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des022
USA
24 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 20 2009 : 12:40:59 AM
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| When you breath in the air is flowing downward, and when you exhale the air is moving up and out. So to me it seems more intuitive for the flow of prana to be downward on inhale and upward on exhilation. Been wondering about this. Or is it an inverse thing where the air coming down pulls the prana up. Or does air have anything to do with this and it is just a mechanical process? |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Mar 20 2009 : 07:16:03 AM
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Hi Des,
Maybe this lesson will explain why we breath in and follow the attention upward and vice versa.
Lesson 46 - Pranayama Q&A – Which way is up?
quote:
In the beginning stages, pranayama can work either way. With basic spinal breathing, a case can be made for one approach or the other. However, later on, it becomes clear that learning spinal breathing going up on inhalation and down on exhalation is the preferred approach. It will become obvious when we get into new advanced yoga practices that involve deliberate suspensions of the breath when the lungs are full. At this time it is necessary for the attention to be near the top at the sushumna for performing yoga procedures in the upper part of the body. Also, there will come a time when the breath suspends automatically with the lungs empty in connection with the internal biology of prana being released from its vast storehouse near the base of the spine. This will manifest as an emptying of the lungs and then a drawing up from near the bottom of the spine. We will learn means to facilitate this automatic drawing up process that occurs when the lungs are empty, so the attention will be near the bottom of the spine then and not at the top. These two types of suspension of breath are primary determinants on which way we go in the sushumna with our attention during spinal breathing.
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Christi
United Kingdom
4382 Posts |
Posted - Mar 20 2009 : 10:11:00 AM
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Hi Des,
In some forms of yoga, spinal breathing is taught with the attention going up on exhale and down on inhale. Personally I preffer the way it is taught in AYP, mainly because there is a natural flow of prana up the spine with the inhale, and down the body with exhale, so we are following that natural energy cycle to a certain extent.
Christi |
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riptiz
United Kingdom
741 Posts |
Posted - Mar 20 2009 : 1:58:04 PM
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Hi Des,
There are differences because they are used in different ways.Using energy downwards on the inhale is for clearing the sushumna to allow for Kundalini to rise.
Using the AYP method encourages the prana(Kundalini) to flow upwards.
In the lineage I belong to of Kundalini Maha Yoga the AYP way is used to encourage shakti to rise after shaktipat.
Even Yogani admits he does not know why some schools differ on this.
L&L
Dave |
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Holy
796 Posts |
Posted - Mar 31 2009 : 10:12:16 PM
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In the Bhagavad Gita there are some verses where Krishna describes the method of bringing the upward breath into the downward and the downward into the upward. This calms the breathing process until it stops and in this growing silence and awareness the spinal coloumn opens and extacy starts flowing.
In kriya yoga this method is finally used to stop breathing and heart beating at all, but the approach in ayp is a little bit different and more gentle through deep meditation as the main technique. |
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confused on the energy direction of pranayama
