Question about the water breath: sitting or standing?

December 3rd, 2007

Puran,
Several weeks ago, we corresponded about problems with Kundalini Yoga I’ve been having for about 13 years now. I’ve been practicing the Water Breath off and on since then and have a couple of follow up questions. In the meantime, I also purchased your book, Living from the Heart.
The main point I’m a little unsure about is the places where the water energy is to be allowed to exit the body. The book says that if one is doing the practice standing, the energy exits the fingertips and the bottoms of the feet. If one is sitting, the energy exits the fingertips and the “base of the spine” (first chakra?). Before I ever contacted you, I experimented with the Water Breath based on a Usenet article you posted for someone else who was having Kundalini problems. In that article, you said the following:
“Visualize water flowing down upon you and through you, entering at the crown and pouring down your spine to your heart as you breathe in. As you breathe out, send the stream down through the first chakra into the earth, and also forward from the heart.”
At the time, I didn’t know if the practice was to be done standing or sitting, so I did it sitting. The results were very encouraging (I was able to get up a full hour earlier in the morning after just one or two attempts and felt better in general). When I got the book, I switched to following the instructions for the standing approach (you advised me to do the exercise standing in a previous e-mail). Though I still got mostly positive results, I was nagged by a feeling that I had obtained better results the other way. Intuitively, I’ve felt that it’s important in my case to let the energy exit the first chakra. When my initial Kundalini arousal occurred, I was seated in a chair in meditation, but I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.
I apologize for the long explanation above. My question is, essentially, whether I should either allow the water energy to exit the first chakra in addition to the other points (fingertips, bottoms of the feet, heart center) in the standing practice or whether I should perhaps do the practice seated according to the instructions in the book. Also, should I focus on the spine in particular as a channel for the descending water energy (as in the Usenet article) or just visualize water flowing down through my entire body without any particular regard to the path it takes?
Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Tom Croft

Dear Tom,
I agree with you that it’s better in your case to follow the instructions in the book and do the practice in a sitting pose. The spine is the center of the stream of energy, where it is most intensely flowing downward, but the descending flow occurs in all parts of the body to some degree. Take care to keep your attention on the physical sensations in your body. This will keep your consciousness focused.
In addition to your attention, there are two other things to consider in the practice: emotion and invocation.
A meditation practice is a practice that has been mastered by a person. Such a person comes to embody the practice. When we do his or her practice, we also share in his or her being. When we play the music of Bach we experience Bach himself, and when we do a meditation practice, we experience the master(s) whose practice it is. In the case of the Water Breath, we are invoking the lineage of Sufi sages and masters which culminates in the modern Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan, who developed the practice. It would be beneficial then to also invoke his being consciously, which we can do most efficiently by first saying this prayer:
Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls, Who form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.
The emotion of the practice is that of love, a stream of love that pours through you. It makes your heart tender and soft, and brings you into your deepest emotions. I recommend our Energize Your Heart webcourse to you, where the course instructor teacher takes you through the steps of Heart Rhythm Meditation in an 4-week course, which may be repeated as many times as you like. The course is a wonderful way of learning Heart Rhythm Meditation with a group of people who are all practicing and learning this powerful technique.

I look forward to meeting you in person someday.

With love,
Puran

Entry Filed under: Meditation