Kriya Yoga Mega-Thread

[remember]

@MountainCactus  yes really nice advice against the prananoia!  yes maybe you have seen exactly where the problem is, realize there is a sensitive space opening for understanding what this thread might lack. why not filling some of the gaps instead of arguing about the low quality? it seams like you have some knowledge, so even if all our time is precious or exactly therefore, people who might be seriously interested in kriya but are not at that point yet can probably appreciate your comments. wherever you want to bring that star, it`s probably more important to make it shine, so people can see it. if your time is precious enough.

also yes the mega thread maybe needs a cut from time to time, like a beard. like santa clauses after x-mas shave.

Edited December 15, 2019 by remember

[lostmedstudent]

a NEWBIE technical question about kriya:

i am reading a book on the booklist and im doing the prep exercises before the real kriya initiation. i am already having some issues

1. for the alternate nostril breathing, i keep yawning during it which defeats the purpose of the breathing exercises.. what to do about that?

2. ocean breath: how do i know if im doing it correctly? i watched some videos on youtube but im really not sure how to constrict the throat exactly?

 

thank you !

[GreenWoods]

My opinion on the guru and proper techniques topic:

- Enlightenment 

• If yoga is your only tool for enlightenment, if you want to get enlightened through yoga then I would recommend to find a guru. I do believe that kriya yoga has some very subtle elements which are very hard to do right on your own. And I guess, if you find a good guru, this path is very reliable, in a few years you will be abiding in samadhi and getting enlightened.
• If yoga is but one of many tools you have for enlightenment, that is that you don't rely on yoga for enlightenment, you only do yoga in order to have a more well-rounded approach, to hit the target from yet another angle and to synergize with and amplify other techniques, then I believe the techniques from the books are great. Also, I suppose there are no gurus who would allow you to keep doing things like psychedelics.

- peace vs power

• If you want to get enlightened and resonate more with Ramana Maharshi, and want to live a peaceful life and perhaps help others in a peaceful way like Ramana did, then the 'proper' kriya techniques might be more suitable.
• If you want to get enlightened and want to help other people in a way that requires you to be very active and powerful, then the techniques which energize and ennergize your chakras might be more suitable

- Negative Symptoms (due to the techniques from the books)

• a) you say fuck it and keep going
• b) You don't want to have negative symptoms, then you can try doing more grounding work and de-energize the techniques. If that doesn't help, stop yoga or choose a guru.

- strongly feeling prana in the physical body. This could possibly have negative effects on your health if this is over a long period of time

• a) try doing more grounding work and de-energize the techniques. If that doesn't help, stop yoga or choose a guru.
• b) the daoists talk about the dantian. It is located in the centre of the body, close to the navel. They say that chi can be stored safely there. any amount. So try to get the prana/chi into the dantien. At first it won't stay there once you stop focusing there but I guess over time that will change. I like the practises from the book the Magnum Opus by John Kreiter (but many of them are even more energizing).

Edited December 20, 2019 by GreenWoods

[MountainCactus]

9 hours ago, GreenWoods said:

My opinion on the guru and proper techniques topic:

- Enlightenment 

• If yoga is your only tool for enlightenment, if you want to get enlightened through yoga then I would recommend to find a guru. I do believe that kriya yoga has some very subtle elements which are very hard to do right on your own. And I guess, if you find a good guru, this path is very reliable, in a few years you will be abiding in samadhi and getting enlightened.
• If yoga is but one of many tools you have for enlightenment, that is that you don't rely on yoga for enlightenment, you only do yoga in order to have a more well-rounded approach, to hit the target from yet another angle and to synergize with and amplify other techniques, then I believe the techniques from the books are great. Also, I suppose there are no gurus who would allow you to keep doing things like psychedelics.

- peace vs power

• If you want to get enlightened and resonate more with Ramana Maharshi, and want to live a peaceful life and perhaps help others in a peaceful way like Ramana did, then the 'proper' kriya techniques might be more suitable.
• If you want to get enlightened and want to help other people in a way that requires you to be very active and powerful, then the techniques which energize and ennergize your chakras might be more suitable

- Negative Symptoms (due to the techniques from the books)

• a) you say fuck it and keep going
• b) You don't want to have negative symptoms, then you can try doing more grounding work and de-energize the techniques. If that doesn't help, stop yoga or choose a guru.

