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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 12:36:09 AM
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lesson 167 says:
quote:
As we advance in yoga our nervous system purifies and opens to our
inner pranic energies, fed by the kundalini/sexual energy rising from
the pelvic region. As this process matures we are nourished by the
active life force (prana) much more from within. So much so that
breath can suspend spontaneously for long periods during pranayama and meditation
I experience the cessation during meditation, but how can this happen during pranayama? The instructions of pranayama are to breathe in and out as we move the prana. If we stop breathing, we are no longer favoring the practice...it is no longer pranayama! Or...did I miss a more advanced treatment of this somewhere in the lessons? I CAN move prana around without the help of the breath....so is there a later breathless version of pranayama that AYP teaches to be ok? |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Mar 28 2008 12:37:05 AM |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 01:55:40 AM
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Oh, I'm glad you found that part. I had missed it. It's a very similar question to what I asked in this post http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....D=3402#3402, when I started noticing the breath suspension during both meditation and pranayama and didn't know what to do to continue the practice, how to breath or not breath or continue to visualize!
So... good question, Jim! I'm curious about the answers! |
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gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 02:20:32 AM
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I have had similar thoughts for a long time now. I'm actually surprised nobody brought it up sooner.
It seems to me that breathlessness is inescapable due to the level of relaxation you achieve. Why not favour it? |
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selfonlypath
France
297 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 03:44:36 AM
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Hey i'm lost,
Which AYP meditation can take us to breath cessation ?
Albert |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 03:57:14 AM
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All yogic practices, including AYP deep meditation and other practices, increase stillness. At some point the stillness will give cause to a decrease of all sorts of body functions, breath being one where it's clearly noticable. Metabolism and pulse being other functions that slow down.
At some point we may reach a state of breath suspension during mediation, and as written above it may also happen during pranayama... |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 10:31:11 AM
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Gumpi, we favor the practice over the experience as the cardinal rule.
Selfonly, breath cessation is not a goal. It's something that can temporarily occur for some time as the metabolism slows down in meditation. Like just about anything in spiritual practice, if you "look for it", it will only disrupt the practice. |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Mar 28 2008 11:51:50 AM |
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Thokar
USA
45 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 11:10:36 AM
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| To answer the question, in my own practice what happens is that when the breath completely ceases, the energy current continues to circulate... This is what is called in my branch "Automatic Kriya" and its highly desirable.. At this stage you can clearly still feel the revolution of energy up and down but at the same time you have no air in the lungs and neither do you feel the need to breath in.. It's extremely pleasant sensation and many times when this occurs the energy will continue to be felt moving up and down throughout the entire day without any conscious will or effort.. It also leads to very deep meditation states once the energy subsides enough to allow the mind to sink into silence.. |
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yogani
USA
5241 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 11:11:51 AM
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Hi Jim and All:
If breath ceases temporarily during spinal breathing pranayama, we are not off the practice. When we realize breathing has ceased, then that is about the time we will begin breathing again, and at that time we just easily favor the resumption of breathing going up and down the spinal nerve. It doesn't matter where we restart our journey between root and brow in the spinal nerve. The same is true if we wander off with attention during spinal breathing. We just easily come back to tracing the spinal nerve. This is part of the procedure of spinal breathing.
Spinal breathing pranayama is very much like deep meditation in this respect. In deep meditation, when we realize we are off the mantra, we easily come back to it at whatever level of clarity or fuzziness is comfortable. Likewise, in spinal breathing, when we realize we are off the spinal nerve (which can be a small or large path in the center of the body, depending on energy flow), we just easily come back. This also applies when we realize breathing has been suspended.
As Jim said, in the AYP approach, we don't make suspension of breath a goal in spinal breathing pranayama. If it happens naturally, that is fine. We don't favor it, or try to prevent it. When we realize it has happened, that will usually coincide with a rise in metabolism, and breathing will be not far behind. So we favor the path of breath again in whatever way it is occurring naturally -- full breathing, or very refined. Whatever the body is needing at the moment.
In the AYP approach, intentional breath suspension is something we use in specialized shorter duration practices like uddiyana bandha (abdominal lift), yoni mudra kumbhaka, and dynamic jalandhara (chin pump). Intentional breath suspension in concert with other yoga practices is a very powerful internal energy (kundalini) stimulator and should be approached with care, and only when core sitting practices like deep meditation and spinal breathing are well-established and stable.
All the best!
The guru is in you.
