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freedom
USA
4 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 23 2015 : 3:38:11 PM
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| Hello, I'm new to AYP - tho not to spiritual practice. I had my 1st spiritual awakening at age 3 asking "who am I" out of wonderment that everyone seemed to make so much out of nothing. I innately knew my emptiness and in asking myself "who am I" made myself disappear. Ever since I've read every book I could get my hands on from The Baghavad Gita, Merging with Siva, Autobiography of a Yogi, the Bible, Yoga Sutras etc... I have been meditating for 10+ years, studied Zen Awareness for some time which was great yet limited. I also practice Asanas. Meditation was an instant blessing for me; I started with a simple technique: eyes open, letting thoughts go by... I'd merge into oneness with all, feeling intense love and great peace in my days. Recently, I signed up for the Self Realization Fellowship Kriya Yoga teachings as a result of reading Autobiography of a Yogi- however, only 2 mailings in, I somehow landed on the AYP books and was instantly hooked! I love the practical no-nonsense approach and have read more than 1/2 the books & listened to all the interviews of Yogani by Dr Ann West. Now I feel torn! I enjoy the lessons from SRF yet I'm really drawn to AYP. I decided to stick to the AYP technique as I had a bit more clunkiness initially with the SRF clenching/breath releasing stuff. I have experienced outstanding bliss combining the twice daily deep meditation w/ spinal breathing pranayama and asanas. I;m finding it difficult to merge the ujjayi breathing with the focus on the third eye and mulabandha while visualizing the spinal nerve... Does anyone have any advice to me at this stage besides stick with it? thank you so much and I'm really grateful to all of you and Yogani! Much love. |
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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2015 : 4:22:51 PM
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Hello Freedom, welcome!
quote:
I;m finding it difficult to merge the ujjayi breathing with the focus on the third eye and mulabandha while visualizing the spinal nerve... Does anyone have any advice to me at this stage besides stick with it?
My only advice (along with stick with it  ) is tracing the spinal nerve in an easy manner, touching on Ajna at the top and Mudlahara at the bottom of the breath. You don't need to devote a lot of focus at either end (if you are employing mulahbanda or sambhavi mudra yet, these will assist you with that) or concentrate too hard on visualization as the work is getting done by the repetition over time. You can also delay ujjayi breathing until the clunkiness wears off and pick it up later. AYP is all about "easily favoring".
There are a lot of SRF kriya practioners on the forum so I'm sure others will chime in. Your spiritual voice is always welcome here!  |
Edited by - Dogboy on Sep 23 2015 6:17:20 PM |
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Mykal K
Germany
267 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2015 : 4:29:19 PM
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Hi freedom,
nice of you to drop by.
Not an expert so no advice from me, but generally it is mentioned here to take things one step at the time.
I think inner silence is the foundation of all these things, so too much strain might be counterproductive.
I myself have been doing all of the practices from AYP, haven´t been making much progress though. Since then I have got rid of most of the practices and decided to concentrate on one or two things and do them right this time. For me, that seems to be a good decision.
As I said, that´s only my story, but maybe it is of some use.
Enjoy the forums!
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sunyata
USA
1513 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2015 : 4:38:53 PM
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Hi Freedom
Welcome to the forums!! You have received great advise from Dogboy and Mykal K.
Sunyata |
Edited by - sunyata on Sep 23 2015 5:17:36 PM |
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BillinL.A.
USA
375 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2015 : 6:04:51 PM
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Hi Freedom! Thanks a bunch for sharing your story and Spiritual experiences. I get so much inspiration from it.
You've got so many positive things going on but the only potential problem is the feeling that you "...find it difficult to merge the ujjayi breathing with the focus on the third eye and mulabandha while visualizing the spinal nerve." Don't allow the feeling that the techniques are "difficult". They're often clunky at the start. If so take a break from trying them for a while and then slowly re-introduce things.
You're bravely attacking the spiritual journey with the most powerful techniques so just let yourself "easily favor" the procedures. That's a theme throughout AYP teachings. Its made a huge difference for me in just the past three years compared to the three decades I practiced SRF stuff. Easily favor the techniques that keep you practicing daily and don't pressure yourself to do anything otherwise. Lots of people crash and burn from those kind of expectations
I cherish having studied SRF material for decades and I attended hundreds of services by their Monastics. If you have an inclination toward SRF material I'd go for it. It can complement your AYP practices if you carefully balance the approaches. I avoid reading SRF things now just to keep a balanced, practical approach to my spiritual efforts.
So cool to hear of your bhakti. Take care Freedom! |
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Radharani
USA
843 Posts |
Posted - Sep 25 2015 : 01:02:37 AM
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Welcome, Freedom! It sounds like you will be right at home here.
I started the SRF Lessons when I was 17 and followed that up with Ananda Fellowship (an SRF offshoot) in my 20s. SRF kriya technique was my central practice, among other practices including bhakti and tantra, for about 30 years. SRF is a good system and it worked pretty well for me. However, IMO AYP spinal breathing is technically superior and I think things might have progressed a lot faster had I known about it. Also, as you pointed out, AYP has a much more direct approach in terms of presenting the various techniques and how they all work together, without the additional religious/philosophical stuff that SRF includes in the Lessons. Now, I'm not saying the latter is a bad thing! It can be very educational for people who are new to yoga and spirituality. However, in your case, since you began your inquiries at age 3 and have already done a lot of reading along those lines and clearly have a good understanding and appreciation of bhakti, it may well be extraneous for you. It sounds like "Advanced" Yoga Practices is a perfect fit and you've come to the right place.
Your question about spinal breathing has already been answered above so I don't have much to add there, other than to say it will become perfectly natural and easy with practice.
This is kind of off the subject, but one of the reasons I personally feel more comfortable with AYP than SRF is that I have some philosophical disagreements with SRF, especially with regard to sexuality and how it relates to spirituality. SRF has a pretty sex-negative attitude founded in the gnostic dualism that pervades nearly all spiritual traditions. I recall reading in the SRF Lessons (it's been many years now so I can't remember the exact words) that sex is anti-spiritual even for married people, and that the ONLY purpose of sex is to make babies. SRF had absolutely no place for tantra in its system. AYP, on the other hand, is one of the very few yoga schools I've encountered that has a totally balanced and integrated approach, teaching how to transmute sexual energy as you send it up the spine, i.e. tantra (whether in celibate seated practices and/or with a partner). This was a big missing piece for me in SRF and most other schools.
So again, welcome! and enjoy. I'm sure you will.
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freedom
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - Sep 29 2015 : 4:17:39 PM
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Thank you so much everyone. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate your warm welcomes and feedback. I've been going through a very bumpy phase (to put it mildly) the last couple of weeks due to last minute travel and then most recently getting sick. Basically my twice daily practice didn't happen a lot- something that gets tricky for me when I travel- and I found it really hard to meditate while ill. I'm feeling "held back" so to speak as a result cause my initial experiences doing the aforementioned techniques were amazing- I found the days I did an asana yoga routine REALLY amped things up. Also, I was astonished to notice what I believe was an opening of my third eye, i.e. clairvoyance type stuff- something I've never cared about at all! However, I know better than to dismiss these experiences now- I am realizing that all these little things that are happening are directly correlated to practice. Ego has been wanting to strand me in the land of duality and monkey mind these last two weeks- however, I'm doing my very best to reassure myself not to go down it's rabbit hole of figuring out "solutions" to its infinite something's wrong and not enough... and instead rest assured my biggest priority is twice daily meditation (w/ pranayama at this point) and the rest will figure itself out.
Much love to all.
PS. Is there a place to pose questions about my little ego issues... the content which now seems so very alluring - and yet which I know, from center, will totally vanish...? |
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Dogboy
USA
2294 Posts |
Posted - Sep 29 2015 : 9:22:43 PM
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| You can start a thread right here in Satsang, and if it fits better somewhere else, the moderators will move it there. |
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SRF vs AYP
