Breathing as Medicine
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 6 years before Feb 21, 2017
Dear Beloved 6 years ago
The bigger challenge today is finding clean air to breathe. Bigger cities are so mired in pollution that breathing is a hazard no matter where you are. An interesting point here is that fire of breath speeds up the body similar to the fight or flight response but then afterwards one slows the breath to meditate. That transition from slow to fast allows the inner observation of the mind through the change. It also channels the mind.
neil 6 years ago
Dear Beloved, could you explain what you mean by "channels the mind?"
Marcia Beloved 6 years ago
I was watching a program on the solar system, which stated that the planet Mercury spins so slowly, that it takes 176 days for the sun to rise and set, as compared to our 24 hr. cycle.
Somehow, I'm certain this concept applies to our meditation, but I might need some help from the scientifically minded people on the forum to formulate it.
From my personal experience, breath of fire speeds up the vibration of the mind. Afterwards it is difficult for me to calm the mind. It is restless and jumpy. I'm wondering if one needs to do more breath of fire, to raise the rate of vibration so quickly that the mind is propelled into a suspended state, where there is hardly any vibration. This seems to be the place where one can move to different locations and dimensions.
In relation to the longer rising and setting of the sun, I have heard from the Vedic literature, that Creator Brahma's day is so long compared to ours, that the entire life of our universe fits into a single day of Brahma.
Seems to indicate, that to meditate and move into the dimension of Brahma, to make the subtle body compatible with the environment where Brahma resides, one would have to totally slow down the mind, to the least least possible vibration.
I welcome some comments, if this makes any sense at all to anyone else.
MiBeloved 6 years ago
Marcia Beloved wrote:
From my personal experience, breath of fire speeds up the vibration of the mind. Afterwards it is difficult for me to calm the mind. It is restless and jumpy
MiBeloved’s Response:
Initially in charging the system with the infused breath, there is an acceleration of energy and even of blood movement (heart beat). But if one sticks with it to a certain point, that ceases and there is a switch, where one begins to perceive the energy moving through the system. At this stage one has to push on with the practice, to force the energy to go all the way through the system, and then there is another switch where the mind suddenly jumps up to a higher level where all that speed stuff is no longer happening.
In other words during that final stage, there is no rapidity and the mind and its apparatus either come to a stop or one perceives supernaturally.
Let me itemize these stages which happens during a successful raising of kundalini through rapid breathing (bhastrika/ kapalbhati pranayama)
1. Acceleration of the breath transfer in the lungs, speed up of the heart beat due to the heart’s natural response to the rapidly infused breath.
2. Infused air is coursed rapidly through the blood stream with concentration in the chest, stomach and pelvic areas.
3. Infused air makes its way into the lower genital area and the buttocks, and from there it begins to affect the sacral pelvic bones. This result is that it goes up the spine if the yogi continues to practice. If the yogi stops here then he or she will experience accelerated thinking and mental rapidity during the meditation which occurs immediately after.
4. Kundalini moves up the spine and the mind jumps to a higher level because it comes under kundalini attack when it is electrified with the increase breath energy.
If the yogi continues the practice to this stage, the meditation will be such that the mind either has slowed down to where thoughts come in slow motion or they do not come at all, or the yogi finds himself or herself on a higher plane where there is supernatural objective perception of persons or higher environments.
At this stage, yogis who have gone to higher worlds might all of a sudden appear in the mind of a yogi in their miniature tiny forms and give instructions, holding informed conversations.
A more regular occurrence at this stage is that the yogi gets crystal-clear realizations about the location, size and operations of the various components of the mind. Or the yogi gets skills in how to control and operate the analytical orb (intellect psychic organ).
Dear Beloved 6 years ago
Neil, by "channels the mind", I mean that if you ordinarily sit down to meditation without having done any pranayama exercise immediately before, your mind may be difficult to control or may just stay in a dormant mode with no real results. After doing rapid breathing or breath of fire, the increased blood flow and oxygen levels in the brain cause your mind to automatically channel towards the higher level state. All you have to do is close your eyes and let it happen as an observer. It's easier to concentrate and not become distracted, if you make it past the jumpy state that Marcia Beloved refers to, the state that Michael Beloved says is #4 - kundalini moving up the spine.
To confirm this, you have to find a dark area with free air flow and no distractions. Meditate without doing any pranayama and then try it again the next day immediately after pranayama and breath of fire. You should notice a significant difference in your mental space when your eyes are closed.
