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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 4:42:36 PM
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Hi there, I wanted to ask a question.
Once we have been through the "testing the crown" lesson, and are happy that we can meditate with our attention focussed on the crown, what happens next? I may have missed the vital lesson, and I appologise if I have done, but as far as I can remember the lessons get vague around this area. Do I change my spinal breathing to go from root to crown, in stead of root to third-eye? Or do I keep spinal breathing the same and change spinal bastrika to root-to-crown? Or do I just add on a meditation at the end of the series (after samyama and before Sivasana) where I put my attention on the crown only (no mantra or spinal breathing with this one)?
Please advise if you can help on this.
Christi |
Edited by - AYPforum on Feb 02 2007 12:59:01 AM |
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weaver
832 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 7:20:09 PM
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Hi Christi,
Good that you asked this question.
You stated in the other thread that you have "been following the ayp practices for some time". It's very important in AYP that we are stable in a certain practice and have practiced it for a good while before we add a new practice. So before we even think about approaching the crown it is assumed that we already are stable in all the practices preceding working with the crown, and have a good deal of ecstatic conductivity awakened from the root to third eye, and that our sushumna is fairly well purified. See AYP Lesson 199: http://www.aypsite.org/199.html
Next you mention to "meditate with our attention focussed on the crown". In AYP deep meditation we don't focus on anything, we just do the mantra itself within us. Focusing on the crown can cause a premature crown opening with excessive kundalini surges as a result. This is also mentioned in Lesson 199.
As to your question about shifting spinal breathing to the crown, Yogani states in Lesson 199: "So don't shift your spinal breathing to the crown. It will not be stable, even for advanced yogis and yoginis."
So, if you tell more about your practices and progress, then we could discuss more about possibly working with the crown.
All the best! |
Edited by - weaver on Oct 13 2006 7:36:08 PM |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 8:45:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
Hi there, I wanted to ask a question.
Once we have been through the "testing the crown" lesson, and are happy that we can meditate with our attention focussed on the crown, what happens next? I may have missed the vital lesson, and I appologise if I have done, but as far as I can remember the lessons get vague around this area. Do I change my spinal breathing to go from root to crown, in stead of root to third-eye? Or do I keep spinal breathing the same and change spinal bastrika to root-to-crown? Or do I just add on a meditation at the end of the series (after samyama and before Sivasana) where I put my attention on the crown only (no mantra or spinal breathing with this one)?
Please advise if you can help on this.
Christi
Excellent reply Weaver.
Christi.. "testing the crown" lesson.. not sure which lesson you are talking about.
In AYP we stay away from the crown chakra in the beginning.. and later too we don't consciously work at the crown.. so I am not sure where you saw the lesson that tells you to focus on the crown.
Yogani says in Lesson 199Managing the opening of the crown .. the one Weaver mentioned
quote:
In other words, ecstatic conductivity is not a
license to go straight to the crown. But we can experiment a little
now and then and get the feel of what is stable and what is not.
Usually any slight excess at the crown experienced in this way will
only last a few hours, or a day, before the energy balances again.
We can touch the crown with attention for short periods in this way
when ecstatic conductivity is awakened, because we have also awakened
the third eye. Having the sushumna awakened between the third eye and
root gives us a stability we did not have before, and a natural inner
energy balance that can be stimulated at any time simply by letting
go into the conductivity occurring between the third eye and the
root. This is the power of a third eye awakening. There is little
that can destabilize it once ecstatic conductivity comes up in the
third eye to root spinal nerve. That is why the third eye (ajna)
means "command." With ecstatic conductivity rising in the sushumna
between the third eye and root, we are in command of the kundalini
process, and having a very good ecstatic time with it too.
As mentioned, this does not mean we can go all out in the crown. Even
a small mess we make at the crown will not be fun, so why do it? Some
have asked, "Why can't I just shift my spinal breathing from the
third eye to root to the crown to root?" Two reasons: First it
curtails the continuing activation of the third eye to root
awakening. Second, it shifts the emphasis of attention to the crown,
which will increase instability in the energy flows. So don't shift
your spinal breathing to the crown. It will not be stable, even for
advanced yogis and yoginis. Just keep going with third eye to root
spinal breathing, deep meditation and all the rest that has been
given, and all the openings will continue to progress rapidly and
smoothly, including at the crown.
