Kriya Yoga Mega-Thread

[moon777light]

@onacloudynight @giglio

I completely agree. I have only begun, 1 week in, doing lessons 1-4, and just from that i have had sooo many question and confusions about where to focus/what to do with this body part/what to do with that body part, etc. The author, if hes going to make a sixth edition, should take note and try to explain everything as if explaining to a child. I will continue this practice for at least 6 months to see its effects since it wouldnt be fair to give up so quickly but i might look into that book later on in the year. 

[herghly]

Have you guys thought about taking kriya initiation ?

[onacloudynight]

On 5/17/2018 at 0:04 PM, moon777light said:

@onacloudynight @giglio

I completely agree. I have only begun, 1 week in, doing lessons 1-4, and just from that i have had sooo many question and confusions about where to focus/what to do with this body part/what to do with that body part, etc. The author, if hes going to make a sixth edition, should take note and try to explain everything as if explaining to a child. I will continue this practice for at least 6 months to see its effects since it wouldnt be fair to give up so quickly but i might look into that book later on in the year. 

Let me know how your practice goes. I will report my results using the other book.

I think it might be good for all of us, who are doing different styles of Kriya, to report our results. That way we can compare and contrast different schools of Kriya and determine which ones are perhaps more beneficial.

Edited May 18, 2018 by onacloudynight

[moon777light]

@onacloudynight good idea  

[John Iverson]

5 hours ago, moon777light said:

@onacloudynight good idea  

I want also join!! Haha the moment i recieve the Inner Engineering of Sadhguru i will also report! To see what advantages, benefits or insights doing the yoga of Sadhguru and to compare also yours! And theirs!!

[Viking]

anyone notice when breathing very slowly and the body wants to breathe in sharply but you breathe in continuously, a sudden surge of energy up the spine to the head appears?

happens to me especially during the pranayama, in addition to the energy visualization, i dont try to visualize but it still happens.

[herghly]

Few questions 

Do you follow the suggest daily routine or make your own?

I am on lesson 14 and find i take much longer than the duration the book has for the routine.  Lesson 14 level 4 say minimum duration is 19 minutes, but it takes me 45 minutes - 60 minutes because i really take my time and focus. Am i working to slowly?

The suggested routine often leaves out things from previous lessons. For example after learning mantra it is no longer in the  daily routine for other weeks. Is it okay to make our own routine?

[onacloudynight]

12 hours ago, John Iverson said:

I want also join!! Haha the moment i recieve the Inner Engineering of Sadhguru i will also report! To see what advantages, benefits or insights doing the yoga of Sadhguru and to compare also yours! And theirs!!

Do it! I definitely want to read Sadhguru's book at some point. I am sure there is a lot of good wisdom there.

[onacloudynight]

7 hours ago, herghly said:

Few questions 

Do you follow the suggest daily routine or make your own?

I am on lesson 14 and find i take much longer than the duration the book has for the routine.  Lesson 14 level 4 say minimum duration is 19 minutes, but it takes me 45 minutes - 60 minutes because i really take my time and focus. Am i working to slowly?

The suggested routine often leaves out things from previous lessons. For example after learning mantra it is no longer in the  daily routine for other weeks. Is it okay to make our own routine?

I would follow the routine as described. It's fine if it takes you longer, as long as you are doing all of the practices

I believe the Mantra (Japa Yoga) practice is optional, but it does say above the suggested routine, if you are doing a mantra practice, to at some point during the day repeat your mantra 108 times aloud and also mentally repeat your mantra during every free moment of your day.

[Guest Quanty]

Kundalini must be fully awake and in your control, to rapid breathing through 1 nostril at a time or shamanic breathing. 

If its not in your control it will destroy you, and you will feel depressed. 

[Viking]

i start to feel really uncomfortable with the practice.

i dont see how asphyxiating oneself can lead to a rest of the mind. to me this practice is just physically dangerous and doesnt make sense.

during the practice i feel like i lack oxygen and the head starts to pump, my body enters fight or flight. and i become rather restless, not calm as its supposed to be to enter samadhi or any concentration state.

im not sure if its connected but i have headaches and anger issues since the start of the practice.

i also cant concentrate even 5 minutes at the end of tye practice, my mind is too restless. also during the practice i fall into thought and forget about the practice while the practice is doing itself.

