Spinal breathing pranayama

Spinal BreathingPranayama

–Journey to Inner Space

Yogani

From The AYP Enlightenment Series

– Spinal Breathing Pranayamaii

Copyright © 2006 by Yogani

All rights reserved.

AYP Publishing

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www.advancedyogapractices.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006923697

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London, England, U.K.

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Journey to Inner Space – iii

“All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils…”

Job 27:3

– Spinal Breathing Pranayamaiv

Journey to Inner Space – v

Introduction

Spinal Breathing Pranayama is one of the mostimportant practices in all of yoga. It can have apositive impact on our health and well-being, and infacilitating more effective functioning in every aspectof our daily life. But more than that, spinal breathingpranayama purifies and opens us to our ecstatic innerrealms. To engage in this simple practice on a dailybasis is to be on an exciting journey to inner space.

For thousands of years, methods of spinalbreathing have been utilized by spiritual practitioners,and are mentioned in the ancient scriptures. Yet, thedetails of this practice have always been kept secretfrom the vast majority of the population. Now, inthese rapidly changing times, there is a great need formany to have access to the means that have long beenreserved for the few. No one owns this knowledge. Itoriginates inside each of us, within our very ownnervous system. We only need a few simpleinstructions, and the natural evolutionary processespresent within us will take over, yielding marvelousresults.

The Advanced Yoga Practices EnlightenmentSeries is an endeavor to present the most effectivemethods of yoga in a series of easy-to-read books thatanyone can use to gain practical results immediatelyand over the long term. Since the AYP writings firstbegan in 2003, we have been engaged in a fascinating

– Spinal Breathing Pranayamavi

experiment to see just how much can be conveyed,with much more detail included on practices than inthe spiritual writings of the past. Can books provideus the specific means necessary to tread the path toenlightenment, or do we have to surrender at the feetof a guru to find our salvation? Well, clearly we mustsurrender to something, even if it is to our own innatepotential to live a freer and happier life. If we are ableto do that, and maintain a daily practice, then bookslike this one can come alive and instruct us in theways of human spiritual transformation. If the readeris ready and the book is worthy, amazing things canhappen.

While one person’s name is given as the author ofthis book, it is actually a distillation of the efforts ofthousands of practitioners over thousands of years.This is one person’s attempt to simplify and makepractical the spiritual methods that many haveutilized throughout history. All who have gone beforehave my deepest gratitude, as do the many I amprivileged to be in touch with in the present whocontinue to practice with dedication and good results.

I hope you will find this book to be a usefulresource as you travel along your chosen path.

Practice wisely, and enjoy!

Journey to Inner Space – vii

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Breath and the Life Force ................ 1

Chapter 2 – Spinal Breathing Pranayama .......... 9

How to do Spinal Breathing..................................... 10When and Where to do Spinal Breathing................. 12Initial Questions on Practice .................................... 14Enhancing the Effectiveness of Spinal Breathing.... 20The Possibilities ................................................ 32

Chapter 3 – Journey to Inner Space................... 35

Managing Our Purification and Opening................. 36Energy Experiences and Visions.............................. 63The Evolution of Ecstatic Conductivity................... 86

Chapter 4 – The Cosmic You ............................... 93

The Marriage of Opposites ...................................... 94Ecstatic Bliss............................................................ 96The Infinite Self and Divine Love ........................... 98

Further Reading and Support ........................... 103

Journey to Inner Space – 1

Chapter 1 – Breath and the Life Force

Breath is life. It sustains us and it is an expressionof the life force within us. The fact that we arebreathing is an affirmation of life. It means we wantto be here. It means we want to be doing somethinghere. But what?

So much of life is instinct. We breathe, we eat, wesleep, we become active, we procreate…

Within all of that, we are making choices aboutwhat to do with our life, going about our business –getting an education, pursuing a career, makingmoney, raising a family, working for the things thatmatter to us, and so on.

All the while, something is wondering inside:“What is all this for? Why am I here? Is theresomething more?” We have an instinct to be askingthese questions. Like breath itself, the questions arespurred through the impulse of life stirring deepwithin us. Indeed, the questions are an essentialconstituent of our life force, as essential as breathingitself.

