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Pranayama

What is it?

Controlling the energy processes of our being.

Breathing is the primary focus of pranayama.

Breathing is like electricity for the nervous system.

Breathe can be measured in frequency and amplitude, similar to a sound wave

Amplitude - how big the breath is

Frequency - duration of breath

Holds - pause at top or bottom

Delays - pause in middle of inhale or exhale

Like changing octaves on a musical scale, it is also possible to move the direction and placement of the amplitude in relation to the full range of breath.

It is also possible to change the spread and squeeze the amplitude - this would be like one shallow breath and then one deep breath, etc

There are four parts to a breath:

  1. Inhale - puraka
  2. Hold at top of inhale - antar kumbhaka
  3. Exhale - rechaka
  4. Hold at bottom of inhale - bahya kumbhaka

A great simple breathing exercise is to do 4 counts at each part of the breath for 10-20 rounds.

So inhale 2, 3, 4, hold 2, 3, 4 exhale 2 ,3 4, hold 2, 3, 4 inhale...

Bhastrika

Amplitude - Normal

Frequency - Quick inhale and exhale

Holds - None

Delays - None

Kapalabhati

Amplitude - Normal

Frequency - Quick exhale standard inhale

Holds - None

Delays - None

Full Yogic Breath

Amplitude - Wide

Frequency - Standard

Holds - None

Delays - None

Ujjayi

Amplitude - Standard

Frequency - Standard

Holds - At top and bottom

Delays - None

Viloma

Amplitude - Standard

Frequency - Standard

Holds - None

Delays - In middle of inhales and exhales or at multiple steps during each

Sama Vritti

Inhale, delay, exhale, delay

Same ratios between each

Visama Vritti

Different ratios between the same steps in sama vritti

MISC NOTES

Ujjayi means brave - like a warrior

Bhastrika is bellows - breathing with abdominal shortly

Kapalabhati consists of two worlds - skull and light. You get enlightenment in your head.

Anuloma is following hair

Pratiloma is against the hair

It is a ratio of inhale to exhale

Viloma is when you break the hair

Inhale normal on exhale normal proportionally. variations are viloma.

Sama Vritti means fluctuations of the inhales and exhales - like of the consciousness

We are dealing with timeframes in our consciousness. TIme is measuring thinking speed. We control the root of breath and the root of thinking.

Sahita is any consciously controlled breathe.

Kevali is automatic breathe - use special pranayama so you dont have to do it consciously

Kevali 2 is minimum inhale/exhale which leads straight to samadhi

Bhedana means piercing

Surya right sun

Chandra left moon

Nadi Shodhana is purification of the nadis.

Bhramari means the Bee

Sitali uses the Tongue. Very cooling. How you fold your tongue changes how you hold your body.

Sitakari is super cooling. Close teeth lips open and inhale.

To restart our bio-computer you relax until you lose consciousness. Murchkha pranayama turns the body almost completely off. We usually dont do this program. In some cases you might not return.

Plavini is a separate pranayama. It is the ability to lay on surface of water on back and not sinking. It is the ability to float. Pranayama in water is key.

Cannot mix some with others.

Orange dots are. used for kundalini awakening. No orange dots are for willpower.

If you look at pelvis of human, it has a hole. Women give birth there. Man also has it. It is filled by muscles. Using muscles we contract the membrane.

When you sleep at night you breath very shallow. As a result in deep corners you get a lot of CO2.

Must repeat stairs exhale and full ha exhale 2-3 times

You have to follow the right order though

Breath support is number one process

If you stop your breathing, your subconsciousness doesn’t know that it it is you holding breath

It tricks the subconscious into thinking that you might die

If we get control of the emotions and mind, we can use our breath as tool to turn off the mind

Ujjayi pranayama we add in the bandhas

Bhastrika and Kapalabhati charge with energy - have to be careful when you do them alot. It can cause energetic injury if you do it too much. Simple symptom of energy illness is getting cold. Warm up to much and you get cold.

45

then 3

Iyengar has a good description of all pranayamas but it’s not the same as Andrey proposes. He proposes Anuloma and Pratiloma opposite. Not a long time before he died, he posted an article that he never had a formal teacher of pranayamas. He investigated it himself.

Self-learning leads to some mistakes. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just not perfect knowledge.

Anuloma - along hair - easy to pet animal

Pratiloma - against hair - hard to pet animal

Anuloma must be easier

If your breathe on inhale is longer than exhale then you have more rights to do more exhale

If you exhale very long then you need an even bigger inhale

Long inhale, short exhale is easier than vice versa

Anuloma long inhale, short exhale

Pratiloma short inhale, long exhale

Iyengar makes mistake

Viloma is measuring frames of time. Hold the breath at different frames of inhalation and exhalations.

Sama vritti and Visama Vritti are variations on ujjayi. You add in mudras and bandhas. It is also about vrittis in the citta.

Back to pranayama - orange dot is the full yogic breath for kundalini awakening. all other prep is for willpower. Breath system works best if you do all prep exercises.

At old age you pay karmic bills from when you were young. Financial stresses leads to potential heart attack. This can damage the breath. Don’t overdrive the physical body too much.

If yoga teacher, you over train the body. With age you will find that you have consequences of driving the physical body for so long.

We proglongate life by extending breath. We want to lower the number of breaths per minute. When we breathe they have 21% of oxygen. 16% oxygen is usually still in the breath. Hold breathe in longer until you take out almost all of the oxygen. This will allow the coefficient of effectivity to be maximum.

Yogis go for 1 cycle of breathe per minute. We don’t have to be that strict, but general. This is Kevali 1

Kevali 2 is just going for minimum inhale/exhale

Bhedana means piercing - if one nostril is blocked, and other is open, can we do inhale through the blocked one? No. We exhale through the blocked nostril. This is the piercing.

Surya bhedana is piercing through the right blocked nostril

Chandra bhedana is piercing the left blocked nostril

If nostrils are not balanced, you are not ready for kundalini awakening. Usually every two hours

If right nostril is more open, it is active phase of part of the day

If left nostril is more open, you are tired. You want to rest.

Funny thing is that it changes every two hours.

At work no one asks which nostril is open

Ignoring which nostril is open is not good.

If left nostril is open we rest

You need to breath one way extensive time until they are balanced

Why mudra of two fingers on the forehead?

In india right is good, left is bad

Traditionally they don’t use toilet paper. they wash ass with left hand

Right hand for eating. Left hand for washing

When you do changing pranayama only use right hand - is very serious in india but not in rest of the world

Pointing finger is about ego - in India we don’t use the index and middle finger

But practically you can use any mudra that works

Need rights to change the arm because doing it this way out of old superstition is silly

Holding two fingers on forehead focuses attention and automatically centers the postiion

This method has only pluses and no minuses

Bhramari is sound influence at the level of the brain

Guy who freezes the water under the influence of different words

Water feels the meaning of the words

When we use sounds it makes influence in the liquids inside of us

Sounds in throat is like a base for the brain

Practicing kundalini high up in the mountains is best, between 2-4km high

If you practice in the mountains it is important to feel comfortable - generally this is in cold climate

Sometimes when we activate heat, yogis can sit and melt the snow around them. They have too much bionuclear energy activated

If you feel too much tapas you need to cool down

Murchka - black out and you are totally restarted - removing all viruses - this is like a deprivation tank?

One quality pranayama gives one simple visible effect

Multi-quality pranayama gives a special multiple effect - more complicated but their main positive quality is to keep the attention most focused