Kriya Yoga Mega-Thread

[MountainCactus]

59 minutes ago, Esoteric said:

Never seen or heard of Avatar: The Last Airbender but it looks interesting, might give an episode a go

 

It truly is a great show, especially for us yogis.

[Mada_]

I was initiated into shambhavi mahamudra kriya yoga, I want to continue, there was a time were I saw great benefits. My body felt delicious, great mood, and life was more vivid. 

But nowadays my kundalini symptoms flare up when I sit in the asana, I feel energy rising into my brain. The heart on the left and right heat up, tremble, and once it even felt like it burnt me a little bit. 

Interestingly it's only when I do a short loving kindness meditation and chant at the beginning of the practice that this flare up happens, throughout the actual kriya everything feels okay, it's just a bit frightening. 

 

I don't really want to part with it, but if it is detrimenting me then perhaps I should look for other practices. 

[Mada_]

Just now, Mada_ said:

I was initiated into shambhavi mahamudra kriya yoga, I want to continue, there was a time were I saw great benefits. My body felt delicious, great mood, and life was more vivid. 

But nowadays my kundalini symptoms flare up when I sit in the asana, I feel energy rising into my brain. The heart on the left and right heat up, tremble, and once it even felt like it burnt me a little bit. 

Interestingly it's only when I do a short loving kindness meditation and chant at the beginning of the practice that this flare up happens, throughout the actual kriya everything feels okay, it's just a bit frightening. 

 

I don't really want to part with it, but if it is detrimenting me then perhaps I should look for other practices. 

My question is, do I have to care about intense energy welling up, or can I just let it consume me. Tara Wells says in her book 'enlightened through the path of kundalini', that energy overload means slowing down energy practises. Sasdghuru also says that kundalini can ruin the whole system, and must be risen under special guidance.

So could this perhaps be detrimenting my system by continuing? 

 

[MountainCactus]

6 hours ago, Mada_ said:

I was initiated into shambhavi mahamudra kriya yoga, I want to continue, there was a time were I saw great benefits. My body felt delicious, great mood, and life was more vivid. 

But nowadays my kundalini symptoms flare up when I sit in the asana, I feel energy rising into my brain. The heart on the left and right heat up, tremble, and once it even felt like it burnt me a little bit. 

Interestingly it's only when I do a short loving kindness meditation and chant at the beginning of the practice that this flare up happens, throughout the actual kriya everything feels okay, it's just a bit frightening. 

 

I don't really want to part with it, but if it is detrimenting me then perhaps I should look for other practices. 

Ok, there's a big misconception here generally speaking that I want to clear up. What Sadhguru teaches is not "Kriya Yoga", what he teaches and defines as "Kriya" is any internal action. It is indeed confusing because the word Kriya is used twice in a different manner. However "Kriya Yoga" is referring to a complete system of yoga that was spread to through Lahiri Mahasaya that fits all 8 branches of Patanjanli's Yoga Sutras, whereas what Sadhguru is referring to as "Kriya" is referring to any inwardly looking action, so in Sadhguru's terms some techniques are "Kriya's" and other's are not. In Lahiri's system, it's not so much the techniques that are Kriya's, as the whole system as a whole is Kriya. Technically speaking, by the definition of the word Kriya, Sadhguru is not wrong... but at the same time he did kind of leveraging the popularity of Kriya Yoga to his advantage. These are two completely different systems that sit on opposite ends of the spectrum. Both are tantric in origin, but Sadhguru's techniques are more rooted in the Hatha Yoga side of things. All of the individual components he uses can be found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. So for all intents and purposes, Sadhguru really is a Hatha Yoga system, not a Kriya Yoga system. The semantics are confusing, but important.

Once upon a time, I myself also was initiated into Shambhavi Mahamundra. It does not surprise me that there is energy overload. The hyperventilated breathing and the heavy use of bandhas can definitely cause that, especially to someone who is sensitive to K energy. Like I mentioned above, true Kriya Yoga of Lahiri Mahasaya is about "silencing the Prana". In Lahiri's Kriya there is no need for gross bandhas, as the techniques practiced properly automatically leads to subtle bandhas. You want to lock the energy in the subtle body, not the physical body. The idea is for the energy to travel through the Sushumna, which is in the subtle body. You do not want the energy to travel through the spine, which is in the physical body. You want all of this energy to stay in the subtle body if possible. It is when this energy is taken out of the subtle body into the physical body through force that the negative kundalini effects really start to run wind; and this was my experience exactly. I know in SMM initiation in one of the videos Sadhguru mentions that the point of doing the gross bandhas in SMM is to learn how to apply a subtle bandha... but he unfortunately never offers any advice for a path forward to that end. There is also no hyperventilated breathing in Lahiri's Kriya, only slow, gentle, deep breathing.

I do think that learning true Lahiri Kriya would help. Aside from that, you can try to reach out to Isha for advice, but I doubt you'll actually be able to get to speak to anyone really knowledgeable on the manner, likely just one of the volunteer acharyas. Their acharyas are trained specifically to stick to the script, they even go so far as to teach them to pronounce the words the same way Sadhguru does, so if there's no script for this you may not be able to get help. This is one problem I have with Big Baba gurus, as I believe that if you cannot phone your "guru" up or go visit him to ask advice, and if he has no clue who you are, then he isn't really your guru. Sadhguru specifically goes to great lengths to hide from his followers, the only way to actually see him in person is to pay to go to an event that he is a part of, and these events all have thousands of people at them so you never really can get any real one on one time with him. If you're experiencing negative kundalini energy you really should be working with a knowledgeable guru one on one in some form. There are ways to work around it, but I think everyone is a little different so you kind of best to work with someone that has worked with a lot of people and been through the process themselves. What worked for me may not work for you. Aside from that, the typical grounding recommendations definitely help. If you find yourself super committed to Sadhguru, you could always go back down to Isha Kriya, which should not overly stimulate the energy, at least anymore than any basic meditation will.

 

6 hours ago, Mada_ said:

My question is, do I have to care about intense energy welling up, or can I just let it consume me. Tara Wells says in her book 'enlightened through the path of kundalini', that energy overload means slowing down energy practises. Sasdghuru also says that kundalini can ruin the whole system, and must be risen under special guidance.

So could this perhaps be detrimenting my system by continuing? 

 

Once again, this is guru territory as everyone is different . You can definitely cause physical harm, and it can be difficult to go to work and function in the external world if you're really slamming the kundalini gas pedal. It is possible to awaken K with a gentle and not forced approach. Though there are some people that are super sensitive, the rare types that basically randomly trip and fall into a full scale K awakening one day. This was not me. For me it has been a slow process that has come on like waves in a rising tide; two steps forward, one step back. I try to keep as much energy in the subtle body as possible, where it belongs. When I personally practiced SMM it was before I had experienced my first K rising, so that didn't negatively react in me at the time. I had my first K rising when practicing Kriya through books, and it was very uncomfortable at first. In the spinal breathing I felt massive sexual energy, almost too much to bear, going all the way up my spine to the crown, and I could feel it arcing out into my body the whole way like how lightening arcs as it shoots through the air. After this I was pretty much dead to the world for 2-3 days after. It took a long time to recover from that massive energy overload. Let's just say, I was a skeptic until that day, and that experience made a believer out of me. After that time I've had to be a bit more careful about my practices, especially avoiding bandhas and forced breathing as those really force the energy to arc out into the physical body in my personal experience. But Lahiri's Kriya never overloads me. These days it's not the rising of the tide that bothers me, it's just the lowering of the tide, when I start to feel even a slight separation from God it creates this great desperation and longing for God; my guru calls this the "true internal Bhakti". So yes this should determine what you practice going forward, imo. Your first step, since you mentioned you want to stay loyal to Sadhguru, is to try to reach out to Isha to see if they may be of help. If they are not able to help you, I would recommend seeking a guru that is willing and able to help you, and that would mean ditching Isha. Your heath is more important than your sense of loyalty to an organization, imo. I would not recommend experimenting on yourself, taking advice from the internet, and hoping that you can make it through it on your own. As the words that the original Legend of Zelda made famous: "It is dangerous to go alone". That's my .02 at least.

