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The amygdala and hippocampus help us receive information from our senses and relate that information to our memory. The amygdala is responsible for an emotional response from the senses. The hippocampus is like the repository of all memory; it governs learning and information retrieval. It is like the shock absorber of the stress response and a gateway to transforming stress. As humans accumulate memory and life experience, the hippocampus will store that information as threatening and nonthreatening. It talks with the amygdala, the emotional center, and validates what it sees and feels
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Consciousness needs a medium through which it can be accessed; that medium is our mind. Through the mind, we experience the essence of mind —higher intelligence as a reflection of consciousness—but unless we know how to control the mind’s movement, avidyā will continue to color our identifications, causing suffering on a multidimensional basis.
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Bhastrikā and kapālabhātī—These are rapid, purifying breathing kriyās. The fast breath stimulates sympathetic activation and can be a means for promoting mental focus, memory, and sensory motor performance. They require a higher rate of breath coordination and respiratory muscle activity, which can help to strengthen the respiratory system.
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To understand this concept of longevity, let’s take the example of a brand-new baby in the kapha stage of life. She has rolls of fat, a lustrous glimmer in her eyes, and her laughter is pure joy. She represents the essential energy of ojas, the prime vigor. Compare her image with an elderly person. Their body is breaking down and losing muscle tone, their strength is weakening off, and they have arthritis of the bones. This is represented by a lack of ojas.
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His surname, Dīkmanis, became westernized to Dickman and sometimes Dikman. His first name, Harijs, became Harry to most, and Hari (a name for Vishnu) to many of his yoga acquaintances. In his early letters to me, he signed them Harry, but as we became more familiar, he started using Hari. I don’t know if “Hari” was a spiritual name given to him or if it was a natural process of change that occurred in the letters from some of the swamis. In 1976 Hari received from Baba Muktananda Swami the blessing of being called “Ek Acchha Purush” (One Pure Soul). As expressed to him by Arunachala Bhakta Bhagawal, from Sri Ramana Maharshi’s ashram, “What more do you now need once you have received the highest blessing from him?”
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Ahimsa All of the yamas and niyamas are approached through the eyes of ahimsa (nonviolence), for it is the foundation for all practices. Yogis must practice nonviolence toward others and themselves. No creature deserves anything less. The practice of nonviolence helps to tame the ego, reminding us that each of us has an equally important role in this manifested universe. Ahimsa is a difficult practice, because it permeates everything that we think, say, and do. Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
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The word pranayama means “control the prana,” the life force. There are many, many precautions given about practicing pranayama without the guidance of a guru or adept teacher. There is good reason for this. To yogis, the physical body is known as the sthula sharira. Without the life force, it is merely molecules of matter put together, and it has no movement. It is a corpse. The astral body is called the sukshma sharira. This is the pranic body, the energetic body. This is an exact replica of the physical body and brings life to the physical body through the pancha prana vayus, or five forms of prana. All movement comes from prana. Prana moves through the seventy-two thousand astral nerves, or nadis, which are the nervous system in the physical body
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Swami Sivananda suggested that he should focus more on raja yoga (meditation) than on achieving feats of hatha yoga such as stopping the breath or slowing the heartbeat, since “they are not really Yoga in the true spiritual sense of the term.”189 They can become distractions from the true goal: union with the Divine within. Hari was well guided by his teachers to stay on track.
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