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LittleTurtle
USA
342 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 8:19:29 PM
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I'm confused about what Yogani says in the lessons regarding Siddhasana. I have used siddhana for years as a way to, well, just sit. I'm a short female and in most chairs my feet just barely reach the floor so to be comfortable I usually sit cross legged or in siddhansa. I often sit in a form of siddhasana for hours at a time while reading or working on the computer, so incorporating it into my meditation and pranayam was not difficult. But in the lessons Yogani says that we should feel some sexual stimulation with this position. I feel none. Never did in this position. If anything I think it may have reduced my sex drive a bit, and I have read in yogic texts elsewhere that siddhasana is used to reduce sex drive. 
Am I doing something incorrectly here? |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 9:13:01 PM
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Yet another instance when I assumed a forum member to be one sex and s/he turns out to be another. :) I'm not sure why I thought you were a guy, Little Turtle, and I suppose it doesn't matter either way.
I've been doing siddhasana for a few years and have never experienced sexual arousal.* In fact, I don't feel like it does much for me at all, but Victor once told me that I should try to do it anyway, since it completes a circuit of energy. (My wording, not his...) So like you, I've got quite comfortable with it, but can't say that I experience much in the way of benefits.
*from it.  |
Edited by - Manipura on Oct 06 2007 9:48:49 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4430 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 04:14:36 AM
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Hi Little turtle,
Siddhasana is not a beginners practice, it comes into AYP a little way down the list of practices to be added. It doesn't really do too much until some ecstatic conductivity is happening in the body. When that is happening, siddhasana becomes a very powerful practice, as when we sit in this asana, waves of pleasure will rise up through the body. Over time these waves of pleasure will evolve into ecstacy, and will start to be felt inside and outside of practice times. In siddhasana as tought in AYP, only a slight pressure is applied to the perrineum by the heel. If a lot of pressure is applied it can cut off the blood suply down there, and in men (I'm a man) that would stop sexual arousal. That could be what you have read about.
I find that sometimes, the lightest touch of the heel against the perineum is enough to send ecstacy flighing throughout the whole body, and this slightest touch can be the most powerful (more effective than applying stronger pressure).
You will know when you are ready to add this practice because of the effects that you feel immediately inside. Until then you can't harm yourself by continuing with it. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 10:12:22 AM
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I am like you Little Turtle.. I am small and find it more comfortable to sit in siddhasana on a chair, sometimes for hours at a time while at work.. and have been sitting that way for years now.. even before AYP.. And.. it does nothing for me with respect to increase in ecstatic conductivity... however, like Meg says.. during practice, I do feel like a circuit is completed.
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LittleTurtle
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 2:47:53 PM
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I am not a beginner. I have been practicing yoga and meditation in one form or another since 1970. Plain meditation being the main focus for a lot of those years. I think I've been consistantly sitting in siddhasana during meditation since about six years ago. And I don't think I'm sitting on my heal incorrectly, that is, I'm not having any circulation problem or discomfort. Also I have felt an obviously awakened Kundalini for several years now, even before AYP, but of course AYP got things flowing more smoothly, consistantly, and quickly. Even tho a family crisis interupted my main practices for a couple months, the prana still danced around my body doing it's thing. I wonder if siddhasana simply has already done what it's going to do for now, and maybe that is another reason why AYP made such a diferrence so quickly. I already had several of the practices in place. |
Edited by - LittleTurtle on Oct 07 2007 3:21:39 PM |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 3:25:05 PM
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It sounds like a plausible explanation, LittleTurtle. I find it very difficult to know whether a specific type of experience (like that ecstacy thing) is always necessary to encounter on the path or if we have so different paths that for some that phase goes rather smooth and perhaps even unnoticed? From what I've understood, every such energy experience is a sign of friction when blockages are cleaned out. Some might perhaps clean a lot, others less, and therefore that ecstacy might be experienced very differently?
It is a thought, but it might also be that we who haven't had that ecstacy yet is not ready for it yet. Who would know?
I find it fascinating that there does not seem to be very much consistency in the order in which things happen for different people. I have a constant feeling I have done most things "backwards" compared to most descriptions... [ Beginning with heart orgasms and full body orgasms and then move to trying to learn meditation... Jumping to realizations that brings me to understand huge stuff, yet I wonder when I'll start doing those popular Yoga asanas that most people have done for ages... Or perhaps I'm not ready for it yet?  Very, very strange path, this! And I'd say, very difficult sometimes to measure what is a beginners state.
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LittleTurtle
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 4:37:17 PM
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Actually what got me to settle in with siddhasana was that I could never ever do padmasana. Even when I was only 17 or 18, still couldn't do it and I had this concept that somehow I was supposed to be able to do that to really meditate correctly. (another concept that thankfully bit the dust  ). So I "settled" for siddhasana because I can do it so easily and it's comfortable.
I think I understand what you mean, emc. We get what we need. And FWIW, I tend to approach a good deal of this practice with a beginners mind, because.. well...sometimes I'm brilliant, sometimes a numbskull  And because also the scenery for me has been there but in a very mild form for the most part. So it makes me think that either I need to continue as slowly as I am cuz I'm doing it right, and/or that I'm gonna get hit with a tidal wave any moment now....or not.
