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Rinaldo
Italy
47 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 11 2013 : 03:44:40 AM
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Hi,
after few months of meditation, i added spinal breathing because i started feeling sensations along the column.
I'm tracing these sensations along this way:
http://www.yogananda.com.au/img/pic...akras300.gif
But yogani put a picture in the AYP volume 2 book where you visualize the sushumna more internally, almost in the middle of the body.
Are the sensations running a different path from the actual sushumna?
Should i keep tracing them or try to visualize the sushumna even if it's harder for me?
Thank you
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - Mar 11 2013 : 11:53:09 AM
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Hi Rinaldo,
the lessons mention that it is later on that the spinal column sensations emerge and expand to the center of the body as well as outward in all directions. Starting with the spine is correct procedure, as in that picture link you posted, up and down the spine.
Sensations are also not a prerequisite in order to begin spinal breathing, and if they occur anywhere else, the procedure is to return to the tracing of the spine. If it is time to favor the center of the body more, I would imagine it would become clear to the practitioner once that happens. Maybe someone who has experienced that shift will verify this for us, and until then, I don't think we lose out by keeping with the baseline practices. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4429 Posts |
Posted - Mar 11 2013 : 1:55:33 PM
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Hi Rinaldo,
Yes, As Aumnaturel says, the spinal nerve (or sushumna nadi) begins as a current of energy travelling up the spine. Gradually, as the purification proceeds, it widens into a current of energy which is much broader, travelling up the centre of the body. By that point we can feel (and see) it, so we simply allow our attention to flow with the prana that we can feel.
If you are new to Spinal Breathing, or you do not yet feel the flow of prana, then stick with visualizing the sushumna nadi travelling up the centre of the spinal column.
The addition to lesson 239 in the easy lessons vol 2 is saying that it is not important to follow the curves of the spine with the visualization, and in fact it is not even necessary to trace the spine at all. Simply allowing the attention to flow between the root chakra and the ajna chakra with the attention through the body is enough for the practice to be effective. It is with reference to people who have spinal damage and so on.
Christi |
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Rinaldo
Italy
47 Posts |
Posted - Mar 11 2013 : 2:57:42 PM
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Thank you,
i think the sensations i feel are the current energy travelling the spine.
I'll keep tracing them then, letting the practice evolve by itself then :) |
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - Mar 11 2013 : 7:15:05 PM
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Thanks Christi for the confirmation. Not many sources that can offer that from first-hand experiences  |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Mar 15 2013 : 2:26:35 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinaldo
i think the sensations i feel are the current energy travelling the spine.
I'll keep tracing them then, letting the practice evolve by itself then :)
Hi Rinaldo,
You (we) should do what works for you (us). That said, I confess an affinity for the direction your process is taking you at the moment. In my grateful years of experiencing ecstatic conductivity in beautiful, yet variously configured coordination with Spinal Breathing practice, I have tried multiple micro-variations on the practice, and what I have come back to is, regardless of the particular sensations of the day/phase, I focus my attention on tracing the path between mulabhanda and sambhavi mudra up and down via the center of the literal anatomical spinal nerve. It is a subtle awareness, that is in my experience both very stable and powerful.
Keep up the practices!
Bewell
(Time for my afternoon sit.) |
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Rinaldo
Italy
47 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 09:08:01 AM
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Nice to hear that Bewell!
For me it was all almost spontanous, i could feel the current during meditation, so i started tracig them, with eye open at the beginning, when i decided to add the pranayama.
I soon found myself in Mula bandha and sambhavi without thinking much abaout it.
Later i will add ujjayi, now i just breath normally.
Rinaldo. |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 11:44:03 AM
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Interesting. A lot is happening for you spontaneously, and it is neat how it correlates with AYP teachings around mudras and bandhas. Some if it can probably be attributed to your intuitive connection to the teachings, and you also seem to have an unusually high degree of inner responsiveness to the subtle inner purposes of practices.
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Rinaldo
Italy
47 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 2:22:45 PM
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Maybe it's because i was already practicing asanas. I'm also a student a physical therapy, so for years i worked a lot with my spine and awareness of posture.
