NEW--as practiced by Hindu Yogis

[boydster]

I was reading a treatise on yogic breathing and found this section which sounds a lot like NEW:

"The general principles of the Grand Breath may be summed up in the old Hindu saying " Blessed is the Yogi who can breathe through his bones." This exercise will fill the entire system with prana, and the student will emerge from it with every bone, muscle, nerve, cell, tissue, organ and part energized and attuned by the prana and the rhythm of the breath. It is a general housecleaning of the system, and he who practices it carefully will feel as if he had been given a new body, freshly created, from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes. We will let the exercise speak for itself.


Lie in a relaxed position, at perfect ease.
Breathe rhythmically until the rhythm is perfectly established.
Then, inhaling and exhaling, form the mental image of the breath being drawn up through the bones of the legs, and then forced out through them; then through the bones of the arms; then through the top of the skull; then through the stomach; then through the reproductive region; then as if it were travelling upward and downward along the spinal column; and then as if the breath were being inhaled and exhaled through every pore of the skin, the whole body being filled with prana and life.
Then (breathing rhythmically) send the current of prana to the Seven Vital Centres, in turn, as follows, using the mental picture as in previous exercises

To the forehead.
To the back of the head.
To the base of the brain.
To the Solar Plexus.
To the Sacral Region (lower part of the spine).
To the region of the navel.
To the reproductive region.

Finish by sweeping the current of prana, to and fro from head to feet several times.


Finish with Cleansing Breath. "

I knew that this practice of pulling in prana via pathways other than the lungs had to be known and practiced in other cultures and at other times. But this is the first definite reference to it that I've found.

I don't think that this takes anything away from Robert Bruces New Energy Ways at all. His tactile awareness techniques are very good, especially for the highly distracted and distractible people of our age.

For anyone interested, here is the link to the entire treatise--it's really, really good, I think:

http://www.arfalfa.com/ScienceOfBreath/ScienceOfBreath.htm

[Leo Volont]

Oh, this reminded me of an old breathing exercise which I used to do regularly years ago.  

Put your thumb and fingers on either side of your nose so you can pinch off first one nostril and then the other.  Breath into the left and close it, breath out of the Right and then breath into the Right and then close it, and then breath out of the Left and then into the Left and ... continue.  It is out in close, next nostril out in close, next nostril out in close.

It evens the energy channels.  It is a good exercise prior to meditation.

And, Bruce, since Vivekananda wrote over a hundred years ago, there are no patent or copyright infringments and so you are perfectly free to publish if you like.

[Kalonek]

Thank you a LOT for this link boydster, it's really interesting ! It's also the first concrete reference i have to this from the past.

[boydster]

cool boydster, thanks!
I think breathing exercises work the best.

I strongly agree with this, along with chanting or other meditative intonations.

These days, our bodies are not very well matched to disciplines such as pure meditation or energy work. Compared to our brothers in the east and to the bodies we wore in ages past, we are highly distractible, very physically grounded people.

And so to gather momentum in spiritual directions it helps to have physical activities which you can do over and over and which don't necessarily depend on a superhuman ability to concentrate for long periods. Chanting and breathing exercises are really good tools for us in the west to make steady progress on the path.