- strongly feeling prana in the physical body. This could possibly have negative effects on your health if this is over a long period of time

• a) try doing more grounding work and de-energize the techniques. If that doesn't help, stop yoga or choose a guru.
• b) the daoists talk about the dantian. It is located in the centre of the body, close to the navel. They say that chi can be stored safely there. any amount. So try to get the prana/chi into the dantien. At first it won't stay there once you stop focusing there but I guess over time that will change. I like the practises from the book the Magnum Opus by John Kreiter (but many of them are even more energizing).

Well said. I agree with most of this. And in Yoga the navel is also considered to be the most grounded point. It is the point where the "Samana air" resides, which is the byproduct of mixing the Prana and Apana airs.

The one thing I disagree with is the peace vs power part, as I think that Lahiri's techniques also lead to a lot of physical energy... but it's more of a clean energy I guess you could say. It feels more natural, like I'm heavily rested all the time and not like I'm overloaded. Kriya was meant to be the anti-cave dwelling yogi technique. It was specifically tailored for people who are out in the world living the householder life. Also, the higher Kriyas which specifically bring the energy from the higher centers back down into the heart create an energy profile specifically suited to "help other people in a way that requires you to be very active and powerful". 

[Paan]

Is it anyone doing the KSR book technique that has gotten good progress? Or are all here doing the other technique written by ”SG”?

[DrewNows]

@MountainCactus Is it true there are 7 levels to the Kriya Yoga and the 3rd level being food freedom? 

[GreenWoods]

 

On 12/20/2019 at 0:42 PM, GreenWoods said:

then I would recommend to find a guru.

I think you can certainly get enlightened with the books too and I personally don't resonate with having a guru at all, but I think if you want to get enlightened through yoga then I guess it is more reliable if you do it with a good guru.

On 12/18/2019 at 2:34 AM, lostmedstudent said:

2. ocean breath: how do i know if im doing it correctly? i watched some videos on youtube but im really not sure how to constrict the throat exactly?

In the beginning, I don't think it really matters whether you do it 100% correctly. Just start the main techniques. When you do Kp1, then put your attention on doing that right. Eventually it will become more easy to constrict the throat and you will probably know that you are doing it right. If I remember right, MountainCactus wrote some posts earlier that you don't need to actively try to constrict the throat, if you do everything right, then that will happen automatically over time. 

In the beginning I was also wondering whether I do it right, but now it's very obvious and feels natural.

 

On 12/20/2019 at 10:03 PM, MountainCactus said:

The one thing I disagree with is the peace vs power part, as I think that Lahiri's techniques also lead to a lot of physical energy... but it's more of a clean energy I guess you could say. It feels more natural, like I'm heavily rested all the time and not like I'm overloaded. Kriya was meant to be the anti-cave dwelling yogi technique. It was specifically tailored for people who are out in the world living the householder life. Also, the higher Kriyas which specifically bring the energy from the higher centers back down into the heart create an energy profile specifically suited to "help other people in a way that requires you to be very active and powerful". 

good to know, that's interesting.

[kerk]

23 hours ago, DrewNows said:

Is it true there are 7 levels to the Kriya Yoga and the 3rd level being food freedom? 

The number of levels depends on which school or lineage you are asking about, and how they number and order their techniques.

Generally I have seen 4 to 6 levels. I have never heard of 3rd Kriya having anything to do with food.

There is a Qigong practice known as bigu where the practitioner depends mostly on Qi instead of taking in food.

It wouldn't surprise me if some advanced Kriyabans could abstain from food, but I've never heard of Lahiri or his disciples teaching this. Maybe there is some reference to it in Lahiri's commentaries or diaries.

Paramahansa Yogananda does recount a visit with a non-eating yogini, Giri Bala, in Chapter 46 of Autobiography of a Yogi. While his footnotes give a few details, they are not enough to really teach what she was doing.

Edited December 22, 2019 by kerk

[MountainCactus]

1 hour ago, kerk said:

The number of levels depends on which school or lineage you are asking about, and how they number and order their techniques.

Generally I have seen 4 to 6 levels. I have never heard of 3rd Kriya having anything to do with food.

There is a Qigong practice known as bigu where the practitioner depends mostly on Qi instead of taking in food.

It wouldn't surprise me if some advanced Kriyabans could abstain from food, but I've never heard of Lahiri or his disciples teaching this. Maybe there is some reference to it in Lahiri's commentaries or diaries.

Paramahansa Yogananda does recount a visit with a non-eating yogini, Giri Bala, in Chapter 46 of Autobiography of a Yogi. While his footnotes give a few details, they are not enough to really teach what she was doing.

Yeah, I've never heard that either. I heard Lahiri say you move beyond each of the elements as your consciousness goes up through each chakra... but that's the closest I've heard to anything like that.