Some more lessons to read up would be..
Kundalini symptoms, imbalances, and remedies
Enlightenment milestones revisited
Still more on chakras
The drama of a premature crown opening
Crown, Ajna and Spiritual Intuition
I hope these help... 
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Edited by - Shanti on Oct 13 2006 10:05:58 PM |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 12:36:30 AM
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| Christi, if you say "for some time", how many years does that mean? I have been doing AYP for about 3 years now so still feel a bit like a beginner in deep meditation. Maybe not a total beginner but still in an early phase. I really wouldn't worry about teh crown for several years down the line and I think your inner guide will clue you in if you are careful. |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 06:33:30 AM
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Hi again, and thanks for the exelent advice. Sorry- I should have been a bit more specific about how long I have been practicing. I have been doing AYP practices for about 18 months. After about 6 months I had a kundalini awakening where the energy went up the centre of my body in a column about 6 inches wide and out of the crown of my head. It rose up into the air above my head but I would only be guessing if I tried to say how far up it went. I was already feeling a lot of ecstacy in my body before then, and feel a whole lot more since. I now feel my crown chakra open/active for large parts of the day, during practices and outside of practices.
quote:
We can touch the crown with attention for short periods in this way when ecstatic conductivity is awakened, because we have also awakened the third eye.
This was the part that I was refering to about testing the crown.
I feel myself (the focus of my awareness) being drawn to the crown during practices, especially during spinal breathing and spinal bastrika.
Thanks Shanti... I have just read through that lesson (199) and it does say to avoid crown to root spinal breathing at all costs, and to add a period of meditation on the crown chakra during practices once the opening at the crown is stable.
quote:
Once some stability does come, we will be able to put
our attention at the crown for a few minutes without falling into
energy difficulties, or an emotional letdown afterward. Then, and
only then, we can have the safe option to let our attention rest at
the crown for a while at the end of practices, before our rest
period.
There are so many warnings throughout the lessons about the crown chakra that I have been a bit scared of going there as a part of my regular practices.
Thanks again
Christi |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 08:27:41 AM
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Hi Christi,
" now feel my crown chakra open/active for large parts of the day, during practices and outside of practices. "
Are you having any discomforts due to your crown activity? |
Edited by - Shanti on Oct 14 2006 09:02:25 AM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 1:41:25 PM
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Hi Shanti
I don't have any discomfort due to this crown activity. It comes mainly if I sit down and concentrate on anything, like reading or writing, or to eat. Also if I do any kind of exercise then afterwards my crown chakra will be very active- it feels like energy is flowing in both directions. Although I say I don't have any discomfort due to the crown activity, I am aware that I eat three times a day deliberately to keep the energies stable. I would like to eat less often, especially as my metabolic rate seems to be slowing down and it seems to be getting more difficult to digest food. I believe this is related to the practices. So indirectly I suffer some digestion problems (eating more to stabalize the energies, whilst simultaneously loosing the ability to digest a normal vegitarian western diet). I am also aware that I am becoming increasingly food intollerant... the number of foods that I have reactions to is increasing and the degree of reaction is getting worse. I can get around this by avoiding these foods (wheat and dairy especially). Like the constant motor hum in the head I had assumed that these things are a side effect of awakening ecstatic conductivity. I imagine that after more purification I will no longer need to eat to ground myself and the body probably needs little food to maintain it. I don't know if the motor hum ever goes away? Any ideas? |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 3:01:56 PM
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Christi,
It may be helpful to chew your food like 40 times per bite. |
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yogani
USA
5195 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 4:53:13 PM
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Hi Christi, and welcome!
What a great discussion here. You have been raising some excellent questions and I think you have gotten a lot of good feedback.
