On Jun 7, 2007, at 10:04 AM, BillyG. wrote:
The prana is the vitality of the physical body and the vehicle of the
soul (jivatman) which enables it to communicate with the world, it's
not the soul per-se but the vehicle of the soul/consciousness.
When this vital energy is caught up in the senses/body it is blind to
the spiritual worlds, the key to spiritual awareness is the reversal
of these vital pranas in the vital/astral body.
The vital energies existing in the etheric body are like energies that
are in constant motion and their direction is down or towards the
senses. Pratyhara is the beginning of the reversal of this direction
much like a gradual slowing of a freight train, once the freight train
actually *stops* the breath also stops! because the breath is a
*bi-product* of prana not the prana itself.
Once the pranas start spinning clockwise (hitherto purportedly they
are spinning counter-clock wise and outward towards the senses) and
*reverse* their direction, awareness in the spiritual worlds
commences,
not before. Remember the prana is the vehical of soul/consciousness.
Like a freight train reversing it's direction, it takes as much
'effort' and dedication to accomplish this task as well. MMY said (in
Fuiggi,
Italy) it could take a million years to reach CC (or accomplish this
task fully) unless you come to these courses .
This is an important technique and taught in many of the higher yogas
of both Hindu and Buddhist tantra.
It is not taught in TM or the TMSP.
It's only when you cut off the karmic winds (karma-vayu) that gnostic
energies (jnana-vayu) appear. Until then ordinary, deluded
consciousness predominates. And it is the jnana-vayu that serves as a
support for recognition of nonconceptual gnosis.
The Buddhist master Dolopa says of these essential points of
enlightenment:
"Therefore, as long as delusion has not ceased it is impossible for
the manifestation of delusion, the cycle of birth and death, to cease.
As long as the circulation of the karmic pranas has not stopped, it
is impossible for this stream of consciousness to stop.
While the stream of mind and mental events has not stopped, it is
also impossible for this manifestation of delusion, the three worlds,
to stop.
Therefore, with the wish to transcend the three worlds, whose nature
is suffering, if you abandon all distractions and meditate upon the
profound Vajra-yoga [of bringing karmic pranas into the central
channel], the sublime amrita from the mouth of the excellent master,
this circulation of karmic prana and mind together will stop."