[ULFBERHT]

So, I've been practicing Kriya for about two weeks. I've been taking my time with it and am only at Lesson 4 now, the concentration. I've been struggling to focus on the point between my eyes and I haven't seen any lights yet, so I'm taking the time to slow down and do it right before I move on. This evening, before I went to bed, I thought I'd go back through the parts of the book I'd already covered and re-read some of the sections about which I was confused. I fell asleep on the couch during my reading, woke up again some time later, put the book away, and went to bed.

As I was falling asleep, I began to wonder what it might have been like to learn the practice from Babiraj. I wondered if he was an actual person, or a spirit, as JC claims. I visualized myself standing in the foothills of a mountain range and seeing him make his way down a path off in the distance- like those scenes from the nature shows where they finally catch a glimpse of a snow leopard after a hundred hours of waiting.

After falling asleep, I began to have a vivid lucid dream/ sleep paralysis episode the likes of which I've never experienced before. At first, I saw myself standing next to something akin to a horse trough- a somewhat large, enclosed concrete structure, about knee-high, and filled with water. I kept drawing water from the trough, I guess in an attempt to empty it, but the amount of water in the structure never decreased. Somehow it stayed the same, as if each bucketful of water I drew was automatically replaced. It was in this imagery that I immediately recognized an important spiritual truth, but unfortunately, I've forgotten what it was. But once it happened, I couldn't believe how profound this truth was, and how I had simply stumbled over it in a dream. In that moment I felt like what I had realized was so obvious, it was almost embarrassing that I hadn't recognized it before.

After this realization, which now I can't remember, the symbol of me next to the trough vanished, and I was immediately transported into an infinite black tunnel. I kept falling down and down into this tunnel without end. It even seemed like I was accelerating. I could even hear the "whooshing" sound of the air rushing past my ears as I fell. It was as I was falling that I experienced an impending sense of dread. I was falling into the infinite, and if I didn't wake myself up right now, I might never come back. "No! I can't face this! I don't want to do this!" I remember thinking to myself. Essentially lucid this whole time, I tried to begin to pull myself out of the dream. However, if you've ever experienced sleep paralysis, you know this can be difficult. Slowly, I regained the ability to control my limbs, and once I did, the dream ended and I was awake. Too afraid to go back to sleep, I got up, took a shower, and now I'm here.

A few notes:

1. I've experienced sleep paralysis before. Many times, in fact. None of those episodes have startled me as much as this did.

2. Sleep paralysis/lucid dreaming is known to be more easily induced after falling asleep for a period of time, waking up for a little bit, and then going back to sleep. Perhaps this influenced the vividness of my dream,

3. Since I was reading the text before I went to bed, this too could've suggested to me to be thinking about these things as I fell asleep.

4. The infinite tunnel feeling was similar like what I've experienced in certain concentration states, in terms of the one-pointedness and all-encompassing nature of the phenomenon. I've never experienced the feeling of staring into the void until tonight.

5. Because I spend a little bit of time on the forum and watch Leo's videos, I can't tell if this experience of falling into the void is just the suggestibility of my mind and already having been exposed to these ideas, or if this is genuine and I'm starting to breakthrough into something here.

6. I read in the book that these insights that we have in Kriya must come like sleep- you can't force them. You have to surrender into them. I wonder if in this dream state I was relaxed and surrendered enough to accept whatever might come, which then allowed me to see these symbols. I haven't had any weird experiences while actually meditating, so maybe I'm not consciously surrendering to the practice enough.

[John Iverson]

14 hours ago, onacloudynight said:

Do it! I definitely want to read Sadhguru's book at some point. I am sure there is a lot of good wisdom there.

Hahaha yes! I feel that there is wisdom there!! Sadhguru is sooooooooooooooooooooo far from other gurus!!! He goes deeper and deeper about spirituality I don't know where in the rabbit hole he is now,,  AHhaahhai'm excited to talk about it and how you will also have it and share it to me, haha I'm the one who reports to you guys about inner engineering and you? What do you want? Kriya also??

