Mudra, the energy from positioning of the fingers

Mudra, मुद्रा from Sanskrit, literally means "seal".
Mudra are methods that have been used originally, a few thousand years ago, by sages practicing methods for reaching the Yoga state; sometimes is combined with static body postures, called asanas, or during meditative practices.

Please, don't confuse, as many writers do, the original ancient Mudra with what was done latter on, that was to use positions of hands as symbols or with the purpose to express some particular meanings.

Mudra is not talking by hands, it is not a ritual or a cerimony! These are only deprivations of its original use and goal....

In the ancient text Gheranda Samhita, one of the three texts where is written about the methods of Hatha Yoga, are cited 25 basic Mudra.

"O Chanda , I revealed the whole truth. What I would tell you more! There is nothing better in the world of Mudra to have a quick success and achieve perfection "
(Gheranda Samhita, III, 95)

"O Devi, I told you about Mudra. Their knowledge alone gives all Siddhis (superhuman powers) "
( Gheranda Samhita, III, 4)

In the second, the Hathayoga Pradipika, are listed instead only 10 basic Mudra: Mudra are defined as the ten destroyers of old age and death.

"Revealed by heavenly God Shiva, conferring the eight powers,
dear to the hearts of all men of power,
are difficult to perform even the wise."
(Hathayoga Pradipika)

" ... With every effort we persevere in the practice of Mudra to awake the sleeping Lady at the door of Brahma " ( ..... means Kundalini ... )
(Hathayoga Pradipika, III, 5)

1 . Mahamudra
2 . Mahabandhamudra
3 . Mahavedhamudra
4 . Kecharimudra
5 . Uddiyanabandhamudra
6 . Mulabandha
7 . Jalandharabandha
8 . Viparitakaranimudra
9 . Vajrolimudra
10. Shaktichalanamudra

These statements taken from ancient texts, emphasize the extreme importance of these practices, which are considered the means to prevent the unnecessary loss of Prana, the vital energy, which is therefore more easily channeled in Nadi, energy channels, creating balance in the Chakras and also the gradual awakening of Kundalini (see my post on Kundalini).

The benefits are many:

• organs are recharged with vitality
• many behavioral changes are formed
• the mental conditions are improved

Be careful, though ... do not expect immediate results! The system works very gradually and progressively .... does not change anything from today to tomorrow, but you'll see tangibly the results with the time.

A Mudra, thus, can be practised in combination with a posture of the body and of a particular form of breathing. But this system requires some effort and to be in a suitable place to do it.
Anther possibility is also given by this system, by simply setting your fingers. Therefore workable methods on several occasions including during the day without specific preparations; their purpose is anyway to redirect the prana, flowing out of hands, to specific parts of the body.
In fact, even in Acupuncture, as in Shiatsu or Tui Na, fingers are considered terminal of the major energy flow of the most important meridians .
Pranotherapist do flow the energy through his fingers and hands.

 

Even if, also, you experience Kirlian photography (the real one not some other fake systems...) , you will see that not all your fingers have an equal flow of energy; maybe you will be able to observe directly that perhaps through some fingers you don't have energy flow. (see my Post on vital energy and Kirlian Camera).

 

I emphasize also, for those who have not already had the opportunity to read something about, that according to Ayurveda each finger corresponds to one of the 5 elements:

• thumb - fire

• index - wind

• middle finger - ether

• ring finger - earth

• pinkie – water

The ease of implementation is another strong point of the method: everyone can make Mudra with your hands and fingers, there is no obstacle, there is no difficulty ...!

• gives freedom from bondage
• for preparation of observational meditation
• better after asanas
• is the mirror of feelings

It will it be possible to create such a closed loop, each time different, depending on which fingers are used and how they touch each other.
The most important Mudra of hands and fingers are 17 .
I will give two examples below, describing in broad terms, two very well known settings of the hands and fingers.

Veetrag (dispassionate) Mudra:

the left palm will stay near nevel ; the right palm over it must be kept ; thumbs touch each others tips on
( in Padmasana or Vajrasana or in Sukhasana )
Duration : from 8 to 48 minutes till

• develops dispassionate feelings
  makes the energy move upwards
• develops stability and impartiality
• energy balances and elements

very good for meditation

 Gyan (knowledge of) Mudra:
upper tip of the index with uper tip of thumb with light pressure
( but with Padmasana and Vajrasana and also Sukhasana )
minimum 16 min , 48 min optimal

• develops knowledge and memory
• changes attitudes as obstinacy , irritation , instability , anger , impatience and restlessness
• for a calm mind and cheerfull

for concentration

• success in work
• brain becomes stronger
• cures insomnia and headache
• pressure related point : tip of thumb corresponds to the pineal and pituitary gland (upper tip of thumb )

 

 This Gyan Mudra is an example in which you can see the posture of the fingers that is not completely correct, because the tips are not really in contact and so they don't close exactly the energy flow.

Anyway this could be ok when you do very long meditations, so fingers don't become tired for the position and energy flow, even if less, is channelled anyway as for the long time of execution.

Anyone interested in further informations can take part to the seminar organized by WW Int. School " Yoga in Your Life " (see www.allthebestinyourlife.com) and then teach to others these methods.

Meanwhile, try these two ...!
We'll meet at the next Post, which will be on the theme: "Why to practice inverted postures?"

Pranayama techniques for Yoga, channeling the energy of life

When it comes to talk about Yoga often joins the idea of breathing done in particular ways. Most part of ancient methods has been lost in time, that is, the techniques have been misrepresented and belittled their characteristics and potential.
Breathing techniques explained to those wishing to practice what necessary to acquire Yoga state, are called Pranayama. This Sanskrit word is composed of two words, ie Prana and Ayama; the first means "life force", the second means "extension". The set is: “extension of the life force”.
Due to translations not perfectly done some people arrived to the meaning "suspension of breath" or "breath control". This means that is proposed to seek to reach a state in which there are no more breaths: what purpose it will be connected ? No one gives a precise or convincing answer.... Or to control the breath resembles a technical exercise or a respiratory rebalancing but no one knows which one could be the relation in the attainment of Yoga state ...

On the other hand it is undeniable that if you want to manage your breathing in an unusual and special manner, you certainly need to have mastery and so knowledgeable ability to “regularize” it; knowing how to slow breaths automatically leads also to a regulation of brain frequencies , so it is certainly useful for those who want to occupy successively in concentration and meditation.

But the question remains of another factor, namely, that this is a training to manage, regulate and slow breaths ... but then there are a certain number of other particular methods that have no bearing on this result .... And then?
Then, we get the studies and practical applications that derive from the findings by the ancient sages Rishi, thousands of years ago; they were the first to experience the deep effects of Yoga. 
This collection of studies is RAM for Yoga (Ancient Rishi Yoga Methods to reach the Yoga states).

Here Pranayama is returned back to the original meaning ie "extension of the life force".
What does it mean?
It means that through the air is possible to derive vital energy; similarly you can do from the live food, crystals,  another person or an animal, etc.. Acupuncture is, for example, a system that channels the vital energy, present in the air, inside the body's energy meridians (see the Post on Acupuncture in the Blog Wellness-in-Your-Life.blogspot.it by Anjali).
Pranayama, then, what does?

It is a kind of instrument that channels the vital energy
present in the air to store a greater quantity or to send it in some desired directions. More precisely, the steps of a Pranayama practice are: rake, channeling,  compress and absorb.

The fact is to take care of the importance to form these four phases. It looks like the importance,  in many engines, for producing the power necessary for movement, that the internal combustion should have to follow four phases ... ( intake, compression, expansion and exhaust).


These four steps allow to "extend the life energy force energy" to the parts that need it or parts that are intended to be stimulated a little more. For example, one Pranayama allows to send more vital energy to the brain for a better work of the same, consequently to create more intuitive thoughts, easily resulting in enlightments; or another Pranayama is a system to send vital energy in the channels or meridians more occluded, so to reopen them to their normal functions; another one sends vital energy to the Kanda, the place where the dormant or potential energy called Kundalini stays (see the Post on Kundalini and the Caduceus ) for allowing to restore the ideal functioning of the Chakras. Each Pranayama has its own characteristic , way of implementation and of course a specific number of beneficial effects.

Pranayama, as all methods RAM for Yoga have results and effectiveness at many levels at the same time, ie physical, mental, psychological, character, emotional, energetic and some more components thinner and thinner.

If you want to get in a depth knowledge of these topics the World Wide International School "Yoga in Your Life" offers such opportunities (see the website www.allthebestinyourlife.com ).









In the next post I will write some hints on "Mantras and their use"

What is Caduceus and relationship with Kundalini and Chakra

The Caduceus is a symbol that is reported to the times in which it was used by the Romans as a symbol of messengers mediation, as being in balance between the parties. In other cases it is connected to the god Hermes who mediated between men and gods.
Nowadays is used in many Countries as a symbol of the pharmacopoeia .

 



The Caduceus is a symbol born in even more ancient times, about 6000 years ago, when the ancient sages Rishi, in the Indus valley, spotted the potential, latent and sleeping energy, which was called Kundalini .

 The symbol consists of two entwined snakes, with a stick in the middle and on top two  wings. What could it mean ?
The two entwined serpents may indicate two energy channels,  very important in our subtle body, called in Sanskrit Ida and Pingala. These are the two fundamental sources of the two polarities, positive and negative (for example another philosophy call them yin and yang ), which, when balanced, enable the best assets in the body and in the ways of being. One of the fundamental techniques, discovered in ancient times, acts in the way to let flow more energy in these two channels; this practice makes a sense, hearing from outside, of a hissing sound. So who, in that time, had witnessed this practice,  connected this sound to the similar  hiss of snakes ... and so had drawn Ida and Pingala like two snakes.
The central stick usually had, in the original design, even a sphere in the bottom. The energy called Kundalini (meaning wrapped, that is not expressed in all its possible length), that is flowing up through the central channel (Sushumna in Sanskrit) allows to activate all of the major energy centers (in Sanskrit Chakra) . To obtain the consequent enlargement of the Chrakra, is required to use some techniques shaking the area where this potential energy is, at the base of the spine which is the physical area where this kind of sphere of potential energy is. Therefore the design is that the central axis (a stick) has to shake the dormant energy (Kundalini) on bottom.
The wings at the top,  indicate that the flight possible when the potentiality is reactivated and has climbed up to the upper chakras. The condition acquired is the possibility to go beyond the mental limits, to which everybody is usually relegated, almost to fly up, beyond.
And you know why the base of the spinal cord is also called "sacrum"? Because it refers to the physical counterpart where is located this powerful energy, the most holy energy useful for living te best life.

 

Since many centuries later,  arrived in the western Countries news about the possibility of awakening this latent energy, and of the skills acquired as result; some researchers began to investigate how it could be possible to achieve this. But not knowing the related techniques (as residing in quite different geographical areas) was thought to act on the matter itself, trying to create a compound that can then transform the normal earthly perception in the superior one. Thus was born the search for the " philosopher's stone " and who was devoted to this research was called Alchemist. 




They said, well, that this stone would have given the power to transform everything into gold. This idea lurked an esoteric concept; what might be able to turn everything into gold, so to do that all could be really precious? Many Alchemists thought that the only reference to it was feasible when becoming able to develop the capacities of higher consciousness, condition that allows to fly above the usual normal worldly knowledge (the wings of the Caduceus), to see everything as gold, the preciousness of everything around us. They began to arrange suitable laboratories to research this product and began to experiment.

 
Thus was born the chemistry and the laboratory processing of the elements. Then doing tests with products produced, they saw that some could be useful to get better in relations of symptoms during diseases.
Thus was born the pharmacopoeia chemistry, which uses even now, in many places, the ancient symbol of the Caduceus.

 


History shows that very deep meanings are often reported more and more, over the course of the centuries, and, in different ways, the exact ancient vision get lost, interpretations change, purposes become different,  effects are no longer related to the original ones.
The RAM for Yoga ( Rishi Ancient Methods) techniques were collected by extensive studies and patients practical experiments on these topics. RAM allow to go back to the deeper meanings and more profitable results, discovered in the ancient original practices; are systems that allow to bring to all states of well-being on all levels and to achieve higher states of consciousness.
You can find something for knowing how to do it,  on the website of All the Best in Your Life www.allthebestinyourlife.com

Since we're talking about for a while, in the next post I will write about "The Life Energy, what it is and how it can be demonstrated"

A general idea on Chakras

The Chakras (a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or vortex of energy) are the means to exchange the vital energy (Prana in Sanskrit) present in the body with the outside world. Consequently to the amount of energy in each of these vortices there will be too much or too little charge in their related physical organs and, in the same time, there will be increased or decreased quality levels of mental-emotional states.

The Chakras are able to select each one a different frequency of energy. 

A very simple example is to relate them to a guitar, where each string is able to select a different sound and notes.
But if the main channel, where the Chakras are, is not functioning sufficiently, how can these energy centers give their positive natural effects? It would be like saying, going back to the simple example given above, as if they were strings of a guitar on the instrument but with the cash that is broken ... the sounds would no longer be harmonious and pleasing.

The same thing happens to the human being ... his situations in life are no more harmonious and pleasant, but it seems to be normal just because it is so commonly seen around us.



 
Even if you would like to deepen your knowledge of how operate the subtle and profound mechanisms inside of us, it may seem to you any more a strange idea that the cause of all our ills depend mainly on the fact that the main channel can not do its job in a right way, the way useful to each of the most important seven Chakras.
But the science and practice for Yoga shows how is connected the fact that these seven energy centers, when not balanced, lead to illness and to psycho-emotional bad effects.
Describing in broad terms the Chakras starting from the bottom one, they represent and stimulate :

• the natural forces that promote the continuity of the species
• the instinctual forces pushing to own things in order to survive
• the inner forces that give impulses to physical and physiological reactions
• the forces that produce all what we desire
• the forces that allow to relate with the outside world
• the forces that lead to intuitive states
• the forces that drive awareness beyond the visible world related to the five senses

Each Chakra, at the physical level, is related to a Plexus, which in turn connects to one or more fundamental organs; malfunction leads to a force poorly formed and the resulting unbalanced state is said disease.
It is a so fascinating subject that deserves to be investigated more. The International School Yoga in Your Life also takes care to explain everything in a more detailed manner and to learn the RAM ( Rishi Ancient Methods) that allow the Chakras to operate well, through the awakening of Kundalini.
 
In the next Post I will discuss some points about What is Caduceo and relations with Kundalini and Chakras.