User:Yogani
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Goal on Wikipedia: To add and/or enhance useful verifiable articles on individual yoga practices.
Yogani (1947- ) is the anonymous Florida-based American author of the Advanced Yoga Practices (AYP) writings, which first began to appear as a series of online lessons in an owner-posted Yahoo Group in 2003. The lessons provide detailed instructions for self-directed, integrated yoga practices, some which have not been offered in an "open source" mode to the public before. In 2004 the Yahoo lessons were expanded to become a website and a first book. In 2005 two new websites were added, along with two more books and an online support forum. All of the online lessons (over 300 as of 2006) and support forum services are free to the public.
Practices taught include, deep meditation, spinal breathing pranayama and other breathing techniques, asanas, mulabandha/asvini mudra, sambhavi mudra, siddhasana, yoni mudra kumbhaka, uddiyana bandha/nauli, kechari mudra, jalandhara bandha (static and dynamic), samyama, navi kriya, amaroli, tantra techniques and other advanced methods.
Noteworthy are the AYP lessons and forum discussions on kechari mudra, which are believed to be the most detailed written instructions available anywhere on this esoteric practice which is highly praised in the ancient Hatha Yoga Pradipika.
The lessons also provide detailed assistance for safe handling of kundalini awakening and the excess energy symptoms that can arise during the ecstatic stages of inner development. Over all, the writings of Yogani adhere to the structure and spirit of the traditional Eight Limbs of Yoga found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, though often in nontraditional ways and with an uncommonly mild, direct, non-superstitious tone and approach.
Yogani, who shuns guru status, is also known for his provocative lesson sign-off, "The guru is in you."
Because the writings of Yogani constitute one of the first fully-integrated open source systems of advanced yoga instruction, the AYP lessons, by necessity, plow much new ground in the area of "self-pacing" and "self-customization" of practice routines. Too much progress too fast can be unhealthful and disruptive, and AYP offers means of observing and regulating one's spiritual development in order to move as quickly as is safe ("self pacing"). Traditionally, one's guru performed this regulatory role, but it's an AYP innovation to give students of all levels the ability to safely supervise their own progress.