What is this life force that sustains and animatesevery aspect of our existence, and spurs us on to findanswers? We know that all of material existence ismade up of energy. Physics tells us that all matter isempty space made to behave as solid by the polaritiesof energy whirling inside. All of this whirling in thevacuum of infinite space, making the appearance of

– Spinal Breathing Pranayama2

matter, is according to natural laws. That is, thenature of matter is predictable, at least as far as wehave been able to determine with our scientificinvestigations over the centuries. Likewise, whenmatter takes the form of living things – plants,animals and human beings – much can be predictedabout the physicality of life. But there is somethingmore manifesting in living things. The whirlingenergies are still there creating the appearance ofmatter. Yet, something more is operating to bring thematter together into an intelligent expression – anintelligent and evolving system. This something elsewe can call the “life force.”

In the ancient teachings of yoga from India, thelife force is given another name – prana, whichmeans “first unit” or “first manifestation.” Yogaregards the manifestation of all matter as amanifestation of prana, and therefore “intelligent.”Indeed, all that exists, all that is born of energy is anexpression of prana. The rocks and earth areexpressions of prana. The seas are an expression ofprana. The air is an expression of prana. And all ofanimate life is an expression of prana. In the Easternway of thinking about it, the entire material existenceis an expression of prana – the life force. And it is allimbued with an innate intelligence.

Where does prana come from? Whether we go tothe spiritual teachings of the world, or to modernquantum physics, we will find a similar answer –


stillness is the source of prana, the life force thatenergizes the universe we experience. The stillnesswe speak of is of a special kind – a stillness that isfilled with possibilities. It is an awareness that doesnot move. Yet, all that we see springs from it and isit. In the AYP writings we call it inner silence, orpure bliss consciousness. It has many names in manytraditions. Whatever we call it, it is underlying all theactivities of the life force, and everything we do inlife.

The cultivation of inner silence in the humanbeing is the subject of the first book in the AYPEnlightenment Series: Deep Meditation – Pathway toPersonal Freedom. Now we are going to the nextstep, which is the cultivation of prana, the life force,in the human being in ways that promote theexpansion of our inner potential, our inner silence.

To this end, yoga has a branch of practice calledpranayama, which means “restraint of prana,” the lifeforce manifested as breath. So pranayama is aboutbreathing techniques.

There are many methods of pranayama, manybreathing techniques. But one stands out above all therest. It is called spinal breathing pranayama. Thereason it stands out is because of its effectiveness instimulating and regulating prana within us in a waythat covers the three primary objectives of allpranayama:


1. Culturing the nervous system to become asteadily improving vehicle for inner silence risingfrom deep meditation.

2. Awakening the nervous system to a condition ofpermanent ecstatic conductivity.

3. Increasing and balancing the flow of inner energy(prana) over the long term to facilitate aprogressive and safe unfoldment of the individualtoward enlightenment.

The internal dynamics of implementing thesethree objectives are complex. Fortunately, thepractice of spinal breathing is very simple. It is likethis in the successful application of any complextechnology in our society. The means of control areoptimized and simplified to a level where nearlyanyone can efficiently take advantage of complexprinciples found in nature.

For example, consider a car. We hardly give it asecond thought when we climb into a car and driveoff to an appointment. Even as we are driving, wewill be thinking about our appointment rather than thecomplex technology that is operating smoothly underthe hood of the car, whisking us off to our chosendestination. All we have to do is press on the gaspedal and hold the steering wheel, and away we go.Simple, yes? No, not simple at all, but it has been


made simple by virtue of the simplified controls thatenable us to effortlessly transform a volatilesubstance, gasoline, into a speedy and safe ride to ourappointment.

Pranayama is like that. In fact, all effectivespiritual practice is like that. We can take complexprinciples of transformation found in the humannervous system and, with a series of simpleprocedures, apply these for great spiritual benefit.

In the case of spinal breathing pranayama, we aresimultaneously capitalizing on numerous complexprinciples that are operating within our neurobiology,and we are enhancing these in a broad-based way.

As the name implies, spinal breathing involvesdoing something in the spine. From physiology andneurology we know that the spinal cord is the mainhighway of our functioning. From yoga, we knowthat the spinal cord is the main highway of the lifeforce in our body. Yoga also recognizes that as wepurify and open the nerves in the body, innerexperiential openings occur. This is the centralprinciple in deep meditation, where we systematicallygo from thinking to inner silence and come out intothe body/mind with great purifying effects. This kindof process is also central in the application of spinalbreathing pranayama, on the level of the breath andthe body, where we are going in and cultivating thenerves in a specific and purifying way. In doing so,we are improving the ability of the subtle


neurobiology to serve as a much better vehicle forinner silence brought out through deep meditation.And, with spinal breathing pranayama, we are alsogradually making the body a much better conductorof the inner energies which play an increasing role asthe process of human spiritual transformationadvances.

Together, inner silence and the awakening of ourinner energies (prana, the life force) intermingle toproduce a condition of unshakable inner steadinessand ecstatic bliss. As the process refines, we find thisremarkable development overflowing through ourconduct in daily living and into our surroundings,gradually transforming us to become a channel ofdivine love flowing into the world.

Along the way we find ourselves becomingintimately familiar with our vast inner dimensions.Indeed, the journey of spiritual practices is a journeyto inner space. This is particularly true of spinalbreathing pranayama, which, in the process of settingthe stage for the purification and opening of ournervous system to ecstatic bliss and the outward flowof divine love, also opens us up to a direct perceptionof our inner realms. Interestingly, in the process ofdiscovering our own interior, we also discover thatwhat is in us is also the basis of everything andeveryone we see in the outside world. In coming toknow ourselves, we come to know all that is around


us as an expression of our own inner awareness andinner space.

While all this may seem an interesting theory, weare not here to discuss theory and philosophy much inthis book. We are here to provide the means for directexperience of the things we are talking about.

So let’s move on and talk about how to do spinalbreathing pranayama, and also take a look at thespecifics of what we may find in the way of resultingexperiences.



Chapter 2 – Spinal Breathing Pranayama

We are all wired for enlightenment. We are allwired to be illuminated from within. It is only amatter of purifying the wiring, our nervous system, toknow the truth of this. A primary means by which ournervous system can become purified is through spinalbreathing pranayama. It is a mechanical processinvolving breath, attention and a few other simplecomponents. As we engage in the practice, we will bebrought in touch with our own inner anatomy, andbegin to purify it step-by-step with each day ofpractice. The scenery we will see along the way willbe dazzling at times, dull at other times, and perhapseven stuck at yet other times. But, all the while wewill be traveling forward, if we keep up our dailypractice.

For those who are reading this book beforelearning deep meditation, do keep in mind that withspinal breathing, we are preparing for deepmeditation. Spinal breathing is a powerful practice.But, alone, it is not enough to complete theillumination we are talking about here. With spinalbreathing we will journey to inner space. And withthe addition of deep meditation immediately after ourspinal breathing we will become inner space.


How to do Spinal BreathingIf we can breathe, think and visualize, we can do

spinal breathing. Only one other skill is necessary –the ability to form a daily habit. It is not difficult. Solet’s begin…

We start by sitting comfortably with backsupport with our eyes closed. No particular posture isrequired. The main thing is to be comfortable andreasonably upright. We can be in a chair or sitting onthe bed.

Then we just begin to notice our breathing –easily in and then easily back out. Spinal breathing isdone through the nose with mouth closed. We do notuse alternate nostril breathing with the fingers in thisstyle of pranayama. If the nose is obstructed so as tomake nose breathing uncomfortable, then we canbreathe through our mouth. Now we will do twothings.

First, we slow down our breathing in acomfortable way – no straining. We just take it to theslowest comfortable pace we can. As part of this webreathe deeper, drawing more air in and expellingmore air out than we do in normal breathing. We justbreathe slower and deeper, keeping comfort well inhand. No heroics are necessary. Got it? Good.

Second, we imagine a tiny nerve, like a little tubethe size of a thread running from our perineum all theway up to the center of our brow. The perineum is the


place underneath, between the genitals and the anus –we also call it the root. The center of the brow is thepoint between the eyebrows – sometimes it is calledthe third eye. The tiny nerve that goes between theroot and the brow is called the spinal nerve. Betweenthe root and the brow, the spinal nerve goes up thecenter of the spine to the center of the head and turnsforward to the brow, like that.

What we do in spinal breathing is trace the spinalnerve with our attention as we breathe. We go upfrom the root to the brow on inhalation, and downfrom the brow to the root on exhalation. This we doover and over again for as long as we are practicingspinal breathing.

In the beginning, we are visualizing the spinalnerve and tracing it with our slow deep breathing. Asour practice develops, visualization will give way todirect perception of the spinal nerve. More on thatlater. Until then, we will visualize, and this will beour means for awakening and enlivening the mainhighway of our nervous system.

If during our journey up and down the spinalnerve during slow deep breathing, we find ourattention off into internal or external experiences,sensations or other stimuli, then we just easily goback to our practice of slow deep breathing up anddown the spinal nerve. It is normal to lose track ofwhat we are doing and be off into other sensations,thoughts and feelings. When we do, we just simply


re-engage the process of spinal breathing again.When we realize we are off it, we just easily comeback.

If we have some difficulty visualizing andtracing the spinal nerve as a tiny thread or tube, thenit is perfectly all right to follow the spinal column in aless specific way. Over time, we will find moredefinition in our practice. There is no need to strain orstruggle in our visualization. The main thing is thatwe end up at the brow at the completion of inhalationand at the root at the completion of exhalation. Howwe get back and forth is less important than travelingfrom one end to the other without strain during ourslow deep breathing. In time, it all comes together.

Tracing the spinal nerve with slow deepbreathing is the technique of spinal breathingpranayama. And when we drift off from it, we justeasily come back. That is part of the practice also. Nostrain and no fuss. Very simple, yes? There areseveral more aspects that will be added later. Butbefore we do that, let’s cover a few practical mattersand get some experience under our belt.

When and Where to do Spinal BreathingThe best benefits of spinal breathing will be

found in keeping up a twice-daily practice session.The ideal time to do it is before the morning andevening meal. There is flexibility on this according toone’s schedule. Doing pranayama on an empty


stomach is preferred. It will be your choice. It issuggested to start with five minutes of spinalbreathing at each sitting, followed by meditation.AYP deep meditation is recommended. If anotherform of meditation has been in use already with goodresults, it will be okay to use that method ofmeditation instead. But do keep in mind that bymeditation we mean a mental technique that bringsthe mind and body to deep inner stillness. It is innersilence we want to be cultivating after our spinalbreathing session. If no method of meditation hasbeen in use before now, then it will be fine to sit witheyes closed and mind easy for five or ten minutesafter spinal breathing before getting up. Learning aneffective technique of deep meditation will beadvisable so the maximum combined benefits of bothspinal breathing and meditation can be achieved. Thetwo practices go together in sequence like that – handin glove.

Spinal breathing can be done just aboutanywhere. Obviously, at home on our meditation seatis the best place, but we do not always have theluxury. If we are on-the-go, spinal breathing can bedone almost anywhere at the appointed time – inplanes, trains, cars (not while driving!), busy waitingrooms, etc. It is a practice that can be done verydiscreetly, with our meditation right after. We will besitting there with our eyes closed and no one willknow that we are plumbing the depths of our cosmic


realms within. Only by the happy expression on ourface will they know.

Now will be a good time for you to try a spinalbreathing session. Just sit comfortably and begin thepractice as it has been given – very easily, with nostrain. Do it for five minutes. It is okay to peek at theclock once in a while to check the time. Once youhave finished, then sit for a few more minutes,relaxed, with your eyes closed.

It is a very easy practice. Even so, no doubt youwill have some questions. We will cover a few of themain ones in this chapter, and many more in the nextchapter.

So, go now and do a session, and then come backfor some questions and answers. We’ll also discuss afew additional aspects of spinal breathing practicethat can be incorporated to enhance the results.

Initial Questions on PracticeNow that you have had a taste of spinal

breathing, we can cover a few questions that oftencome up. These will cover a range, from not muchhappening to a lot happening – there can be someinner resistance, or no resistance at all. It can beanywhere on this scale in the first session. Everyoneis different, and will experience spinal breathingaccording to the inner condition of their nervoussystem. The march of progress in spinal breathing is aprocess of purification and opening. This is at the


heart of the journey in all spiritual practice.Purification, opening to our vast inner space, andillumination from within.

