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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 26 2010 : 11:55:23 AM
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Namaste All 
Hope this finds you abiding in Unity 
Recently there has been an automatic (unconsciously created) change happen in my spinal breathing practice. I'm wondering if any of you have ever had this change happen for you, either consciously or unconsciously.
Recently my spinal breathing has changed to include both a top and a bottom kumbhaka. At the top, the breath is held for often upwards of 40-45 seconds (or so) creating a natural enhancement to sambhavi mudra, and at the bottom the breath is held out for about 10-15 seconds while automatic uddiyana happens and creates a very strong vacuum sensation in the lower body. This has been happening now for about a week, in every session, and I have yet to overload, so in general I am not concerned and am letting nature take it's course. I am just wondering if any of you have had a similar experience happen to you? If so, did you notice any immediate benefits? Did it go away on it's own? If it did go away, did you consciously try to continue to engage in this practice? If so, why?
Love!
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Holy
796 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2010 : 3:15:25 PM
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Hi CarsonZi,
it happened to me several times in the past where the practice advanced highly and the body felt very light and smooth and kundalini action was strongly present. I don't remember having past that point because of too much openings and overloads that started over the weeks.
If your approach was very stable upto this point and you have tons of smooth openings occuring, then happy going on :) |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2010 : 4:46:59 PM
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It happens naturally here too Carson. I don't pay attention to it any more. It is a natural enhancement in spinal breathing. It does not go away. 
http://www.aypsite.org/229.html
Kumbhaka on either or both ends of the breathing cycle in spinal breathing is a further degree of restraint of breath. If this works for you, that is good practice too. Keep in mind that adding kumbhaka into spinal breathing, and later adding more with yoni mudra and the chin pump will be a lot of kumbhaka, and you should be prudent in your self-pacing of practices if the resulting purification and experiences become excessive. You can use the counting during spinal breathing if you like, though I think you will find later that the cycling of breath, kumbhakas, etc. becomes a natural and organic process. Then the counting will not be necessary. So much the better for letting the attention do what it does best - soar in inner space!
Also, have you tried Lesson 288 - Yoni Spinal Breathing Pranayama ? |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
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RSS
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2010 : 11:38:52 AM
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Hi Carson,
Many Kriya groups put an intentional short kumbhaka at the top of the inhalation. With me, many times this short intentional pause turns into a long nonintentional one. The duration of which, I have no idea. I just know that after a while of being lost in this breath suspensiion, the thought goes across my mind "What am I suppose to be doing, oh yeah, I guess I need to exhale". This is a very blissful place and many kriya teachers say that the goal is to have this blissful period of not breathing get longer and longer on it's own. I am told that this gets longer and longer and/or happens more frequently with more and more purification and eventually the yogi is able to achieve the breathless state.
Half the time I do the regular AYP SBP. The other half of the time, I add om japa in the chakras to the normal SBP. Sometimes the breath suspension occurs on it's own when I'm on one of the middle chakras. After being lost for a while, it takes a bit of effort to remember what chakra I was on.
The bottom line here, in my humble opinion, is that if this breath suspension occurs naturally on it's own, it is a great thing.
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CarsonZi
Canada
3189 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2010 : 12:37:47 PM
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Namaste Everyone and thanks for all the great feedback
@Holy:
Yes, there doesn't seem to be any overload happening here (yet).  I will continue to be on the lookout for it (especially since my asana practice has also stepped up a notch semi-recently) but so far, everything is going smoothly and this addition of kumbhaka to SBP has actually increased the ecstacy a fair amount.
