Note: In the AYP Book, additional information to this lesson is provided on instructions for brahmari ("bee sound") pranayama with spinal breathing.

Lesson 229 - Q&A – Spinal Breathing in Inner Space

From: Yogani
Date: Sun Aug 22, 2004 10:33am

New Members: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the web
archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first
lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"


Q: I would like to ask for clarification about spinal breathing.
When we talk about tracing the spine during spinal breathing and
bhastrika, is it necessary to have an actual visualization? And if
so, is it important for the visualization to be either from outside
the spinal cord/shushumna nadi looking in or, alternatively,
visualizing from within shushumna and travelling along its passage?
My usual experience is to notice a slight kinesthetic sensation of
pressure moving up the spine during inhalation, and the flowing
warmth down the spine during exhalation. (I'm not currently
experiencing the coolness rising up.)

And, as long as I'm full of questions today, I'd like to ask your
opinion of another version of spinal breathing that I had learned --
12 count inhale, 3 count kumbhaka, 12 count exhale, 3 count kumbhaka.
The kumbhakas feel very natural and quieting, but I wonder if you
feel that the counting is too much division of attention? With this
form of the practice, I have been able to experience the coolness
rising, as well as the warmth flowing down.

Thank you for your patience and generosity in answering all of our
questions.


A: It is everyone's tendency to begin spinal breathing looking from
the outside, imagining the tiny thread of a nerve between the
perineum and brow. Over time it internalizes due to the rise of inner
sensory experience. The experience of the cool and warm currents is
the beginning of that, an excellent "handle" to bring the attention
inward during spinal breathing, and that is why it is discussed in
the lessons (#63). On our journey from external to internal, we can
imagine being inside, but not to the point of strain, as this will
detract from the natural flow of spinal breathing. It is like
meditation in that sense - we just easily favor the direction we want
to go in, not forcing.

There are many forms of spinal breathing (lesson #206). This is
acceptable because spinal breathing is not nearly as delicate a
procedure as deep meditation due to the physicality of breath, which
regulates the overall process. So, there is room for variations while
maintaining effectiveness. This is not so with deep meditation, which
involves the management of attention only. That is why we
are "stingy" with our attention in meditation, always favoring the
easy procedure of picking up the mantra and letting it refine
naturally to stillness in the mind.

In spinal breathing, as long as we are slowing down (restraining) the
breathing and cycling the attention with it going between the brow
and the perineum, it will work. Due to this relative sturdiness of
spinal breathing, we are able to introduce and stabilize into habit
many of the other practices in the lessons. It is relatively easy to
incorporate new practices while doing spinal breathing without
disrupting our practice excessively. Of course, if we shift to the
crown instead of the brow in our attention cycle with breathing, all
bets are off. That dramatically increases the risk of instability of
our inner energies.

Kumbhaka on either or both ends of the breathing cycle in spinal
breathing is a further degree of restraint of breath. If this works
for you, that is good practice too. Keep in mind that adding kumbhaka
into spinal breathing, and later adding more with yoni mudra and the
chin pump will be a lot of kumbhaka, and you should be prudent in
your self-pacing of practices if the resulting purification and
experiences become excessive. You can use the counting during spinal
breathing if you like, though I think you will find later that the
cycling of breath, kumbhakas, etc. becomes a natural and organic
process. Then the counting will not be necessary. So much the better
for letting the attention do what it does best - soar in inner space!

When you get to kechari stage 2, and beyond, all of this will take
off, as kechari takes the experience of spinal breathing much deeper.
That is why kechari means, "to fly through (inner) space." By the
time it gets to that stage we are definitely inside, traveling the
infinite expanses of pure bliss consciousness between our third eye
and root source. Externally, it is a journey back and forth between
sambhavi and mulabandha/asvini with uddiyana/nauli in-between. But we
don't even notice that when we are inside our infinitely big little
nerve, reveling in ecstatic bliss (lesson #52).

It is a metaphor for all of physical life, really, and an emerging
reality for the yogi/yogini. The rise of internal sensory experience
does, in fact, gradually become the reality of our outer life too.
What seems so limited through our outer senses now is seen to be
infinite when we purify and develop our inner senses. We are "That,"
and everything inside and outside is joyfully dancing in That.

As it says in the Upanishads: "I am That. Thou art That. All this is
That."

What is "That?" It is pure bliss consciousness, of course -- our own
inner silence.

The guru is in you.

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