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There are two general directions in meditation: upward and downward.
Upward meditation draws energy upwards and
ultimately draws consciousness out of the body to
produces Samadhi. Even simple techniques that are drawn from the
Hindu or Buddhist traditions can lead to samadhi, for example "Transcendental
Meditation" (TM) or Vipassana.
In samadhi, the body enters a near-death state: the heartbeat stops and the
heart begins to flutter, breathing slows dramatically,
oxygen levels in the blood plunge, brainwaves go into low frequencies.
Psychological disassociation follows.
Downward meditation brings energy down into the body, usually with the heart
or third-eye as the focus. Heart Rhythm Meditation is a downward meditation
focused on the heart. This does not lead to out-of-body experiences,
but rather to a strong sense of responsibility for the biosphere and
all the beings it includes.
Some practices combine both, for example in bringing energy up the spine,
over the top of the head to the third eye and down the front of the body.
Spiritual processes based on Alchemy also attempt to complete the upward
movement of energy by bringing a transformed energy back down.
However, there is a great danger in raising Kundalini in the first place:
it may not turn off or the state it produces may become addictive.
Having taught upward meditation for decades, I have seen many cases of
aborted careers, broken marriages, disassociated psyches and neurological
illnesses that I believe were caused by kundalini.
We at IAM are committed to the safe and practical application of meditation to
everyday life. Consequently, we do not raise the kundalini energy.
It is not only dangerous to do so, but it is entirely unnecessary in
creating personal growth and spiritual transformation.
The alternative, which IAM promotes, is to
expand consciousness outward horizontally, encompassing more and more
space and beings in one's magnetic field. This is always done with
a strong center on the heart, never with a dissolution of self.
To counter the fire of Kundalini, you should learn and practice the Water
Breath. This simple meditation is described in the book,
Living from the Heart. and taught in IAM's second course, "102: The Four
Elements of the Heart."
This course is available in a weekend format
(see
schedule) or in a webcourse.
--- Puran Bair
| Since breath has such great importance, the greatest possible
importance, it is clear that the way to bring order and harmony to
our body, to bring order and harmony to our mind, to harmonize mind
with body, and to harmonize body and mind with soul, is by the
breath. It is the development of breath, knowledge of breath,
practice of breath which help us to get ourselves straightened out,
to put ourselves in tune, to bring order into our being.
There are
many who without proper guidance and knowledge practice breath. Year
after year they go on and very little result is achieved. Many go
out of their minds, and very often the little veins of the brain and
chest are ruptured by wrong breathing. There are many who have
experienced this by not knowing how to breathe. One has to be
extremely careful; one must do breathing practices rightly or not do
them at all.
-- Hazrat Inayat Khan
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