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reality11
USA
48 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 03 2014 : 05:22:17 AM
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Hi everyone. I just found this site, and I've read up to lesson 46. I am at the part about pranayama. The article talks about ecstatic feelings coming from pranayama, and I assume the more advanced exercises in the later articles will facilitate that even more.
The previous articles also talk about how meditation is really all one needs, and the latter practices are just enhancement for meditation.
So I am wondering if I only practice the I am mantra meditation, will I eventually be able to attain the same ecstatic feelings that one would get from doing pranayama and the later more advanced techniques?
Enjoying this site a lot btw, I will keep reading and start practicing. |
Edited by - reality11 on Oct 03 2014 05:22:51 AM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2014 : 08:36:25 AM
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Hi Reality11,
Welcome to the forum!
Yes, just by practising meditation alone you will awaken the body into an ecstatic state. The reason that we do pranayama and other advanced practices, is that the process of spiritual transformation becomes much quicker with these practices. With meditation alone, everything could take a long time.
Christi |
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reality11
USA
48 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2014 : 4:35:59 PM
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Thanks. I've been reading on Meditation for quite a while, but never had the will to practice consistently until recently. I have a strong desire to experience something extraordinary.. I'm a skeptic and an atheist, you see, and I want to be proven wrong...
Some questions about the spinal breathing.. Am I simply pretending to feel energy moving through my spine? Is the idea that if I pretend long enough, eventually I will feel it? Does it matter how exactly I visualize it? My imagination is poor so I'm not sure how to go about this.
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2014 : 6:53:57 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by reality11
Some questions about the spinal breathing.. Am I simply pretending to feel energy moving through my spine? Is the idea that if I pretend long enough, eventually I will feel it? Does it matter how exactly I visualize it? My imagination is poor so I'm not sure how to go about this.
Hi Reality,
In Spinal Breathing Pranayama we do not pretend to feel energy. It is simply visualizing (imagining) a thread running up the spine and coming forward to the third eye. As we breathe in we trace that thread with our attention all the way up. As we breathe out we trace it back down. Simple as that.
If you are unable to visualize a tube or thread then simply tracing the spine with your attention would work. Gradually, as your inner vision awakens, you will be able to both see it and feel it. As you begin to feel it, you will also feel the energy flowing through it and around it.
From lesson 41:
"Next, with each rising inhalation of the breath, allow your attention to travel upward inside a tiny thread, or tube, you visualize beginning at your perineum, continuing up through the center of your spine, and up through the stem of your brain to the center of your head. At the center of your head the tiny nerve makes a turn forward to the point between your eyebrows. With one slow, deep inhalation let your attention travel gradually inside the nerve from the perineum all the way to the point between the eyebrows. As you exhale, retrace this path from the point between the eyebrows all the way back down to the perineum. Then, come back up to the point between the eyebrows with the next inhalation, and down to the perineum with the next exhalation, and so on. " [Yogani]
hope that helps,
Christi |
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reality11
USA
48 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2014 : 9:17:39 PM
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| So I visualize a picture of my spine and a thread going through it? Do I focus my attention on my actual physical spine at all, or just on the imaginary thread moving through my imaginary spine? |
Edited by - reality11 on Oct 03 2014 10:20:25 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Oct 04 2014 : 04:03:23 AM
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Hi Reality,
You should be visualizing a thread running through your actual spine. So you begin after you have exhaled with your attention at your perineum, between your legs, and as you inhale you are moving your attention up along your real spinal cord in your body, following the thread, ending at the point between your eyebrows.
Exhaling, you go back down along the same route. If the visualizing part is hard for you, you can simply leave it out and just trace the actual spinal cord and then come forwards with your attention to the centre of your head, and forwards again to the point between the eyebrows.
Christi |
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reality11
USA
48 Posts |
Posted - Oct 05 2014 : 05:16:34 AM
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Okay.. I'm having a hard time both visualizing it, and just trying to feel it. The image isn't consistent and I lose track of where the thread is and I skip certain parts of my spine and just jump straight to my forehead or perineum sometimes.
But thanks for the help... I'll keep trying. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4379 Posts |
Posted - Oct 05 2014 : 1:01:59 PM
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Hi Reality,
That's fine if you need to skip to the forehead, or to the perineum. When there are a lot of blockages present people often find it difficult to feel part of the spine or part of the body. As long as you end up at the forehead at the end of an inhalation and the perineum at the end of an exhalation the practice will work fine.
Gradually you will begin to be able to both feel and see more and more of the inside of your own body.
Christi |
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ecstatic feelings
