Expert in Yoga? Can You Contain Prana Within 12 Digits?

This is a series I've come to call: Claudia's Book Club, yes I am borrowing from Oprah. Why not?

The first book I am exploring in detail is Pranayama Breath Of Yoga by Gregor Maehle,  not only because it is an excellent book, but also because it is one that I find to be timely and extraordinary.

I am looking forward to us, aspiring yogis, moving on from childhood asana and into teenager pranayama!

Are you reading the book too?  If you haven't here is a link to Amazon, join me on the discussion, let me know what AHA! moments you are finding in it, do you have any questions? Are you learning new things? I know I am!

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Enter the Aha! moments, insights and questions of chapter II
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The benefits that pranayama brings about as listed in chapter 2 relate to pranayama in terms of how it helps us go through the fourth limb and towards the more advanced limbs.

They are the benefits as seen from the point of view of a yogi, or an aspiring yogi, wanting the goal of yoga as a drawning person would want to breathe...

From that perspective Gregor mentions four benefits in particular, and they are very interesting, for example:

1- Drawing the scattered prana [life force] into the body

"Decrease the scattering of prana and you will live longer.  The Hatha Tatva Kaumudi supports this view in saying that whoever reduces the outflow of prana below 12 digits is an expert in yoga." [My bold]

An expert in yoga!

But you, like me, may be wondering what does 12 digits mean? I did too. 

It all reminded me of a picture from a prior post called Where Exactly Is Your Life Force? Bet It's Not Where You Think... Take a look at that photo:

photo comes from book: Yogayajnavalkya Samhit

where a sage woman called Gargi mantains a dialogue 

about yoga with her husband

In the first body on the left, the inscription below reads "Prana [life force] is usually distributed outside the body."

In the second picture (mostly blue) we see the prana -or life force- inside the body.  This is the picture of how a yogi contains it.

Maybe you are having an epiphany as you read this... For me it produced one of those aha! moments.

The 12 digits: 

Maehle explains:

"Prana is larger than the body by 12 angulas (finger widths). This means that the pranic body extends by 12 fingers widths over the surface of the gross body... pranayama draws prana into the body which was previously scattered 12 angulas beyond the surface"

So If I was to put both palms together, and make room for 2 more (say where the thumbs are) that would be about 12 angulas (finger widths) or how much the life force is generally outside of my own body...

That is roughly 12 finger-widths or "angulas"

That is where my life force usually is at then... not just within the walls of my gross body but extending outside of it by the distance depicted above.

The first benefit of pranayama in terms of attaining the goal of yoga is then to get the life force to be contained, and not be scattered.

I suppose the life force  can go way beyond those 12 digits as well when we misuse our energy.

Scattered energy can also be gathered or reined in by practicing the yamas and niyamas, not dealing with negative people, cleaning our lives from all energy sucking things, but that is food for another post.

Question for You: 

What are other ways in which we can contain 

our life energy?

Just got reminded of how Krishnamacharya used to always walk looking down, so as to not make eye contact, and keep his focus within... talk about containment! -  He was after all an expert in yoga...

Internal focus, containing prana

Once we are aware of how to deal with the first benefit of pranayama when can move on to the second one, which is:

2- Storing and Increasing Prana

Aha! moment on page 36:

"Distribution of prana to various areas of the body predominantly takes place during the exhalation phase. While the retention phase is used to absorb the prana in the navel area (Manipura Chakra), it is actually the exhalation that is used to transport prana from the navel to areas where it is needed more urgently"

It makes sense that after we gathered life force energy and breath that we would distribute it to the areas where the body needs it.  Here is where pranayama merges with longevity.  The deep breath allows air to reach the far corners of the body-universe.

What was interesting to me and produced the AHA! moment was that the distribution of the now gathered life force would happen on the exhalation.  

In general during pranayama practices, ratios tend to be longer for retentions and steady although not so long for exhalation, for example a golden ration is known to be 1.4.2.

This would mean we would intake energy for one count, absorb the prana or contain it for four, and then distribute it (exhale) to where it is needed for 2.

This gives me a new way to look at and understand what is happening while sited for practice.

The photo suggests to me someone working with prana

3- Drawing prana into the central channel

I found a "slap on the wrist" on page 36:

"Any talk of self-knowledge is just boastful prattle if it is not accompanied by prana being inducted into the central nadhi. This nadi suspends the mind which is powered by the two outer nadis Ida and Pingla. When the yogi attains the mystical state the mind is suspended and prana is in sushumna."

