Topics
Techniques, ideas, people and texts that run through the videos. Each topic leads with the videos that teach it, then every other place it comes up.
Techniques
All 14 techniquesHRV ResonanceHRV Resonance is the breath and heart moving in sync: the heart rate rises on the inbreath and falls on the outbreath. It is induced with the Holy Trinity of Breath, which means under seven breaths per minute, no pauses and a longer outbreath. He presents it as the bedrock of meditation, confirmed by the Four Proofs.OM Japa in the ChakrasMentally chanting OM into each of the six chakras, from the coccyx up to the medulla. Done into emotions as they arise through the day, he calls it Kriya Therapy.HakalauHakalau is a peripheral-vision technique from the ancient Hawaiian Kahuna. Fix on one point slightly above eye level, then open the peripheral vision to take everything in at once, which dilates the eyes. It is taught as a neurological driver into the right brain and right hippocampus, practised through the day or in meditation.AMOLAMOL, short for "always make the outbreath longer," is a one-rule breath: lengthen every outbreath. The long outbreath raises the diaphragm, putting pressure on the dorsal vagal nerve that slows the heart and engages the parasympathetic system. Taught as one rule that can be enough for HRV resonance, it suits children, groups and stressful moments.Cute Baby MeditationAn exercise for growing bliss: look at a picture that is instantly cute, such as a baby, kitten or puppy, and hold that feeling in the heart as long as it stays real, then look again. He presents it as instant Metta, lifting weights for the left amygdala, and a way into Bhakti.Sitting Very Still (SVS)Sitting Very Still (SVS) is the base principle of keeping as still as comfortably possible in meditation: relaxed, not tense. Paired with HRV resonant breathing, which makes it easy, it deepens the parasympathetic system and brings on the freeze response, on which the Four Proofs and deeper stages rest. An itch may be scratched, then stillness resumed.Finding the chakrasFinding the chakras means locating each of the six, coccyx to medulla, by feeling inside the body rather than pointing, picturing or visualizing. A body cue marks each: squeezing the anus, stopping urine, sucking in the gut, the shock of love, a guttural "ka", the "aha" at the medulla. It comes before OM Japa in the chakras.Let Go and EnjoyThe being phase that follows the doing of a meditation. After HRV resonance, sitting very still and OM Japa, stop controlling the breath and sit with whatever shows up — the Four Proofs, peace, joy, bliss — soaking it in. He teaches that this enjoyment brings deep states back and grows into absorption and samadhi.Navi KriyaA short technique done before each sitting. In the neck lock, OM mentally into the front of the third chakra about a hundred times, then reverse the lock and OM into the back twenty-five times. He teaches it as insurance against fear: it disrupts what the right amygdala projects into the gut.MahamudraLahiri's stretch before meditation, three rounds.Do Be Do Be DoDo Be Do Be Do is his formula for meditation as a cycle of doing and being. First comes the doing (HRV resonant breathing, OM Japa in the chakras), then letting go to soak in the after-effect poise state, paravastha, before doing again. It solves the riddle of practising without thought of results.Angel exerciseA feeling exercise for connecting to the higher self through the left amygdala. Imagine someone holy, a guardian angel or Ishta Devata, sneaking up over the left shoulder, then look without physically looking and bathe in the felt presence. It culminates his Talking To the Higher Self training and is repeated throughout the day.Ho'oponoponoA Kahuna forgiveness practice from Hawaii, as Tad James taught it. The simple version chants "I love you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you" toward a person. The deeper version fills oneself and that person with light, unburdens the heart, listens, then cuts the aka cord. Done inwardly, it shifts a difficult relationship without confronting anyone.KumbhakaKumbhaka is the breath hold, done gently in meditation: breathe in, hold only as long as is comfortable, then let the breath out and recover before the next. Taught as a kinder alternative to Mahabandha, it creates a subtle pull toward the brain, never with strain.
