Śūnyaka Krama

progressive external retention · pyramid

Ready

sit tall · empty the lungs completely

4 · 4 · 4 · 4

The ladder
Practice & sound
Bandha cues Rising tone to draw the belly up as the hold begins; falling tone to release it before the in-breath. Uḍḍīyāna must be released before you inhale.
Adaptive descent If you release a hold early, stop climbing and begin coming back down instead of pushing to the planned peak.
Ocean breath Noise that swells with the inhale and recedes with the exhale.
Tānpūra drone Low sustained Sa–Pa bed at 136.1 Hz.
Singing bowl Inharmonic bowl at each change of phase.
Count pulses Muted drop on each beat. Long holds stay silent regardless.
Keep screen awake Prevents the display sleeping mid-practice.
The sequence. Pūraka → antara kumbhaka → rechaka → śūnyaka, with uḍḍīyāna bandha drawn up during the empty hold. Only śūnyaka grows; everything else stays fixed. It climbs to a peak, then descends the same rungs — the descent feels notably easy.

Release before you inhale. Hold → release uḍḍīyāna → then breathe in. Inhaling against a locked abdomen strains. The falling cue marks the release.

Care. No rapid breathing before the holds — that removes the urge to breathe while oxygen still falls. Sitting only, never near water. Release the moment it turns desperate; that is data, not failure. Skip retention if pregnant, or with uncontrolled blood pressure, heart conditions, glaucoma, epilepsy or recent abdominal surgery.

Space — begin / release the hold  ·  Esc — stop