@Shanti:
I have not tried Yoni Spinal Breathing yet although I read the lesson a long time ago. Well, I guess I shouldn't actually say that. I have done Yoni Spinal Breathing just not with the use of my fingers. I don't really find the use of the fingers to push the eyes up very necessary (my eyes naturally lock into the perfect Sambhavi spot on their own) as I don't find using the fingers creates any extra ecstatic energy, infact it only seems to create a bit of awkward, unnecessary movement. I have used a top end kumbhaka in the past with SBP, but for whatever reason I didn't keep up with it. Now, the top end kumbhaka seems to naturally amplify the ecstasy from Sambhavi (without the use of fingers) and since it is happening naturally I would have to consciously decide to stop it in order for it to fall away. It may fall away on it's own in the future, but in general I kinda just put out the intentions for energetic and silence cultivation and let my practice go wherever it goes. I try not to "force" anything. I find things are much more powerful when I let them happen of themself instead of being like "ok, today I am going to add the practice of blah blah blah".  I have done this in the past (consciously choose to add practices) and all it did was get me into energetic trouble. Letting things progress in their own time seems to be the way for "me".
@Christi:
Thanks for sharing that thread....very helpful. It's interesting to me that you have found that the bottom end kumbhaka is a powerful stimulator of the 1st and 2nd chakras. Like I said in the title, this added practice of breath retention during SBP is not intentional for me....but I do know that all my chakras are open and spinning properly, other then the root chakra (this has been confirmed by others as well). I know that there is one major obstruction in my root chakra and for a while I was targetting the root with specific practices, but at some point I decided to let go and let things open when they were ready and stopped using practices like targetted bastrika on the root. But now, it seems like "Source" or whatever you want to call the "force" that is guiding the process of awakening here has decided to target this area on it's own. I don't find that the top end kumbhaka is as "dramatic" as the bottom end kumbhaka either....I find that the top end kumbhaka is very relaxed (even though it is much longer then the bottom end one) and not as "stimulating" as the bottom one is. At the bottom, when the breath is fully exited the body, the stomach naturally pulls into a very deep uddiyana bandha and mulabandha has become more of a "pulsation" and less of a definite "lock"....this, I have found, is very stimulating to the root chakra (and a bit to the 2nd chakra as well as it ends up being quite sexually stimulating as well) and I end up having "root pulsations" or "root vibrations". In the past I have not been able to "feel" the root. I can follow the sushumna up and down all the other chakras, but I have always had great difficulty locating the root chakra. Now, I can actually feel the root, and can feel sensations there. In time, I'm sure that this practice of bottom end kumbhaka during SBP will help to dissolve the obstruction still lodged in the root and will create the opportunity for the root to fully open. All in good time, and I am in no rush.
P.S> I also find it interesting that as the root begins to open energetically, so do my hips begin to open physically. Only really recently have I been able to sit (and do other postures) comfortably while in lotus posture. There has always been something up with my right hip, and it doesn't want to open in a way that makes lotus posture possible (I had been under the impression before that I never would be able to do lotus due to "bone on bone compression"....see Paul Grilley's video "Yoga Anatomy" for more on bone on bone compression), but in the past 2 weeks my right hip has opened to a point where I can comfortably sit in lotus and can do postures like "peacock" while the legs are wrapped in padmasana. Interesting
@RSS:
Everytime I find myself in "the breathless state" it seems to be when the breath is caught "in the middle".....neither at a full inhale, nor at a full exhale, but instead right in the middle of both breaths. When I find myself in a breathless state (or perhaps more accurately a state of "not breathing"), when I am aware once again that I am not breathing it takes me a minute to figure out if I need to inhale or exhale. When this happens I usually find that I can choose to go either direction once I notice I am not breathing. I can inhale the rest of the way, or I can exhale the rest of the way. I have not had the experience of being "full of breath" (meaning at the top of the inhale) and then having the breath suspend. But that is just my experience, I'm sure others have different experience . I do totally recognize the experience of losing track of where one is in a practice though (for you losing track of which chakra you are on, and for me it is usually losing track of which sutra I am on in samyama).
Thanks everyone for all the great input!
Love!
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Edited by - CarsonZi on Mar 29 2010 12:43:32 PM |
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Automatic Top and Bottom Kumbhakas