PS: Just a reminder that we do our spinal breathing pranayama session first for the alloted time and then deep meditation for its alloted time. Pranayama is preparation for meditation. With cultivation of the nervous system during spinal breathing pranayama, deep meditation will be going more smoothly and quickly to inner silence (samadhi), and stillness will be abiding more and more during our daily activity.
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Nancy
USA
71 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 12:18:32 PM
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Hi Everybody
I am glad this question was posted.
During meditation when I realize I am off the Mantra, I easily bring it back, I also realize that I am taking a breath and have questioned if I was breathing.
Just to be certain - Just like in ANY experience during meditation and also pranayama once you notice your off just bring it back eaisly, even in the spinal breathing, right?
It all is making better sense to me because really - even when you notice you are having an EXPERIENCE - your experience is interrupted as well and its not really an experience any longer. So bringing the MANTRA back easily would then really continue the purification process of the experience because we didnt stay attached. Handling it in any other form
then we are probably not allowing the purifcation to take place.
I feel Like I just discovered America - even though I have read what I just wrote a hundred times.
I just now thought how this process truely mirrors the story of Job -
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 6:52:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Nancy
Just to be certain - Just like in ANY experience during meditation and also pranayama once you notice your off just bring it back eaisly, even in the spinal breathing, right?
Yes. Jack Kornfield had a GREAT analogy for this: training puppies. http://www.siu.edu/~matthew/quotes/kornfield.html
quote:
It all is making better sense to me because really - even when you notice you are having an EXPERIENCE - your experience is interrupted as well and its not really an experience any longer. So bringing the MANTRA back easily would then really continue the purification process of the experience because we didnt stay attached. Handling it in any other form then we are probably not allowing the purifcation to take place.
Bingo! You're totally on it (and so quickly!) Nancy. My hat's off to you. Now the trick is to remember, and not get all intoxicated (or spooked) by the sirens singing their lovely tune as you doggedly paddle the boat! 
You sound really good, BTW, Nancy. You were only just very slightly "off", and I think you're going to have an exceptionally pleasant and peaceful time for a while (hopefully a long while!).
All the dynamic stuff that comes up during meditation is much like all the dynamic stuff of the world itself. It's all just stuff popping up. Your silence is what witnesses it all, like a vast unchanging movie screen. That's what you really are, and the rest is just flickering images playing out within that awesome silence (i.e. upon that screen). Just a play of ever-changing images. La-dee-da. The witness never flinches.
There's no need to grind your mind against that analogy....but if it strikes you somewhere inside as truth, let that give you the courage and fortitude to do your practices with heroic nonchalant blasé!  ....all while remembering that any stuff (ANY stuff!) that comes up is just "stuff". Images, rather than screen. No need to grasp or recoil or otherwise engage unless you choose to!
quote:
I feel Like I just discovered America - even though I have read what I just wrote a hundred times.
Yep. That's how it works. Lots more of that to come. The unfolding is very deja vu. |
Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Mar 29 2008 08:40:23 AM |
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Nancy
USA
71 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2008 : 11:50:03 PM
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Hi Jim
I just really want to say....
A Great BIG THANK YOU - to you.
Making a difference in anothers life is priceless and there are no words for my appreciation!
All the love
Live With Passion & Purpose
Nancy |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2008 : 08:20:55 AM
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| Nancy, just passing it on. As Yogani says, it's silence talking to silence (inner guru to inner guru?), so there's no one to thank! |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2008 : 12:42:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by yogani
If breath ceases temporarily during spinal breathing pranayama, we are not off the practice
Thanks, Yogani
I can easily move prana around without assistance from breath (a product of years of hatha). But I've always been disciplined in respect to AYP's direction to always favor the practice COME WHAT MAY.....and since inhalation/exhalation is a bedrock instruction in AYP pranayama, I'd been very much favoring its continuation.
I guess it will now be interesting to ease that discipline, without mentally injecting encouragement or restraint!
Anyway, now I'm wondering what else I've been taking overly literally in the lessons...!
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yogani
USA
5241 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2008 : 2:02:26 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Jim and His Karma
quote:
Originally posted by yogani
If breath ceases temporarily during spinal breathing pranayama, we are not off the practice
Thanks, Yogani
I can easily move prana around without assistance from breath (a product of years of hatha). But I've always been disciplined in respect to AYP's direction to always favor the practice COME WHAT MAY.....and since inhalation/exhalation is a bedrock instruction in AYP pranayama, I'd been very much favoring its continuation.
I guess it will now be interesting to ease that discipline, without mentally injecting encouragement or restraint!
