I bet it's not where you thought it was. Take a look at this picture:
Prana is the "life force", how yogis talk about that which is keeping you alive in this very moment.
We all have a certain amount of it, and if it was to expire we would die. Prana lives usually about 12 finger widths' outside of our body, and scriptures say that during externeous forms of work or excersie it can go all the way to 36 finger widths outside of the body, or even more!
HOW CAN "ASPIRING" YOGIS CONTAIN PRANA
We contain prana when we use our energy efficiently, when we don't waste it in unnecesary talk, fighting battles not worth winning, come to think of it fighting at all. When we are spreading ourselves "too thin", not getting enough rest, eating poor nutritional meals, partying all night... you get the idea.
Energy wasters or overdoing things without respect for the body shortens our life spam. This is why Krishnamahcarya spoke so little and usually kept his eyes towards the floor, as not to be drawn out by his senses. He knew what he was doing.
HOW DO MASTER YOGIS HARNESS PRANA
Yogis in particular harness prana through PRANAYAMA, the fourth limb of yoga which works with the "extension of prana", which is done through the "extension of the breath". The Yoga Sutras tell us that we inhale, retain, exhale and retain after exhalation. That is the technique yogis use, here described in its most crude form of curse.
Below are the four important points on how the yogi gathers and uses prana.
Note that all of these 4 points below are inspired from Maehle's book on Pranayama which I am studying more intensely, they come from chapter called PRANA located under the "Fundamentals of Pranayama", page 3 and they represent my interpretation. These are the steps:
HOW DO I GO FROM "ASPIRING" TO "MASTER" YOGI?
An aspiring yogi learns, and practices pranayama steadily and for a long time for the purposes of enlightenment, or samadhi, which simply means to be able to be in this moment, with no mind, stopping the thinking, and also to be able to attain the mystical states where the workings of the universe is revealed as it was to Arjuna by Krishna in the Gita.
Pranayama helps in the gathering and use of pranay as follows:
1.- TO DRAW OUR PRANA BACK INTO THE BODY
We draw our prana in by reading spiritual texts related to pranayama and all of yoga, by focusing on important and relevant tasks, not wasting time, not wasting speech. Focusing our mind, taking time out to meditate, getting proper rest, doing our yoga practices, especially that of pranayama which will help us arrest the mind as we learn to master retentions.
We draw prana in by drawing the mind projections in. Instead of living in a world of past and future, fantasy and desire, we bring it all in, to this moment, and we focus intensely on our practice.
2.- TO STORE AND INCREASE PRANA
As we learn retentions, pranayama produces its biggest effect. It is through retentions that the prana is carried towards the area of the navel, where Krishnamacharya says that all disease related to having a shorter livespam come from. This retention heals us.
As we exhale in a controled way the prana begins to be sent towards the area that needs it most, for example areas that need healing.
By an extensive pranayama practice yogis learn to harness the vital force and to extend their lives with health.
3.- DRAWING PRANA FOR THE PURPOSE OF AWAKENING
The more control we gain over our prana by pranayama practice we can direct it towards the central channel, that which has the dorman serpent at the bottom and that when awaken by directing this energy towards the central challenge would help us see clear, see reality as it is, with no filters, and completely stop the projections of the mind.
4.- SPONTANEOUS DISTRIBUTION OF PRANA
Once pranayama is mastered, spontaneous distribution of prana all over the body happens. This is the type of pranayama called Kevala Kumbhaka which results in Samadhi as indicated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
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The first picture on this post comes from the book Yogayajnavalkya Samhita, which is the story of an enlightenemd master who is speaking to his very discerning wife who asks very good questions, here is the both of them engaging in conversations about yoga
 |
| For a yogi, prana (or life force), is always within the body - picture on the right |
PRANA = LIFE FORCE
We all have a certain amount of it, and if it was to expire we would die. Prana lives usually about 12 finger widths' outside of our body, and scriptures say that during externeous forms of work or excersie it can go all the way to 36 finger widths outside of the body, or even more!
HOW CAN "ASPIRING" YOGIS CONTAIN PRANA
We contain prana when we use our energy efficiently, when we don't waste it in unnecesary talk, fighting battles not worth winning, come to think of it fighting at all. When we are spreading ourselves "too thin", not getting enough rest, eating poor nutritional meals, partying all night... you get the idea.
