breathing

[Andreja]

Dear John,
as I read in book, you have experience in kriya yoga. I was initiated into Kriya Yoga a few years ago and I can say that it gives me a lot of joy. Also, I practice emotionally clearing according to your book and I can say that after a few years of getting through to a very deep insights that affect and in past lives. And yes, emclearing is very hard work! Thank you very much for the book, it changed my life!
I have a question related to breathing: as you know, at Kriya yoga is very important to have a pause between inhales and exhales. In your book you state the importance of connected breathing. Please help: can you explain this contradictory information?
Kind regards, Andreja

[John Ruskan]

I'm so glad the work has been helpful for you.

Apparently there are a few different schools of Kriya yoga. I was initiated into Babaji's Kriya Yoga, which can be found on the internet. It's main discipline is Kriya Kundalini Pranayam, which is a sophisticated breath system I have not seen equaled. We were instructed to NEVER hold the breath, although it was not explained why. Leonard Orr developed the Rebirthing system from this, and introduced the idea of the connected breath as essential to the system.

Learning how to smoothly connect the in and out breath is another facet of the breath which can lead to subtle physiological-psychological deepenings. To me, it feels like the prana builds up more effectively, and that it leaks out if there is a short pause between in and out.

However, I also use the traditional breath of in-hold-out, with a ratio of 1:4:2, and find the long pause to be very effective in packing prana into the body. I have not found the short pause between in and out to be generally part of traditional, well-founded yogic breath techniques and practices, but of course I could be wrong.