[herghly]

sooo  i am not sure if i am imagining this or going crazy. When doing Kriya pranayama 2  i feel like a jolt of energy when going from the 5th chakra to bindu. Sometimes it feels overwhelming and makes my body twitch... really was not expecting this. Not sure if its just my mind doing this

[onacloudynight]

58 minutes ago, herghly said:

sooo  i am not sure if i am imagining this or going crazy. When doing Kriya pranayama 2  i feel like a jolt of energy when going from the 5th chakra to bindu. Sometimes it feels overwhelming and makes my body twitch... really was not expecting this. Not sure if its just my mind doing this

Honestly this is very tame to the levels of weirdness that can occur. Be prepared for very WEIRD shit to happen. It is perfectly normal for this type of work.

Once I started doing Kriya Pranayama 2, is when a lot of the weird stuff started happening. Definitely pace yourself and follow the advice of practicing the technique once a week at the beginning.

Edited May 21, 2018 by onacloudynight

[herghly]

@onacloudynight can you elaborate on weird stuff happening?

 

I am still shocked what happened, part of me worry's that i am going crazy and its all in my mind

[Paan]

As some meantioned earlier when doing the Kriya pranayama 2 things start to get really wierd. Ive nerver felt ”life” this way before, I take it slowly with the KP2, maybe once a week because to me its feel really powerful. You have to treat it with respect. A couple of weeks before Ive was really in a bad and depressed state. That was because of doing the KP2 every day, I let of for two days and  felt better.

[onacloudynight]

@herghly Just get used to the weird stuff. Get to the point where it just becomes completely normal and it doesn't bother you anymore. It is just another phenomenon, no different from any other phenomenon. It is all in the meaning that you assign to it.

Some examples of weird stuff happening from my own experience:

• Speaking in tongues, chanting nonsensical words.
• Involuntary vocalizations, yelling, screaming, laughing, growling etc....
• Feeling of intense energy and power coursing through my body. Feels like electricity is coursing through my body Feeling like I am going to explode.
• Feeling blood being pumped throughout my body. (Felt very weird)
• Involuntary body movements, spontaneous mudras and asanas, basically the body just moves on its own. Feels like your possessed (This happens the most for me, but happens so often where now I am just used to it)
• Spitting on the floor randomly during meditation.
• Behaving like an animal, feelings of wanting to ravage something. (The key is not to act on any of these feeling, but to just mindfully observe them as they arise)
• Becoming aware of my shadow.

Basically with all this stuff, you just need to relax into it and accept it, be mindful of all of it, without any resistance. Be a detached observer. Don't react to any of it. That is your mind's game is to get you to react to all of this stuff. This stuff is perfectly normal and is actually a really good sign of growth. You are purifying a lot of shit from your unconscious mind, but all you can see are these outward manifestations. 

If you haven't watched Leo's dark side of meditation video, I would highly recommend it. There he goes in-depth and covers all the possible weird stuff that can happen while doing these type of practices.

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by onacloudynight

[Jordan]

Hello, I started following the Kriya yoga book at the beginning of April and took maybe 1.5 weeks off and am now getting back into it.

I usually get pain in my forehead and eyes when i focus between my eyebrows during the concentration. I do my best not to strain my eyes and keep the muscles in my head relaxed which seems to help but sometimes i still do get quite a bit of pain even doing 5 min. keeping my eyes pointed forward instead of up seems to lessen the pain too.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me about this? 

As for any benefits, my mind does go much more quiet during concentration than when i meditate and when i decide to meditate after the kriya practice my mind is a lot more relaxed. I noticed compared to when I took a break I am a lot more aware of my thoughts and am less lazy and in a better mood.

Also i just read Lesson 10 and was planning on following it today and I read Navel as Nasal the whole time and I was planning on tapping my nose instead of my navel hahaha. That would be funny if I did that for a few weeks without realizing my mistake.

 

[Viking]

@onacloudynight do you get your thumb and pinky to touch involuntarily for a moment? like on hyperventilation from shamanic breahting, when the palms get stuck in a certain position, but only for a moment here.