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| http://www.amazon.com/Swara-Yoga-Swami-Mukti-Bodhananda/dp/8185787360 |
"Gregor stressed again the difference between Buddhist meditation (very slow process just on awareness and breath) and Yoga meditation. He made the comparison of an Atari computer (vipassana) and a superprocessor (Yoga meditation).
He went again on the importance of Pranayama in balancing the nadis, since depending on the dominant nostril we will be more or less successful in the activities we start.
For example the right nostril should be open if we want to commit a crime, are a policeman wanting to arrest a criminal, give a public speech, study the Shastras, study a difficult scientific text, performing kriyas...
The left nostril should be open for conception, breastfeeding, counselling, listening to a friend, artistic activities, all other yogic activities.
By learning to regulate which nostril is predominant we can make sure that the activities we need to perform are successful (and to be honest after reading the Svara Yoga book I have started to notice that my right nostril is always more open whenever I feel it is a good time to study...).
It is better to lie on the left side than to drink a coffee, same effect. Lie on the right side if you want to fall asleep quickly etc etc.
Right nostril - sympathetic nervous system, catabolic
Left nostril - parasympathetic nervous system, anabolic
We have a dualistic mind, night and day, Ida and Pingala
Gregor mentioned the Shiva Svarodhaya Shastra, which has been translated into English (it is in the Svara Yoga book of the Bihar School of Yoga)
Every 90 minutes or so, on average, the dominant nostril changes. There are a few minutes where no nostril is dominant, both hemispheres are suspended (we feel a bit weird) the central nadi is active and prana enters it. This time is what Yogis want to elongate".
from Guest post by Chiara Ghiron
www.theyogicat.com
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I asked Chiara if she had any articles on this from the western perspective, research papers etc.
Of course she does.
Thank you yet again to Chiara for providing these links, have been wanting to read some more on this for some time.
Here there are some references on breathing, nostril dominance, contralateral hemispheres. I am not sure all can be freely downloaded.
The last is an interesting review from the IJYT which I passed to Anthony, he may be able to share it on the blog or just ask me or him for it.
Physiology of nostril breathing exercises and it's probable relation with nostril and cerebral dominance.
http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMCJMS/article/view/7885/6431
The last is an interesting review from the IJYT which I passed to Anthony, he may be able to share it on the blog or just ask me or him for it.
Physiology of nostril breathing exercises and it's probable relation with nostril and cerebral dominance.
http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JMCJMS/article/view/7885/6431
The effects of unilateral nostril breathing during the night on heart rate and sleep apnea in young sportsmen
http://www.npbrjournal.com/article/S0941-9500(11)00053-4/abstract
http://www.npbrjournal.com/article/S0941-9500(11)00053-4/abstract
Sex- and diagnosis-related differences in nostril dominance may be associated with hemisphere dysfunction in affective disorders
http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/medical/issues/sag-12-42-1/sag-42-1-4-1011-1321.pdf
http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/medical/issues/sag-12-42-1/sag-42-1-4-1011-1321.pdf
The emergence of emotional lateralization: Evidence in non-human vertebrates and implications for farm animals
http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/article/S0168-1591(13)00052-X/abstract
http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/article/S0168-1591(13)00052-X/abstract
Voluntary Breath Regulation in Yoga: Its Relevance and Physiological Effects
http://www.resourcenter.net/images/AAPB/Files/Biofeedback/2008/biof_breathing_regulation.pdf
http://www.resourcenter.net/images/AAPB/Files/Biofeedback/2008/biof_breathing_regulation.pdf
The Psychology of respiration: Eastern and Western perspectives
http://iayt.metapress.com/content/y144x63037425587/
http://iayt.metapress.com/content/y144x63037425587/
This last one can be found below
And also this
from KHYF.