Edited November 10, 2019 by MountainCactus

[Paan]

@MountainCactus  OMG thank you for your replies, so much good information!

You linked the paramahansa lessons, is there anyone here Who has bought the lessons and want to share a review?

after hearing that not chanting AUM in the chakras while doing pranayama is tamasic ive gone back to lahiris teachings.

[MountainCactus]

1 hour ago, Paan said:

@MountainCactus  OMG thank you for your replies, so much good information!

You linked the paramahansa lessons, is there anyone here Who has bought the lessons and want to share a review?

after hearing that not chanting AUM in the chakras while doing pranayama is tamasic ive gone back to lahiris teachings.

I have taken the lessons, both the old ones, and I'm currently going through the newly redone ones, I'm about 2/3 done with the new ones. The new ones especially are very well done and I think any Kriyaban would benefit from them, even those like me that are not in the Yogananda/Sriyukteswar branch of the lineage. My teacher specifically told me that other than the altered Kriya techniques and some suspected exaggeration in Autobiography (some of the stories he tells in Autobiography are very different and more extreme than how they have been passed down in my branch), that all of the other content that SRF puts out is solid. I also think the new lessons are on discount for half price until the end of the year if I remember correctly. The general information on metaphysics and spiritual matters is wonderful, especially for a westerner, as there's not a lot of good info on this stuff in the west. Also Hong-Sau and AUM are good techniques. I still practice both on occasion, even though they are not in Lahiri's teachings. If my mind is feeling very energized and unsettled on a particular day I will practice Hong-Sau for a few minutes as a warmup to Kriya to center myself. And, if I have a really good Yoni Mundra, which is practiced at the end of my session, and I want to sit longer and absorb myself in the bliss, I will practice AUM for a few minutes while my hands are already up there. I can hear all the astral sounds except the rushing water of the 5th chakra easily without plugged ears, but if I want to absorb myself in the rushing water most of the time I need to plug my ears and formally practice AUM. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by MountainCactus

[Mada_]

7 hours ago, MountainCactus said:

Ok, there's a big misconception here generally speaking that I want to clear up. What Sadhguru teaches is not "Kriya Yoga", what he teaches and defines as "Kriya" is any internal action. It is indeed confusing because the word Kriya is used twice in a different manner. However "Kriya Yoga" is referring to a complete system of yoga that was spread to through Lahiri Mahasaya that fits all 8 branches of Patanjanli's Yoga Sutras, whereas what Sadhguru is referring to as "Kriya" is referring to any inwardly looking action, so in Sadhguru's terms some techniques are "Kriya's" and other's are not. In Lahiri's system, it's not so much the techniques that are Kriya's, as the whole system as a whole is Kriya. Technically speaking, by the definition of the word Kriya, Sadhguru is not wrong... but at the same time he did kind of leveraging the popularity of Kriya Yoga to his advantage. These are two completely different systems that sit on opposite ends of the spectrum. Both are tantric in origin, but Sadhguru's techniques are more rooted in the Hatha Yoga side of things. All of the individual components he uses can be found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. So for all intents and purposes, Sadhguru really is a Hatha Yoga system, not a Kriya Yoga system. The semantics are confusing, but important.

