons of Advanced Yoga Practices at www.aypsite.com The first 100 of over 400 lessons are free online. All the lessons, with additions, including audio versions, books and audiobooks are available at www.aypsite.come/plus.html
Good habits:
Take at least 10 full yogic breaths every day.
Eat healthy, whole foods, and get enough rest.
Do something for someone else every day – even if it is only a good thought. You will be the first one to benefit. In yoga, this is called seva (service) and it is an essential part of the yoga practice.
We should use only one object for deep meditation - our mantra. And we do not cling to it. We only favor it, and we allow it to change and refine as we go inward. Sound is particularly effective because it refines easily in the mind to finer and finer vibrations, and can be picked up easily and gently with the attention very deep inside. Meditating on physical objects, symbols, pictures, or meanings of things is not as effective as sound for going deep. This is not to say it can't be done with these other objects. It is only that we should choose one way and use that with effectiveness. The sound of the mantra is very easy to refine to penetrate our depths of inner silence, using the procedure described early in the lessons. Then we are quickly cultivating inner silence in our nervous system, which is the cornerstone of all enlightenment. Yogani
Like tangled hair,
The circular delusion
Of beginning and end,
When straightened out,
A dream no longer.
Dogen