Question: Should we be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Kausthub Desikacar and any organisation he's associated with, past/present or future, may be discredited, due to the "varying allegations of sexual, mental and emotional abuse against Dr. Kaustaub Desikachar" but what about the scholarship, some excellent articles have appeared under the KHYF banner? Do we throw those out as well?
On re-reading the paper I not sure whether there are a couple of mistakes in the tables.
ReplyDeleteIn Table 1 I think the anabolic/building up and catabolic/elimination should belong to the opposite columns and so in Table 3 the muscle vasoconstriction/vasodilation characteristics should perhaps be inverted?
But I am no ayurvedic expert, nor a physiologist ;-)
Just a quick note that in Zen Buddhism, the Soto school teaches "slow" enlightenment via shikantaza; the Rinzai school teaches "fast" enlightenment, often via koan study. Not sure how this aligns (or doesn't) with the supercomputer analogy -- but the point, at least, is that there is more than one "Buddhist meditation."
ReplyDelete....and, making blunt comparisons and analogies like that isn't helpful and completely subjective
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no interest in defending Gregor's views, I was reporting what he said and if you think about it it sort of ties in with what Karen commented, that Rinzai koan meditation appears 'faster' (= more powerful?)
ReplyDeleteIn any case I assume that of course such a subject will be pretty subjective, each one of us will have their preferred method and I think it is normal that Gregor would be advertising what works for him.
Perhaps a little bit more explanation can be found in the introduction of the meditation book:
"While meditation methods such as Buddhist, vedantic and Vipassana meditation are noble pursuits in their own right, if you want to harvest the fruit of your asana and pranayama practice you need to combine them with yogic meditation, that is meditation that repeats the structural elements and architecture of your posture and breathing techniques"
"Yoga meditation is a highly scientific method. It derives its power from the fact that it systematically and step-by-step suspends the entire processing capacity of the subconscious mind and diverts it towards meditation".
According to Gregor the processing power of the subconscious mind is much higher and simply watching breath or awareness will involve only the conscious mind. Tapping in the subconscious is the secret of yogic meditation.
As I commented before to another such critique on Anthony's facebook page, I personally cannot say to have reached any special states during my meditation practice yet, so I cannot testify for one or the other method.
It would be useful to hear what somebody who has successfully tried both methods thinks about this statements.
At any rate it is interesting that yogi practitioners would tend to embrace Buddhist-derived meditations, I am not sure why this happens, perhaps there aren't much people around to teach yogic meditation? Because it seems to make sense to be coherent with the structure one chooses, rather than mixing and matching which in the long run may not bring any profound results.
Gregor came across as a pretty knowledgeable person, certainly very traditionally trained, perhaps his bluntness comes from his experience, or simply the different culture?
Glad some others have noted the bluntness in the comparison between Vipassana and "Yoga" meditation. Careful here, as there are rich and diverse traditions at play. the analogy is a rather crass one and perhaps misguided.
ReplyDeleteI once did a management training and we ran a very interesting exercise.
ReplyDeleteWe were all sitting in a circle and the first one of us had to read a message on a piece of paper and then report it verbally to the person to his/her right without the other people hearing. Then the 'recipient' person had to do the same, and so on until the last one had to speak that message loud.
The original message had been completely distorted, the difference between what was written on the piece of paper and what the last person got was unbelievable.
Each of us had metabolised the part of the message that somehow resonated more and put more emphasis on that when reporting it, leaving out other bits which were equally important in transmitting the meaning. This was all done in completely good faith, since we were told that it was super important that the exact message was reported.
So probably I have done, so probably the people commenting to the post.
Interesting!!!
just wanted to add a reminder too that these are reported workshop comments, we lose some of the context here, the lightness of touch. In his book he qualifies the idea a little more.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's being critical of other forms of meditation here but rather stressing how in Yoga meditation the asana and pranayama and whole kundalini aspect in the meditation practice is brought into play , he wants to put over that the asana, pranayama and meditation are one unified approach in Yoga. It's not a case of my meditation practice is better than your meditation practice.