Energy wasters or overdoing things without respect for the body shortens our life spam. This is why Krishnamahcarya spoke so little and usually kept his eyes towards the floor, as not to be drawn out by his senses. He knew what he was doing.
HOW DO MASTER YOGIS HARNESS PRANA
Yogis in particular harness prana through PRANAYAMA, the fourth limb of yoga which works with the "extension of prana", which is done through the "extension of the breath". The Yoga Sutras tell us that we inhale, retain, exhale and retain after exhalation. That is the technique yogis use, here described in its most crude form of curse.
Below are the four important points on how the yogi gathers and uses prana.
Note that all of these 4 points below are inspired from Maehle's book on Pranayama which I am studying more intensely, they come from chapter called PRANA located under the "Fundamentals of Pranayama", page 3 and they represent my interpretation. These are the steps:
 |
| Been reading the book more intensely, click on the image if you are interested in it. Highly recommended |
An aspiring yogi learns, and practices pranayama steadily and for a long time for the purposes of enlightenment, or samadhi, which simply means to be able to be in this moment, with no mind, stopping the thinking, and also to be able to attain the mystical states where the workings of the universe is revealed as it was to Arjuna by Krishna in the Gita.
Pranayama helps in the gathering and use of pranay as follows:
1.- TO DRAW OUR PRANA BACK INTO THE BODY
We draw our prana in by reading spiritual texts related to pranayama and all of yoga, by focusing on important and relevant tasks, not wasting time, not wasting speech. Focusing our mind, taking time out to meditate, getting proper rest, doing our yoga practices, especially that of pranayama which will help us arrest the mind as we learn to master retentions.
We draw prana in by drawing the mind projections in. Instead of living in a world of past and future, fantasy and desire, we bring it all in, to this moment, and we focus intensely on our practice.
2.- TO STORE AND INCREASE PRANA
As we learn retentions, pranayama produces its biggest effect. It is through retentions that the prana is carried towards the area of the navel, where Krishnamacharya says that all disease related to having a shorter livespam come from. This retention heals us.
As we exhale in a controled way the prana begins to be sent towards the area that needs it most, for example areas that need healing.
By an extensive pranayama practice yogis learn to harness the vital force and to extend their lives with health.
3.- DRAWING PRANA FOR THE PURPOSE OF AWAKENING
The more control we gain over our prana by pranayama practice we can direct it towards the central channel, that which has the dorman serpent at the bottom and that when awaken by directing this energy towards the central challenge would help us see clear, see reality as it is, with no filters, and completely stop the projections of the mind.
4.- SPONTANEOUS DISTRIBUTION OF PRANA
Once pranayama is mastered, spontaneous distribution of prana all over the body happens. This is the type of pranayama called Kevala Kumbhaka which results in Samadhi as indicated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
---
The first picture on this post comes from the book Yogayajnavalkya Samhita, which is the story of an enlightenemd master who is speaking to his very discerning wife who asks very good questions, here is the both of them engaging in conversations about yoga
 |
| Gargi, asking questions of her husband |
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So, why does our prana weaken as we get older? I mean, we die because our prana runs out right? Or maybe, it doesn't get weaker. Maybe our bodies just die, but our prana lives on. Afterlife? : )
ReplyDeletePrana is merely an imprecise metaphor for a number of concepts that are much better understood by science, see ion channels and electromagnetism for a more accurate explanation of what is actually going on at the human scale and it's relationship to the natural world
ReplyDeleteMat, I agree that prana is a metaphor for a number of things, in the yogic sense it means life force, I dont know much about science...
ReplyDeletePrana is related to the breath, and when it expires we die. This is how for example Krishnamacharya kept healthy for so long practicing pranayama, yogis also use asana to keep the body strong... why we weaken has a lot of reasons, maybe poor diet, lack of rest, too much stress... the yogi looks to harness all energies
ReplyDeleteThank you Claudia. I enjoyed that. xo
ReplyDeleteBy any chance, is prana related to the aura that a lot of psychics claim to see? Like on your first picture, the energy is all around you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying Aimee :-)
ReplyDeleteI would not know about that, in this case prana refers to the life force in particular, and the more streneous the activity the further it goes from being inside.
ReplyDeleteFor example when we have a scattered mind and are all over the place thinking about this and that you can feel that you are not in your body, you are, well all over the place... it relates to that, I would not know about the aura, have not found that in the yoga literature so far.