Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 21 to 23 of 23

Thread: Prāṇa - In or Out?

  1. #21
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: Prāṇa - In or Out?

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namasté

    From post 13 above:
    patañjali’s yogadarśana ( his sūtra-s) chapter 2 ( sādhana pada ), 50th sūtra , We can see space, time, and number called out. It says the following:
    sa tu bāhyābhyantara stambha vṛttir deśakāla saṃkhyābhiḥ paridṛṣṭo dīrgha sūkṣmaḥ || 50
    patañjali-ji continues in the 51st sūtra and offers the 4th prāṇāyām:

    bāhyābhyantaraviṣayākṣepī caturthaḥ || 51
    • bāhya = outside, external
    • abhyantara = inside, internal
    • viṣaya = space, period of duration, range ; special sphere or department , peculiar province
    • akṣepī = (a+kṣepa ) = not + moving to and fro , hense no movement
    • caturthaḥ = the 4th

    the 4th, space or duration , no movement , internal or external.

    When we connect this to the 50th sūtra aformentioned in post 13:
    the breath in prāṇāyām has an external component, an internal component and there is a place where it is fixed or suspended.
    The breath becomes long and subtle over time ( practice).

    The 51st sūtra says,

    the 4th prāṇāyām occurs in the space where there is neither movement inside ( internal ) or outside ( external).
    That is, this 4th (caturthaḥ ) occurs when the movement ( inside and outside) are transcended.

    This 4th is quite significant. It too is called turīya (from the word caturthaḥ) and is considered the 4th, transcendental consciousness - beyond wake, dream and sleep levels ; it is akṣepī , without movement
    and we can consider it a particual place or providence viṣaya.

    The next post will go further into this ~space~ .

    praṇām
    Last edited by yajvan; 27 November 2015 at 09:39 PM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  2. #22
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: Prāṇa - In or Out?

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namasté

    From post 5 above we see the following from kaṭhopaniṣad, 2nd adhyāya (chapter) 2nd vallī, 3rd śloka:
    ūrdhvaṁ pranaṁ unnayatyapanaṁ pratyag asyati
    madhye vāmanam āsanaṁ viśve devā upāsate ||

    this says,
    It is the one that leads (unnaya) prāṇa upwards (ūrdhvaṁ),
    It is the one that brings down (pratyag) apāna ,
    It is the one seated (āsana) in the middle (madhya) as worthy of adoration.
    It is the one all the gods (viśve devā - senses) adore (upāsate).
    You see, when this prāṇāyām¹ is done properly ( time, space, subtlety) what occurs is madhya - standing between two , impartial , neutral. It is here we can experience the 4th , turīya. That is why this prāṇāyām is practical and of great import.
    Let's look at another view of this from the netra tantra.
    When breathing ( in and out) you maintain a continual (anusandhāna&#185 awareness on the center between incoming and outgoing breath (madhyamaṁ prāṇam), then your breath will spontaneousuly become more refined (sūkṣma&#185. At that point you are elevated (labha) to another world. This is prāayāma.


    praṇām


    words
    • anusandhāna - 'anu' is ~continuous~ i.e. side-by-side, one after another,methodically;
      san is to gain or require repeatedly ; dhāna = holding, containing ;
    • sūkṣma - subtle , atomic , intangible
    Last edited by yajvan; 26 March 2012 at 08:47 PM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  3. #23

    Re: Prāṇa - In or Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by vcindiana View Post
    Dear Yajavan:

    I do not know exactly how people do Pranayama. After an Upanayanam most people are taught about this mostly as a ritual. When they do Sandyavandana they are taught to breathe in through one nose and breathe out through other nose. I have no idea what that does. For me it did not make any sense for a long time.
    For me also. Then I started reading about it, and came across this article. Surprisingly, this was actually published in a peer-reviewed medical journal so it's certainly not some anecdotal claim:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1938166

    The gist of it is that throughout the day, your nose goes through cycles of having one nostril being slightly more open than another. This also corresponds with increased brain activity in the corresponding part of the brain - left nostril open means right brain is more active, and vice versa. As they discuss in that paper, it turns out that one can actually alter the levels of brain activity by altering which nostril the breath flows through.

    With alternate nostril breathing you gradually make the flows more equal, which is said to help make the state of meditation attainable for the average person. I have not read any scientific articles on what exactly happens to the brain when the nostrils are equally open but in yoga the generally held idea is that it is the time when the main pranic channel in the spine, which is usually closed, begins to operate.

    Here is another published experiment, this one in its entirety, by Montana University, where it was found that subjects who breathed only through one nostril for some minutes before a given task actually increased performance with that task, if the task was associated with the corresponding brain hemisphere:
    http://www.montana.edu/wwwpy/Block/p...et-al-1989.pdf

    So it's definitely not just ritual.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •