Note: In the AYP Book, additional information to this lesson is provided on the risks of using external kumbhaka (retaining the breath outside the lungs).

Lesson 91 - Yoni mudra kumbhaka – Purging the third eye, and much more

From: Yogani
Date: Mon Jan 19, 2004 4:57pm

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?"


Now that we have gotten everyone cautious about directly stimulating
and awakening their kundalini energy, we will dive straight into the
granddaddy of all the kundalini stimulators – kumbhaka (breath
retention), with a full array of bandhas and mudras. Why not? When
you are ready for it, you won't have to go hunting. It will be right
here. Until then, I trust you will be wise and not push your practices
to excess.

We will approach kumbhaka under the auspices of a practice
called "yoni mudra," which means, "seal of the goddess." You can
substitute the name of any female deity you want for "goddess." We
all know who she is, even if by different names.

Before we get into yoni mudra, be reminded that all the same cautions
apply here as detailed at the beginning of the recent lesson on
siddhasana. You should be reasonably stable in all of your
practices, and not experiencing internal energy instability in your
everyday activities. You will find that much of what we have already
been doing is part of the expanded style of yoni mudra we will be
discussing here. We will be tying a group of practices together into
a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. This will give our
nervous system the opportunity to evolve more quickly to a broader
and more integrated style of natural functioning relating to the flow
of pure bliss consciousness and divine ecstasy inside us.

First, there is an extra caution we should mention. We will be
holding our breath here, and adding some gentle targeted inner
pressure in the body. Nothing extreme will be recommended – certainly
nothing more than the equivalent of jumping in a swimming pool and
holding our breath voluntarily for a short while. If you have a heart
condition, respiratory problems, high blood pressure, or any other
condition that could be aggravated by holding your breath, then,
either skip this advanced yoga practice, or get your doctor's
permission before getting into it. In other words, if you know your
doctor would not approve of you holding your breath and swimming
underwater in a swimming pool, then you should stay away from yoni
mudra. Safety first.

The practice of yoni mudra we will be discussing here is optimized in
such a way so as to cover the entire sushumna by bringing in several
other simultaneous practices.

It will be performed at the end of spinal breathing and before
meditation. Right in-between those two well established practices.

Let's begin by sitting as we do in pranayama. This means sitting in
our chosen version of siddhasana. We are at the end of spinal
breathing when we do yoni mudra kumbhaka, so we have been going up
and down inside the spinal nerve on our inhalation and exhalation for
our allotted time.

Now, to go into the yoni mudra phase we will begin by placing the
tips of our two index fingers close to the outer corners of our
closed eyes against the lower lids. Then we gently push the eyes up
and to the center in the direction of the point between the eyebrows.
This should not be done with any strain or discomfort. Just a gentle
nudge of the eyes toward the point between the eyebrows. If you have
long nails on your index fingers, you may have to trim them for this
part of yoni mudra.

Now, with our closed eyes in third eye nudged mode, we go up inside
the spinal nerve with our inhalation from the perineum to the point
between the eyebrows. When our lungs are full and our attention is at
the top of the spinal nerve at the point between the eyebrows, we
close our nostrils on the outside with our two middle fingers
pressing from either side of the nose. At the same time we keep the
index fingers in place pressing the eyes gently toward the point
between the eyebrows. Also, at the same time, we lift our tongue to
the roof of our mouth, sealing off the mouth inside so no air can
escape through there. Now we are holding our breath. But we are not
holding it with the epiglottis in our throat, as we normally would.
Instead, we allow the air pressure from our expanded lungs to come up
easily into our nasal passages and sinuses. This is not a big
pressure, only a small one. We don't push it up there. We just let
the natural pressure of our filled lungs be up there. Our middle
fingers and tongue block our nose and mouth, so no air can escape.

Try that and see how it works. Pretty easy isn't it?

What we do now is hold our breath for a comfortable duration – not
too long, not too short. Depending on your capacity it could be
thirty seconds, a minute, or maybe longer. If you are a professional
sponge diver, it could be several minutes. It doesn't matter exactly
how long it is. What matters is that we hold our breath inside for a
time that is both comfortable and going a bit toward the edge of our
capacity. Not to the point of straining. Not to the point of gasping
for air when we are done. When we are done and ready to exhale, we
let our middle fingers go from the nostrils, but not the index
fingers from our eyes or our raised tongue. We should have enough
composure left to do a nice smooth exhalation through our nose going
back down the spinal nerve with our attention to the perineum. When
we exhale we should not be desperate for air. We can go a little
faster than in normal spinal breathing, both on inhalation and
exhalation, but if we are in a big rush to get air, we have held our
breath too long. Find a balance. It will be a bit clunky at first, as
all of these advanced yoga practices are. But it will smooth out
quickly to a comfortable practice. The idea is to spend quality time
with the breath suspended inside. It should not be an exercise in
heroics.

Starting out, we will do only three of these yoni mudra kumbhakas
between pranayama and meditation. So it is only a few minutes we are
adding in the middle our practice of pranayama and meditation. But
there is more to yoni mudra kumbhaka than just mentioned. There are
some other things we want to be doing during our kumbhaka to produce
the most positive results. So let's get into more detail.

Having just come out of spinal breathing, we will have been doing
mulabandha and sambhavi already, as well as sitting in siddhasana. In
yoni mudra kumbhaka we continue with mulabandha. Sambhavi is modified
during yoni mudra because we are nudging the eyes toward the point
between the eyebrows with our index fingers. With our index fingers
doing that, we do not do the lifting and centering of the eyes part
of sambhavi. However we do continue with the furrowing of the brow,
gently bringing the eyebrows together toward the center. So sambhavi
in yoni mudra is a combination of lifting and centering the eyes with
the index fingers and gently pulling the eyebrows together with the
muscles in our head. Also, in yoni mudra kumbhaka, our attention is
brought to the point between the eyebrows for the entire period of
retention of breath, until we go back down the spinal nerve on
exhalation. In fact, we may find our attention being draw out in
front of the point between our eyebrows during yoni mudra kumbhaka.
This is natural. As the spinal nerve begins have some ecstatic
conductivity, it becomes quite pleasurable to do sambhavi. Pressing
the eyes toward the point between the eyebrows with the fingers while
pulling the eyebrows together in yoni mudra can fill the whole body
with pleasure as the ecstatic conductivity rises in the spinal nerve.
("If your eye be single your body will be filled with light.") The
pleasure naturally increases as the attention goes out beyond the
point between the eyebrows. There is something out beyond the body
that calls us with ecstasy. We find that the sushumna keeps going,
and it is okay to go there as we are naturally attracted. What will
we find there? Oh, we will find out. It is all good. If this
extension of the sushumna is occurring it is okay to let our
attention go the full distance of it out in front during our normal
spinal breathing as well. It is a natural evolution of the sushumna,
and spinal breathing. It is promoted during yoni mudra, and is only
one of the many benefits of this advanced yoga practice.

The maneuver with the tongue going to the roof of the mouth is the
beginning stage of an advanced yoga practice called "kechari mudra."
The tongue has a very important role to play as our practice
advances. For now, we just want to comfortably seal off the air from
escaping through the mouth during yoni mudra. Maybe that means the
tip of our tongue is placed behind the front teeth. Or maybe further
back. If we can comfortably reach the point where the hard and soft
palates meet on the roof of the mouth, that is a good place to park
the tip of the tongue. It does not have to be there though. Whatever
works most comfortably now is what we want. There will much more on
kechari in future lessons.

There are two other components we'd like to add to yoni mudra. First
is something called "jalandhara bandha," which means, "chin lock." We
will take a less stringent approach than what is implied. All we will
do during breath retention in yoni mudra kumbhaka is let the head
come down as far as it comfortably goes toward the chest. During
inhalation and exhalation we lift it up again. That's all. We just
let the head hang down during breath retention, and let our fingers,
placed on the eyes and nose, stay in place as the head comes down. If
our chin goes comfortably half way down to the hollow of our throat,
that is fine. If our chin goes all the way to the hollow of our
throat that is the full chin lock. Either way is fine. Jalandhara
stretches the spinal nerve in the upper part of the body from the
point between the eyebrows on down. It is easy to feel the
stretching. We don't strain it. If there is some ecstatic
conductivity in the spinal nerve, we can feel the stretching reach
all the way to the perineum. It is amazing how it works. With
jalandhara, we stretch the sushumna from the third eye to the root.
This stretching greatly enhances the effect of yoni mudra kumbhaka,
and promotes the rise of ecstatic conductivity in the spinal nerve.
Later on, we will work more with jalandhara, using a dynamic version
of it to stimulate huge amounts of prana up into the heart, throat
and head. Jalandhara is a very important advanced yoga practice. Here
in yoni mudra we are introducing the beginning of it – just letting
the head go down easily while the breath is held in. Then we lift the
head up while we are doing our exhalation and inhalation. We keep it
comfortable.