The goal in the AYP lessons is to give folks a good appreciation of premature crown opening and its consequences. Most of the kundalini horror stories written over the past 40 years (at least) are related to this. On the other hand, in the lessons, no one is prohibited from exploring their own nature, and the lessons attempt to keep that door open while observing reasonable safety. So those are the two principles that crown discussions are wrapped around in the lessons. I think with a measured approach, we are finally moving beyond the kinds of unwieldy kundalini scenarios that were so prevalent in the past, to something that is much more manageable. It is, after all, our own nature that is manifesting. So we ought to be able to come to terms with it and move forward with reasonable speed and safety. And we can -- fairly gracefully too!
There is really no "formula" practice for the crown that can be recommended whole-heartedly, because each person has a unique matrix of obstructions to be dissolved, and focused crown practices of any kind will not be stable until the matrix is largely dissolved, which can be done with the brow to root oriented practices already given. Going to the crown is then left up to the aspirant, and the suggestion is to wait to do it until ecstatic conductivity is sufficiently advanced so there can be a good awareness of what is happening. That is why prudent "testing" is recommended. And always keep in mind the time delays that are involved in the cycles of ecstasy and letdown.
It is important to note that energy experiences in the crown area (usually mirrored body-wide) are caused by "friction" from remaining impurities in the nervous system. So the energy symptoms themselves can be taken as a caution that there is more work to be done. With crown focus, energy symptoms can quickly turn into roller coaster emotions and all sorts of physical weirdness. Yes, all of this does stabilize later on, but the difficulty of the ride we take is directly related to how aggressive we have been at the crown early on. And it is not necessarily a shorter ride -- it can be much longer due to having to come off a stable routine of practices to deal with the energy dislocations. So, slow and steady (brow to root) will win this race 9 times out of 10.
The best crown experiences are the ones that have gone to dissolution into pure bliss consciousness, without negative after-effects. This indicates body-wide purity. As with all practice, we know it is good if we feel good in regular daily activity.
Once we get to that stage, then what? Well, nothing much really. We just keep going with our stable practice routine (using prudent self-pacing), and our regular life. Contrary to popular belief, there is no place other than here that we have to go to (as Katrine says, just "stay home") -- no exit via the crown to some other exotic dimension. Actually, the opposite happens -- the ecstatic bliss (the exotic) comes in here from out there. That is the thing, you know -- the divine process is not us going somewhere else. It is the divine coming in through us into this life -- this ordinary life. It ends up melting our heart in an extraordinary way and flowing out through our actions. I call it outpouring divine love. That's it...
The crown is a sort of crossroad in all of this, one that takes a long time to purify completely, because to do so, everything else has to be purified, and that cannot be done overnight, no matter what has been promised. The good news is that all the purification we achieve in the sushumna (spinal nerve) and throughout the nervous system with our daily deep meditation, spinal breathing pranayama and other practices is crown opening by proxy. When everything is purified and opened, the crown is open too. In that sense all the practices we do are crown practices. We are just being cagey about it to avoid unnecessary mishaps. 
Well, just some food for thought.
All the best!
The guru is in you.
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 7:50:26 PM
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Hi Christi,
"I don't have any discomfort due to this crown activity. "
This is very good. Generally crown activity can throw people off big time emotionally.. depression  .. So you are doing well...
The hum is purification.. and will go away. look in this thread Symptoms .. there have been discussions on it.
I am not sure what a Western Vegetarian diet is.. but if it is not agreeing with you, you may want to consider changing it. You should listen to your body.. it will generally guide you as to what you should and should not do.
Other than diet.. regular exercise and long walks are excellent ways to ground the excess energy. Here are some threads where diet has been discussed.. see if these help.
Typical foods that you eat...
Vegetarianism - Again
Spiritual diet
And this is Yogani's lesson on Ayurveda Diet Guidelines |
Edited by - Shanti on Oct 14 2006 9:50:11 PM |
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weaver
832 Posts |
Posted - Oct 14 2006 : 10:49:05 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
...it seems to be getting more difficult to digest food. I believe this is related to the practices. So indirectly I suffer some digestion problems (eating more to stabalize the energies, whilst simultaneously loosing the ability to digest a normal vegitarian western diet). I am also aware that I am becoming increasingly food intollerant... Any ideas?
Hi Christi,
I thought that you may be interested in reading about explanations for indigestion because of kundalini on this site. There is lots of information:
http://biologyofkundalini.com/artic...aliniandDiet
Strangely enough, I have a different experience with digestion. I have had slow digestion for about 20 years and could only eat twice a day. But now recently, the last few months, since ecstatic conductivity started to come up, my digestion have increased markedly, being hungry sooner and wanting to eat more. Interesting. |
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emc
2072 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 02:05:16 AM
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Comment on weavers post...
When I started to feel the kundalini, I felt strongly that I had to complement my food with more minerals. I got lots of muscle cramps, but they disappeared when I got more minerals.
The explanation I have heard is that higher frequency energy makes metabolism run crazy, so the cells need more of everything, sort of... |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 07:11:28 AM
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Thanks for the thoughtful reply Yogani.
I am glad you put in a warning about doing practices at the crown. Obviously I do not want to encourage anyone reading this thread to do any crown practices, especially if they are new to yoga (or even not that new to yoga!). I realise also that it is very difficult to get specific in this area as everyone's path is different. I feel that my bakti (for want of a better word) is taking me more and more towards the crown. I have not yet incorporated crown practices as part of my daily AYP routine of practices. Having said that, sometimes during spinal bastrica the energy goes naturally up to the crown instead of the third eye and I let it happen if that's the way it wants to go. Also during the lying down at the end of practices the crown can be so active that it would be imposible not to have my awarness there. Even whilst writing this at my computer my awareness in in the activity at my crown.
Obviously I don't want to jump the gun and proceed too fast, but at the same time I don't want to go too slowly. This is why I say that I feel it is my bakti taking me there, as I feel that targetted crown practices would take my practice to a new level (much like kechari does). I feel that I still need some clarification on this in order to proceed safely. I will try and ask some specific questions:
1. Is it the case that at some point on the path everyone must eventually go to the crown with awareness during practices in order to proceed?
quote:
Going to the crown is then left up to the aspirant, and the suggestion is to wait to do it until ecstatic conductivity is sufficiently advanced so there can be a good awareness of what is happening. That is why prudent "testing" is recommended. And always keep in mind the time delays that are involved in the cycles of ecstasy and letdown.
2. I have been doing "testing" at my crown outside of practices for several months now, with no adverse side effects (yet!). If I do incorporate a period of crown awareness into my practices, after Samyama and before Savasana (lying down), I would need to increase the duration of the practice slowly. If I started with one minute during each series of practices, and increased that every day by a minute up to ten minutes twice a day, would you consider that to be introducing the practice slowly enough, given the delays that can happen? Or would you be more cautious than that?
Thanks again Yogani.
Thanks Shanti, Emc and Weaver for the advice on diet, exercise and kundalini.
I do feel that if I got more regular exersise it would help stabalise my energy flows, I would then be less dependent on eating to ground myself, and this would probably sort out my digestion difficulties. So I will go to the store tommorrow and get some running shoes! Sometimes we just need other people to point out the obvious! I will tell you if it works.
Christi |
Edited by - Christi on Oct 15 2006 07:52:12 AM |
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yogani
USA
5195 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 10:44:13 AM
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Hi Christi:
Over time of stable practice, the ajna (third eye) will naturally expand to incorporate the crown, and this is the way the whole process can proceed while remaining stable. In other words, as long as the two (third eye and crown) are perceived as distinctly different, favoring the brow will be the more prudent path. When the whole nervous system is becoming gradually more advanced in purification, the third eye and crown will merge energetically. There is little we have to do to promote this, other than maintaining our regular daily practices.
As for what to do between samyama and rest, it is best if we leave that one to you. I am sure your bhakti will help you find your way. Keep in mind that sometimes bhakti itself can use some self-pacing.
In the upcoming Samyama book, something helpful will be added near the end of the practice session, but not as crown concentrated as is being discussed here. We will continue to be very cagey about the crown, which is essentially the same as the whole body and beyond.