Below is a picture of the three most important channels, rivers, currents of energies, or nadis.  The slap in the wrist comes when we realize that all talk we can do means nothing unless we are working at the energy being channeled towards the center channel, the sushumna, the central one that looks like a straight line up.

How do we do that?  Established in asana, following the yamas and niyamas and through pranayama, with proper bandhas, and ritual. We do it with precise practice.

The ida and pingala currents float around

and flirt with the sushumna or central channel

The retention part of the breath, the moment where we are holding it in, which corresponds to the absorption of life energy is also the stage in which it can be sent upwards through the center channel.

Two things came to mind on this

1-  Energy flowing upwards:

Sometimes the use of the bandhas makes me feel the retention phase of pranayama practice can actually send or direct the energy upwards through the middle channel.

Take a look at the photo below:

Krishnamacharya sending the energy upwards through
the shushumna nadi, and containing it with Jalandhara bandha
(or chin lock) so it does not escape

The proper locks induces the energy to go up, it feels as if a vacuum is created so that the energy can be properly inserted and directed.

and, 

2- This point also reminds me of the  importance of what happens when we breathe with the left of right nostril:

For example if the right nostril is more active then mental inclined activities are favored as opposed to the left nostril which stimulates more of the healing, creative/artistic tendencies.

It is when both nostrils are active at the same time that we are in a most conducive state for pranayama, for meditation and for reaching higher states of yoga.

4-Even Distribution of Prana

It is our mind that causes diseases in the body, it is our constant worry and delusions that lead us astray, through pranayama we arrest the chatter of the mind (if practice properly which is always emphasized!) and so there is an opportunity for the energy of life to be distributed evenly

"This is due to the lack of mental activity. It is the mind and he conditioning that cause an uneven distribution of prana throughout the body."

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An Expert Yogi...

An expert yogi I learn here, can derive from a solid practice of pranayama (done properly and in the ritualistic way of counting, proper bandhas etc) all the benefits of keeping the life force within 12 digits of the body.

An expert yogi can manage his or her energy, using the breath and a prepared body (that has been burned through the heat of asana).

An expert yogi can raise kundalini, the power energy sited at the bottom of the spine by sending the life force in retention upwards through the central channel.

An expert yogi distributes energy through exhalation to the parts of the body that needs it more

An expert yogi practices, practices, practices.

This chapter is giving me a lot of incentive to get on the mat and continue that practice, perhaps even to extend pranayama practice to twice a day rather than just once.

For Next Week:

The chapter does not end there, there is so much more on it that I thought I would break inishgts gathered from it into two.  Part two of this chapter includes the VAYUS or the airs or winds of the bodies and the most powerful secret of meditation.

Join me in reading!  What were your AHA! Moments? What did you discover or are discovering from chapter two?

Did any questions come up for you?

Great news: The book has been reduced in price, from almost 30 dollars to $19.57 .   Here is a link.

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CLAUDIA'S BOOK CLUB: 

"PRANAYAMA THE BREATH OF YOGA"

Chapter One: How Many Breaths Do You Do Per Minute?

Chapter Two: Part I: Who Is An Expert In Yoga?

Chapter Two: Part II: How To Get Your Body To Be 16 Years Old Again

Chapter Three: Meditation is Useless Unless Both Nostrils Are Active

Chapter Four: Is Your Retention Really Pranayama, or Just Holding The Breath? 5 Checks

Chapter Five: How Do I Know If I Am Ready For Pranayama?

Chapter Six: Food, Drugs And Yoga: Stacking The Odds In Your Favor

Chapter Seven: Padmasana (Lotus Pose) A Laboratory for Spiritual Emancipation

Chapter Eight: Pulling Your Brain Updwards. On Bandhas and Pranayama

Chapter Nine: Why Gross Purification Is Critical To Yoga

Chapter Ten: The Breathing Exercise That Gets Rid Of Our Fears

Chapter Eleven: How Not To Be An Idiod In Pranayama. Nerve Purification

Chapter Twelve:  Bhastrika Pranayama - Life Force on Steroids

Chapter Thirteen: What The World Needs Now Is More Left Nostril Breathing

Here is a link to the book in Amazon. Join me in reading!