Hi all,
In certain schools (including some very famous and credible like the Bihar school of yoga from the Satyananda tradition) mulabandha are a bit from the AYP's. There, the preparatory practices are ashwini mudra and vajroli mudra.
The Ashwini mudra involves the contraction of the anus muscles. Both holding it (which is what we mean by mulabandha in AYP) and rythmically contract it is included here. The term mulabandha is reserved for something more advanced.
vajroli mudra involves the contraction of the genitals. (again some yoga masters here in Hong Kong call this mulabandha instead)
The final form of mulabandha involves insolating the contraction of only the perineal body. Success of this, they say, will give you a very definite feeling of pleasure which could not be mistaken.
Of course, from the point of view of practising, the differences between these school and AYP are not too big. (There are many practises provided by the Bihar yoga, see their book "Moola Bandha--the master key". But we have no time to pactice that many things separately, afterall) For normal people like me, we will have to start with contracting the anus muscles.
I just wonder whether we are going towards the same thing (though not intentionally) in our AYP practices, and whether mulabandha, when mastered to a certain level, would really trigger a direct and definite feeling they described. Any comments or experiences are welcomed!
Alvin
