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AYPforum
351 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 18 2007 : 09:47:09 AM
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What is Kriya Yoga?
"Kriya" is a Sanskrit word meanig "action, deed or effort". Kriya Yoga is a system of Yoga that was revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, c. 1861. Paramahansa Yogananda brought it into widespread public awareness through his book "Autobiography of a Yogi". The system consists of a number of yogic techniques that hasten the practitioner's spiritual development.
Yogananda writes that "the Kriya yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man".
AYP doesn't recommend singling out chakras because the nervous system will balance them automatically while we follow simple daily practices.
We make a distinction in AYP between awakening ecstatic conductivity and cultivating inner silence (pure bliss consciousness). For the latter, we use deep meditation, which does not come from Kriya Yoga, but from Mantra Yoga. This is an important difference between AYP and the Kriya Yoga that has been typically transmitted in the west. However, Kriya Yoga as transmitted by Lahiri Mahasaya and some of his lineages includes Nabhi Kriya (different from AYP's Navi Kriya), which is said to be similiar to AYP's Deep Meditation.
While traditional Kriya Yoga uses mantras in spinal breathing, AYP does not. In AYP the meditation process is a separate practice, done right after spinal breathing. AYP meditation uses a single mantra ("I AM" with its enhancements). In this way ecstatic conductivity and inner silence are cultivated separately. AYP holds that it is not possible to fully cultivate both at the same time.
Click on "Main Lessons" above to learn meditation and spinal breathing, or read more on Kriya Yoga here:
Lesson 273 - Cultivating Inner Silence
Lesson 181 - Expectations and our Time Line
Lesson 206 - Varieties of Spinal Breathing |
Edited by - AYPforum on Jul 07 2015 05:25:49 AM |
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