De-Reflexive Breathing (Krishna’s Kriya Yoga)
De-Reflexive Breathing, or Krishna’s Kriya Yoga is a very beautiful spiritual breathing exercise/meditation–very ancient, traditionally passed on in a strict traditional way (and only to the most deserving monks!): but a few years ago it was made available to everyone through the worldwide web!
In a nut shell, this is it: while physically inhaling, you mentally exhale. And while physically exhaling, you mentally inhale. Imagine light coming into you as you exhale, and light going out of you as you inhale: air and light traveling the same path, at the same time, but in opposite directions.
The goal or purpose of the practice is to re-program or de-condition an inherited primal program known as “body identification.” There are some important aspects to the full practice, and so below, you will find a link to a very detailed description and instructions with animated graphics.
Let me explain it quickly in this way. When a dog sniffs, with the inflow of breath comes the inflow of information. When a dog barks, with the outflow of breath goes the outflow of information. The dog’s consciousness is bound to his breath.
Likewise, from birth, when we inhale, our experience is that the breath is coming into “me;” and when we exhale, our experience is that the breath is going out of “me.” Our consciousness is bound to the breath by an inherited survival reflex. This sense of “me” is known as “body identification.”
And yet, we know that we are not our bodies. We may have a philosophical or intellectual understanding of this: that we are something more, something else, something beyond… that we have a spiritual nature or essence. But if your body is suddenly deprived of air, it is “you” that cannot breathe!
Everything in the universe has consciousness, and when we become fixated on our own separate consciousness, we get out of balance with the rest of the universe, and in a way, we disconnect ourselves from the rest of existence.
Spiritual enlightenment or spiritual liberation means expanding our consciousness beyond this reflexive body-identification into an expanded awareness of our “Higher Self,” or our True Nature: “at One with the All.”
When we were small children, growing and learning about the world, we needed a sense of a “separate self” in order to keep our body safe. We had to learn the difference between “my body/me” and everything else in the physical universe. If we lived in “Unity Consciousness,” experiencing ourselves as being “at one” with everything, we’d get run over by a truck!
This primal reflex and sense of a separate self is a useful survival program, and a convenient social device. It needn’t be destroyed. But we do need to soften it, and to awaken to a more expanded sense of ourselves. War and violence, scarcity and lack, are extensions or projections of this inherited belief in separation: “It’s us or them!” “It’s us against them!”
“Normal Breathing” keeps this inherited reflex alive and active in us.
Yet, we were meant to grow out of this way of thinking and being in the world. And it’s about time, because the world is weary from these patterns: “Muslims against Jews,” “Christians against Pagans,” “Liberals against Conservatives.” When are we going to learn that whatever we do to others, we do to ourselves? To be against anyone is to be against a part of ourselves!
De-Reflexive Breathing frees us from this out-dated survival program.
Don’t worry, you won’t forget to duck if a rock is flying toward your head! You will not loose your ability to survive in the physical world. In fact, we become safer and more secure than ever when we embody our Higher Self!
Try the meditation now: When inhaling air, think: “out, out, out.” When exhaling air, think: “in, in, in.” Imagine light coming in as the air goes out. And imagine light pouring out as air comes in.
For further study, and detailed graphics and animated instructions of de-reflexive breathing, go to the “World Breathing Revolution” website: http://kkyoga.netfirms.com/, and click on “learn dereflexation today.”