Remember the number
Ten to twelve seconds. No more.
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Technique · breakdown
Ajagari
The python breath. A technique of stabilisation, not of intensity.
Alternating two opposite states of the belly: the fed snake and the hungry snake.
Health
Path
Essence
Two states of the snake
Picture a python that has just eaten.
On the retention after the inhale the belly pushes out.
You alternate these states round after round. Five rounds.
The key condition
The retentions are short
Ten to twelve seconds at most. This is not endurance training.
The previous technique works the opposite way, and that is where the mistake happens.
Physiology
Two opposite mechanisms
Drawing the belly in — the parasympathetic phase
Negative pressure in the abdominal cavity acts on the vagus nerve.
Pushing the belly out — the sympathetic phase
Intra-abdominal and intrathoracic pressure rise.
In one technique, in one round, both branches of the autonomic nervous system are engaged in turn.
Place in the system
Transit
Kapalabhati → Fundamental Breathing → Bhastrika → Ajagari → Full Breathing.
Before it stands the most sympathetic technique, after it the most parasympathetic.
The system is not stopped by a blow. It is allowed to settle.
This is why the retentions are short.
Effects
Massage of the organs
- A sharp change in the volume of the belly gives an intense massage to all the abdominal organs.
- Peristalsis improves and the secretion of digestive juices is activated.
- Circulation in the abdomen and the pelvis improves.
- In the tradition this is described as raising agni, the inner digestive fire.
The practice can be useful with sluggish digestion, a tendency to constipation, and congestion in the pelvis.
Protocol
How it is done
- Five rounds.
- Inhale, then a short retention with the belly pushed out — ten to twelve seconds.
- Exhale, then a retention on empty with the belly drawn under the ribs — the same ten to twelve seconds.
- A few calm breathing cycles between rounds.
- Strictly on an empty stomach.
The inhale after a retention must not be sharp. If you grab at the air, the retention was longer than your real ability and has to be shortened.
Attention
Drishti
The gaze follows the direction of the flow.
On the retention after the inhale — bhrumadhya, the point between the brows.
On the retention after the exhale — through the tip of the nose and further down, to the navel.
What is being trained
A new kind of restraint
In every previous technique the mind demanded that you stop, and you continued.
Here the mind will demand that you continue. And you have to stop.
Being able not to do more when you could is a separate skill.
Required reading
Contraindications
Ajagari is not performed with
- Acute inflammatory processes of the abdominal organs
- Hernias of any localisation
- Pregnancy
- Menstruation
- High blood pressure
- Serious heart conditions
This technique can produce marked sensations even with short retentions.
The breakdown
Two lectures on ajagari
Ajagari. The python breath
Two states of the belly, the two mechanisms, massage of the organs and why the retentions stay short.
$39
Coming soonAjagari. Transit
The damped oscillation, restraint when you could do more, drishti and the movement of prana.
$39
Coming soon