Hi again,
Yogani… before our discussion on crown practices ends (for now), I wanted to say something. It seems to me that your two replies in this thread to my questions on crown practices, add something valuable to what is given in the main AYP lessons on crown practices. They certainly clear up some ambiguities that could arise from lesson 199 ,and they seem to give advice that could be useful to everyone, which is not included in the main lessons. As not everyone who practices AYP yoga is involved in the forum discussions, I was wondering if it would be worth putting some of the advice you gave in this thread in the main lessons?
Christi
Hi Christi:
Yes, good point, though I am a little reluctant to (indirectly) send thousands of people toward the crown, for obvious reasons. The original lessons on the crown were a bit muted for that reason. We all will certainly get around to it in our own cagey ways. 
The business of preserving the forum writings and making them available to more people is actually a much larger issue, because there is a huge amount of ground-breaking information hidden in these thousands of posts that ought not stay buried. Anything I have written that might be useful has been directly stimulated by the numerous interactions here, so it is a process involving all of us. Likewise, many others have posted excellent insights on practices and experiences too.
These forums are a gold mine for anyone looking to go beyond the foundation AYP lessons. Going the other way, reading the forums first and then the lessons, is not so easy, as many have found out.
It is a process of discovery we are engaged in that can go on indefinitely, leading to steadily improving knowledge of the processes of human spiritual transformation. Applied spiritual science! Very exciting.
In order to capture it all, at least my part of it, an AYP Easy Lessons Vol 2 (another big one) will be published after the Enlightenment Series books are done. It will probably come out sometime in 2008. Vol 2 would pick up all the additional lessons posted online up to that point, my relevant forum writings, and additional material from my unpublished emails that have been piling up here for a long time.
The goal of the AYP books is to capture everything that is useful in a permanent record that is easily accessible by everyone.
Meanwhile, many others are recording amazing insights and experiences here in the forums. Those cannot be easily blended with my writings (copyright issues), beyond the Q&A format that will continue in AYP EL Vol 2.
It is my hope that the useful writings by others here can also be published and preserved in book form someday, some by individuals in their own books, and perhaps many others in an anthology volume with writings from numerous practitioners in it. The copyright issues for an anthology would have to be addressed, of course – not something I can think about right now with everything else on the plate. Maybe someone else will do it. By then (years from now), participation in these forums and the number of experiences recorded will likely be much larger. It is a long term view for spreading the writings beyond the web to a wider audience, adding visibility and credibility to what we are doing here.
Well, that is a long answer to a short question. Will I put more on the crown in an online AYP lesson? Let me mull it over. Either way, it will be published in AYP EL Vol 2 later on. Perhaps by then many more will find it useful. Let’s hope so. The more the merrier, each in their own time… 
All the best!
The guru is in you.
Thanks Yogani for the very informative reply.
I can see that there is a grand plan, and it sounds like a really good one.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Andrew
Yes, I have experienced this curcuit, but the other way round, going up the spine, across the underside of the crown, down to the third eye and down the front of the body to the root. I think curcuits like this can go in any direction and you can change the direction using your consciousness. I havn’t really experimented with this though. I later found out that following this circuit with the attention and with the breath is a yogic practice currently being tought in India (and in the same direction that I experienced it).
I don’t think this practice would help for anyone doing AYP because it would just distract from spinal breathing, and as Yogani so often says, not add anything new.
You mention that you got spun out during practices and felt ungrounded. Have you considered opening your feet chakras, if they are not already opened. In reiki this is a standard way of keeping yourself grounded and all Reiki one students have their feet chakras opened during the initiation so that they can handle the higher level of prana moving through them afterwards. You don’t have to pay hundreds of Dollars to do a Reiki course though, you can open them just by imagining them opening, as with any other chakra.
Christi
Hi Christi,
Unfortuantely, I don’t have any awareness of whether my feet chakra are open or not. For me prudent use of “self-pacing” over the last couple of years has always done the trick when I have felt “ungrounded” or too far out in the energy department. Thank you for the advice, I will keep it in mind.
A
Hi Christi:
As you may have seen, I went ahead and did it here: http://www.aypsite.org/287.html
…with some fine tuning.
Many thanks for the inspiration.
The guru is in you.
