Meditative Running
Meditative running is a powerful method of increasing the energy potential of the organism and of development of its energy system as a whole. This method was created by Tibetan spiritual seekers (it was called
Lung Gom running). In Russia, the group version of this technique became popular thanks to efforts of Yan Koltunov (Moscow).
The method consists in performing pranayamas and meditations during a long group running, which is done at a slow pace. Performed in this manner, the meditations and pranayamas help students: a) distract their attention from bodily sensations, allowing them not to concentrate on being tired, b) create and maintain positive emotional state, c) train their concentration, visualization, and meditation abilities, d) develop
personal power (power of the consciousness), e) harmonize loads on muscle, cardiovascular, respiratory, and other systems of the organism, etc.
Running sessions of groups consisting from 5 to 50 people should be led by an instructor who uninterruptedly (this is important!) suggests exercises to the group.
Compared to the static variant of psychic self-regulation classes, the exercises of meditative running are performed at an incommensurably higher energy level, which increases their efficiency dramatically.
The condition of psychic attunement of all participants of the running and the monotonous background of the working muscle system contributes to better concentration.
It is advisable that this method is used after all participants have mastered the basics of psychic self-regulation. Unprepared beginners must not be included in the group, since those unable to participate in meditative work synchronously with the rest of the group make this work more difficult for the group as a whole.
Below we are going to set out our modification of this method as a program for a two-hours running (without taking the warm-up time into consideration). As we will see, this program is an intermediate stage to the higher methods of spiritual work, which will be explained in the following chapters.
First sessions must be limited to 30 minutes or less. Then one can gradually increase the load.
Because of certain adjustments that take place in the muscular system during the time of the trainings, one should increase the quantity of protein in one’s diet (milk products, eggs, nuts, mushrooms, etc.). Drinking milk afterwards will also be very good.
I also want to mention that women may experience menstruation delays during intensive running trainings (this is a well-known phenomenon in sports medicine); this must not be considered as a dangerous indication.
If you decide to run in the morning, you may do it on an empty stomach or have just a glass of water with a teaspoonful of honey or jam. In case the running sessions are held during the day or in the evening, the last intake of food should be several hours before them. It is very difficult to run with a full stomach.
Clothes should be light. So, if the air temperature is above 0 Centigrade (32 Fahrenheit) just a regular tracksuit will be enough. When it is below -10 Centigrade (12 Fahrenheit), you may put additional training pants, light sweater, and a cap. But you may also dress lighter — overheating of the body should be avoided while performing this type of exercises.
During summer heat, it makes sense to make the route go near natural water reservoirs and to make stops for swimming. It would be still better to run in the morning and to stay near the water during the day. This time may be used for discussions and studying food resources of the forest. In winter, the running session can be followed by swimming in an ice-hole (but it is absolutely necessary that near the ice-hole there is a warm room or a big fire made in advance). If these conditions cannot be found, a hot shower would also do just fine. The running session must be followed by the washing of the body.
Before running, one has to perform an intensive warm-up of the body that would involve all muscles and joints (its description can be found above). In winter, it is better to warm up indoors, so that one comes out to the frost in the already warm condition attained due to muscular activity.
Then the running itself begins. The instructor has to run behind the group so that everyone can hear him or her. The first thing the instructor does is giving the command to maintain the correct posture:
“Attention to the posture. The body is straight. We may even slightly bend it backward. The body should be in such a position so that the muscles of the back are not strained. Relax the muscles of the back. Throw the head slightly back. Relax the back muscles of the neck.
“Attention to the feet. Place them on the ground straight with toes looking forward. Feet are relaxed. They touch the ground smoothly and gently. Relax the muscles of the shins and the thighs. Feel that legs are relaxed all the time, so that we cannot feel the moment we are touching the ground.
“Attention to the chest. It is slightly raised. Imagine that the collarbones are like small boards lying on it, feel them. The chest remains expanded during the entire running session.
“Raise the chest and let it stay in this expanded position while breathing. The belly is relaxed, but it does not hang down as long as the chest is expanded.
“Make sure that the body does not bend forward — otherwise it will get tired very soon. Fix it in the correct position. Attention to the wrists: they are relaxed and hang loosely.
“Imagine that we are suspended on a long wire attached to some distant cosmic object. The body is suspended; it hardly touches the ground and is relaxed.
