kriya yoga - where to start?

[Spiral Wizard]

I am really interested in starting kriya yoga. I feel like the Mega-Thread about kriya yoga is a bit overwhelming, so do you have any recommendations about where I can learn it and/or where I can start?

Edited December 15, 2019 by Spiral Wizard

[kamekat]

I would also benefit from this. There are 1700 posts on the mega thread :S. 

[Alex]

If you are new to consciousness work, you should start by doing some meditation. Kriya especially when practiced to its full extend is very overwhelming for your system. Make sure you're grounded enough before doing it.

[Spiral Wizard]

@Alex can you elaborate on what you mean with overwhelm? What effects can I expect?

[Alex]

@Spiral Wizard Insomnia, back pain, fear of death and an general unwillingness to continue the practice.

I started krya a year ago but quit because it was too intense.

Now I do Kundalini Yoga with a bit of krya once per week in yoga class. Works alot better for an beginner like me.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Alex

[Danioover9000]

   unbelievable. I just finished doing kriya yoga meditation a couple of hours ago, and now a thread about kriya yoga starts up. I have done other meditation techniques and have some experience, but I'm new to kriya yoga. Synchronicity, man...

   I find the mega thread has more value in reporting the experiences but they range from beginners to experts, and now have about a thousand posts. This thread should be for beginners' advice and pointers only and no report.

[Spiral Wizard]

14 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

This thread should be for beginners' advice and pointers only and no report.

Good idea! 

[Alex]

@Cykaaaa Same for me, I heared alot of people say that krya can be super intense and has some hard effects on the psyche, but I dismissed it all because I thought it's just a bit of breathing and visualization.

This stuff actually works even if it has some side effects.

[MountainCactus]

The logical place to start the Kriya path is taking the SRF Lessons. I'm not initiated into SRF, but I've still taken the lessons, and always recommend people start there, even if they do not stick with SRF specifically. The preliminary techniques like Hong Sau and AUM are as good of a place to start as any. There's also a plethora of wonderful info into the metaphysical aspects of both Kriya specifically and Yoga in general to a depth that I have not seen publicly available anywhere else here in the West.

This video here on HRV breathing is another great place to start. Learning how to breath properly is the most important thing in Kriya. It is the breathing itself that leads you deep into a state of Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses, or the no body state). This breathing style is the foundation that first Kriya is built upon. If you can follow this technique and get good at getting into deep Pratyahara consistently, then it will make learning first Kriya super easy. Most beginners mistakes are in not breathing properly. HTH: 

 

[Space]

On 13/12/2019 at 8:06 PM, Spiral Wizard said:

I am really interested in starting kriya yoga. I feel like the Mega-Thread about kriya yoga is a bit overwhelming, so do you have any recommendations about where I can learn it and/or where I can start?

Leo has a number of books on his booklist about Kriya Yoga techniques. Don't bother with all of the preliminary techniques, just get straight to spinal breathing. 

[lmfao]

@Spiral Wizard The book "Kriya Secrets Revealed: Complete Lessons and Techniques" by J C Stevens is what you need to start practicing, it's on Leo's book list.  
It's not the only good book on that book list though. There are many, many gems in it well worth finding out. 

 

For about a week now I've been doing Kriya Yoga consistently, and then doing normal meditation for a little bit after. I'm still extremely confused on what to make on the existence of chakras, which serve as a theoretical basis for visualisations integral to the spinal breathing practice and the everything else. However, the exercises do indeed work, which is the cause of my confusion. The exercises do indeed work extremely well, and I'm new to doing the practices, so I'll question these supposed chakras when I'm more experienced.

[Spiral Wizard]

1 hour ago, Space said:

Don't bother with all of the preliminary techniques, just get straight to spinal breathing. 

What do you see as preliminary techniques?

And is spinal breathing or kriya yoga one of the most effective/advanced techniques? 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Spiral Wizard

[Spiral Wizard]

1 hour ago, lmfao said:

The exercises do indeed work extremely well

Can you elaborate on that? What effects have you noticed? 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Spiral Wizard

[MountainCactus]

2 hours ago, lmfao said:

I'm still extremely confused on what to make on the existence of chakras

When you think of love, where does your brain project that feeling? Into the center of your chest. Feeling that is experiencing your heart chakra. When you feel fear, where does your brain project the feeling in your body? In your stomach. When you feel this you are experiencing your navel chakra. When you feel sexual urges where does your brain project that feeling? In the sacral area, when you feel this you are experiencing your sacral chakra. I could keep going, but you get the point. These are areas with highly concentrations of nerves, glands, receptors, and usually major important organs. These areas have a very primal direct link to your limbic brain. Like your brain projects feelings into these areas, you can consciously project into these areas, which feeds back into the brain. So you are essentially utilizing these chakras as levers to help control the mind, and at the same time releasing energy from these areas into the brain to be used in the meditation. In doing so repeatedly over time you are slowly freeing your consciousness of the burden of the physical body, and in turn your consciousness is able to expand. It does get a bit deeper with the astral body and causal body... but you do not need to know these things, operating on the physical body also operates at these more subtle levels, slowly freeing your consciousness from those layers of the onion as well, until all that is left is pure union with the non-dual.

