Ida & Pingala (either side of Shushumna)

[Tanemon]

I know that Sushumna runs up the center of the spine, and I know that Pingala terminates in the right nostril, while Ida terminates in the left. Here's my question: Does Ida also run up the left side of the back of the neck and into the base of the skull, while Pingala runs run up the right side of the back of the neck and into the base of the skull? Thanks.

I'm just guessing - I may be wrong (and hope to be forgiven if so!) but you won't get many replies. Not many people here who understand these energy systems. They're happy lighting up their chakras, unblocking stuff and coaxing The Serpent from Her lair, without any real clue of the underlying philosophy and intent. They probably derive good from it as anyone would who meditates and becomes bodily aware would, but....Laya Yoga?

When I read through Woodroffe's Serpent Power, some years ago now, it informed me more about what I didn't know. As I think I understood, Ida and Pingala spiral around sushuma connecting into each chakra. So we can take from this that they connect/cross through at Vishudda and Ajna; then supposedly end at the nostrils.

[Curiously I couldn't work out what happened then. They seem to flow subtle energies which means they have to "go somewhere" (i.e. beyond the physical nostrils) as they have to come from somewhere). Are they like an electrical current, kind of opposite poles? The current comes up one said and returns down the other?]

I have seen diagrams showing these paths go straight up (that is, once leaving Muladhara they don't touch the intermediate chakras until converging again at Ajna. That isn't what I deduced from my (admittedly limited) study and would seem to abrogate the rich interconnections of the minor nadis among themselves and at the chakras.

So I can only offer a view... Ida and Pingala cross from opposite sides, interacting at Vishudda (assuming the spiralling idea to be right) which would suggest that at the point they enter the physical skull (just above Vishudda) they're on the same side as the nostrils at which they terminate.

[Tanemon]

Thanks for that, Lorelyan. The reason I had asked is that for some years now I'd been feeling a lot of energy in the back of my neck & base of skull area (obviously feeling it in the medulla, as well as along the muscles of my beck). Often it's been central (in shushumna) - but sometimes (if located on one side or the other) it's been on the right or, much more frequently, on the left. During the last week or so, there was a lot of flow (and pain, due I believe to unblocking) on the right side.

For me the process has become automatic... over the last five or six years, I don't have to do anything other than some daily mental and bhakti-type techniques, yer the process continues. It all seems like some culmination of many years of using different techniques: some psycho-physical, some self-exploratory, some philosophical, etc. I don't do any specific kundalini-raising techniques.

Thanks, again. Blessings on your path.

[sunsoul]

I would recommend looking into Chinese medicine or perhaps acupuncture. From what you are describing it seems more of a block (especially as it is causing pain).

Some work with a good healing practitioner, in collaboration with your own practice, will lead to better results in this case, I believe.