And Shanti, since like me you sit in siddhasana a lot, it makes me wonder if maybe men just respond more to it than us females? I wonder if Yogani has any input to offer in this regard. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 4:48:30 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by LittleTurtle
I am not a beginner. I have been practicing yoga and meditation in one form or another since 1970. Plain meditation being the main focus for a lot of those years. I think I've been consistantly sitting in siddhasana during meditation since about six years ago. And I don't think I'm sitting on my heal incorrectly, that is, I'm not having any circulation problem or discomfort. Also I have felt an obviously awakened Kundalini for several years now, even before AYP, but of course AYP got things flowing more smoothly, consistantly, and quickly. Even tho a family crisis interupted my main practices for a couple months, the prana still danced around my body doing it's thing. I wonder if siddhasana simply has already done what it's going to do for now, and maybe that is another reason why AYP made such a diferrence so quickly. I already had several of the practices in place.
I am not a beginner at siddasana either.. been into yoga (asanas) for 20+ years too. Yep.. had kundalini awakened before AYP.. yep, AYP got it flowing smoothly.. Have constant energy moving up my spine.. increases when I focus on it.. but it is there all the time.. I too had several practices in place when I started AYP.. and though I was told to back of everything and start off with only meditation.. I never did give up siddhasana :).. I have often wondered too about the bucking bronco that Yogani talks about in his lesson.
You maybe right.. maybe it (siddhasana) has done what it needed to do when we started. Another thing that Yogani and others have said is.. the actual feeling of any energy movement is felt when there are obstructions and the energy flowing through these obstructions cause friction... Since we have been with siddhasana for awhile.. maybe the initial ecstatic effects have diminished????
Yogani??? |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4430 Posts |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 03:56:32 AM
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Hi Little Turtle,
quote:
am not a beginner. I have been practicing yoga and meditation in one form or another since 1970. Plain meditation being the main focus for a lot of those years. I think I've been consistantly sitting in siddhasana during meditation since about six years ago.
My humble appologies,
You have been meditating since I was a baby in my mothers arms, and have been practicing siddhasana for many years more than I have. However, I always think it is good to remember that with meditation, in terms of making progress, we are really talking in terms of lifetimes, and possibly in terms of hundreds of lifetimes. So it is possible, and probably quite common, to be able to do spiritual practices for the whole of our life, and still be a beginner. I consider myself to be, and the more I practice, the more of a beginner I can see that I am. Another divine paradox!
I would be interested to see what Yogani thinks about this siddhasana dilemma... is it really a man thing? I can't really believe that it is. Are there any women here with awakened kundalini who do get waves of ecstacy rising through them (or even little trickles of pleasure) when they sit in siddhasana, purely because of the asana? Is there a point where siddhasana does nothing for us any more in terms of helping us move forward spiritually?
Christi |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 07:55:50 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
Is there a point where siddhasana does nothing for us any more in terms of helping us move forward spiritually?
Well.. if you discount the fact that it does not increase ecstatic conductivity in some of us.. (actually.. maybe it did do so to a very small degree in the beginning.. but nothing very drastic like has been reported here).. it helps in regulating the energy flow.
Siddhasana Changing... and maybe that is the other function of this asana??? |
Edited by - Shanti on Oct 08 2007 08:01:13 AM |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 08:23:06 AM
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I've come to regard siddhasana as one of those yogic things where I don't necessarily feel the benefits, but I do it anyway. There are certain asanas which give us "experiences" or sensations, and there are those that don't, depending on the wiring of our nervous system. If I only did the asanas that gave me an experience, I'd drastically shorten my meditation routine. They may be done in the same way that we do meditation - routinely and without expectation.
That being said, the sexual aspect of siddhasana has always been elusive to me. My heel cannot make contact with my perineum for the duration of my sitting, so it just rests in the general area of the vulva. That's the best I can do and still remain comfortable. FWIW, this subject has been discussed quite a bit on the forum, and Yogani has commented extensively on it. Do a search if interested. |
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jillatay
USA
206 Posts |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 3:50:15 PM
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Hi. Nice to see a company of small women.
I too did sihhasana because I couldn't do the lotus over 30 years ago. At 19 after having a baby I could do lotus for a brief time when those things happen to a woman's pelvis. I was so proud of myself. Then it went back to normal. After, I sat with the heel under because it was so stable and pleasant. I could sit for hours and get up with absolutely no pain or stiffness. This was before any kind of instruction, flying by the seat of my pants. Now I see I woke up the kundalini that way and at one point the fireworks started.
I have come to the conclusion that some things happen when a convergence of things come together in what I am calling an harmonic. Then we say "oh that is what they were talking about" 
Jill |
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HathaTeacher
Sweden
382 Posts |
Posted - Mar 16 2008 : 11:15:45 AM
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Hi LittleTurtle,
If there has been some confution, it hardly originated from this site - it's been around for decades. There is a thorough description in Light on Yoga http://www.amazon.com/Light-Yoga-B-...77633&sr=1-2.
It's one of dozens of classical yogasanas with multiple bottoms, i'd say. Almost a textbook case of this.
Some people tend to view it as just another plain sitting pose whereas in tantric yoga it's a transformer/regulator of sexual energy (varying the pressure of the heel on mouladhara from outside, i.e. via the 'yoni spot').
Perhaps some of the exciting side effects :-) of the 'plain sitting pose' are due to some individuals' anatomy where the heel automatically happens to come in place without being adjusted by will. In my own body, this usually happens when using a cushion (approx. of Sivananda height, about 10-20 cm). |
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ZionMe
Brazil
8 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2010 : 9:20:53 PM
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Hi,
i always tried to perform siddhasana, but in all mine attempts i could not reach the floor with mine "upper" legs knee.
What i do then, i put a low hard pillow under my column root, this forces the region near the foot talus* against the ground, so i cover it with lots of clothes wich solves the problem and let me reach the floor with the knee.
But thats not the deal, the deal is that in pictures and in instructions i see no pillow and yet the practicer performs it in perfect act.
Anyone know why?
*http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...5d/Ankle.PNG
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Siddhasana