Edited December 16, 2019 by MountainCactus

[Space]

@lmfao There's a reason Leo's booklist is behind a paywall...

@Spiral Wizard I'm not gonna list out all of the preliminary techniques, because there's too many and they have weird names. You need to go through the Kriya Mega-thread and find Leo's recommendations. Just go through each page and look for Leo's comments, shouldn't take you too long. If all you get is the book mentioned above you won't have a clue where to start or what to do.

[inFlow]

On 12/14/2019 at 8:01 PM, Spiral Wizard said:

@Alex can you elaborate on what you mean with overwhelm? What effects can I expect?

Firstly - good job in making the decision to practice Kriya.

By this he means that Kriya Yoga is very powerful. So powerful that you change your self so fast it leads to constant ego backlashes which can take you hell knows where. I've suffered from this constantly. Growing and just getting sucked back in old very hard habits, binge smoking weed, being lazy etc. Your consciousness will grow really quick compared to simple meditation.

I would recommend you buying Leo's book list which he has some great books on Kriya Yoga. But I will spoil you with one really great book. "J.C. Stevens Kriya Secrets revealed" it's a practice book from beginners to masters.

[Spiral Wizard]

@inFlow Love it, thanks!

45 minutes ago, Space said:

If all you get is the book mentioned above you won't have a clue where to start or what to do.

What do you think about that?

[Spiral Wizard]

@MountainCactus Wow, that was a Great explanation! 
Where have you learned this?

[MountainCactus]

6 hours ago, Spiral Wizard said:

@MountainCactus Wow, that was a Great explanation! 
Where have you learned this?

As far as the aspects of the chakras in the physical body, this came from my teacher, and I have verified his teaching on this through practice myself. One easy way to do this is for example the next time you feel fear, place your consciousness right into that feeling of fear inside your stomach and start mentally chanting "Oooooommmmm" into it over and over. You will see this feedback loop I describe in practice, as it sends the signal to your brain that everything is ok and your brain in turn calms down. You can do this for any negative emotion (although each negative emotion manifests in a different chakra so they obviously won't all be at the navel like fear is). Pay attention to how your brain projects feelings into your body as a form of communication, and how you can communicate back to your brain and in turn train it, it's really quite fascinating! 

Inside daily Kriya practice you aren't just working with these acute occurrences, you are working on unraveling tons of deep subconscious material (aka karmas). It's not uncommon, for instance, once someone starts practicing Kriya for them to start having dreams of  their past (memories of people, places, and especially traumatic experiences), as these old "karmas" or memory imprints in their subconscious start getting processed and let go. It is like a spring cleaning on your subconscious that happens slowly over the period of months and years. Kriya truly is a life changing practice! This is part of why Lahiri said that "Kriya without Om Japa is tamasic" as it loses most of these purifying and healing effects without it.

Just like my teacher, I also always start with the physical body description, especially for people that are doubtful of chakras. Like I mentioned, it goes deeper as the chakras also exist in the astral body and causal body. But someone with doubts about chakras is going to get turned off instantly if one starts bringing these subtle bodies up. It also is not a requirement to believe in these things, as just simply performing Kriya in the physical body effects these more subtle bodies regardless of whether one believes in them or not. Lahiri Mahasaya aptly described these chakras as "knots". These are areas in your body where energy, karmas, and consciousness are bound from the non-dual to the causal body, from the causal body to the astral body, and finally from the astral body to the physical body. The whole purpose of Kriya is to undo these knots, which in turn release the energy, karmas, and consciousness and leads to direct mergence with the non-dual. Pretty powerful stuff!

If you want to dig more into the weeds on the chakras Yogananda's writings in the SRF Lessons and in his "God Talks With Arjuna" book are both excellent. They provide a true, scripturally correct interpretation of what really goes on when a chakra is "closed" or "open" (the words closed and open are very deceptive and not at all what is actually going on under the covers). There is a lot of misinformation out there these days on the chakras, especially in the West where New Agers have kind of invented and promoted their own unique imagining of what chakras are that totally goes against traditional scriptural understanding. I suspect most of this is spread as a way to profit by selling people cures and ceremonies to cleanse, heal and/or "open" their chakras. Be wary of anyone that is trying to sell you anything like this. All you need is Om Japa and a bit of patience.

Edited December 16, 2019 by MountainCactus

[Spiral Wizard]

Love it!

15 minutes ago, MountainCactus said:

causal body

I only knew about the astral body, but what is the causal body?

19 minutes ago, MountainCactus said:

All you need is Om Japa and a bit of patience.

Is Om Japa a form of meditation? Where can I learn it?