Hi Yogani, and thanks.
I don’t think you need worry that this new AYP lesson will encourage anyone to ‘go to the crown’ prematurely. If anything, it adds to the advice for the reader to be cautious regarding such practices.
Love and Light,
Christi
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement
Hi Yogani,
Well, it has been just over two years since I started this thread, and things are working out as you said they would. The ecstasy in my body is almost gone these days, even though as much energy as before is moving through my system. It is as if my inside is just empty space, and there is nothing to resist the flow. I have to admit, I had gotten quiet used to the ecstasy, and it seems strange living without it.
Also, there is very little activity at my crown chakra now, which is also what you said would happen. I have to confess that I did not really believe you at the time, I thought that chakras simply get more and more active as they open and expand.
I have just one question:
If ecstatsy is produced by the resistance caused by prana moving through unpurified nadis, and enlightenment is produced by the merging of ecstasy and bliss, then how can someone become enlightened once the nadis are purified?
Christi
Hi Christi:
Ecstasy become refined, less symptomatic, blending with the bliss of inner silence. That is the merging.
Also, the process of purification and opening continues through karma yoga, i.e., service. There are still plenty of obstructions out there, and that is where the energy will flow naturally ecstatically. It occurs through the outpouring of divine love. It flows through each of us into our surroundings in its own way. Samyama (core and cosmic) plays a key role in this also. So does self-inquiry.
Good things are happening. Bravo!
The guru is in you.
I couldn’t find where Yogani said this would happen? I understood from the enlightenment milestones lessons that first we would expect 24/7 inner silence, then 24/7 ecstasy would be added in followed by 24/7 bliss adding in? With various mixes here and there on the way from first to last.
The above hasn’t been my experience, as ecstasy became quiet and in the background and doesn’t posess that sensual quality it did in the beginning. I always figured it would return to be 24/7 with more purification? I seem to be missing some understanding here!
Hi Anthem,
I can’t remember where Yogani talks about this… maybe towards the end of the deep meditation book, or towards the end of the pranayama book? I gave my copies away so I can’t look it up.
See here from lesson 287:
http://www.aypsite.org/287.html
So crown symptoms, and ecstasy are both effects of purification happening.
And here from lesson 95
http://www.aypsite.org/95.html
Christi
Thanks Yogani.
I get what you mean about refined… it is less sexual, and more joyfull if that makes sense.
Actually, I have recently added cosmic samyama to my practice, so it is funny you should mention it. Self enquiry I have been doing for a while. I will add samyama, and karma yoga and see what happens next.
Christi
hello my friends,
this is another look with the same basis on dealing with crown chakra opening that might interest you.
crown chakra opening and suffism!
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4746
namaste,
Ananda
Hi Ananda,
Thanks for that post. I have been doing that white light meditation for a while as one of my crown practices. It’s one of my favorites.
Christi
hello christy and you’re welcome, can you tell me plz from which tradition you learned it.
Ananda
Hi Ananda,
It’s a yoga practice. Sri Aurobindo used to teach it in the Pondicherry ashram in Tamil Nadu. There are a lot of links between Sufi teachings and Yoga. Your Sufi friend sounds like a handy guy to have around.
Christi
thk you my friend,
if you would like his email i can give it to you if you like and tell him about you; he’s a kind soul plus he’s really helpful and if you are interested in suffism this guy will give one hell of an insight.
light and love,
Ananda
Hi Ananda,
Yes, do email it to me.
I just wanted to add that personally I don’t think that the “bringing the white light down through the crown” meditation is a very good remedy for someone suffering from instability at the crown chakra. Some people think it is, and it seems to be based on the theory that if you have too much energy going up out of your crown, then bringing more energy down as well will balance everything out.
Personally I think it just aggravates the whole situation. I would not recommend the descending light meditation to anyone unless they have a very stable crown chakra already.
The fact that it helped you I think either means that you were lucky or more likely, that your Sufi friend changed something energetically in your body, which stabilized your system. I have heard that Sufis can do this. They are magical beings and we are lucky to have them on this planet.
Christi
i was about to email it to you 2 hours ago until i got a phone call that the lights of my car have been stolen. (what a beautiful morning)
will send it to you via mail.
Ananda