MiBeloved 6 years ago
I agree with the comparison of doing meditation with and then without pranayama. Sir Paul knows for a fact that the process we got from Author Beverford only had deep breathing while sitting in meditation as a starting point of meditation. Beverford did not teach nor did he ever demonstrate to either of us the rapid breathing (bhastrika/kapalbhati pranayama).
I learnt it from Yogiji Harbhajan Singh and I showed it to Sir Paul but I do not know if he was aware of it or practiced it before.
Sometime around 1972, I made the comparison and experimented with several types of pranayama just to see their various effects on meditation and to judge their actual worth for myself. Arthur Beverford once showed me what is called alternate breathing (aniloma-pratiloma pranayama). But he never practiced it before meditation in my presence.
What he would do is to sit on a couch and then close his eyes and meditate. He did not give us details about what was going on in the mind and he never mentioned psychic organs as I do. He used to ask that we rub White Flower Embrocation in between the eyebrows before we begin, since that cooling sensation draws the mind to that meditation point of the third eye.
He only stressed focus on the third eye and said that a person has to find the Primal Creative Cause, the factor from which all this creation initially emerged.
Beverford from all indications, from numerous conversations, seem to feel that the Primal Creative Cause may not be a person but was just the ultimate source of all this creation.
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When I asked him about Krishna, he smiled once and said, “Yes, Rishi (Singh Gherwal) told us about Krishna and about the experience of Yogi Markandeya who was swallowed by a Baby Krishna who was floating on the waters of dissolution and also about Krishna’s foster Mother being sucked into Krishna’s existence through his mouth.
(Note: Rishi did publish a small booklet which was his translation of the part of the Mahabharata which related the experience of Markandeya.)
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White flower Embrocation is something that comes from the Far East (China) and you can get it in a tiny bottle in many of those countries.
Since Beverford never practiced that alternate breathing in our presence, I decided to try it out just to see what it does and to find out if it accelerates meditation practice. My conclusion is that it does but unfortunately it take tons of concentration and takes hours to get results if one's nadis are polluted as many of us are.
I also tried to do it after doing bhastrika and my conclusion is that one should do bhastrika or kapalbhati rapid breathing before doing a session of alternate breathing.
Why?
Because if you do alternate breathing it will take forever, at least 2 or 3 hours of practice before you can attack the nadis and all the while you have to keep what’s called a 2:4:1 count. It is mind racking to do that and if you lose count then you delay the results and have to do it for a longer time. But if you do rapid breathing first, you can do the alternate breathing for 15 minutes, if you like and it will take you way out there beyond anything you will get by just sitting to meditate.
Persons who are interested in detailed description of the various pranayama breath infusion techniques should get Light on Pranayama by B.K.S. Iyengar. His book is the best on the subject.
I have always insisted that we respect the work of the ancient yogis and not just run off and try to make a name for ourselves. They have actually gone further than we can ever go. Thus the fact that they used to do pranayama should not be underrated or ignored by us. And the question we need to ask ourselves is this:
Why did Patanjali do it if he could have just sat and meditated? Was he a numb-skull or what?
Yogi Harbhajan Sing is our ultimate friend because he freely without asking us to be his disciple, gave out the rapid breathing process and he never revealed as far as I know who taught it to him. It is said that once when he was questioned, he said a friend showed it to him.
That can be taken to mean that he got it from an advanced yogi who did not care to take disciples and formal lineage position.
Once to my surprise within the last 6 months, I saw Yogi Bhajan talking to Rishi Singh Gherwal and it was in a way where I felt that Rishi was instrumental in getting that practice to Yogi Bhajan. I did not try to question them about it because with such yogis, if one asks questions, they sometimes disappear forever.
Yogi Bhajan sees me as his disciple but only because I practiced it to a certain stage. Otherwise he has nothing to do with me as far as he is concerned.
Once in the astral world when I got to a certain level of proficiency where the nadis in my body were all cleared and glistening with crystal clear pranic energy, Yogiji pointed to me from where he was with some of his disciples, and stated that I am an example of what it means to be a kundalini yogi. But despite this, his relationship is based on practice. If I stop practicing, that is the end of it. He did not appraise my practice for my benefit but only to prompt some others to get more serious with the practice and to push themselves all the way to raise kundalini during each session.
That might be compared to my sex drive. Once I am sexually aroused, I feel an obligation to reach a climax and so as an animal I push on for that no matter what, even if it means sexual activity that is risky or one that will become a liability. So a yogi has to be that determined in the matter. The same craze we have for sex, should be transferred to raising kundalini. It is that simple.
Bill 6 years ago
Michael,
Would you describe a preferred kundalina breathing technique?
