(d) Describe
one Kriya that you teach, giving prohibitions, precautions
and preparations.
One Kriya that I do teach is Kapalabhati. However this is
only taught to those of my students who are already competent
with the complete breath, have started to work with some
more extensive pranayama for example ujjayi, and have started
work with all three bandhas, so can work with maha bandha.
This is not for the beginner, by any means. I would also
not teach this to any of my students if they suffered from
high blood pressure, vertigo, hernias or if they were prone
to panic attacks at that time. I say “at that time”,
because I have found that after panic attacks one can suffer
from exhaustion, and I have found kapalabhati to be very
beneficial for regulating this, and drawing one from a depressive
state.
My students having completed their asana
practise, and able to sit in either vajrasana, padmasana
or siddhasana (or though I haven’t got any pupils
who can achieve this completely yet) close their eyes and
start to breath in a natural rhythm working up to the complete
breath. I then instruct the students to forcefully exhale
all the air out of their lungs (through their noses) and
at the same time draw the abdominal muscles in. I would
demonstrate firstly, and then allow them to practise for
five consecutive breaths, normally, I find when someone
first practises it is quite slow, and one may actually
be trying to push the tummy out instead of contracting
the abdominal region and drawing it in.
I ask the students
to close their eyes, when they have completed and ask them
firstly how they feel, I need to know if they felt any
pain or discomfort, dizziness or faintness, I also need
to know if they were struggling with an understanding of
the practise, and to find out if they were practising correctly
or not. Those of the group if any, suffering in any way,
I prohibit from practising further and get them to work
with some gentle rhythmic breathing in semi-supine position.
The rest of the group we go through any problems or benefits
we found and proceed with the next round of 10 breaths
this time. I normally find that we are now beginning to
crack this, so after they open their eyes and seeing how
everything is going, we proceed to the next round of normally
15 breaths. However this time I ask them to practise maha
bandha at the end of their round, when maha bandha is released, I
ask them to breath naturally. We normally proceed to one
more round and then finish the practise for that particular
session, to be continued next time. From that time the
rounds and the breaths are built up to whatever is comfortable
for the group. It is very important I feel to build these
practises up slowly and surely, never rush anyone as things
will happen in their own time.
I normally find that the students find relaxation easier
after this practise, because they tend not to loose focus
as easily, and so move easier towards meditation.
Bibliography
Swami Satyananda Saraswati, A Systematic Course In The
Ancient Tantric Techniques Of Yoga And Kriya, (1989), Bihar
School of Yoga
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