O, Lord,
To take You in my heart,
This could transform You into a thought.
I won\u2019t do this!
To embrace You with my eyes,
I would transform You into a thorn.
I won\u2019t do this!
I will bring You in my respiration,
So that You become my life.
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Rumi<\/I><\/P>
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Pranayama is the fourth stage in Yoga and is considered a very subtle and profound art for complete transformation of the human being.<\/P>
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It includes a series of respiratory and mental concentration techniques that utilise movement and the voluntary expansion of the respiratory organs in a regular and intensive manner. It is comprised of inhalations (puraka)<\/I>, expirations (rechaka)<\/I> and retentions of the breath (kumbhaka)<\/I>, in a succession that is subtle, sustained and prolonged. Regarding the distinct role of each stage of pranayama<\/I>, Yoga tradition states that puraka (inhalation) stimulates the organism, rechaka<\/I> (expiration) eliminates the degraded air together with its associated energies and toxins, and kumbhaka<\/I> (retention) distributes the energy throughout the entire body. The respiratory movements entail:<\/P> Thanks to the abundant oxygen generated by this discipline and the development of respiration, beneficial chemical transformations take place in one\u2019s body. Furthermore, the extraordinary phenomena of biological transmutation is enhanced. Prana<\/I> is not one and the same thing as ordinary respiration, which is automatic in order to sustain life. Pranayama<\/I> does not mean control of respiration, although prana<\/I> is manifested through the breath and is connected to vayu tattva<\/I>, the subtle element of air and movement. Pranayama, the control of the prana<\/I> flux, is the most forceful of Yoga”s fundamental methods for radical transformation and rapid evolution. <\/I>This control is realised by a rhythmic respiration that is creatively harmonized to spiritual transformation. In fact, any technique of pranayama<\/I> is also a modality to increase \u201cstorage\u201d of energy, that is prana.<\/I> Therefore it improves health and vitality and one may even gradually obtain unusual psychic powers. Pranayama<\/I> also facilitates control of the mind (as it controls the prana<\/I> in the pranayama<\/I> techniques). During a lifetime, the soul (jivatma)<\/I> and the mind keep prana<\/I> inside the physical body; when dying, prana<\/I>, the mind and the soul (jivatma)<\/I> leave the physical body together.<\/P> In Tantra-Yoga, prana is used to intensify the extraordinary latent psychic powers, called siddhi-s, and also energy for the supreme achievement \u2013 spiritual liberation. The yogi capable of raising the fundamental energy, kundalini-shakti<\/I> can perceive prana<\/I> in countless ways. They often transpose it onto the perception plane as mystical light with fascinating plays of brightness, as well as subtle sounds of incredible harmony and beauty.<\/P> In the Hindu magic and occultism, prana<\/I> is considered to be the source of energy of all magic powers. Magicians use prana<\/I> in order to galvanize their imagination and will which are the most important features of the Creative Mental Principle. This is the instrument of control for both magic and spiritual transformation.<\/P>In Ayurveda, vata<\/I> is one of the three humours (dosha-s)<\/I> and is a term considered to be a synonym of prana<\/I>. The famous medical work Charaka\u2013Samhita<\/I> explains the functions of vata<\/I> in similar terms to the ones used in Yoga texts to explain functions of prana<\/I>. The respiratory movements of the lungs that are activated by an inferior pranic<\/I> energy represent one of the directly perceptible manifestations of prana<\/I>\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" O, Lord,To take You in my heart,This could transform You into a thought.I won\u2019t do this!To embrace You with my eyes,I would transform You into a thorn.I won\u2019t do this!I will bring You in my respiration,So that You become my life. Rumi Pranayama is the fourth stage in Yoga and is considered a very subtle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stages-in-the-practice-of-yoga-3712-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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