ParaYoga Master Training
14
Copyright ©2015 by Rod Stryker, All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without the prior premission of the copyright owner. ParaYoga Master Training Prana Shakti: The Power and Path of Yoga
Transcript of ParaYoga Master Training
Copyright ©2015 by Rod Stryker, All Rights ReservedNo part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without the prior premission of the copyright owner.
ParaYoga Master TrainingPrana Shakti: The Power and Path of Yoga
TANTRA SHAKTI M1Copyright ©2016 by Rod Stryker, All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopy, recording, or otherwise) without the prior premission of the copyright owner.
PRANA SHAKTI
Prana Shakti - Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Welcome to Prana Shakti ................................................................................. 1The Aim of the Prana Shakti Training .......................................................................... 1
How to Make the Best Use of this Course ................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 2: Prana Shakti: The Path of Yoga ........................................................................ 3The Reach of Prana ....................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 3: “The Ultimate Strength is the Control of Prana” .............................................. 5Content and Momentum:
The Two Factors that Shape All Thought and Action .............................................. 5
Prana Defined ................................................................................................................ 6
Tantra’s View and Use of Prana .................................................................................. 7
Prana and Kosha: The Layers of Consciousness ...................................................... 8
Tantra: The Skillful Use of Energy .................................................................................10
CHAPTER 4: Yoga and the Reach of Prana ....................................................................... 12Using Prana to Positively Affect the Physical Body ................................................. 12
Using Prana to Positively Affect the Energy Body ................................................... 12
Using Prana to Positively Affect Either Lower or Higher Mind .............................. 13
Using Prana to Access Spirit and Beyond ............................................................... 15
CHAPTER 5: The Stages of Prana Dharana ......................................................................... 18CHAPTER 6: Breathe to Heal Your Prana Vayus ................................................................ 20
Pranayama Hand Mudras to Mobilize Vayus ......................................................... 24
CHAPTER 7: Bandha and the Control of Prana .................................................................. 25Physical & Psychological Intentions of the Three Major Bandhas ...................... 27
The Color Purification Practice ..................................................................................32
CHAPTER 8: Sub-Guna and the Attributes of Mind ........................................................... 35CHAPTER 9: The Power and Mystery of Mantra ................................................................. 40CHAPTER 10: More On ParaYoga Nidra ............................................................................. 46CHAPTER 11: The Systematic Approach to Pranayama ................................................. 49CHAPTER 12: Mula Bandha Essentials ................................................................................ 57
Treta Bandha Meditation Practice: Notes and Hints ............................................ 60
Silver Thread Meditation .............................................................................................60
TANTRA SHAKTI M1Copyright ©2016 by Rod Stryker, All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
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PRANA SHAKTI
CHAPTER 13: The Body as Sacred Altar: Chakra and the Breath ................................... 62Why You Breathe the Way You Breath ....................................................................65
Prana Shuddhi Stage II ................................................................................................67
More Thoughts on Sattwa ..........................................................................................69
Review of the Subtle Doshas ......................................................................................70
CHAPTER 14: An Overview of Mudra: The Sacred Secrets of Hatha Yoga ................... 73Vayu Mudras for Meditation ......................................................................................74
Transform Negativity Kriya Practice ..........................................................................76
CHAPTER 15: Designing a Practice ..................................................................................... 80The Three Phases of Life ...............................................................................................83
CHAPTER 16: Applying Your Knowledge ............................................................................ 85Prana and the Power to Heal Others - The Unconditional Healing Practice .... 89
CHAPTER 17: Closing Thoughts: On Sustainability and Supreme Success .................... 911. Self-Reliance ..............................................................................................................91
2. Integrity .......................................................................................................................92
3. Empowerment ..........................................................................................................93
4. Guardianship ............................................................................................................94
5. Love of Life ................................................................................................................97
Compendium of Techniques .............................................................................................. 98 Prayer to the Five Prana Vayus ......................................................................................... 103Reflections On Practice Survey ......................................................................................... 104Pranayama Mudras ............................................................................................................ 107Color Purification Kriya ....................................................................................................... 108Mental Constitution Survey ................................................................................................ 110Meditation Mudras .............................................................................................................. 113Transforming Negativity ...................................................................................................... 114Customize 3 Practices Assignment .................................................................................. 115Glossary
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PRANA SHAKTI CH1
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CHAPTER 1: Welcome to Prana Shakti
1 The Aim of the Prana Shakti Training
l Consolidate your understanding of vinyasa krama––yoga as a process to shape and master prana and yoga as an energetic practice––the most immediate, living expression of the Infinite.
l Provide additional methodology and techniques to collect, refine, balance and positively impact your (or your students) “pranic landscape,” as it relates to specific physical, mental, spiritual effects.
l Further develop your yoga and meditation practice in a therapeutic context, while deepening your relationship to prana–-both as a student and teacher of yoga.
l Enhance your capacity to apply the three-fold therapeutic approach:
l symptomology l diagnosis l recommendation/guidance
l Further integrate the principles and techniques covered in previous trainings (Vinyasa Krama, Tantra Shakti and Secrets of the Sutras).