Anyway, now I'm wondering what else I've been taking overly literally in the lessons...!
Hi Jim:
It is true that "inhalation/exhalation is a bedrock instruction in AYP pranayama" ... from the perspective of easily favoring that and the path of the spinal nerve, just the way we favor the mantra in deep meditation.
This does not mean we won't have periods of no breath or no mantra in the respective practices.
The tipping point between doing the practice and not doing the practice comes in what we do with our attention when we notice that we are in a non-breath or non-mantra mode. If we intentionally choose to circulate prana without breath, or continue breath suspension, or in the case of non-mantra in deep meditation go to an "awareness watching awareness" mode instead of easing back to the mantra, then any of these deliberate diversions will be off the practice.
Is this a bad thing? Who can say? What we can say is that if we are not favoring the procedure of practice when we have the opportunity, then we are off the practice.
When I said that natural breath suspension in spinal breathing is part of the practice, I did not mean that not favoring coming back to inhalation/exhalation is also part of the practice. It clearly isn't. That is the tipping point.
There are a thousand ways to divert from practice, all of them legitimate parts of practice until we choose not to ease back with the procedure of our practice from whatever has caught our attention.
Given that spiritual progress is based primarily on maintaining long term consistency of procedure in practices (leading to a stable condition of spiritual awareness in daily living), we have to ask ourselves what we are gaining by doing other things during the short time we have committed to structured practice. It is easy to draw long term conclusions about in-the-moment experiences, but this is no guarantee of anything. It has been said many times here that the worst time to redesign our practice is while we are doing it.
We will only know the effect of what we are doing months and years down the road. It is a very tricky thing. Definitely an area requiring long-term research. We are all guinea pigs in this. AYP is intended to serve as a progressive "safe harbor" from which to engage in purification, opening, and exploration. How far we choose to go from safe harbor will depend on our individual inclinations. As long as communications remain open long term, we will eventually know what works for most people. In the meantime, we are doing the best we can.
So, is favoring energy movement up and down the spinal nerve without breath the same as spinal breathing with breath? Is favoring "awareness of awareness" the same as deep meditation? Is mental kechari the same as physical kechari? These are a few interesting questions that have come up recently, along with the ongoing fare of visions and energy experiences. The answer is always pretty much the same. Cool stuff, but favoring them is not the procedure of the AYP practices we are talking about. It is obvious, isn't it?
There is always room for research. It will be for the benefit and the expense of the researcher. We can all benefit from both outcomes.
The guru is in you.
PS: By the way, the Kriya Yoga portion of this topic was split off by moderators and moved to "Other Systems." This was not done in disrespect to anyone -- only to avoid confusion between AYP and a different system of practice. The best place to discuss other systems is in "Other Systems." It is okay to do comparisons with AYP (or with any other system) there also. It is not ideal to do it in forum categories like this one, which are primarily for support in the AYP practices.
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2008 : 6:10:26 PM
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When I read your post above, Yogani, I felt "oh, what a rigid system". And then it hit me... if we are engulfed in scenery, cool automatic yoga during practices, it's the spiritual ego getting satisfied and seduced by the glitter and glamour comme d'habitude - it's just on the inside now... If we stick to practices no matter what, it's bhakti ruling... Is that somewhat how it is???
My experimentation is now to adjust the amount of mental will and thought force I have to use when I have noticed I have a breath suspension and want to go back favouring the procedure, and it doesn't happen just because I favour it... The suspension is too strong, so I would have to force my breathing, and I'm testing how much I cope before it gets uncomfortable. The "middle way" I do if it gets too strong is to just wait it out. I could easily also direct the energy elsewhere with only attention, but I don't do that. If it stops after inhale for example, the energy boosts in the third eye and I wait it out, but when the breathing starts again I have a stronger inner focus to continue breathing - getting some steering speed so to speak. It works comme si comme ca...  I feel the focus is then divided on following the spinal nerve and controlling/forcing breath... doesn't feel optimal, but I guess it's a phase that will pass. |
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yogani
USA
5241 Posts |
Posted - Mar 30 2008 : 10:38:34 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by emc
When I read your post above, Yogani, I felt "oh, what a rigid system". And then it hit me... if we are engulfed in scenery, cool automatic yoga during practices, it's the spiritual ego getting satisfied and seduced by the glitter and glamour comme d'habitude - it's just on the inside now... If we stick to practices no matter what, it's bhakti ruling... Is that somewhat how it is???
Hi EMC and All:
Could be.