Thanks - Bill
MiBeloved 6 years ago
I practiced various pranayama methods previously but I learnt what was called breath-of-fire from Yogiraj Harbhajan Singh, who was called Yogi Bhajan. He never used Sanskrit words initially but later I realized that his process was kapala bhati for beginners and bhastrika for advanced yogis.
When I came back from the Philippines sometime in 1973, I was discharged from an air base near Kansas City Missouri, at a place called Baldwin.
Anyway once when I left the base and went into Kansas City I saw a poster with Yogi Bhajan’s photo and a sign about Kundalini Yoga Practice. I went to a few classes and found out that there was an ashram in Denver. I was heading to Denver because my mother lived there.
After being in Denver and attending classes, I joined the ashram and went through the rigors of ashram life. But as a result I learnt as much as I could. I used to travel also to Los Angeles and Taos, New Mexico where Yogi Bhajan used to be, where he has ashrams.
Later on after I was no longer in those areas, I continued the practice. Here is the gist of it. One should be shown the practice physically to begin with but by viewing videos, one can certainly get enough ideas to begin the practice without being shown.
Mostly one begins with kapala bhati and then progresses into full bhastrika. There are variant descriptions of these practices coming out from ashrams in India. Presently the authoritative book on all of the pranayamas is written by B.K.S. Iyengar under the title of Light on Pranayama. But he does in that book go light on those two kundalini practices. However that is the general attitude of the gurus who come from India, since they feel that you have to learn things in a particular order and personally from a teacher under strict supervision.
Yogi Bhajan never said that breath-of-fire was dangerous and he taught it one and all without any formality or discrimination.
The beginner’s way is like this:
Use various postures which you are familiar with and do rapid breathing thrusting the breath out with as much force as your body can put out. In this which is kapala bhati pranayama, the focus is on pushing out the breath with force and so there is little or no focus on the in-breath. Yogiji taught that you did it as rapidly as possible.
Why? He never explained as far I am aware. However I feel it is because if you do not do it rapidly, the system does not build up sufficient psychic charge to affect kundalini.
This charge is built up in the sense of a tire which is enlarged because it has a valve which retains any air which enters into it. If you remove the valve, the tire will still take air but it will not retain it. So the idea is to retain the psychic charge which builds up and cause that charge to head in the direction of the base of the spine, where kundalini lives.
A question arises as to how it is possible for a psychic charge to build up from physical air. The answer to that question is this: The physical air has an astral psychic counterpart, so while the physical body is taking in the air, the subtle body mimics that action with the psychic air-energy. Many people think that it is the physical air which makes the charge but actually it is the subtle air.
Now you can do this sitting on a chair. You do not have to be in a yogic posture.
So if you sit and then you do the rapid breathing you can also rise kundalini just as a yogi would do in a yogic posture.
As stated above initially the main focus is on the out-breath. In the advanced stage, a teacher recommends that the student focus on both the out breath and the in-breath with special focus on the in-breath. Some students however graduate even without being advised by a teacher.
The only difference between kapala bhati and bhastrika is that in bhastrika there is the double focus on the in and out breaths.
So that is the basic practice.
Besides that there are locks and they are many of these but the three mandatory ones to learn are the stomach lock, the sex/anal lock and the neck lock. And there is one mental lock initially which is the focus of the attention to the third eye.
The stomach lock means to pull up the intestines under the rib cage and to pull back the navel to the spine in a joint pull.
The neck lock is the action of pulling the chin back to the throat without tilting the head forward.
The sex-anal lock is when the anus is pulled back into the body the way a horse pulls in its anus after it passes manure. In fact the Sanskrit word for this lock is ashwini mudra (ashwa is horse). The sex lock is when you are passing urine and you have to stop before the bladder is empty, you then pull a certain muscle.
Initially the sex/anal lock is a joint muscular action but as one advances one finds out mentally that these are two distinct separate muscular actions.
Why the locks?
The actions of the locks are mimicked in the subtle body and they cause the charged force to go in specific locations. If these locks are not performed it will be impossible to control kundalini if it moves from its native place at the base of the spine.
I am always available to teach anyone kundalini yogi personally and also to check a person’s practice now and then. Let me know if you need to be instructed personally.
The locks are applied as soon as you stop rapid breathing during any session. You begin the rapid breathing and you continue until you feel that lungs are no longer taking in air, and until you feel a burning sensation in the lungs or in the navel area. Then you stop apply the locks and hold your concentration at the center of the eyebrows. When the air dissipates, you will feel that you should breathe out and breathe in. You do this and then begin the rapid breathing again. This is done again and again until the subtle body is sufficiently charged.