Also, more about crown experiences on the edge (and overboard) can be found in the Secrets of Wilder novel, which is a story about the experience of forming this style of application of practices, including mishaps that happened along the way, and what it took to get back on track. It is a story of pioneering work with lots of ups and downs, in contrast to the rather "routine" approach to cultivating enlightenment we take around here. 
We'd like for it to become routine. Then the door will be wide open for everyone to do it. Practice wisely, and enjoy!
The guru is in you.
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 1:39:52 PM
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Thanks Yogani
Your replies are always very helpful.
quote:
focused crown practices of any kind will not be stable until the matrix is largely dissolved
I could not say with any honesty that I experience the matrix as being largely disolved! So it is probably not my time to be extending my practices yet. I sertainly do experience the ajna and the crown as two seperate chakras (with another minor chakra between them). So it is back to the (ecstatic bliss-filled) tread-mill!
Whilst I am asking questions about dangerous practices, I wanted to ask about another one that I do (or rather which happens to me). During both spinal breathing and deep meditation I find my breath naturally suspending after I have breathed out. It feels very good- calming and ecstatic at the same time. I read in the lessons that it is dangerous (although you did not say why) and I also saw on the forum when you were giving advice to someone that it is a dangerous practice. Why is it dangerous and should I try and stop it happening? Is it dangerous in the same way that bastrica is, and can be done in moderation when we have enough stability in the nervous system? btw I am not spending minutes in some advanced yogic trance with my heart stopped... I am talking about say ten seconds at most with my breath suspended externally at the end of each exhale. Interestingly the same does not happen at the end of the inhale.
Christi |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 2:05:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
During both spinal breathing and deep meditation I find my breath naturally suspending after I have breathed out. It feels very good- calming and ecstatic at the same time. Christi
Hi Christi,
In Lesson 52 Big little nerve Yogani says...
If your breathing
naturally suspends in that situation it is okay. Nothing to worry
about. The breath will return to normal rate as you return to regular
body functioning. We don't force the breath. It finds its own level
according to the state of our nervous system during practices.
Sometimes the breath may not settle down much in pranayama. That is
fine. We just go with it wherever it is, breathing as slowly and
deeply as we comfortably can. Other times it may settle down right
away. It all depends on the cleaning out process that is going on
inside at that time.
I think you are fine. The warnings are for people who try to hold their breath for an extended period of time. You are doing great.. |
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yogani
USA
5195 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 2:19:28 PM
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Hi Christi:
Your experience with naturally suspended exhalation sounds fine.
Natural breath suspension (inhaled or exhaled) is generally not harmful. But if we are engaging in deliberate breath suspension, like in yoni mudra or chin pump, inhaled is better. Deliberate exhaled suspension in practices over months and years can put a strain on the lungs, whereas inhaled suspension (within reason -- not to the extreme) will not. That is the caution that is given in the AYP writings. The lungs are designed to handle positive pressure, and not so much to handle negative pressure (vacuum).
It is a matter of maintaining physical health long term.
If natural breath suspension occurs in deep meditation (very common), or at other times, we just let it be without forcing it or fighting it. It is like any other experience that may occur during practices. Just scenery we will encounter along the way, you know. As we get further along, we may have such experiences in daily activity too, and we treat them just the same and carry on with life.
A good rule of thumb: If it is natural and easy, it is probably okay. If it is a strain, something we are forcing, better be careful. We will not help ourselves by forcing. The path is one of gentle persuasion.
The guru is in you.
PS -- Thanks posting first on this, Shanti.
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 3:01:34 PM
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Hi,
An experience I had a few weeks ago while teaching correct breathing to some students was a retention of the breath.I inhaled and suddenly the shakti locked my lungs and I was unable to breathe out.I must have been like this for at least 30 seconds wondering if I was going to suffocate.heheheheheheh
L&L
Dave |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 3:33:46 PM
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Thanks yogani and everyone else for the great advice I will stop being concerned about automatic external khumbaka.
I read through some of the links that people posted above on digestion problems, and it sounds like it can actually be dangerous to use food to ground during a kundalini awakening...