How to Make the Best Use of this Course
l Practice consistently.l practice (asana, pranayama and meditation) is the most critical ally to integrate and embody the teachings
l Bring your full attention to all lecture and practice content.
l a distracted mind diminishes growth, the effect and absorption power of what you are studying and practicing
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1 l “Mind your gunas.” Be aware of the qualities of your mind:
l as much as possible, cultivate a mind that is light/ balanced/aware as opposed to overly active/ distracted, dispersed and/or stagnant/dark
l be mindful of your life and lifestyle: what you eat, quality of rest, and what you do consistently
l the clearer the mind trying to master prana, the more prana will be mastered
l approach the course as a time of dedicated study/retreat
l Thoughtfully complete the Practice Survey Reflections, to catalog the effects and the unique qualities of the new techniques.
l Make the training an exceptional experience, something you will draw into long into the future.
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PRANA SHAKTI CH2
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CHAPTER 2: Prana Shakti: The Path of Yoga
2 The Reach of Prana
l Prana is the force that moves you to achieve/accomplish your goals, be they material, mental/emotional or spiritual. Prana is also the force that moves you away from achieving your goals.
l There are examples given in the video course material that illustrate how some individuals achieve some diverse intentions:
l Becky, whose menstrual cycle and emotional life were transformed through meditation and pranayama
l paraplegic student who was able to feel her legs for the first time since being paralyzed, after receiving a meditation from a student of mine
l the positive impact on what had been a dysfunctional relationship as a result of a specific meditation technique
l the catalyst for each of them achieving their goals was: prana
l Prana is the catalyst that can be used to positively affect body and mind, break emotional and behavioral patterns, to heal oneself or others and to facilitate your own spiritual journey.
l Vayu, shakti and karma are the three principles that explain how the skillful application of prana can, or at other times cannot, lead to desired outcomes. Note: while these terms are being used here in a very specific context; each one refers to a much larger concept
as well.
l shakti refers to the initial intention, the spark of desire or impulse for a specific outcome
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PRANA SHAKTI CH2
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2 l vayu refers to the processes that you engage to achieve the outcome you are seeking, the energy invested in the things you will do, think or say to fulfill your desires
l karma refers to resistance––remember: in a larger context karma is neither inherently good or bad, helpful or obstructive; in this context it refers to the inherent forces that are obstructing you from fulfilling your intention
l In each of the three examples cited in the video course, there was a desire (shakti), a process or practice that led to its achievement (vayu) and resistance (karma) to be overcome in order to fulfill the desired intention.
l the positive outcomes were generated by focusing, developing and building prana/energy intentionally
l The takeaway: in order to fulfill any desire, the sum of energy behind wanting it, plus the energies invested in achieving it, must be greater than the resistance that obstructs you from having it (when the sum of shakti + vayu is greater than the force of karma, you will achieve your intention; whenever it is not, you will not).
l Your power to fulfill what you want to accomplish is born of your control and mastery of prana.
l “The ultimate strength is the control of prana” (Srimad Bhagavatam)
l From the traditional standpoint, the ultimate use of prana is for the purpose of enlightenment.
l In ParaYoga we engage prana in different ways, through various practices (asana, pranayama, and meditation) to positively affect body, lower mind, higher mind, to access spiritual
experience and even to impact destiny.
TANTRA SHAKTI M1Copyright ©2016 by Rod Stryker, All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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CHAPTER 3: “The Ultimate Strength is the Control of Prana”
3 Content and Momentum: The Two Factors that Shape All Thought and Action
l Momentum describes the sum of one’s energetic landscape, which includes:
l chakral doshal nadil vayu
l Change your Momentum––energetic patterning––and you change the way you see the world, yourself, your responses to life; you change your creativity, even the measure of your patience, devotion, imagination and aspiration, etc.
l Content refers to your cognitive field and everything in it:
l samskaral vasanal karmal thoughts, memories, beliefs
l Content is the primary focus in Secrets of the Sutras. Momentum was secondary. In this training as well as in Tantra Shakti and Vinyasa Krama, the primary focus is on Momentum (i.e. how to positively affect it).
l “change your pranic landscape and thereby change your perception, your relationship to yourself, and your life”
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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3 l all three stories cited in the video course used techniques to change Momentum (i.e. their practices did not ask that they explore beliefs, deep-seated, dysfunctional desires as per a dedicated vichara practice or other practices outlined in Secrets of the Sutras)
Prana Defined
l Translation: “pr” = first unit, primary; that which pervades completely, “ana” = breath, movement, respiration.
l Prana means life, breath, vigor, intelligence, power. Prana is the creative aspect of consciousness.
l Prana shakti (the force of prana) animates all life; it is what sustains the world and propels everything to become, to evolve, to change or to not become, not evolve, not change.