Don't get me wrong, the natural breath suspensions are not a bad thing. Quite good actually -- a sign of important purification and opening in the nervous system occurring along the way on our journey. But we don't have to be doing anything with breath suspensions either. What for? Just relax. It is only 5-10 minutes of spinal breathing practice and I don't expect you are suspended the entire time. If you are, great, just take it easy, following the simple procedure of spinal breathing, which involves no strain. Meditation time will arrive soon enough, and then the breath can continue to be suspended if it is natural, and deep meditation can go on normally within that.
Please know that the procedure is the procedure for spinal breathing and I can only describe it for what it is. What you do in practices is your affair. With thousands of people reading, we certainly don't want to be jockeying the procedure around for every individual experience that comes along. If we find in time that everyone is having constant natural breath suspensions, then we may take a closer look at the procedure, or maybe not. Time will tell. Whatever adjustments we might make to the procedure in the future, if any, will be based on the experiences and needs of the many.
Pioneers in consciousness we are. Wonderful new openings happening here every day. Relax and enjoy the ride! 
The guru is in you.
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 01:18:50 AM
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Hi Everyone
I found this in the book called "The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita - Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda - As remembered by His Disciple, Swami Kriyananda"
" (2:58) When the yogi, like a tortoise withdrawing its head and limbs into its shell, is able to withdraw his energy from the objects of sense-perception, he becomes established in wisdom.
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Breathlessness is not kumbhaka in the sense of forcibly retaining the breath. Rather, true kumbhaka comes when the body no longer requires air for its maintenance. The purpose of respiration is to expel carbon dioxide from the lungs, and to take in oxygen. In pranayama exercises, the breath is used to produce a state of equilibrium in the body, in which state the physical activity of breathing is no longer required to maintain it in a condition of equilibrium.
When one rises above the need to breathe, the heart pump also slows down, then stops altogether.
...
When breathing becomes unnecessary, the heartbeat slows down and then stops. Between these two phenomena the breath and heartbeat on the one hand and sensory awareness on the other there is a close connection.
The energy in the senses, as in the whole body, relaxes and withdraws, as happens, to a lesser degree, in sleep. A sleeper may be called -- He may even be shaken -- before he is even aware of being wanted. This diminished involvement with objective reality occurs because, during sleep, energy is partially withdrawn from the body and from the "sense telephones" -- even as the tortoise withdraws its head and limbs into its shell.
It is only when the "sense telephones" have been "switched off" that the mind can wholly absorb itself in the inner world of meditation. The energy in the motor nerves, too, must be withdrawn, as happens naturually as the senses are being stilled.
The center of the body's energy is in the spine. In deep meditation, that energy must be relaxed from the surface of the body, as we saw earlier, and withdrawn up the spine through the chakras to the brain. The normal outward flow of energy, as it works to sustain the body, must be reversed to flow upward. "
I am trying to understand this. There seems to be two ways to balance the body's oxygen/carbon dioxide state:
1) through pranayama
2) as was stated further on in the B Gita (4:29): "One practice of yoga offers the incoming breath into the outgoing breath and the apana into the prana, thereby, through pranayama, rendering the breath unnecessary." This seems to be a reference to storing mass amounts of chi in the body to which point the breathing would stop???
One method I can think of to withdraw the senses from the surface of the body is through deep relaxation (tensing and letting go).
This is the part I'm wondering about. If I do very deep controlled breathing for a long time and make a real effort to totally relax my body, won't I, at some point, hit a state where my body is oxygenated enough and my metabolism has slowed down to the point where I'm not producing much or any carbon dioxide that this will result in the "state of equilibrium" where my breathing and heart beat will stop?
This sounds too simple to me. To be quite honest, I've never tried this for an extended amount of time. I wonder about the effects of oxygenating the blood (some Russian experiments with H202 come to mind, blood oxegenation for athletes etc..)
Has anyone here ever tried deep breathing for an extended amount of time while trying to thoroughly relax? (I realize that there is wisdom in self pacing and a controlled approach, but I'm curious and thinking of trying this myself  Surely you can't damage yourself by deep breathing for extended amounts of time..?)
Thanks for your input
TI |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 03:09:01 AM
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TibetanIce, I think your answer to all your questions is in here:
quote:
Breathlessness is not kumbhaka in the sense of forcibly retaining the breath. Rather, true kumbhaka comes when the body no longer requires air for its maintenance.
The key is the "trying by force" - that is not the way. Experimenting by will is not the key. The process has its own way, and it's stimulated by pranayama. You can surely damage yourself by deep breathing for extended amounts of time if it is forced by will. It might stimulate the system more than its ready for, and you will sooner or later get a back-lash. If it happens naturally, though, it's most often perfectly ok if it's not exaggerated, then controlled self-pacing would be needed. See the difference between you manipulating and stillness doing its job smoothly?
The withdrawal of the outer senses comes with time, and is for example strengthened by the sutra "inner sensuality" in samyama.
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gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 04:16:24 AM
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It refers to Yogananda's system of techniques to acheive the breathless state, the first being Hong Sau mantra synced with the breath. There are lots of subtle instructions in his lessons that you have to follow exactly to get the proper results.
What happens, as far as i understand it, is that you first establish the witness consciousness in meditation where you let thoughts float by and ignore them. Once you have done that you can concentrate on the breath. If your concentration is good, and the body is thoroughly relaxed by keeping it motionless completely, the breath will start to pause on the inhale and exhale. THe longer you continue the longer the pauses come but the important point here is that you don't want to use will to control the breath AT ALL and you want the pauses to be on the exhale. Then the longer you do it the longer the breath stays out which calms the lungs, the lungs then calm the heart gradually, the senses withdraw and your attention is free from subconscious thought patterns and memories and you can concentrate on God. The hypnagogic state (body asleep/mind awake) is also part of sensory withdrawel.
I guess the explanation is that the oxygen and CO2 contents in the blood BOTH reduce simultaneously, with a little extra oxygen inhaled as you practice.
In the TM studies, they found people could remain breathless between 5 and 10 minutes at a stretch. I am guessing this is roughly correct because the most a person can hold their breath is 9 minutes. However, i don't know if the breathless state can last longer than this with meditation.
It is very important to note that the mind subconsciously tries to force the breathing to happen, so you have to use the most minimum amount of effort to subvert this tendency. There should be absolutely NO trying to regulate the breathing, but carry it out as if you are watching someone else breathing.
I don't know how long you have been meditating but i have been practising this technique on and off for 7 years and only in the last 6 months have i started getting breathless states. The last time i meditated i was effortlessly breathless on the exhale for around 20 seconds, then a short inhale, then exhale, another pause for 20 secs etc etc. Which means that i was only breathing 3 times a minute. And i know that the longer i continue to meditate, the longer the pauses will be.
Another thing you have to watch out for is the tendency to fall into sleep. It takes a little effort of will to pull yourself out of it. |
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avatar186
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 2:50:34 PM
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inhail is to be longer than exhail, thus the body is decarbonized quickly.
inhail is done completly so is exhail.
inhail is held for a cool second, but only long enough to absorb the upper most part of fresh oxygen.
thus you are oxygenated, and decarbonized.
in this, it can be done quickly, but to master it, is to do it relaxed, even till the body falls asleep.
PS, on a side note, as the body says you need to breath, and you dont have to, when the body says you dont need to breath, you can keep the rtyhem, in my mind, this would lead a person deeper into breathlessness. your pauses come from not needing to breath naturally, but then needing it for a few more times befor not.
thus by continuing your breathing naturally without missing a beat, even though the body says you dont need it, thus furthers you into not needing it. though this is just an idea ;). |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 3:10:25 PM
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It's getting a little scary here... Mind is really protesting against the cessasions, but they happen anyway.
I tried to attend my aikido class today after a couple of months break due to overload. I could not follow the practices properly since I had so much breath stops and got overwhelmed with the force behind it. As soon as my teacher came near to assist or aid it got worse and kriyas started (mainly mountain pose with hands together above head) so I had to wave him away - couldn't speak. Tears just streamed. I had to keep my eyes open, because when I closed them they went to sambhavi mode and I swooshed away immediately and lost body sensations...
Tonight when joining the global AYP meditation I started with 5 minutes pranayama under hardly no breathing and then passed out after 5 minutes meditation and woke up 1,5 hours later...
This is also accompanied by crown activity and fatigue.
It will be very interesting to see if this trial to join the aikido class again brings back overload symptoms or if I'm able to handle the greater amount of energies flowing now... We'll see... |
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Apr 06 2008 : 11:32:58 PM
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Hi Everyone
I found a fascinating document! It examines the effects of Pranayama and Meditation on the body, brain and blood. Get out your dictionaries but it's worth the read.
http://www.aolresearch.org/pdf/A%20...%20Brown.pdf
TI |
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Apr 07 2008 : 12:16:28 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by avatar186
inhail is to be longer than exhail, thus the body is decarbonized quickly.
inhail is done completly so is exhail.
inhail is held for a cool second, but only long enough to absorb the upper most part of fresh oxygen.
thus you are oxygenated, and decarbonized.
in this, it can be done quickly, but to master it, is to do it relaxed, even till the body falls asleep.
