Sometimes I'll go outside at night and just do some deep breathing. I love the feeling this gives me, how calm I become. I try to concentrate on the sound of my exhaling breath, but can someone give me some pointers or advice to go even further in this direction? Maybe some visualizations to use while deep breathing or basic poses?
The two pranas that are at work in you continously function at different times of the day. Your consciousness prana, "Citta Prana' dominates at night and in introverted times such as sleep. At night, especially outside, you are sensitive to this prana, and it serves to enliven the night expereince. It is linked to the svadhisthana cakra, the cakra of unconsciousness. This is why people of darker karmas like to stay out at night and party. Pingala prana is the sunlight prana, and is active more when it is daylight, and asits action of the body for work. A complete yoga tantra program will balance these pranas, so that they will ultimately merge giving one the consciousness experience of "Maha Prana", the Kundalini Consciousness of Shiva. When I go outside at night, my Kundalini explodes into activity. It is great to honor heaven as a state of consciousness. Om Namah Sivaya
Look up Vipassana meditation, the kind Buddhist mainly use. It's quite effective at clearing the mind of unwanted thoughts. You just concentrate on your breath and try to become one with it. As far as Yoga, Shavasan (sp?) is good for breathing. To do the pose you need to just lay on the floor, palms facing upwards and just breath and relax the body. Feel your toes first then slowly move upwards, mentally messaging your legs then your pelvis and your stomach, back, chest, neck and up to your head. Concentrate on your third eye and crown and mentally message them.
These are all piecemeal strategies. One asana here, another pranayama there. This is why no one gets anywhere primarily with these systems. We go to this temple, study under this master, then try this or that. Thats all cool if all you want are titilating flashes of ego appeasement. Me, I was after the complete experience of living the immanant divine as a daily state. Guess what, following a complete full fledged Yoga Tantra Sadhana where the Kundalini Devi, the Divine Mother Herself allowed Herself to be utilized as the vehicle for this transcendence, accomplished just that. And the thing is this, think what you want, but when you get to the arena of Sahasrara consciousness, you realize that there are not "all these paths, there are no religions", there is only the consciousness of the being of God that exists, anywhere, any time. What delivers you to this level is where it is at. Dig?? Sat-Cit-Ananda
On another note, this is not about trying to lay a trip on anyone, or trying to exert control, but all of these meditation and breath effecting strategems came from a complete system that has a its objective one thing: to evolve beyond the mundane and become one with the divine. So if there is anything worth doing right and in a complete context, it is approaching a consciousness transition that has becoming self realized as its goal. You mention using the breath to achieve mental stillness, passivity, or balance. Why do you think that focusing on the breath can do this? Because it is the "Prana" that is driving the breathing process that is being effected. So why use parts and pieces of different systems to attempt to accomplish a whole goal? It does not work. All of this Yoga stuff, whether it is Buddhist, Hindu, Celestine Prophecy, or whatever, came from the upanishadic/tantric tradition. Why not go to the source, and do the whole trip, for something as potentially life changing and world benefitting as divine realization? People want to think they have all of these ways and paths, and traditions. You know what you really have, a bunch of distractions set up by Kali/Maya to keep you distracted from ever getting the journey finished. You heard of the devil, yeah there is a devil, and it is our own mind and illusion of free will, and it is under the control of God, because all reality is divine.
Are you saying stick to one system? Or no system? Because I agree with you, the goal is divine realization, but your contradicting yourself. All these goals lead to the goal of self realization so why does it matter if one chooses to do this or that?