Quoted from the biology of kundalini site:
quote:
Digestive system problems are common with kundalini awakenings because the energy and enzymes are being diverted away from the digestive system and into the transmutation/substantiation process. So it is harmful and counterproductive to overburden the digestive system during the years in which metamorphosis occurs.
So it looks like I better get to the running shoe store fast before I do myself some damage from overburdening my digestive system!
Love and Light
Christi |
Edited by - Christi on Oct 15 2006 3:34:52 PM |
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Anthem
1608 Posts |
Posted - Oct 15 2006 : 8:57:58 PM
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Hi all,
A couple of interesting crown experiences I would like to share.
During the first few months after kundalini became active for me, there was much intense energy activity everywhere including the crown. The feelings were so intense and ecstatic it was almost hard to stop and it also occurred often outside of practices as well. I remember getting to a point one time where the world around me began to become kind of surreal and difficult to stay grounded in. Things took on meanings I had never perceived before and I began to realize I was a little too far out "there" for my own good.
Fortunately the concept of self-pacing soon became more important to me and I achieved a better balance in my practices. Since then, my bhakti had from time to time inspired me to do some crown exploration and a few minutes of root to crown bastrika as described in the lessons, but it all just slowly fell away over time. I just lost interest in it, which I think was a good thing and practices preceded in a much more calm, effective and balanced way. I believe when the initial "fireworks" of kundalini openings calm down that this is when you really start to be on your way.
Over the last while, where I have not directed any energy, thought or practices to the crown, activity is taking place there in a much more balanced and quiet way and most importantly I remain very grounded. It began simply with an awareness of energy going up from the third eye to the crown.
Since we are on the topic, I was actually wondering if anyone has experienced the energy going up from the third eye, up the forehead and down through the crown to the root. I was also wondering if there was a little circuit down there at the root as well, but I couldn't quite tell.
thanks,
Anthem11
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Edited by - Anthem on Oct 15 2006 8:58:26 PM |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 1:15:59 PM
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Hi again,
Yogani... before our discussion on crown practices ends (for now), I wanted to say something. It seems to me that your two replies in this thread to my questions on crown practices, add something valuable to what is given in the main AYP lessons on crown practices. They certainly clear up some ambiguities that could arise from lesson 199 ,and they seem to give advice that could be useful to everyone, which is not included in the main lessons. As not everyone who practices AYP yoga is involved in the forum discussions, I was wondering if it would be worth putting some of the advice you gave in this thread in the main lessons?
Christi |
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yogani
USA
5195 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 2:52:56 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi
Hi again, Yogani... before our discussion on crown practices ends (for now), I wanted to say something. It seems to me that your two replies in this thread to my questions on crown practices, add something valuable to what is given in the main AYP lessons on crown practices. They certainly clear up some ambiguities that could arise from lesson 199 ,and they seem to give advice that could be useful to everyone, which is not included in the main lessons. As not everyone who practices AYP yoga is involved in the forum discussions, I was wondering if it would be worth putting some of the advice you gave in this thread in the main lessons?
Hi Christi:
Yes, good point, though I am a little reluctant to (indirectly) send thousands of people toward the crown, for obvious reasons. The original lessons on the crown were a bit muted for that reason. We all will certainly get around to it in our own cagey ways.
The business of preserving the forum writings and making them available to more people is actually a much larger issue, because there is a huge amount of ground-breaking information hidden in these thousands of posts that ought not stay buried. Anything I have written that might be useful has been directly stimulated by the numerous interactions here, so it is a process involving all of us. Likewise, many others have posted excellent insights on practices and experiences too.
These forums are a gold mine for anyone looking to go beyond the foundation AYP lessons. Going the other way, reading the forums first and then the lessons, is not so easy, as many have found out.
It is a process of discovery we are engaged in that can go on indefinitely, leading to steadily improving knowledge of the processes of human spiritual transformation. Applied spiritual science! Very exciting.
In order to capture it all, at least my part of it, an AYP Easy Lessons Vol 2 (another big one) will be published after the Enlightenment Series books are done. It will probably come out sometime in 2008. Vol 2 would pick up all the additional lessons posted online up to that point, my relevant forum writings, and additional material from my unpublished emails that have been piling up here for a long time.
