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wakeupneo
USA
171 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 2:06:56 PM
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Well after lurking around a dabbling for months, I think I'm finally going to start to incorporate the AYP practices in my life.
The question is, where do I start? :)
I plan on practicing quite often throughout my day (2-3hrs). How would my time be best used? Which practices? How often?
What books are absolutely essential to read?
I realize all this information is probably in the threads but I wanted to reach out personally and get feedback from everyone else. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 4:50:18 PM
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Hi Wakeupneo,
It is best to start at the beginning and progress from there. The recommended practice time is twice a day, one sitting in the morning before breakfast, and again in the evening before dinner. If you are in "retreat mode" and have few other commitments on your time then you can extend this to three sittings a day, two in the morning and one in the evening.
The speed at which you progress through the practices will depend on you, and your own time-line. This is discussed in the main lessons after the questions and answers on mantra meditation.
Christi |
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brother neil
USA
752 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2010 : 11:38:14 PM
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| books essential to read, well my favorite from this path is the 8 limbs book and the explanations of each practice can be found online. In that book joganiji outlines a practice. Of course starting with Deep Meditation |
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 02:35:52 AM
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Good for you, wakeupneo 
Deep Meditation is definitely the best place to start. The link Christi posted will get you there.
Because you mentioned wanting to practice 2-3 hrs a day, I feel compelled to suggest taking it slowly and building up gradually to that point. Some people come from other systems where they meditated for hours and hours each day, and think 20 min of AYP will not be enough. But AYP is powerful and many have expressed surprise at how 20 mins can overload them when they were previously okay with several hours of other styles of meditation.
Don't know if you're in that boat, just putting it out there.
As a beginner, I took on too much too fast, and spent a LOT of time backtracking and going through rough periods. It took me years just to get to a stable practice, so hopefully others won't have to go through what I did.
Enjoy and I wish you the best
Love
cosmic |
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wakeupneo
USA
171 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 11:03:29 AM
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So 20 minute DM session, 2 times a day...
I'll try it out initially and will look to increase, however like I said I'm coming off a period where I was practicing very frequently.
Spinal breathing prior to the meditation?
Both sessions? For how long?
Any pranayama? |
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wakeupneo
USA
171 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 12:08:50 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by cosmic
As a beginner, I took on too much too fast, and spent a LOT of time backtracking and going through rough periods. It took me years just to get to a stable practice, so hopefully others won't have to go through what I did.
Enjoy and I wish you the best
Love
cosmic
Victor not sure what is meant by this either. Why would one have to backtrack? I don't quite understand the philosophy of over doing it... |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4514 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 4:27:42 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by wakeupneo
So 20 minute DM session, 2 times a day...
I'll try it out initially and will look to increase, however like I said I'm coming off a period where I was practicing very frequently.
Spinal breathing prior to the meditation?
Both sessions? For how long?
Any pranayama?
If you follow the main lessons it is all explained there. The basic idea is to begin with meditation alone twice a day, then to add Spinal Breathing Pranayama on to the front of that when you feel ready. It is good to become stable with the meditation before adding Spinal Breathing Pranayama. Then, if you feel ready you can gradually add on a whole range of practices to these two basic practices. The early additions include mudras, bandhas, siddhasana, and various other forms of pranayama.
The order of adding practices, and the way in which to add them is all carefully explained. Basically, what you are doing is building up a Yoga practice routine which is a lot more powerful and effective than meditating for hours a day. It is the fast track to enlightenment. Once you are underway you will quickly begin to see how it all works.
Christi |
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cosmic
USA
821 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2010 : 11:38:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by wakeupneo
Victor not sure what is meant by this either. Why would one have to backtrack? I don't quite understand the philosophy of over doing it...
I had to backtrack because I was taking on more practices than I could handle, and it was very uncomfortable. Yogani explains it in the lessons way better than I ever could, but basically your system can only handle a certain amount of purification at a time. If you practice more than that, a lot of uncomfortable symptoms can occur.
Symptoms range from emotional turbulence to anxiety to sensations of heat, electricity, burning, etc. There's a pretty wide range of possible symptoms, and they're not pleasant.
Sometimes symptoms are not immediately felt, so caution has to be taken when new practices are added.
If you go through the lessons, you'll get to it eventually. Here is a quote from this lesson:
quote:
The knowledge is here. It is suggested you take it in. But don't act on it all at once. Take it one step at a time. Become comfortable in a practice before you add on the next one. The more we evolve in our practice to a comfortable routine, the easier will we be able to take on something new. It takes time.
Hope this helps clarify.
Peace
cosmic |
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taking the plunge