Once upon a time, I myself also was initiated into Shambhavi Mahamundra. It does not surprise me that there is energy overload. The hyperventilated breathing and the heavy use of bandhas can definitely cause that, especially to someone who is sensitive to K energy. Like I mentioned above, true Kriya Yoga of Lahiri Mahasaya is about "silencing the Prana". In Lahiri's Kriya there is no need for gross bandhas, as the techniques practiced properly automatically leads to subtle bandhas. You want to lock the energy in the subtle body, not the physical body. The idea is for the energy to travel through the Sushumna, which is in the subtle body. You do not want the energy to travel through the spine, which is in the physical body. You want all of this energy to stay in the subtle body if possible. It is when this energy is taken out of the subtle body into the physical body through force that the negative kundalini effects really start to run wind; and this was my experience exactly. I know in SMM initiation in one of the videos Sadhguru mentions that the point of doing the gross bandhas in SMM is to learn how to apply a subtle bandha... but he unfortunately never offers any advice for a path forward to that end. There is also no hyperventilated breathing in Lahiri's Kriya, only slow, gentle, deep breathing.

I do think that learning true Lahiri Kriya would help. Aside from that, you can try to reach out to Isha for advice, but I doubt you'll actually be able to get to speak to anyone really knowledgeable on the manner, likely just one of the volunteer acharyas. Their acharyas are trained specifically to stick to the script, they even go so far as to teach them to pronounce the words the same way Sadhguru does, so if there's no script for this you may not be able to get help. This is one problem I have with Big Baba gurus, as I believe that if you cannot phone your "guru" up or go visit him to ask advice, and if he has no clue who you are, then he isn't really your guru. Sadhguru specifically goes to great lengths to hide from his followers, the only way to actually see him in person is to pay to go to an event that he is a part of, and these events all have thousands of people at them so you never really can get any real one on one time with him. If you're experiencing negative kundalini energy you really should be working with a knowledgeable guru one on one in some form. There are ways to work around it, but I think everyone is a little different so you kind of best to work with someone that has worked with a lot of people and been through the process themselves. What worked for me may not work for you. Aside from that, the typical grounding recommendations definitely help. If you find yourself super committed to Sadhguru, you could always go back down to Isha Kriya, which should not overly stimulate the energy, at least anymore than any basic meditation will.

 

Once again, this is guru territory as everyone is different . You can definitely cause physical harm, and it can be difficult to go to work and function in the external world if you're really slamming the kundalini gas pedal. It is possible to awaken K with a gentle and not forced approach. Though there are some people that are super sensitive, the rare types that basically randomly trip and fall into a full scale K awakening one day. This was not me. For me it has been a slow process that has come on like waves in a rising tide; two steps forward, one step back. I try to keep as much energy in the subtle body as possible, where it belongs. When I personally practiced SMM it was before I had experienced my first K rising, so that didn't negatively react in me at the time. I had my first K rising when practicing Kriya through books, and it was very uncomfortable at first. In the spinal breathing I felt massive sexual energy, almost too much to bear, going all the way up my spine to the crown, and I could feel it arcing out into my body the whole way like how lightening arcs as it shoots through the air. After this I was pretty much dead to the world for 2-3 days after. It took a long time to recover from that massive energy overload. Let's just say, I was a skeptic until that day, and that experience made a believer out of me. After that time I've had to be a bit more careful about my practices, especially avoiding bandhas and forced breathing as those really force the energy to arc out into the physical body in my personal experience. But Lahiri's Kriya never overloads me. These days it's not the rising of the tide that bothers me, it's just the lowering of the tide, when I start to feel even a slight separation from God it creates this great desperation and longing for God; my guru calls this the "true internal Bhakti". So yes this should determine what you practice going forward, imo. Your first step, since you mentioned you want to stay loyal to Sadhguru, is to try to reach out to Isha to see if they may be of help. If they are not able to help you, I would recommend seeking a guru that is willing and able to help you, and that would mean ditching Isha. Your heath is more important than your sense of loyalty to an organization, imo. I would not recommend experimenting on yourself, taking advice from the internet, and hoping that you can make it through it on your own. As the words that the original Legend of Zelda made famous: "It is dangerous to go alone". That's my .02 at leas

Thankyou so much for your reply - this has been so helpful!! 

[kerk]

7 hours ago, Paan said:

@MountainCactus  OMG thank you for your replies, so much good information!