“Move with the concentration of the consciousness to muladhara. Then look to the center of the Earth from it and see a sea of
Fiery Light there. Let us send a beam from muladhara towards this sea. Here, it reaches the abode of this Power… A powerful reciprocal impulse of energy rushes up that beam and fills our
chakras and our entire body. Let us repeat this exercise. Concentration is in muladhara. We are sending a signal beam to the center of the Earth…, and receiving a reciprocal impulse of Power!… Feel energy inside the chakras. The entire body is filled with power and
light; it expanded; the density of energy inside it increases… We repeat this over and over…
“Let us imagine a giant vacuum-cleaner 30 meters below the Earth surface with its nozzle facing upward. We are going to turn it on, and it will start sucking all dark energies inside and around us and sending them to the center of the Earth. Here, we turned the engine on, it started grumbling, the sucking power increases… We observe the space around the group and see the dark energies fly away, sucked down by this vacuum cleaner. Track their way… They rush at enormous speed towards the center of the Earth — and vanish there…
“Let everyone examine the space within one meter of the body. We click the switch, and the engine power doubles. Watch dark pieces rip off and fly away. Scan thoroughly the space around the head…, the neck…, the chest…, the belly…, the pelvis…, the hips…, the knees…, the feet…
“And now let us turn the attention into the space inside our bodies. Click the switch once more. The power quadruples! The vacuum cleaner starts shaking. Incredible sucking power tears off all dark stuff that remained inside the bodies. Everyone scans the head, the neck, the chest, the belly, the pelvis, the hips, the legs… The bodies get filled with the purest
light that comes from above to replace what has been gone…
“Let us turn the palms of the hands upward. Imagine a tennis ball made of white-goldish
light lying on each of them. We toss them from one hand to another. They grow brighter. Superpose them into one ball on the left palm. Let us inflate this ball with energy from our anahatas…
“Muladhara — ‘inhale’ from below, anahata — ‘exhale’ into the ball. Muladhara — ‘inhale’, anahata — ‘exhale’. (Repeat this ten times). The ball is as large as a large watermelon… (Some more ‘exhales’ into the ball). It is already one meter in diameter… All balls merge into one common ball… Look at its surface from inside. It separates us from the surrounding space securely. There is a subtlest transparent environment filled with lucid
light inside the ball. It is incredibly easy to breathe in it; we feel amazingly light and weightless… It seems that all bodies merge into one organism inside the ball… We continue running inside the ball.
“Let us do a series of pranayamas. ‘Inhale’ the
light through the legs and ‘exhale’ it through muladhara forward, pushing out everything that hinders its flow. This is the
light that we may see in abundance below the Earth’s surface. The left leg — ‘inhale’, muladhara — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The right leg — ‘inhale’, muladhara — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The left leg — ‘inhale’, svadhisthana — ‘exhale’. (And so on — going through all the chakras). Muladhara — ‘inhale’, anahata — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The spine — ‘inhale’ from below, ajna — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The left leg — ‘inhale’, the entire right side of the body — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The right leg — ‘inhale’, the entire left side of the body — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). The left arm — ‘inhale’ — through anahata — the right arm — ‘exhale’ (3-4 times). (And then the other way around). Muladhara — ‘inhale’ from below, sahasrara — ‘exhale’ up. (Repeat this several times; then it should become the uninterrupted flow of
light). Make this flow stop and watch a cloud of
light forming above us. It wants to pour into our bodies; let us open ourselves up and let it in, let it fill us with its tenderness and purity…
“Feel a small sun between the palms. Look at its goldish
light, feel its caress… The sun dissolves in our hands…, we soak its warmth and
light through our arms into anahata and sense a pleasant expansion inside the chakra. And now we will emanate the
light and the warmth of the sun from anahata at all living beings around us…
“Let us shift the concentration of the consciousness into the rightmost part of anahata. Find the subtlest plane of
light there and cast out all coarse layers from the chakra. (Repeat the same from the rightmost part of vishuddha, then ajna and sahasrara, then from the leftmost part of sahasrara, ajna, and so on in a circle).
“Let everyone imagine that we are foxes. A red fox with a large fluffy tail runs smoothly in the forest. Running is a natural state for a fox. We run upon soft green moss among trees, bushes, and stones. We run, ignoring everything that surrounds us. The fox has a goal. The fox has to see the sunrise. A pointed gently sloping woodless hill is ahead. We run up its slope and freeze at the top. We stand on the top, watch the disk of the rising sun go up from the horizon. Anxious expectation, readiness… The sun rises and touches the hill with its
light. Here, it is up. We look at its disk. The streamy
light flows out of the sun and fills the body. Let the body get filled with
light, let the
light grow thick and liquid. We fill the entire body from the tail to the eyes with this
light…
Density of the liquefied
light inside the body increases…
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Meditative Running
But it is good if it can make us aware/conscious when we dream