With the mantra it was more difficult.
I was already doing breath meditation, and i felt the mantra was like an intruder.
With breath meditation i could expierience deep peace and clarity, but with the mantra i was feeling resistence.
But i suppose the process is different: with mantra my breath get very slow or stop very often. I have a feeling of getting "absorbed". I still resist that.
I can feel joy and fear at the same time:)
So now i decided to simple relax and enjoy, to "let go". |
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Yogaman
USA
295 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 3:34:28 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinaldo
With the mantra it was more difficult.
I was already doing breath meditation, and i felt the mantra was like an intruder.
With breath meditation i could expierience deep peace and clarity, but with the mantra i was feeling resistence.
But i suppose the process is different: with mantra my breath get very slow or stop very often. I have a feeling of getting "absorbed". I still resist that.
I can feel joy and fear at the same time:)
So now i decided to simple relax and enjoy, to "let go".
I too switched from a breath focus technique, and found it a bit odd at first. But I've noticed much more "everyday peace" since picking up AYP. I always felt like breath technique was good during the session, but little effects in daily life. With AYP, it's the opposite -- sessions can be quite uneventful, but daily life seems a bit more pleasant and relaxed each day. |
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Yogaman
USA
295 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 3:41:02 PM
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I've struggled with the spinal nerve visualization since the beginning of the practice. It tends to be fatter than a thread, hazy/undefined and off-center. I too "feel" it more than visualize it, but it seems more like my imagination than an actual sensation I am experiencing. I tend to have "gaps" as I go up, and get off-track as I keep wanting to trace the spine literally. I think it throws me off. My breath timing isn't synchronized either, I tend to run out of breath before I get to the neck. Down is much more fluid.
Another side effect I've noticed recently is an elevated heart beat and pulse, as well as a "heartbeat" that feels centered along the spine from belly to throat. A pulsing sensation that doesn't go up on down, just pulses. |
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Rinaldo
Italy
47 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 6:47:40 PM
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Hi Yogaman,
i add something more, maybe can help.
I can feel the sensations on the spine a lot better when i sit cross-legged on hard cushion. I think it gives me a similar pressure on perineum like Siddhasana. I do not use back support.
I do not control my breath, i simple start in-breath with mulabandha and my eyes close and go in sambhavi alone. The sensations run up in abaout 3-4 sec up to the neck. It's like if i'm charging myself with energy. They run like in the picture.
Sometimes the third eye start burning. Sometimes i also feel pressure on the top of the head.
Then out-breath: i do not control mula bandha. Sometimes it stay contracted, sometimes it release.
I still didn't add ujjayi because i run out of air when i try at the moment.
The more i let the practice go alone, the more my breath slow down anyway.
I think for good results this pranayama need a very good sitting posture. Asanas can help a lot.
At least for myself.
Not just for the spine, but also for opening shoulders. So the chest can really expand and the breath cycle can reach 30sec-1min.
My side effects are some little pain in dorsal area, heat in lower back. And i find myself doing jaladhara many times during the day to feel the stretch along the spine:D
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Mar 17 2013 : 7:14:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinaldo
With the mantra it was more difficult.
I was already doing breath meditation, and i felt the mantra was like an intruder.
With breath meditation i could expierience deep peace and clarity, but with the mantra i was feeling resistence.
But i suppose the process is different: with mantra my breath get very slow or stop very often. I have a feeling of getting "absorbed". I still resist that.
I can feel joy and fear at the same time:)
So now i decided to simple relax and enjoy, to "let go".
Cool! In Deep Meditation we are "letting go" of emotional sensations, and thoughts, "letting go" of everything but the mantera and the seated posture. The rest is scenery.
As Yogani has written: "The baseline procedure of deep meditation is to easily pick up and mentally repeat the mantra whenever we become aware that we are not, which will work for everyone, regardless of the degree of resident inner silence available. This allows for systematic refinement of the mantra to stillness no matter what the practitioner's condition of abiding inner silence may be." |
Edited by - bewell on Mar 17 2013 7:27:47 PM |
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Spinal Nerve Image.
