Jayleno214
USA
86 Posts
Posted - Aug 14 2017 : 4:29:22 PM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Topic Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Message Delete Topic
As the title compares, do we visualize the spinal nerve, physically attentivize it, or whatever happens between both?
BlueRaincoat
United Kingdom
1492 Posts
Posted - Aug 14 2017 : 4:53:14 PM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
Hi Jayleno214
I think the short answer is 'either'.
As long as you trace the spinal nerve with your attention up and down between the root and the eyebrow in sync with the inbreath/outbreath, you are following the correct procedure. Different people may experience it differently. Some of us are more visual, others might feel it more than see it. The experience changes with practice anyway. I'd go with what feels natural and easy and let it evolve as it will.
Enjoy your practice!
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Dogboy
USA
1597 Posts
Posted - Aug 15 2017 : 10:06:27 PM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
I find it helpful to be at Ajna (third eye) at the top of SB and at the root at empty. I've always had trouble tracing the middle, so I accept that my attention will be loose there. Attending to the points of full and empty is the meat of SB.
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Christi
United Kingdom
3550 Posts
Posted - Aug 16 2017 : 07:12:17 AM Show Profile Email Poster Visit Christi's Homepage Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
Hi Jayleno,
The description of the practice involves visualizing a tube or thread running up the centre of the spine. It is this visualized thread that we move the attention up and down. So there is no need to actually be able to feel anything physically. See here from
lesson 41:
"Next, with each rising inhalation of the breath, allow your attention to travel upward inside a tiny thread, or tube, you visualize beginning at your perineum, continuing up through the center of your spine, and up through the stem of your brain to the center of your head. At the center of your head the tiny nerve makes a turn forward to the point between your eyebrows. " [Yogani]
At some point in the practice, you will be able to feel the flow of prana and when this happens, we can follow the flow of prana that we are feeling, still moving between the root and the third eye. The flow of prana can be further forward in the body than the spine is, depending on the state of purification of the body.
Christi
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Jayleno214
USA
86 Posts
Posted - Sep 15 2017 : 02:38:00 AM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
Thanks for the responses.
Reason i ask is because visualizing it is way more responsive than feeling my physical spine.
I feel the prana become active once i visualize. Then it became a question of whether i should now go to that location where the prana is or continue the visualization.
I know we stick to the practices.. Ect. But i had to ask.
Thanks so much christi, i single you out because you're in every post. Thanks for that. Really.
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Will Power
Spain
415 Posts
Posted - Sep 17 2017 : 05:20:10 AM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
I悲 say both, since visualization helps feel the prana and move it, although you can also feel and move the prana without visualization
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kensbikes100
USA
150 Posts
Posted - Apr 26 2018 : 9:43:58 PM Show Profile Email Poster Edit Reply Reply with Quote View user's IP address Get a Link to this Reply Delete Reply
For me, it seems best to start a pranayama session by tracing along a path that comes easily, without forcing anything. There seems to be no timetable for when the visualized tiny thread will start to move forward in the body, we are only told that it could be further forward than the spine, at some point in the practice. If the path moves forward in the body, that's where it needs to be. If it is not forward of the spine, that's where it needs to be. In my opinion we should not control where the path is or force it in any way, only to facilitate or gently coach the tracing up and down, wth the breath.
