Morning Practice - 6/7/2012
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Jan 06, 2016
Alfredo 3 years ago
Woke up at 3:45 AM (Brahma Muhurta). Pacified Pitta Dosha with concoction of Aloe Vera gel, water, and Turmeric.
Change in pranayama practice. First Kapalabhati, but instead of following with 2nd Kriya Pranayama, followed with Nadi Shodhana. Why? 1) Michael’s recommendation after discussion on Nadi Shodana, injunction to try it, especially after Kapalabhati, for my benefit and those of other Kriyavans (sharing); 2) 2nd Kriya pranayama is wonderful, but being a Mantra/Bija/Chakra pranayama, it cannot be the first choice for “prana injection”. So, pranayama practice now shifts to Kapalabhati followed by Nadi Shodhana, with emphasis on Prana infusion, Apana expulsion.
Thus, I did steady Kapalabhati for 15 minutes. Abdomen heated up like yesterday, but today I went Kshatriya on it and sent “Prana Navy Seal” team into it. Results: more heat, confusion, and turmoil. No matter. Lightheadedness due to hyperventilation felt twice, but this is OK with me, I will explain below.
Nadi Shodana practice followed for 30 minutes. Practice tends to digress, stray away.
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Side Comments on Nadi Shodhana: When I started this practice in the 1990s, I did it to support a freedive practice. Then, I trained the brain cells, the neurons, to go anaerobic to survive deepwater blackout, the deadly enemy of the freediver. This you do by doing exercises under apnea (holding your breath), thus I used to do 75 pushups holding the breath, as well as other crazy exercises and diving down to 100 ft with one breath of air. Then, I used to elongate Kumbhaka in Nadi Shodhana progressively until 1 minute (disclaimer – please do not try this at home). The neurons, now starved of oxygen, momentarily switch from aerobic to anaerobic, and, the ability to prolong the anaerobic state, gives the edge to the crazy freediver. Also, the freediver, before diving, usually hyperventilates on the surface till he can’t barely see from oxygen intoxication, that’s why I was not scared by the lightheadness felt during Kapalabhati.
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Then, again, the biggest problem today with Nadhi Shodana was the lack of practice, but this will improve, by the way, and not to boast, when I watch youtube videos of this technique, mine is much better. Remember to fill the lungs from down up, using first the abdomen, then the chest, for if you start at the chest, you will only get a shallow breath.
Finally, Kriya Yoga meditation. Divine light After Jyoti Mudra still dim, no good, there is a blockage, some impurity somewhere.
MiBeloved 3 years ago
Just a note Alfredo about anaerobic.
There are basically two types of objective in pranayama one is aerobic and the other is anaerobic. Duryodhan the villain of the Mahabharata was an expert at anaerobic pranayama. Now sometimes yogis who do aerobic pranayama also appear to be interested in anaerobic but that is due to a misunderstanding by an observer.
Here is how it work:
Duryodhan made his body so that it could continue existing if it was deprived of fresh air and it could do so using the stale air in the system by recycling that stale air and also by suspension of certain functions in the body which require fresh air input.
In the case of the yoga which I do, there is no anaerobic process. It is all aerobic. However if I restrain breathing, or stop it for a time, it is to use up the excess or stored fresh air. I can for instance during breath exercises hold the breath in or out for sometime but only because there is such an excess of prana in the system that it feeds on that and does not need to breathe during that time.
My body cannot tolerate a shortage of oxygen. For instance I could not do deep diving or stay under water for long, as the system will panic because of not getting fresh air. This happened due to changing the genetic desires of the lung cells and the cells in the physical body.
It is essential to understand that the lungs do not care about anybody’s desire for increased or decreased oxygen. These lungs have their method which is stipulated by the kundalini. This means that breathing in and out won’t budge this system until the student yogi can change it by applying pressures into the system which force that change.
A body in motion is not going to change its course just because I ask it to or if I am nice to it. I have to apply a counter force to make the change effective. So the genetic attitude of the lungs and other parts of the system won’t change unless one actually does something which upsets their natural functions.
In relationship to getting giddy or spaced out or black out due to hyperventilation. This happens because of not applying the proper locks, especially the neck lock. In the subtle body it happens because of the same lock being misapplied or not being applied at all and also because kundalini or just infusion energy enters the head of the body without being restricted to sushumna nadi.
Neck lock takes care of about 75% of this problem but it has to be applied properly which means that the chin is pulled back but the head itself remains erect and is not bent forward, while the neck muscles are drawn back and clamp down with a front to back pressure. This causes the kundalini to avoid all routes into the head except for the sushumna nadi.
Now there is another more technical aspect to this and that is the buddhi or analytical orb. This psychic organ is the thing which controls if you are conscious or unconscious but it does this in conjunction with the kundalini. If kundalini passes through the neck, even if it passes through under restriction in the sushumna nadi, then if that kundalini strikes the buddhi analytical organ unawares, then more than likely the body will fall to the ground and will take a reclined or fallen position.
Why?
Because the atma or core-self for all it is cannot directly keep the body functioning. It can only do so though the buddhi and kundalini. Hence if the buddhi is affected drastically by the kundalini, then the atma or core-self will find that it loses contact with the body.
When this happens either one of three conditions will prevail for a few seconds or for the most a few minutes. These conditions are:
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- Atma will find itself in a shimmering golden light, a bliss energy known in Sanskrit as brahmananda. This is a spiritual energy.
- Atma may find that it experienced a completely blank space of consciousness, like if it never existed during that time.
- Atma will find itself in a whitish golden sandy energy field and then will find itself fading into nothingness and then will find itself conscious again in the physical body which assumed a collapsed condition. This is entry into the causal plane.
- Atma will experience a bright flash of light and then be as if it is in nothingness.
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So any of these might happen when kundalini strikes the buddhi and the buddhi is caught off guard or not prepared for that energy of the aroused kundalini.
A student is required to identify and locate the buddhi organ. Even if one has no experience of it and has no reason to believe that it exists, even so, one has to have some confidence in the yoga guru and also in books like the Bhagavad Gita and the Patanjali Yoga Sutras.
Having confidence in another human being besides yourself is always risky but so what? In every step we take in life, we have to display confidence, even if we are ripped off by someone. As soon as I steal your wallet, the next minute I might ask for your confidence and because you need something or because of an urgency you might have, you may give it to me regardless. So in spiritual practice confidence is required right alongside the real probability of getting ripped off
So I am asking you to be confident in the information in the next paragraph:
There is a psychic organ in the head of the subtle body which is just like the organs we find in the physical brain. That specific organ does all the analysis, thinking, and imagining which are done by anyone. This organ conducts the person’s imagination. This organ is actually seen in ordinary life when one daydreams. To daydream one has to existentially position the observing self in such a way in the mind that it can see into this very small area where things happen as real events in the mind.
The location of those daydreams in the mind is the location of the buddhi analytical orb. It can also be located by keeping track of where thoughts occur. This is a very important psychic organ and it is the thing called the jnana-dipa or jnana-chakshu.
So if the kundalini strikes this organ and it is not prepared, then the student will experiences either bliss consciousness, black out or white out.
The whole book of Patanjali hinges on this one organ alone, it hinges on the purification of this organ.
