Pranayama beyond the Fundamentals (eBook)

Richard Rosen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2006 | 1. Auflage
224 Seiten
Shambhala (Verlag)
978-0-8348-2512-3 (ISBN)

Infos

For serious students of yoga who have an established pranayama practice, this book is a follow-up to Rosen's previous book, The Yoga of Breath. Here he picks up where he left off, offering a selection of traditional yogic techniques for those who wish to deepen their practice of pranayama and their understanding of the ancient wisdom of yoga. Rosen skillfully puts forward an array of awareness disciplines, breathing practices, mudras, and seals, interspersed with anecdotes and quotes from ancient texts.

A free audio program available online offers a variety of guided practices so that listeners can create their own pranayama series, with guidance from the author in the appendix. (Download instructions available in the book.)

Textauszug

Introduction: I Take Refuge in the Breath

I take refuge in the breath. Breath is all this, whatever there is, and all that ever will be. I take refuge in the breath.—,Chandogya-Upanishad

This is my second book on pranayama. The first, The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pranayama (Shambhala Publications, 2002), covered the beginning ABCs of the practice along with a program that, in the best of all possible worlds, would take a diligent student about a year to eighteen months to complete. Now the wonderful folks at Shambhala have asked me to do a follow-up book—,the DEFs, I suppose—,that presses on bravely to more challenging material.

This new book is written for more experienced pranayama students, those who are relatively familiar with the material in the first book and follow a fairly regular, if not daily, practice. To spell this out more clearly, to benefit from this book I recommend that you have, at minimum, the following:

A reasonably clear understanding of the 'why' of breathing, the four traditional stages of practice, prana (and its five branches) and the two traditional pranayama models (classical and Hatha), pranayama benefits, obstacles and aids, and practice foundations (how often, when, where, and how long)

A good working relationship with your Witness and the ability to quiet your sensory organs (especially the eyes, inner ears, and tongue) and watch your breath fairly consistently for at least ten to fifteen minutes (whether in Corpse Pose or during pranayama)

A reasonably accurate 'map' of the outer contours and inner spaces of your physical body (with the understanding that this cartography is an ongoing project that will never be completed definitively)

Some familiarity with and appreciation of your unique breathing identity and the 'qualities' of your breath, which you will remember from the first book we're calling time, texture, space, and rest

Regular practice of Conqueror and Against-the-Grain breaths in the reclining position for between six months and a year, and subsequently in the sitting position for at least six months

A reasonably easy and balanced sitting position, even if you still need to sit on a chair, that you can sustain without too much fidgeting for at least ten to fifteen minutes

A familiarity with basic pranayama 'tools' (for example, Unspoken Hymn, Skull Brightener, and both equal and unequal ratio breathing)

A comfortable relationship with short inner breath retention and its supporting techniques (such as throat and belly bonds)

I won't be reviewing much of this earlier material, if I do repeat myself, it means that the subject has been altered or amplified in some significant way. Remember that although books are fixed in time, a practice isn't, in the past three years, I've come up with some new ideas as well as modified (and hopefully improved) others.

When and How Did Pranayama Originate?

Of course, any 'new ideas' I may have stumbled across are probably new only to me. Since pranayama has been around for many centuries, there's a good chance that somebody somewhere thought of each one of them long before I did. In fact some scholars trace pranayama's origins back thirty-five hundred years (and possibly more) to the Vedic sacrifice. I wish we had the time and space to consider this fascinating ritual in detail, but alas, we don't. Mainstream Western scholars tell us these sacrifices, usually sponsored by powerful and wealthy royals, were originally attempts to symbolically...

Produkt-Details

• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Fitness / Aerobic / Bodybuilding
• ISBN-10: 0-8348-2512-0 / 0834825120
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8348-2512-3 / 9780834825123