No asana today. After the review of yesterday we are on to a simple Bandha. Bandha means energy lock or hold. Hittleman introduces Uddiyana Bandha as the ‘Abdominal Lift’. Basically it is a full breath out, followed by a contraction and lift of the abdomen inwards and upwards, breath still held out. The abdomen is ‘snapped’ outwards, rhythmically, a few times while the breath is held out.

Hittleman:

The Abdominal Lift provides a type of natural massage for the stomach, colon, intestines, liver, kidneys, gall bladder and pancreas, all with one movement. It firms the abdominal wall, maintaining correct position of the organs and glands of the viscera.

“It stimulates the solar plexus which has many subtle influences on the distribution of energy throughout the body.” Satyananda

Krishnamurti, Book of Life, 9 January 2010:

To discover anything new you must start on your own; you must start on a journey completely denuded, especially of knowledge, because it is very easy, through knowledge and belief, to have experiences, but those experiences are merely the products of self-projection and therefore utterly unreal, false. … Thus knowledge and [accumulated] learning are impediments for those who would seek, for those who would try to understand that which is timeless.