Pratyahara Practices

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Introduction

Introduction

In developing this section, we reviewed all of the pratyahara teachings and practices listed in the expert sources.

However, most sources were limited in their offering of practices and it was rare to find detailed support describing how to practice and teach them. Therefore, we think our research to bring this together may offer a particularly valuable contribution to your toolkit. We invite your thoughts and leads for additional resources.

Summary of Practice Types

David Frawley categorizes pratyahara practices into these categories:

• Indriya-pratyahara (control of senses)
• Prana-pratyahara (control of prana)
• Karma-pratyahara (control of action)
• Mono-pratyahara (withdrawal of mind from senses)

With the intent of making it as simple as possible to choose among practices to teach, we’ve used a slightly different listing of categories in this lesson:

1. Controlling Sensory Input – Includes such practices as a Media Fast, Vayu or Prana Pratyahara (Fixing Awareness / Withdrawing Prana) and Trataka (Steady Gazing)
2. Positive Impressions & Visualization – Includes meditating on elements in nature, devotional practices and guided visualizations
3. Mudras – Includes Sanmukhi Mudra and Shambhavi Mudra
4. Sound – Includes Laya Yoga (Yoga of Dissolution or Absorption) / Nada Yoga (Yoga of Sound), Japa (Mantra Recitation) and Kirtan (Call & Response Devotional Chanting)
5. Right Action – Karma Pratyahara (Control of Action)

Controlling Sensory Input

• “Strong sensations dull the mind” and “mental digestion” can be hindered by “jarring or excessive impressions.” (Dr. David Frawley)
• A key practice is fasting / taking breaks from sensory inputs via meditation, retreat or other.
• Aside from fasting, the focus is to make a mindful choice of media and other sensory impressions.
• Redirecting seeing can encourage other senses to follow.
• One pratyahara practice is to focus attention on a source of uniform impressions, such as gazing at the ocean or the blue sky.
• Trataka (steady gazing) is a classic pratyahara practice.
• Vayu Pratyahara / Prana Pratyahara is a practice of fixing awareness and breath on particular places in the body, called marmans.

MEDIA FAST

Most of us are careful about the food we eat and the company we keep, but we may not exercise the same discrimination about the impressions we take in from the senses. We accept impressions via the mass media that we would never allow in our personal lives. We let people into our houses through television and movies that we would never allow into our homes in real life! What kind of impressions do we take in every day? Can we expect that they will not have an effect on us? Strong sensations dull the mind, and a dull mind makes us act in ways that are insensitive, careless, or even violent. – Dr. David Frawley 

REDIRECTING SEEING ENCOURAGES OTHER SENSES TO FOLLOW

Redirecting seeing to an internal focus encourages all the other senses to follow. Because we load so many visual images in our minds, we continue to “see” even with the eyes closed. Often students learning to meditate are coached to establish their inward gaze between the eyebrows (to their “third eye”) or at the heart center. With this slow and gentle training, the mind will gradually relinquish its projection of previously imprinted visual images. – Nischala Joy Devi 

WITHDRAWING PRANA FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BODY

Pranayama is a preparation for pratyahara. Prana is gathered in pranayama and withdrawn in pratyahara. Yogic texts describe methods of withdrawing prana from different parts of the body, starting with the toes and ending wherever we wish to fix our attention—the top of the head, the third eye, the heart of one of the other chakras. – Dr. David Frawley 

MORE ON PRANA PRATYAHARA

Yajnavalkya’s technique, called vayu pratyahara (wind withdrawal) or prana pratyahara (life force withdrawal), involves fixing your awareness and your breath sequentially on 18 vital points, called marmans, in your body. Varying sources highlight different points (traditional Ayurvedic sources name 107), but Yajnavalkya’s 18 marmans are the big toes, ankles, midcalves, “roots of the calves,” knees, midthighs, perineum, “center of the body,” generative organs, navel, heart center, “throat well,” root of the tongue, root of the nose, eyes, spot between the eyebrows, forehead, and crown of the head. Yajnavalkya suggests following the sequence from the crown to the toes, but many of my students prefer climbing from toes to crown. – Richard Rosen