The goal of the AYP books is to capture everything that is useful in a permanent record that is easily accessible by everyone.
Meanwhile, many others are recording amazing insights and experiences here in the forums. Those cannot be easily blended with my writings (copyright issues), beyond the Q&A format that will continue in AYP EL Vol 2.
It is my hope that the useful writings by others here can also be published and preserved in book form someday, some by individuals in their own books, and perhaps many others in an anthology volume with writings from numerous practitioners in it. The copyright issues for an anthology would have to be addressed, of course -- not something I can think about right now with everything else on the plate. Maybe someone else will do it. By then (years from now), participation in these forums and the number of experiences recorded will likely be much larger. It is a long term view for spreading the writings beyond the web to a wider audience, adding visibility and credibility to what we are doing here.
Well, that is a long answer to a short question. Will I put more on the crown in an online AYP lesson? Let me mull it over. Either way, it will be published in AYP EL Vol 2 later on. Perhaps by then many more will find it useful. Let's hope so. The more the merrier, each in their own time...
All the best!
The guru is in you.
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 18 2006 : 1:25:26 PM
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Thanks Yogani for the very informative reply.
I can see that there is a grand plan, and it sounds like a really good one.
Keep up the good work! |
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Christi
United Kingdom
4373 Posts |
Posted - Oct 18 2006 : 1:40:41 PM
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Hi Andrew
quote:
Since we are on the topic, I was actually wondering if anyone has experienced the energy going up from the third eye, up the forehead and down through the crown to the root. I was also wondering if there was a little circuit down there at the root as well, but I couldn't quite tell.
Yes, I have experienced this curcuit, but the other way round, going up the spine, across the underside of the crown, down to the third eye and down the front of the body to the root. I think curcuits like this can go in any direction and you can change the direction using your consciousness. I havn't really experimented with this though. I later found out that following this circuit with the attention and with the breath is a yogic practice currently being tought in India (and in the same direction that I experienced it).
I don't think this practice would help for anyone doing AYP because it would just distract from spinal breathing, and as Yogani so often says, not add anything new.
You mention that you got spun out during practices and felt ungrounded. Have you considered opening your feet chakras, if they are not already opened. In reiki this is a standard way of keeping yourself grounded and all Reiki one students have their feet chakras opened during the initiation so that they can handle the higher level of prana moving through them afterwards. You don't have to pay hundreds of Dollars to do a Reiki course though, you can open them just by imagining them opening, as with any other chakra.
Christi |
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Anthem
1608 Posts |
Posted - Oct 19 2006 : 12:45:17 AM
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quote:
You mention that you got spun out during practices and felt ungrounded. Have you considered opening your feet chakras, if they are not already opened. In reiki this is a standard way of keeping yourself grounded and all Reiki one students have their feet chakras opened during the initiation so that they can handle the higher level of prana moving through them afterwards. You don't have to pay hundreds of Dollars to do a Reiki course though, you can open them just by imagining them opening, as with any other chakra.
Hi Christi,
Unfortuantely, I don't have any awareness of whether my feet chakra are open or not. For me prudent use of "self-pacing" over the last couple of years has always done the trick when I have felt "ungrounded" or too far out in the energy department. Thank you for the advice, I will keep it in mind.
A
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yogani
USA
5195 Posts |
Posted - Oct 25 2006 : 11:47:09 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Christi: It seems to me that your two replies in this thread to my questions on crown practices, add something valuable to what is given in the main AYP lessons on crown practices. They certainly clear up some ambiguities that could arise from lesson 199 ,and they seem to give advice that could be useful to everyone, which is not included in the main lessons. As not everyone who practices AYP yoga is involved in the forum discussions, I was wondering if it would be worth putting some of the advice you gave in this thread in the main lessons?
Hi Christi:
As you may have seen, I went ahead and did it here: http://www.aypsite.org/287.html
...with some fine tuning.
Many thanks for the inspiration.
The guru is in you.
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Root to Crown Spinal breathing?