You linked the paramahansa lessons, is there anyone here Who has bought the lessons and want to share a review?

I have been through the old lessons and to the end of the new ones (18). If a person takes Kriya initiation there are an additional 9 lessons.

The new lessons are definitely better than the old ones. Besides the printed lessons there is a lot of material on a member website. Each set of additional material becomes accessible after the printed lesson is sent. So there are videos, audio lectures by Yogananda, study guides and music. There is also an app, but I think the website is much better than the app.

The SRF lessons (YSS in India) are God-oriented. It is Yoga and meditation, but the purpose is 100% God. Pray to God, have experience of God in meditation. So a person who believes in God and prayer would find the lessons beneficial. For a person who doesn't believe, pray or think much about God, SRF might not be as good a choice.

SRF is in most countries. In USA it is legally a church. The US government requires certain things to qualify as a church: It has to have members, beliefs and religious services. So SRF has all those, with several hundred centers and groups. On signing up for lessons you get a card that identifies you as a church member. Those who go on to Kriya get another card that admits them to sessions for Kriyabans.

The old lessons were like a simple newsletter. The new lessons are more like a magazine (30-40 pages) because they are highly detailed explanations of the techniques and principles.

SRF has a large cadre of male and female monastics (monks and nuns) who counsel members by phone, mail and in person at the gatherings. The chief of all this is Chidananda, an American. You can see him in action in the video I will link below.

This is a talk he gave in India today. It starts with a prayer, then he leads the attendees in Om Japa in the Chakras. That is about the first 7-8 minutes of the program.

 

[herghly]

SInce starting kriya have you found your dreams have become more vivid?

[MountainCactus]

4 hours ago, herghly said:

SInce starting kriya have you found your dreams have become more vivid?

Incredibly so. I also rarely used to remember my dreams, and now it's a regular occurrence. 

[herghly]

@MountainCactus Do you practice before bed?

[MountainCactus]

8 hours ago, herghly said:

@MountainCactus Do you practice before bed?

I generally practice twice per day on empty stomach conditions (sometimes on days off if I have nothing going on I do 3x). On work days to keep empty stomach this usually this equates to first thing in the morning and in the evening just after arriving home from work and right before dinner. On days that I don't have work and I have more flexibility on the times I eat, yes I do actually to prefer to practice at night before bed. It is the time I can get the deepest, and the darker it is the easier it is to see and become absorbed in the kutastha. Yogiraj said that the hours of sunrise, noon, sunset, and at night are the best times to practice. His preferred time to practice was at night. Actually, towards the end of his life he gave up sleep altogether, opting instead to practice Kriya all night long. If you read his personal diaries in Purana Purusha you can see that he writes about how he struggled with this at first. It was not easy, even for him, to give up sleep. He called it his quest to "conquer sleep". But eventually he was able to get there. Being a householder with a family and tons of devotees to tend to during the day, he kind of had no choice but to go this route to be able to get the hours of samadhi in each day that he wanted.

Edited November 12, 2019 by MountainCactus

[TheExplorer]

Hmmm wow, reading through this thread is a bit confusing

 

I just got the two Kriya books from the booklist, but now i wonder if these are wrong and i should find a guru?

I wish there was more clarity, but that seems rarely the case with so many things

[Matt23]

Kriya Progress Report: November 17, 2019

Book: Kriya Secrets Revealed by J.C. Stevens

Practicals 

-I started maybe a month ago with Nadi Sodhana Pranayama (3 rounds) and Ujjai Pranayama (6 rounds) while allowing in Reiki before my meditation.

It's mostly been uneventful as far as I can remember.  I found it a bit tricky to know if I was doing the Ujjai Pranayama correctly.

- I've started microdosing a week or so ago with piylocybin cubensis, doing it once every 3 days.  Today I did my dose in the morning.

- This time I added the concentration practice (pg.47-58) which has you focus on the Bhrumadhya (point between the eyebrows).  I didn't do Reiki.

-I did 20 minutes total sitting.

Observations

- I remember having trouble focusing my imagination at first.  I also remember seeing a light between my eyebrows, but it would flicker on and off and change a bit.  It didn't feel like it was "something other" than my own imagination.

-Later on in the session I remember being able to focus better on the point.

-I felt some sexual energy and pressure below my naval, or right above my penis.  It was like something was fucking me and I liked it.

-Then I imagined with white thing that looked like a red blood cell at the Brumadhya.  It then split into two and it felt like and seemed like it was representing the two hemispheres of my brain.  It felt like it was trying to integrate and connect both brain hemispheres more. 

-Eventually the two orbs joined in, what I imagined was, the middle of my brain.  It definitely feels like it was trying to integrate both hemispheres.  "Feel" as in almost a physical sensation in my head.  Like a slight pressure or something.

-Then the timer went off.  

 

 

[MountainCactus]

8 hours ago, TheExplorer said:

Hmmm wow, reading through this thread is a bit confusing

 

I just got the two Kriya books from the booklist, but now i wonder if these are wrong and i should find a guru?

I wish there was more clarity, but that seems rarely the case with so many things

It depends on what your goals really are, imo. The books are fine for someone that simply wants to dip their toes in the water, or someone that wants to try to generate kundalini, spiritual highs, or other spiritual experience; the books are more for Kriya tourists not serious practitioners, imo. Practicing the Kriya in the books is better than not practicing yoga at all. But for one that truly wants Nirvikalpa Samadhi (permanent union with the non-dual; the highest form of "enlightenment"), which is what Kriya was specifically designed for, then the books are a detour not the path. This person should seek a guru that has mastered and is authorized to teach at least the first 3 Kriyas (Om Japa, Thokar, and Omkar Kriyas) since most people need to at least somewhat master all of these Kriyas to reach even the lighter stages of Samadhi. Even if the techniques in the books were proper (which they aren't), the process of Kriya is too subtle to truly master from a book. So, like I said it really depends on what you want. All of my comments and recommendations in this thread are mainly targeted at the true spiritual seekers or those that have been practicing the book techniques and getting negative side effects and/or a major lack of progress.

Edited November 18, 2019 by MountainCactus

[Matt23]

I've been having difficulty maintaining my in-breath in the Ujjai Pranayama for longer than 9 seconds (in Kriya Secrets Revealed, he suggests to have it go for 10-15 seconds) and I often feel out of breath when doing it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips to make the breathing easier and effective?

[MountainCactus]

1 hour ago, Matt23 said:

I've been having difficulty maintaining my in-breath in the Ujjai Pranayama for longer than 9 seconds (in Kriya Secrets Revealed, he suggests to have it go for 10-15 seconds) and I often feel out of breath when doing it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips to make the breathing easier and effective?

The best you can do is good enough for now. There's no magical fireworks that fall from the sky when you reach 15 seconds. A long out breath is more important than a long in breath anyways as far as Pratyahara is concerned (as long out breath induces HRV and the parasympathetic response). Alternately, you do not need to do intentional Ujjayi. There is no need for intentional restriction. Simply breath as slowly and gently as is comfortable. There is no reason to try to force and stretch it beyond comfort, as this will actually work against you. You will find that Ujjayi subtly happens all on its own if you do this. The subtle automatic Ujjayi is FAR superior to the gross forceful Ujjayi. If Ujjayi doesn't happen automatically on it's own, don't worry about it. It will happen on its own eventually.

[Matt23]

Cheers

 

[MountainCactus]

https://yoganiketan.net/welcome-to-yoga/the-original-approach-to-kriya

[GreenWoods]

@MountainCactus thanks a lot for your posts

So the proper Kriya techniques seem to be better for enlightenment. How is it in terms of health?

I have been doing the energetic versions by Gamana and feel the energy strongly in the physical body (but I don't have any of the typical negative kundalini symptoms). I am wondering whether this is healthy in the long-term. What do you think?

Edited November 28, 2019 by GreenWoods