You are incorrect my friend. First of all divine self realization my sound like something that is easily attained, but in this modern age, it is very very rarely achieved, and proof of this is the fact that few testify to being there. When you become authentically divine self realized, it is established through antiquity to the present that the obligation of informing the un-realized about this fantastic subjective realm they are unaware of is there for them to live, becomes part of your spiritual sacrifice, as well as the system you have been following that netted such a realized state. There are few complete systems. And actually, most of them came from one primary system, Yoga Tantra. Buddha was a Yogin; the entire enlightenment thing came from India. But in reality, there is no India, or Yoga, nor you or me. There is only God. who is manifesting consciousness in one modality or another. It is either veiled from its nature, the mass of humanity, or in awareness of it, the rarity. My stance is simply this, and this stance comes from not only almost forty years of on and off heavy acid tripping and studying various systems w/combined experiential study, but also the last 11 years of following a self taught Tantric sadhana using Swami Satyanandas complete tantric teachings, that have netted in the Kundalini awakening that I documented in the recently published work, "Kundalini Dream', which can be seen at www.kundalinidream.org. All roads do not lead to the same place. Goals do not take you to this rare state of self realization, "PRACTICE DOES". There are alot of things that you are unaware of that ultimately constitute the ego finite consciouness that is what you think is your mind. This is because of how the Kundalini as God within you manifests your experience of pranic flow "from the cakras". It takes more than just a visualization here, a litle breathing there, an asana here, to move your complete finite mind to a total on going expereince of divinity as a waking state. Sure, you can do things that net in experiences, flashes, insights, all kinds of heavy stuff. But this ain't even close to what I'm calling divine consciousness, or expereincing the Kundalini state of the Kundalini in Sahasrara cakra, the living realm of sat-cit-ananda. Look up the definition of these words. So simply put, all things don't take you to this. Believe what you wish. Namaste
Well, I've achieved higher states of consciousness using Kripalu yoga and meditation and have awakened kundalini. I now practice kundalini yoga and meditate regularly and I think I'm well on the way to divine realization. I realize it is not easy and never thought it was, but have experienced a temporary state of divine realization where I could literally see my ego from a distance and felt exactly what the Buddha and the Upinishads describe Self-realization to be. All my desires were fulfilled. I understand exactly what your saying, but how do you explain the saints of christianity? Or Jesus himself? Are they not Realized?
God as the causal Isvara can appear in incarnate form already "karma-less", such as Christ. He was an Avatar, which is a being whose Kundalini is already situated in their Sahasrara cakra. An ordinary person whose finite ego is intact, living under the jurisdiction of their karma, has a Kundalini that is the Muladhara cakra. Lord Siva, of whom Jesus was an incarnation, can purify the mind of any person into a level of divine awareness depending on that persons "Sattvic Karma'. But spiritual purity after a basically karmic born birth, such as any saints you speak of, involves a form of Kundalini ascension, even if the Kundalini wasn't activated through a precise yogic tradition. There are many tantric texts that describe spiritual events of other spiritual traditions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sufism, all included, that are almost without fail descriptions of obvious Kundalini phenomenon. I have these books, and they are authentic, so I've seen this for myself. My experience with the Kundalini as She genuinely accesses the higher cakras , and my co-studies with the advance Tantrics from Bihar School of Yoga of which Swami Satyananda founded, all seem to confirm what should be: which is a divine awareness that allows one to see the relativeness of the higher mystical truths in all spiritual systems and religions. God is one. Divine Truth is also one. Period. There are no "isms, religions, and systems". There is the social sattvic karma that God uses to manifest higher spiritual values and approaches, as a culture evolves. This sometimes involves incarnations in order to upshot the local social order. But the main point here is that the Kundalini is a mechanism by which God accomplishes two things as an expansion of the Divine Mother. (1) To descend the absolute divine consciousnss of sat-cit-ananda, down to the finite experience of life. (2) The allow for the ascent of that finitized illusory consciousness back to its own divine realization. These two laws are in action across the globe in all faiths. The Tantric tradition has preserved this very sacred Kundalini wisdom. Good luck to you in your process. If you need any other, help, I'm here. God Bless, Namaste, Peace, Love, and Flowers, Yogin Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati www.kundalinidream.org
I was reading A Manual of Hadith last week, and the physical descriptions of how the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be on him!) reacted to His divine realizations were very similar to the account of Gopi Krishna.
Breathing is naturally happenning for us. It has no control from the mind. Observation of the breathing is the actvity of the Self. By just witnessing your normal, natural flow of Breath, you will transcend the mind and reach Self. You will experience all Meditational Experiences. Meditationguru www.meditationguru.com
Yes, but the citta and pingala pranas that manifest as that breath in the person whose Devi is dormant, will only effect their prana vrittis minimally,and therefore mind as well. This is all based on "Soham" of course, and though can alter consciousness is only a small part of the overall psychic makeup needed to be called a sadhana. What about the samskaras that exist as that persons karma, and are lying latent within their lower cakras? In order for the experience of finite self to be replaced with the experience of sat-cit-ananda of Siva, a whole lot more sadhana has to be undertaken than just the breath observance of soham. Soham is part of it, but only part, and the resultant experience will be only part. To much undone karma not addressed here, namaste Yogin Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati
