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Kumbhaka & Pranayama

To: alt.magick
From: svarnagasurendra@yahoo.com (Svarnagasurendra)
Subject: Re: Kumbhaka & Pranayama
Date: 25 Nov 2003 18:18:18 -0800

e_nihilist@yahoo.com (Nihilist) wrote in message news:<8d9826c7.0311251155.445b2d95@posting.google.com>...
> svarnagasurendra@yahoo.com (Svarnagasurendra) wrote in message news:...
> 
> > Kumbhaka is a dangerous pursuit, I'm aware; and I haven't
> > been able to find much written about it in relative searches on the
> > net. I'm in need of your experience concerning the effectiveness and,
> > more importantly, the credibility of the practices prescribed by Swami
> > Rama as being safe to my evolutionary development and health, if you
> 
> Have you tried looking at the physiological dangers of
> hypoventilation? You might have more success using that as a keyword.
> Keep in mind that the purpose of pranayama is to influence the mind's
> state mechanically and indirectly. Ever noticed how mental states can
> influence breathing? Well, pranayama works in the opposite direction.
> Given this, if you're already having success with the mental limbs of
> yoga (as you state), there is good reason for you to scrap pranayama.

No, there isn't good reason to scrap pranayama! It's the very likes of
you who put yourself and others in jeopordy with your
mis/dis-information. Pranayama is a limb of Patajali's Yoga Sutra.

"In the practice of kumbhaka, or breath retention, which may be antar
(internal) or bahir (external), tolerance to starvation of oxygen and
buildup of carbon dioxide is achieved. Kumbhaka, practised over a
duration of time, will allow the body to retain carbon dioxide and
become accustomed to reduced oxygen levels to achieve hypometabolism,
that is, a slowing down of the metabolic rate. The production rate of
carbon dioxide is thereby reduced which causes a subtle effect to take
place with conscious control of breathing. This effect influences the
brain and body chemistry and reduces the need to breathe when carbon
dioxide buildup is experienced.

External kumbhaka also affects the body physiologically by causing the

mental process to stop, because of the vacuum created inside the body.
This action is very useful in the practice of pratyahara, sense
withdrawl, and dharana, concentration, as a prerequisite to achieve
the state of meditation."

--Sannyasi Sivagyana, "Effects of Pranayama on the Brain."

Compare also the vacuum created in the body through the use of
Kumbhaka with that of the vacuum and contraction princliples of
Tzimtzum in the Lurianic Kabbalah -- which is what "Light in
Extention" refers to.

> As for occult dangers of the practice, there are at least two echoed
> by yogis: the premature awakening of kundalini

Had you done Asana will development first, next Pratyahara to the best
of your ability and then Dharana until such a time that in practice
you transcend the Tamas Guna into the Rajas Guna before attempting to
open and clear all 72,000 Nadis with Pranayama and Kumbhaka, then
there is nothing to fear in Kundalini awakening. The fact of the
matter is that Dhyana will not occur until the yogi is in fact ready
to experience it. If you skip and eliminate steps and proceses, you
are surely doomed.

> and the cultivation of
> siddhis -- the former disruptive, the latter distractive. There are no
> documented cases of chelas being led astray by siddhis (occult powers)
> in the world, so there's hope for you there. The kundalini phenomenon
> might be worth some thought, though.

Here again, siddhi does not mean "occult powers." Suprarational
abilities are a by-product of experiencing siddhis (Read: modalities
of existence).

> A large part of magick is learning to separate the wheat from the
> chaff.

heh. I suggest if you wish to learn this science that you buy as many
translations of the, "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" and, "Yoga Sutra of
Patanjali" that you can stand to read. You'll need it, because I'll
never write another damn thing about it.

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