Here are three questions and answers thatsummarize the range of experiences we can havewhen starting out. In the next chapter we will delvemuch deeper into the relationship of practice andexperiences, and how to travel the road of our innerpurification to enlightenment.

This is not easy. Is it supposed to be? Sometimes, in the beginning, there can be

noticeable resistance in the process of spinalbreathing. There can be several causes.

In the beginning, the most common cause ofresistance is the newness of it. We all go through acertain amount of awkwardness as we are learning thepractice. The first time we got on a bicycle, did wejust ride off smoothly? Of course not. It took somepractice, some getting used to. Then, after a while,riding the bicycle became easier. Spinal breathing islike that. There will be degrees of awkwardness.Some will take to it easily, while others may needsome time to adjust in the beginning. Keep in mindthat it is a simple process, and it does not have to beperfect. All of spinal breathing is a favoring –favoring slow deep breathing, and favoring a pathwayinside the spine between root and brow. When we


wander off, or feel stuck, we just easily come back toit.

There is another reason for resistance in spinalbreathing – obstructions in the nervous system. Theseare neurobiological restrictions within us that wehave carried throughout our life. With spinalbreathing, we are coaxing them to relax and release.In the beginning, the resistance from these innerknots can be quite palpable. Some people may find itdifficult to pass through a particular area of the innerbody with attention and breath traveling up and downinside. The resistance can be found anywhere – thepelvis, solar plexus, heart, throat, or in the head. Theresistance can be felt as a blockage that we can’t getpast, or as some pressure.

What do we do? It is simple. If there is apressure or a resistance, we just go right by it withour attention and breath. Easily right by it. We nevertry and force through inner resistance. We just strokeit gently with our attention and breath as we go by.This has a good purifying effect, and will not beuncomfortable. Discomfort comes from forcingagainst an obstruction. We never do this in spinalbreathing. We just whisk on through. What we didnot dissolve on the first pass, we will get on the nextone, or the next, or the 10,000th pass, maybe yearslater in our practice. That is how we purify the innerneurobiology. And all the while, we will have the


experience of less resistance accompanied by moreclarity and fluidity.

With each spinal breathing session, we arejourneying deeper within ourselves to realms ofgreater peace and joy.

Where is the spinal nerve? I can’t find it.Imagine you are a gold miner and you have just

staked your claim on a promising piece of land whereyou believe you will find gold. Maybe you found afleck or two and are inspired to start digging. Ormaybe you bought the claim because you saw thegold others were finding on their claims nearby.Whatever the reason, you start digging, even thoughyou have seen little or no gold. You can imagine thegold being in the earth, so you dig until yourimagining becomes the real thing.

Spinal breathing is like that. We imagine thespinal nerve in our traveling up and down with thebreath. Will we always be imagining the spinal nerve,or will we actually see it at some point?

As purification advances, our inner experienceswill also advance. This is the revealing of the spinalnerve. It is a remarkable discovery we all can make,because we all have a spinal nerve. Every person hasone! Our very existence is the proof of it being there.Just as the spinal cord is the main highway of thenervous system, so too is the spinal nerve the mainhighway of our consciousness expressing on this


earth. It is through the spinal nerve that we come toknow the full extent of our inner dimensions and thesource of all that we are.

But we will not likely see all this on the first dayof spinal breathing. Well, maybe a glimpse. Enoughto know that there is gold in those hills! Enough forus to be motivated to keep up our twice-daily practice– to keep tracing up and down with our visualizationof the spinal nerve that goes from our perineum rootto the center of our brow, inside the center of ourspine in-between. As we imagine traveling that patheasily over and over again, it will reveal itself to us,and a whole lot more – more than we ever imagined.

I was in a huge blissful space. What was it?It was the spinal nerve. Really, that is what it can

be like. It is a paradox. How could such a tiny nervebecome so big? It is the essential nature of ourneurobiology. Our nervous system is the doorway tovast inner space. More than that – it is the doorway tounimaginable peace, intelligence, energy, ecstaticbliss and divine love. All that inside a tiny littlenerve. It is infinity in a bottle, and we are the bottle!

We cannot force our way into this. We cangently coax the purification in our nervous systemthat will eventually reveal what is within us as a fulltime experience. This is why we do spinal breathing.


Even in that expanded space, the practice willcontinue. We just easily favor slow deep breathingwhile tracing the path between root and brow.

The experience can evolve in many waysaccording to the course of our inner purification. It isnot for us to manage the details of it. Experiences area by-product of our practice. We always favor ourpractice over the experiences. We don’t try and pushthe experiences out. We can easily favor our spinalbreathing practice with any kind of experience goingon, even a glorious expansion inside. This isimportant.

Everyone has a different purification process,depending on what the matrix of obstructions iswithin. So the revealing of our inner space can comein many ways. It can come as certain colors,sometimes accompanied by white light. It can bemore in the feeling realm, like touching our innerdimensions. It can be with sound, taste or smell. Allof our senses operate in inner space.

But none of this is the final destination of spinalbreathing. We are going in so we can come back outand enjoy our inner qualities in the outside world ofour everyday living. So spinal breathing is a practicaltechnique. It is not something we do to escape. It issomething we do to arrive completely in the presenceof who and what we are. Then we are in a position tolive life to the fullest.


When we come to know that we are infiniteinside, then we will see that everything around us inthe world is of this same quality – infinite. This wedo not have to imagine, for it will become our directperception. By visualizing the spinal nerve in ourspinal breathing practice, we not only discover thespinal nerve, but, ultimately, the nature of everythingand everyone we see and interact with in oureveryday life. This raises the quality of our life to anew level.

The journey to inner space makes a lot of sense.By going within we will come to know the answer tothe question, “What am I doing here?” We are here todiscover the truth within ourselves, which is thenreflected in everything we see around us.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Spinal Breathing By now you may have noticed that there is

more to spinal breathing than meets the eye. Make nomistake about it. We are applying one of the world’smost sophisticated technologies here. With onesimple breathing technique, we are opening our vastinner cosmos, which has profound implications in ourouter world. When cultivated correctly, the humannervous system can reveal great wonders and changethe quality of our life dramatically. We are thedoorway that joins the inner and outer realities ofexistence, and we can know this by direct experience.

This is the end of the reading sample. Thank you

for taking a look. To obtain a complete copy of

“Spinal Breathing Pranayama,” please visit:

http://www.aypsite.com/books-sbp.html

A list of other books by Yogani can be found on

the next page…

The Fruition of Yoga – 105

Further Reading and Support Yogani is an American spiritual scientist who, for forty

years, has been integrating ancient techniques from around the world which cultivate human spiritual transformation. The approach is non-sectarian, and open to all. His books include:

Advanced Yoga Practices – Easy Lessons for Ecstatic Living (Two Volumes)

Two large user-friendly textbooks providing over 400 detailed lessons on the AYP integrated system of practices.

The Secrets of Wilder – A Novel

The story of young Americans discovering and utilizing actual secret practices leading to human spiritual transformation.

The AYP Enlightenment Series

Easy-to-read instruction books on yoga practices, including: - Deep Meditation – Pathway to Personal Freedom - Spinal Breathing Pranayama – Journey to Inner Space - Tantra – Discovering the Power of Pre-Orgasmic Sex - Asanas, Mudras and Bandhas – Awakening Ecstatic Kundalini - Samyama – Cultivating Stillness in Action, Siddhis and Miracles - Diet, Shatkarmas and Amaroli – Yogic Nutrition and Cleansing for Health and Spirit - Self-Inquiry – Dawn of the Witness and the End of Suffering - Bhakti and Karma Yoga – The Science of Devotion and Liberation Through Action - Eight Limbs of Yoga – The Structure and Pacing of Self-Directed Spiritual Practice - Retreats – Fast Track to Freedom – A Guide for Leaders and Practitioners - Liberation – The Fruition of Yoga For up-to-date information on the writings of Yogani, and for

the free AYP Support Forums, please visit:

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Spinal breathing pranayama