The other component we will add is uddiyana. This also comes in
several versions, which we will explore fully down the road. At this
stage we are introducing a basic version for yoni mudra. When we are
retaining the breath during yoni mudra, we gently lift our diaphragm
a little and pull our belly in. This ties in with mulabandha coming
up from the anal sphincter through the pelvis. Uddiyana does wonders
as we are sitting in siddhasana too. Uddiyana, which means, "to fly
up," is connected with the activity in the pelvis, and carries it all
up much higher. Because we are full of air in yoni mudra kumbhaka, we
will not be pulling up with the diaphragm very much. Just a little.

You will feel the pressure coming up through the body from uddiyana.
Don't overdo it. If you have learned yoga postures (it's highly
recommended you do this), you will no doubt have learned to do
uddiyana while standing up with all your air expelled. This is a good
way to get some familiarity with it. There is a lot that will be done
with the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. We will get further into it
later. For now, just pull up a little during your yoni mudra
kumbhaka. Let it go as you are exhaling and inhaling between breath
retentions.

So, there are a lot of things being done in yoni mudra. Most are
physical habits that can be easily cultivated. In time, once we are
through the clunky stage, all of these things will come together into
one integrated reflex of the body that happens automatically when the
breath is retained. Then, as ecstatic conductivity rises, these
maneuvers will refine into subtle coordinated inner movements
responding the natural flow of divine ecstasy within. All that we
have been discussing here is an introduction to a new and natural
style of bodily functioning. In its advanced form all these
components of practice discussed above will manifest as intimately
connected, automatic "micro-movements" in the body, occurring
invisibly as the energy moves in us day and night. All of these
physical procedures we are learning now relate directly to the
biology of ecstatic experience rising in the body. Though we are very
clunky right now with these things, you will be amazed at how subtle,
smooth, and naturally connected they become. Daily yoni mudra
kumbhaka, with the full array of bandhas and mudras added gradually
transforms us into the ecstatic equivalent of a fine tuned Ferrari.
It may not seem like it now, but that is what happens. Yoni mudra
kumbhaka is advanced spiritual training for the biology.

We will take a very gradual approach to yoni mudra kumbhaka, starting
slow and easy with three repetitions between pranayama and
meditation, as discussed. Those who find the practice of yoni mudra
kumbhaka good and smooth can ramp up by baby steps. Do not overdo it.
Kumbhaka is the most powerful of all the direct kundalini
stimulators. If three repetitions are good, then maybe in a month try
four. After a few more months, you could consider trying five
repetitions. Like that. Don't start doing five or ten right out of
the gate. A very slow buildup is the way to go, and then only if you
are smooth in all your practices and in daily activity.

We've talked about how to do yoni mudra kumbhaka, but not much about
what yoni mudra kumbhaka does inside us. Put simply, it works to open
every nook and cranny of our nervous system and draws kundalini
(sexual energy) up at the same time. It produces a huge amount of
purification in the body. It also cultivates the subtle habits of
ecstatic biological functioning in us.

The multiple angles we take on the third eye produce a purging effect
at the upper end of the sushumna and throughout the entire head. So,
yoni mudra is a third eye cleanser for sure. The entire spinal nerve
is stretched and permeated with prana coming up from the pelvic
region. Also, kumbhaka, by creating an extra demand for life force in
the body, pulls a large amount of sexual energy (kundalini) up from
the vast storehouse of prana located in the pelvis. Siddhasana,
mulabandha, and uddiyana promote this drawing up going on in the
lower part of the body.

This is a broad overview of what happens. Many other things go on in
the biology and nervous system as a result of yoni mudra kumbhaka.
Way more than can be discussed in these few paragraphs. We will fill
in the details in future lessons as experiences come up.

Finally, it should be mentioned that this is an optimized version of
yoni mudra, aimed at promoting a broad range of openings in the
nervous system. Formal yoni mudra involves using more fingers to seal
the ears (thumbs) and mouth (ring and pinky fingers), and fewer of
the bandhas and mudras given here. What we are learning here is a
hybrid practice for the sake of efficiency. In a few extra minutes
during our twice-daily sittings, we can add a big boost to all of our
practices, and to our experience of the rise pure bliss consciousness
and divine ecstasy in our life. That is what this yoni mudra kumbhaka
is for.

The guru is in you.

<  Previous  |  Next  >