Surya Yoga, and Reverse breathing

It’s a good idea to get out to the sunrise when you can at this time of the year, when spring is in bloom at the solar forces are at their utmost, according to the Sunrise traditions. It isn’t necessary to do much when you’re there other than walk or sit down peacefully. This alone will help revitalise and energise you for the day ahead, and will even fuel you for Martial Arts practice later. Obviously, you can meditate, go through some yoga or tai Chi exercises, and even harder martial arts practice if you like. But the important thing is to get up and just do it from time to time, and everyday if you can. I will go into this briefly before returning to the main point.

Interestingly, the hard styles are associated with a “switch of polarity”, which I will explain in a moment. The purpose of the soft styles, based around meditation is to channel energy around the body, whereas the hard style “emit” the energy. This will become clear later. The Chinese call the breathing involved in soft styles “normal breathing”, whereas the hard styles utilise “reverse” breathing. In Reverse breathing, the abdomen is protruded outwards when exerting breath out for a punch, and the hara centre is pulled in slightly when breathing back in. It is like bracing to lift a heavy weight, you stabilise the core. Whereas, when relaxing, you simply let the breath follow its natural course, where the belly goes outward when breathing in, and inward at the Hara centre when breathing out.

Lots of people think the Hard styles, known as “Daoist” breathing are incompatible with meditation. They are not, you simply reverse the normal process of breathing in meditation, and apply a hard ferocious force rather than a soft slow action. It is the same general idea as in Yoga, where certain techniques, like the chin lock, which is the same as the chin down guard in boxing, emphasise high energy manifestation by reversing the normal action of breathing. The point is not violence, but energy. This reversal of the normal breathing pattern is quite intuitive and does not involve learning new concepts which are alien to timeless traditions. It is a complimentary process, demonstrated in the video below. In the video I demonstrate the chin lock as described by Yogi Satyananda in his Pranayama book. I find it adapts itself well to martial arts, as often passively tucking the chin can constrict the airways, but this techniques explains how to open them up fully whilst manifesting great energy.

The thing to remember is, when you want to exert energy, you do reverse breathing, which is to release tension or pent up feelings, and to work at a high rate (day) whereas to cultivate energy you slow down and become more meditiatve (night). In the morning you slowly build to this level. You practice should follow this as a general rule, befitting to the time of the day. In other words, slowing down and meditating in the evening, and working and exerting in the day.

Back to the Sunrise. You might say “I’m too tired” or “it’s boring”, but actually once you have dragged yourself there for some time, as the months go on, you will begin to see it as an important part of the day, essential to enhancing well being. At first it will seem pointless, and you will feel half asleep, however as you look back on your progress, as so often happens we see that our progress today was the result of years of tentative steps which eventually gained momentum. And often, this momentum was gained without our noticing until the time was right for a leap forward to commence. From this point of view, progress has a lot to do with giant leaps, “Ulrika” moments, but these moments themselves were usually set in motion years before. Cause and effect, steady evolution, takes a long time to gain results.

In Chinese philosophy, Yin and yang, sun and moon, is symbolised by dark and light interacting. This is why the certain Tai Chi practitioners get up early for sunrise, in order to absorb this vital energy or “Chi” when it is at its most potent. As we can see, the practice of admiring the sun and respecting its powers has dated back thousands of years, for example in the Chinese ancient traditions. I have called the post “Surya Yoga”, but actually yoga is the art of breathing, in this case breathing in the Prana, or Chi energy, of the early morning rays. Whatever you want to call this energy is not important, its the principal of gaining energy early in the morning, and starting off the day right.

Doing physical exercises (Hatha Yoga) in the presence of the sun is an entirely different aspect. To be sure, if you do these exercises early in the morning, you will get a certain benefit that you wouldn’t obtain at later hours in the day. However, overly physical exertion has the aim of getting rid of energy rather than cultivating it, so in that sense doing this too much could be counterproductive. But the main point is to absorb the energies the sun offers in the morning, which at the very least promote biochemical reactions, such as endorphin release, which promote feeling good. As a rule I recommend training outside for this reason, to get natural fresh air and sunlight, rather than noise and distraction often found in gyms.

The meridians, which corresponds to Yoga Chakras and to some extent the nervous system, are highly sensitive to the suns energies, which run through it like electricity powering our inner machinery. Dr Yang, in his book “QIgong meditiation”, likens the human body to a giant battery with positive and negative poles1. The Hara Centre (positive) is the storehouse of energy, and the spine or “thrusting vessel” is the powerline to the brain (negative). The two poles, positive and neagtive, play an important role here. Here we can also see the arrangement expressed as the feminine (negative/receptive) and masculine (positive/emmissive), which is saying the same thing.

In Yoga philosophy, Ida and Pingala share the same relationship of mutual interaction as with Yin and Yang, positive, negative, receptive and emissive. That is, Ida, one of the energy channels surrounding the Shusumna (spine) is negative, and Pingala is positive. There is a reciprocal arrangement here, of mutually interacting forces. It is like an economy, where supply must match relative to demand for balance2. Or if you like, you must have a steady income of money, that is low risk investment (Ida/inactive), to be able to support high risk but high reward investments (Pingala/active energy). As you can see these principles are active in all domains.