l At the human level, prana is the invisible force behind all actions of mind, body, and emotion. It propels health and healing as well as aging and disease. Prana moves your cells to divide, moves antibodies to grow, enlivens or diminishes digestive fire and metabolism.
l Prana is why yoga works. If you feel better at the end of a yoga class than you did prior to the practice, it is because practice positively affected your pranic landscape.
l Prana means life, breath, vigor, intelligence, power. Prana is the creative aspect of consciousness.
l this is why, according to tantra, yoga is a form pranayama
l “Tantra is the skillful use of energy.” (Mani Finger)
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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3 Tantra’s View and Use of Prana
l The force of “being” and the force of “becoming” preside over all worlds––seen and unseen, manifest and unmanifest.
l Divinity is the force of being, ever-present, all-pervading, absolute, from which all things emerge (purusha of samkhya philosophy)
l that which compels the manifest world to emerge and/or evolve and sustain itself is the force of becoming––the singular constant of the material world (prakriti of samkhya philosophy)
l The core strategy of tantra involves harnessing the force of becoming and directing it to tap into the infinite field of Being.
l this is accomplished by connecting to the prana you can access––“see,” “feel,” or “sense” and using it to skillfully access the endless pool of prana of which you do not yet have access
l the prana that you do have access to is called: prana shakti
l the prana that you don’t yet have access to is called: kundalini shakti
l Thus, the science of tantra is to use the force of becoming (shakti) to tap into the force of being (kundalini), in other words to convert kundalini shakti into prana shakti. By employing this knowledge, called prana vidya, you use prana to skillfully tap into vast, even limitless sources of capacity to:
l positively influence the direction of changel overcome limitationl unlock your experience of the Sacred
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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3 Prana and Kosha: The Layers of Consciousness
l Essence is consciousness, undiluted, unchanging, all-pervading and identical to the Absolute Reality. This is Self, atman or purusha.
l It is hidden to most, covered by five layers, sheaths (koshas).
l The physical body is the first, most material and most distant layer from pure consciousness. As you progress through the
remaining four toward essence of atman, each sheath is increasingly subtle.
l The physical layer or sheath is called annamaya kosha. l “anna” means food
l the physical body needs food to survive and after it dies it becomes “food” for something else
l The second layer is the energy body or prannamaya kosha. This the body made up of the various non-material, energetic layers, most of which, cannot be seen or measured––the one
exception is the breath––which is part of the prannamaya kosha.
l collectively these two bodies together are known as atma puri–-the “city” (puru) of soul (atma)
l through skillful use of these two bodies––physical and energetic–– you can walk the pathway to enter the “City of the Soul”
l the breath is both material and subtle; it links the physical and energetic bodies
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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3 l The third kosha is the manomaya. It consists of the sum of all thought, memory and emotion. A unique feature of this layer is the mind’s unique capacity for bhav––the capacity to intentionally cultivate imagination, image and aspirational
feelings and sentiments.l recall that “energy follows thought”––through the deliberate use of the mind, you can positively impact your energy body
l you can master your Momentum
l thus the mind and its image–making capacity make it a vital component for tantric practice
l The fourth body or layer is known as the body of intellect, moreover the body of pure intellect. Called vijnannamaya, there is no equivalent concept in either the English language or in western philosophical thought.
l this is the “body of the inner teacher or guide”
l the source of the highest or most refined expression of buddhi, intuition, pure will, the highest aspect of discernment
l it is also the abode of our deep-seated and limiting beliefs
l as it relates to yoga practice, this kosha is used to awaken and express our highest purpose in life
l The fifth layer is the anandamaya kosha, the body of bliss. This is the “casual body,” the most subtle sense of self-awareness––
equivalent to ahamkara.
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3 l for practical purposes this layer is identical to ahamkara
l called the causal body for good reason, it is the initial spark that brings us into life and pre-determines the deepest patterns and causes of destiny, karma
l Practices should move you progressively through these layers and finally beyond them: from physical, to energetic, to mastery of lower mind, to the higher mind (or intellect), to beyond the subtlest sense of self-identity to finally, spiritual
awakening––that which rests beyond kosha and guna.
Tantra: The Skillful Use of Energy
l Every thought sends out a corresponding pranic ray.
l the ripple generated by a “positive” thought sends out a balanced, empowering, healing and/or enlivening ray, depending on its unique qualities
l non-constructive thoughts ripple out as rays that constrict, inhibit or harm at various levels depending on their unique characteristics
l Thoughts that are consistently repeated will determine the shape of your pranic landscape in the same way that repeated wave patterns in a lake eventually determine the unique contours of a lake bottom. Once established, the lake bottom influences the shape of future waves on the lake’s surface.
l On the mental level, this means that deeply ingrained pranic patterns influence the unique qualities of thoughts. Those pranic patterns, originally shaped by your thoughts, will influence
future thoughts.
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PRANA SHAKTI CH3
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3 l in addition to facilitating the path of kundalini yoga, the critical role of the pranic body is to mitigate the effects of negative thinking on the physical body––in other words, use your energetic body to undo the toll of negative thinking on your physical body