My lineage does have 7 Kriya techniques though if that's what he is alluding to. Though none of those are about freedom from food, haha. Also, most people only ever get the first 3 (or up to Omkar Kriya to specify for any lineages that break first Kriya up into 2 initiations). This is really all most people need though. I mean, that's all Yogananda had learned was the first 3, and look at how elevated his consciousness was. I also imagine a session with all 7 Kriyas must easily be a 4 hour+ session... how many people truly truly have the motivation to want to sign up for that on a daily basis? Not many.

Edited December 22, 2019 by MountainCactus

[kerk]

By the way I just had lunch with a guy who has been practicing Kriya for 26 years.

He chowed down a big Asian dish like anybody else.

[DrewNows]

@kerk @MountainCactus Thanks guys. Yeah i have been studying breatharianism but i don't know much about kriya yoga. I heard one of the videos i watched briefly mention kriya yoga in relation to breatharianism (breath work/meditation) and Chi gong, basically talking about meditation, prana and higher levels of consciousness so i was curious 

Edited December 23, 2019 by DrewNows

[MountainCactus]

15 hours ago, DrewNows said:

@kerk @MountainCactus Thanks guys. Yeah i have been studying breatharianism but i don't know much about kriya yoga. I heard one of the videos i watched briefly mention kriya yoga in relation to breatharianism (breath work/meditation) and Chi gong, basically talking about meditation, prana and higher levels of consciousness so i was curious 

Yeah I think breatharianism is more of a Siddhi (spiritual power) than anything. Like all Siddhis, they don't necessarily mean someone has reached a higher level of consciousness. Siddhis and enlightenment are two totally separate things, you can have one without the other, and most gurus warn that chasing Siddhis can actually become a distraction that binds you more to the world as opposed to transcending it. Kriya doesn't specifically target Siddhis, if they randomly pop up they are treated more as a side effect than anything else. No real importance is given to them, and no encouragement is given to directly try to achieve any Siddhis in practice. In Autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda did list a lot of examples of people who had achieved Siddhis, and I think that's why Kriya gets pulled into Siddhi discussions a lot.

[DrewNows]

@MountainCactus how does one chase Siddhis? Anyways yeah so this Breatharian was in India and worked with a kriya yoga group, realized the 3rd level, opening the third chakra. Stomach, releases one from the dependency on food but most don’t know this...it’s interesting. I opened the root chakra a few months ago through meditation and fasting, eating mostly fruit. I simply became hyper sensitive to the energy density of foods I consumed and no longer feel hunger 

Edited December 24, 2019 by DrewNows

[MountainCactus]

12 hours ago, DrewNows said:

@MountainCactus how does one chase Siddhis? Anyways yeah so this Breatharian was in India and worked with a kriya yoga group, realized the 3rd level, opening the third chakra. Stomach, releases one from the dependency on food but most don’t know this...it’s interesting. I opened the root chakra a few months ago through meditation and fasting, eating mostly fruit. I simply became hyper sensitive to the energy density of foods I consumed and no longer feel hunger 

I am not sure, Siddhis are out of my scope of knowledge, and I personally have no desire to chase them. Lahiri never used the words "opening" a chakra, as the term is very deceptive and not actually true to what is going on under the covers. He used the term raising of the consciousness above a chakra. Kriya is not meant to awaken or strengthen a chakra like in Kundalini Yoga, it's meant to be a way for you to slowly transcend the chakras and in turn the elements and dualities they each represent altogether! Chakras are physical, astral, and causal manifestations, but the goal of Kriya is to go beyond the physical, beyond the astral, and even beyond the causal. The goal is to get your consciousness to the point where the chakras, and even Kundalini itself, no longer exist or have any bearing/control over you. The element of the third chakra is fire, and he taught that when consciousness goes beyond the third chakra you go beyond the element fire, and beyond the anger, fear, and desire to perform worldy centered action that originate in that center. There is no mention of food in his teachings at all.

Yogananda did speak of food, but it was never in relation to the third chakra. It was more a function of the medulla, where cosmic energy enters the body. I went and reread a long excerpt he wrote this morning in Second Coming of Christ on this subject. He said that the people that learn to subsist on cosmic energy alone become attuned with the medulla and learn to metabolize the energy brought in from that center. He also said it was foolish for people to try to chase this Siddhi, as it is foolish and immature to try to test God simply to appease the ego. Basically, if it happens on it's own accord take the blessing, but if it doesn't randomly happen on it's own not to chase it. He recommended short fasts (specifically he recommended either 1 day every week, or 3 concurrent days once a month) to help break through the desire and attachments for food, to help the body learn to rely more on this cosmic energy, and to let the physical body have a break to rest and heal the digestive tract for general health purposes.