The Egyptians made the Pyramids with some knowledge of how to align structures in order to absorb solar radiation, and to transmit this energy to the Pharaohs. According to this knowledge, the suns rays beam down on the central point at the top of the structure. This is similar to how the brains activity instructs and gives instructions to the body. This is why the Chinese traditions place emphasis in “mountain” poses, which symbolise electrical conductivity from the air and atmosphere, through to the “roots” at the ground. I will talk about that another time, and it’s worth reading Dr Yang “”QI gong meditation”. Therefore, the sun can be compared to the brain, and the body can be compared to the triangle spreading out at a wide wide base as it touches the ground.

Even today, science is revealing new ways in which the sun provides us with energy. For example, in his book “The body Electric” Robert Becker discusses how the earth magnetic fields interacts with our own body (which also has a field) to regulate the bodies processes. Not only that, but this electric body, which is the same thing as the Chi body, represents a non visible “peri Neural” nervous system, which governs the traditional nervous system. In other words, the peri neural system, of the Chi body if you prefer, is actually a body in its own right. It’s not been identified visibly to my knowledge, but it has been identified scientifically based on the influence it holds over the physical body and organs, which it controls. According to the Chinese tradition, this body requires work to build and to the extent that we maintain and enhance it, it becomes more central and beneficial to our physical body. There are correlations of course to the Yogi tradition, summed up by Iyengar in his Book “Light on Pranayama:

The generation and distribution of Prana in the human system May be compared to that of electrical energy. The Energy of falling water or rising steam is made to rotate turbines within a magnetic field to generate electricity. The electricity is then stored in accumulators and the power is stepped up or down by transformers which regulate the voltage of current. it is then transmitted along cables to light cities and run machinaery. Prana is like the falling water or rising steam. The thoracic area is the magnetic field. The breathing processes of inhalation, exhaltion, and retention of breath act like the turbines, while the chakras represent the accumulators and transformers. The energy generated by prana is like electricity. It is stepped up or down by the Chakras, and distributed throughout the system by the nadis, dimanis, and siras, which are the transmission lines. If the power is not generated and is not properly regulated it will destroy the machinary and equipment. It is the same with the Prana and Ojas ( Vital energy) for they can destroy the body and mind of the sadhaka (disciple).

Yes, the body can be compared to electrical system, or even a simply fan. The fan requires electricity (Prana or Chi) to power its action. And where do we get this energy, this electricity, from? Well, the blood in our body, the circulatory system, represents the water which, which powers the “turbines”, which are represented by our lungs through breathing. This is how water flows through the system and is powered by fire (Our desire), to create steam. Steam, symbolically speaking, is water that has been evaporated, in other words transformed, by two reciprocal forces interacting to produce something greater than it: The steam powered engine for example. And this shows how two simple primitive sources can be turned into another type of energy, which is superior, and from which bigger projects can be built.

And so, Fire (Masculeine principle) heats the Water (Feminine principles), you get steam, which powers the turbines. These two forces are represented in the Nadi’s Ida (left nostril) and Pingala (Right Nostril)3. When airflow is flowing optimally through both nostrils, the energies are said to be transferring through the spine and chakras of the body optimally. This create balance. This is one of the advantages of the practice of being present at sunrise, it acts to rebalance body and mind naturally, through the flows of energy in Ida and Pingala. And thus balance is achieved by natural forces.

Interestingly, Ida (left nostril channel), represented by the left side of the body, is associated with lateral movements. Pingala, associated with right sided movements, runs through the right nostril4. In “Surya Namaskara”, Swami Sarawati says that Ida (left) is associated with coolness (water, moon) and Pingala (right is associated with positive, the sun, and the heat of fire. There are many more anaologies with symbols, however what it is getting at is that they form part of an inseparable duality which is made up of polar opposites mutually interacting.This interaction of opposits to form a unified duality is the basis of Nature and can be found in all phenomena, for example, the planets (receptive) orbiting around the sun (emissive of energy).

According to Omraam Mikeal Aivanov “The body is polarised… the right side is positive… and the left side is negative” and these polarities can “sometimes join together to become one.” In his autobiography he says right sided movements are positive and vertical, whilst left sided movements tend to be horizontal and negative. Here we have a polarity again. This means that right sided movements tend to be positive, that is to say assertive and extroverted, whereas the opposite is true of left side movements. This can be seen in boxing, where the right hand is used to “finish” the opponent energetically, whereas the jab (left hand) tends to feel out, or in other words is more intuitive and mindful. Overall, balance is achieved is the channels flow equally well through the spine providing balance, as this is the meeting ground of the two forces, in other words where they become non differentiated and converge.

References

1 The Dual Nervous system and the Chi Body https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/04/12/the-dual-nervous-system-and-the-chi-body/ and Balance, Ida and Pingala https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/04/05/balance-ida-pingala-ying-and-yang-mental-and-physical/

2 The Economics of Martial Arts https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2020/09/19/the-economics-of-martial-arts-part-1/

3 Convergence at the Centre https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/03/04/convergence-at-the-centre-the-solar-plexus-fire-and-water-and-the-hara-centre/

4 The Left hand should know what the right is doing https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/01/13/the-left-hand-should-know-what-the-right-is-doing/