Hi Avatar186
You know, I have a hard time believing your statments for these reasons:
1) rechaka (exhalation) is apana, which is the expelling force which is related to ida. Isn't this the force that would expell the CO2?
2) to lessen carbon dioxide in the body, you don't bring in more oxygen, you have to reduce the carbon dioxide in the blood and cut down metabolism.
3) I've seen many documents on pranayama and kundalini meditations that give a ratio of breathing that is 1:4:2. (Inhale for 1, hold for 4 and then exhale for 2). For example, you inhale for 4 seconds, hold it for 16 seconds and then exhale for 8 seconds.
4) I just did some experiments using a heart monitor and, under the assumption that when the heart is oxygenated it slows down , these are my findings:
- my resting pulse was 85
- Performing continual inhalation and exhalation similar to spinal breathing for 10 minutes (8 seconds each cycle, no pausing) reduces my heart rate to ~ 80 bpm.
- Performing continual inhalation and exhalation similar to spinal breathing for 10 minutes (4 seconds to inhale and then 8 seconds to exhale, no pausing) reduces my heart rate to ~ 80 bpm. Same as previous.
- Performing a 2:8:4 cycle brought my pulse down to 78.
- Performing a one second inhale and then holding the breath for 8 seconds followed by a 1 second exhale brought my pulse down to 72! After doing this for 5 minutes, my top lip began to tingle and went numb and I felt like I had just come from a deep meditation session.
- You can see the heart rate slow down after 4 or 5 seconds of breath retention. After a certain point though, like 30 seconds or so, the pulse starts to go up again.
My conclusions?
-Breath retention oxygenates the blood and causes the heart rate to slow down. Thus, any breathing pattern without a retention period probably isn't as effective at oxygenating the blood as one with a retention in it.
-The best pattern to oxygenate the blood seems to be to inhale as quickly as possible, retain the breath for 16 seconds and then exhale as quickly as possible and then repeat. Again, I don't know if the heart is slowing because of the extra oxygen and the CO2 remains the same, or because the oxygen increases and CO2 decreases. That part would be nice to know. Is there a doctor in the house?
-It doesn't seem to matter if inhalation is shorter or longer than exhalation. Could this be the case?
TI
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avatar186
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Apr 08 2008 : 03:47:45 AM
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| it is not even neccasarily the breathing im interested in, but the stimulation from it. that vibrating on your upper lip, except threw out the whole body. |
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Tibetan_Ice
Canada
758 Posts |
Posted - Apr 16 2008 : 9:49:17 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by avatar186
it is not even neccasarily the breathing im interested in, but the stimulation from it. that vibrating on your upper lip, except threw out the whole body.
Hi Avatar186
Did you read that article about the effects of pranayama at this link: http://www.aolresearch.org/pdf/A%20...%20Brown.pdf ?
If, perchance, you have been inhaling longer than you exhale, you have been accumulating CO2 in your blood. C02 buildup stretches the veins and arteries as pressure builds. That might account for a whole body tingle.
Did you know that pursed lip breathing will oxygenate your body faster than "than being put on 2 litters of oxygen a minute."? Pursed lip breathing is inhaling to a count and then exhaling for 2 to 3 times the count of the inhale. (Inhale to a count of 4, exhale gently through the pursed lips to a count of 8 or 12). The effect is very similar to chanting out loud. http://www.emphysema.net/maryb.html
However, the tingle body is also associated with the etheric body.
Try this experiment:
1) Shake your hands in front of your body for 20 seconds.
2) Hold your hands on your knees, palms facing upwards.
3) Do you feel a tingle in your hands? That is, according to Samuel Sagan, the etheric body.
Sagan says that the next step is to focus on the third eye and notice that it is tingling too. Then, start raspy breathing or Ujjayi Breathing (partially block the epiglottis and breath like a mummy risen from the dead). Notice that the tingles get stronger? It is very interesting. So, perhaps the reason why your whole body tingles (if you have not been overloading your system with CO2) is that you've cleared your etheric body and can feel it. In that case, good going! I've heard that once you clear your whole etheric body, it is very easy to dissociate the astral body.
TI |
Edited by - Tibetan_Ice on Apr 16 2008 10:03:19 PM |
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Breath Cessation in Pranayama??
