A couple practices I have been doing
Aug. 7th, 2018 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dfr1973 From chapter two, "The First Steps," I have added two things to my morning ritual and asana-stretches. First:
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After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, he has to perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some as not belonging to Râja Yoga, but as so great an authority as the commentator, Śankarâchârya, advises it, I think it fit that it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions from his commentary to the Svetâśvatara Upaniṣad. “The mind whose dross has been cleared away by Prâṇâyâma, becomes fixed in Brahman; therefore Prâṇâyâma is pointed out. First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise Prâṇâyâma. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, with the left nostril fill in air, according to one’s capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practising this three or five times at four intervals of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins Prâṇâyâma.”
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I do this prior to my morning sun salutations, and added it about two weeks ago. Then I embedded this into my morning cleansing -and-protection ritual shortly after:
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Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation; mentally repeat: “Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful.” So do to the East, South, North and West. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make yourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make yourselves happy is to see that others are happy.
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I have a LOT of notes just from the preface and first two chapters, but I should probably get back to the main focus of the discussion: the writings of William Walker Atkinson, with my focus on the books he wrote under the pen name Yogi Ramacharaka. I don't think he started with Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga, and I will be reading the Swami's other books, which are all just transcriptions of lectures he gave. I'll just be keeping notes, and refer to things when appropriate.
===
After one has learned to have a firm erect seat, he has to perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some as not belonging to Râja Yoga, but as so great an authority as the commentator, Śankarâchârya, advises it, I think it fit that it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions from his commentary to the Svetâśvatara Upaniṣad. “The mind whose dross has been cleared away by Prâṇâyâma, becomes fixed in Brahman; therefore Prâṇâyâma is pointed out. First the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise Prâṇâyâma. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, with the left nostril fill in air, according to one’s capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practising this three or five times at four intervals of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in fifteen days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins Prâṇâyâma.”
===
I do this prior to my morning sun salutations, and added it about two weeks ago. Then I embedded this into my morning cleansing -and-protection ritual shortly after:
===
Sit in a straight posture, and the first thing to do is to send a current of holy thought to all creation; mentally repeat: “Let all beings be happy; let all beings be peaceful; let all beings be blissful.” So do to the East, South, North and West. The more you do that the better you will feel yourself. You will find at last that the easiest way to make yourselves healthy is to see that others are healthy, and the easiest way to make yourselves happy is to see that others are happy.
===
I have a LOT of notes just from the preface and first two chapters, but I should probably get back to the main focus of the discussion: the writings of William Walker Atkinson, with my focus on the books he wrote under the pen name Yogi Ramacharaka. I don't think he started with Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga, and I will be reading the Swami's other books, which are all just transcriptions of lectures he gave. I'll just be keeping notes, and refer to things when appropriate.