Can Kriya lead to this Siddhi? I think Kriya can lead to any Siddhi, but attaining it would simply be a random blessing. It is not a tool to specifically chase Siddhis. I personally would advise people against trying to chase Siddhis. I think first they need to answer two important questions: First, why do you want to attain this Siddhi? Second, who is it that wants to attain this Siddhi?

[DrewNows]

@MountainCactus I really don't know what i am talking about when it comes to chakra and simply wanted to use the same lingo i've heard. I like how Lahiri describes it. Personally i have been on a detoxification journey to heal my body and once i started learning about Breatharianism I started connecting the dots and seeking to know what is possible if i let go of my belief system on food dependency to entertain this new paradigm shift

2 hours ago, MountainCactus said:

Can Kriya lead to this Siddhi? I think Kriya can lead to any Siddhi, but attaining it would simply be a random blessing

Sure it would be a blessing but not random. It has to do with intent, will and what is has been taught. Someone who considers themselves a breatharian knows everyone is a breatharian but maybe aren't aware of it on a conscious level, or choose beliefs shaping another reality

This guy actually answers the inquiry from hearing another video in this one right where i save it, check it out if you'd like....thanks again for your sharing of those understandings

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by DrewNows

[Shakazulu]

Beautiful folks  on practicing the second part of kriya pranayama, any tips? 

[MountainCactus]

On 1/4/2020 at 8:00 PM, karakondzula said:

Hi guys! Do any of you have any information about https://onlinebabajikriya.com/? Is this legitimate?

I don't know anything about it specifically. But I am always kind of skeptical of any guru/teacher that claims to branch off of Babaji directly. Best I can tell you is to talk to the teacher directly, get a feel for him/her and use your intuition and your heart to tell you if they are legit and a good fit for you specifically or not. One doesn't just marry the first person they go on a date with. Instead, one goes to great lengths to find out if that person is worth marrying or not. The same level of discrimination should be used for gurus/teachers.

[TheSelf]

Hey guys, my first post here in this awesome forum, 

My story is that for a long time i could feel some tingling sensations on my forehead, like whenever i focus on it, immediately the feeling would start, but i didn't know what's that until i researched about it and figured out that its about pineal gland and third eye, so i researched more and also saw Leo's vid about Kriya Yoga, and really really interested getting into sprituality after reading alot about all these, and started practicing the techniques (pranayama, maha mudra talabiya mudra), on  my third session of practising pranayama (moving prana up down version) i started feeling intense vibrations in my head and also my chest and prana first on my spine ( tingling or like worms moving underneath your skin kinda feeling) then in the next day i could feel these in my neck, hands, feets, face even on my eye lids,whenever i focus and imagine the prana moving up down( can get intense depends on how long i do it), if i focus on my forehead in just a few minutes the feeling and pressure can get very intense even i feel pressure on my upper part of nose, i also experienced some intense headaches for like 2 days but it goes away, and also i feel a lot of vibrations mostly in my head after  practicing pranayama almost in whole body, so is all these normal for this very short time (almost a month of breath focusing and a week of Kriya Yoga plus a few days of self inquiry) and am i on the right path??   Btw i have almost a calm monkey mind( even it did get much more calmer after started getting into these stuff,btw I'm an artist and practicing art for years and living alone with very limited social interactions with others (maybe hanging out with my friend once every two three weeks) i duno if all these is related!?

Edited January 9, 2020 by m0hsen

[Paan]

This question might sound silly but when yogis are talking about meditation, what do they mean? Let me explain..

I ve just learn about the HRV technique or as they also call it the "hong sau". But when do they practice this? Is it after the maha mudra and the pranayama routine? Or is it in a separate sitting?  

[kerk]

On 1/4/2020 at 10:00 PM, karakondzula said:

Hi guys! Do any of you have any information about https://onlinebabajikriya.com/? Is this legitimate?

Seems like everybody and his dog nowadays claims to be disciples of Babaji. I remember one site where it said Babaji materialized to the guy in his car and that's how he became a kriyaguru.

There are places to learn Kriya all over the world now, There are different versions with their different requirements and possibly different results. But I don't see why anyone would go with some mysterious web persona.

I see that Don Abrams in New York has started teaching Kriya online. He appears to have spun off from KYIO. But he seems to be upfront about his lineage.