Concepts
All 15 conceptsFour Proofs of MeditationThe Four Proofs are four body signs, noticed during HRV resonance while sitting very still, that the parasympathetic system has come online: hands hot and heavy, tingling lips, pressure on the dorsal vagal along the spine, and tingling skin. Any one is enough. They are biofeedback that the meditation is working, and fade as the Freeze Response deepens.Spiritual eyeThe spiritual eye is an inner light seen in meditation: a white or golden ring around a deep blue cave with a white star at its center, often first just a deepening darkness. It is taught as a road sign toward absorption, not a goal, approached by gazing with dilated, expansive eyes rather than grasping.Left and right brainThe two hemispheres as two ways of attending, after Iain McGilchrist. The left brain labels, divides and grasps one thing at a time, holding words and memory; the right brain takes everything in as one, holding meaning and expansion, and watches over like a guardian angel. He frames meditation as a journey from left to right.Freeze ResponseThe dorsal vagal freeze that holds the body still every night in sleep, entered consciously in meditation through HRV resonance and sitting very still. Its signs run from tingling skin and numbness to parts of the body vanishing from awareness. He teaches it as pratyahara, interiorization: body asleep, mind awake.Tranquil BreathThe Tranquil Breath is a shallow belly breath that arises on its own as the freeze settles over the chest, induced by HRV resonance and sitting very still rather than forced. It deepens through three levels: rapid, moderate, then so slow it seems stopped, the great kumbhaka. This low-idle-state of body and mind opens deep meditation.BlissBliss is the non-dual feeling Kriya Yoga points toward, unlike happiness, which swings with its opposite. It begins as body bliss of the parasympathetic system, first tasted in the Four Proofs, grows as OM Japa cleans each chakra, and deepens into the bliss of the left amygdala. Heading toward bliss rather than energy keeps practice on track.Holy Trinity of BreathThe Holy Trinity of Breath is three rules that box the breath into HRV resonance: stay under seven breaths per minute, make the outbreath longer than the inbreath, and take out the pauses at the top and bottom. Kept up for five to ten minutes, they reliably bring resonance; breath holds come later, on top of this base.PratyaharaPratyahara is interiorization, or sensory withdrawal: attention turning inward from the senses until body and breath drop from awareness. Taught as the crux of meditation, required before dharana, dhyana and samadhi, it is a gradual dimmer-switch process begun through HRV resonance and equated with the freeze response.ParavasthaThe after-effect poise state of Kriya: the "be" that follows the "do" of HRV resonance and OM Japa. The meditator lets go and soaks up whatever shows up, from the Four Proofs and calm or bliss to the Tranquil Breath, Freeze Response and Roll-Up. It is taught as the actual meditation state and a setup for absorption.Dorsal Vagal ComplexThe Dorsal Vagal Complex is the back branch of the vagus nerve, lying between the heart and the spine: the healing parasympathetic system the body uses in deep sleep. Each long outbreath presses the chest back onto it; that pressure is the third of the Four Proofs, and engaging it repeatedly brings the Freeze Response, the yogi's interiorization.SamadhiUnion, the goal of yoga: after pratyahara, concentration turned on the higher self deepens into absorption and merges with it, leaving no sense of separation. Its levels run from savikalpa, where thought remains, to nirvikalpa, where it stops; he teaches returning to it repeatedly as a therapy that reformats the brain.Roll-Up of ConsciousnessConsciousness falling back up the spine to its home in the brain, first noticed in the heart, then perhaps the throat, medulla or crown. Cleaning the chakras with OM Japa loosens its hold on the world so it rises unforced, above the worries of the lower chakras. One of the Three Essentials; what counts is consciousness, not energy.MedullaThe medulla, the swelled top of the spinal cord at the base of the skull, is the breath and heart center and the true ajna chakra, which the spiritual eye mirrors. Resting attention there slows heart and breath, so Kriya revolves around it. It is found by feeling a tiny screw turning into the skull.ChakrasChakras are projections of the limbic brain through the central nervous system into the body, felt as hurt in the heart, fear in the gut, words stuck in the throat. There are six, from coccyx to medulla. OM Japa into each silences its projection so the energy returns to the brain, a Roll-Up of Consciousness.Kevala KumbhakaKevala Kumbhaka is an apparent holding of the breath that arises alone, spontaneously, never done on purpose. It is taught as a process, not a thing: the culmination of HRV resonance, the freeze response and the tranquil breath, arriving when its slowest level makes the breath seem to vanish. It does not mean breath and heart stop.