Very important. Concentrate during those last 5-10 mins like a motherfucker.
The result you can expect is yoga: union with God.
Inhale very slowly from left nostril Pause Exhale very slowly from right nostril Pause Inhale very slowly from right nostril Pause Exhale very slowly from left nostril Pause That is 1 cycle.
Yes, close your eyes and look up at 3rd eye.
During Om Japa, as I recall, you let the breath flow naturally. You don't control it.
The most important part would be visualizing the energy flowing up and down your spine and through each chakra. Focus your limited attention on that. As you get good at that, I think you'll develop more attention capacity.
You don't need to do everything perfectly at the start. You will get much better over the months. Just focus on 80% that really matters.
Yes, I experience this problem too. You can decrease your need for oxygen by first taking 3 short breaths before beginning one of the long mahamudra breaths. You can also try quickening the rate at which you pull energy up and down the spine, so it doesn't take so long. And your Oms should be fairly rapid as you bend down and hold your breath.
Building lung capacity is part of this whole practice, from what I understand. You have to learn to breath more deeply and consume less oxygen.

It's not dogma, it serves an important physiological function, but you can add it to your routine later on.
The most important thing is to get your basic routine into place, so you're seeing results from it and you're happy with it. Then you can add on the extravagant bells and whistles. I would spend a few months building up your basic routine (Mahamudra + Pranayama + Breath Of Fire) before investing a lot of effort into the tongue exercises. You can always add those later. Don't let anything hinder you from building your core routine. The core routine alone is very powerful and you should start to feel it working on your mind within a month or two, which should give you motivation to keep building on top of it.

@Akira If you have an injury, just skip Mahamudra for now.
Mahamudra is considered an important core technique.
But you don't have to add it in right off the bat. You can master the other techniques and add in Mahamudra in a few months.
Pranayama is the most important technique.
Don't let perfectionism stop you from mastering yoga. Do whatever is necessary to circumnavigate excuses and obstacles.

Finding a comfortable sitting position is very important. I would say, just find any sitting position you feel comfortable with which allows you to sit for a solid 60 minutes with minimal discomfort.
Right now I've changed up my sitting position to using a Zen-style seize bench with some extra cushioning. So for the pranayamas and breath of fire I am sitting on my knees using that bench. The Mahamudra is done without a bench obviously. That's what I found works best for me.
You could even just do it using a comfy chair.
Again, don't let technical details get in the way of your core practice. Once your core practice is established you can always fine-tune it, change positions, add stuff, remove stuff, etc. But you need the core practice ASAP.

Yes, it's way over-complicated. What I did was strip everything down to just 1 core technique: the spinal breathing and I just do that for 1 hr. I think this will produce 80% of the results and it's just so simple.
I suggest you pick 1-3 of the techniques you feel are most potent and focus on mastering those. Later you could always get more fancy but I don't think it's necessary, especially for the first year.
The very core of Kriya yoga is the up/down spinal breathing through the chakras. Everything else is just a fancy addition to that. As you do the techniques you can sorta feel into whether they are effctive or not. Try the spinal breathing for a solid month and just see how it makes you feel. If you feel it is quieting your monkey mind, that's good, so then just continue with it and perhaps add 1 more technique to your stack like mahamudra or breath of fire.
Slowly over a year or two can build up your own custom stack. I think this way is far superior to stricting following the book.

I don't imply that. I simply mean it is not a good cost/return ratio for beginners. Perhaps for advanced practioners it is useful. But as a beginner focus must go on pranayama and mahamudra. You can always add stuff later once you are feeling some core effects from your practice.

Not as regularly as I should, but yet.
I'm not sure. It's hard to know what is truly necessary without lots of experience and it will vary by individual.
If pranayama is producing good results then I would say not. But if pranayama doesn't feel like it is doing much for you, then you should add mahamudra to see if it boosts your results.
Test, test, test -- to find what works for you.

Well, in yogic traditions and in Buddhism they have you take vows when you join their community. The Buddha spoke of the Eight-fold Noble Path.
These vows typically include the following:
Not taking of life Not lying Non-violence Not using people sexually Abstinence from sex, drugs, alcohol, and other addictive substances These are not to be taken as moral commandments or truths, but merely self-imposed restrictions to hasten your path towards enlightenment.

@Enlightenment Jeffery Martin's work is good, but still very shallow. He has no idea how deep the rabbit hole goes. He's still within the materialist paradigm.
The stuff I talk about is what the most advanced yogis realize and embody. Total God-realization. You are not going to acheive that with a bit of self-inquiry or meditation. It requires a rewiring of your entire brain and even body. Which is what yogic techniques are designed to do.
Someone like Sadhguru is a good example. He is living in a full state of God-realization.

It's hard to become deeply enlightened as a householder unless you got some special tricks up your sleeve, like powerful yogic techniques or psychedelics or something.
The disadvantage is probably 10:1 to 20:1. If this wasn't the case, there would be no point in becoming a monk.
If you went at enlightenment full-time, hardcore, you could probably do it in 1-2 years. Although who really knows. These are just guestimates and everyone is different.
#1 factor in enlightenment seems to be undivided focus for long periods of time. Which is a rare thing these days. Which is why so few people get enlightened. Unnatural periods of focus are usually required.
It will have effect. But not likely to produce enlightenment.

Yes. Once I get warmed up and really into. But entering that flow doesn't always succeed. Sometimes I feel uninspired, exhausted, or distracted.
No. You don't have to read anything. Reading can help, but it can also be a distraction.
The utility of reading is learning techniques and learning about the many traps in this work. Without reading you are likely to fall into a serious trap and get stuck in it for years.
For me there is no direct connection. I like game design just because it lets me be creative and imagine cool worlds that cannot exist in normal life.
The most direct connection between design and philosophical work is that design is about thinking in a big picture, holistic way, and so it philosophical work. I have a designer's mind and I think like a designer. This is the common thread between game design and philosophy. A designer's mind must be very holistic because you need to take the entire product into account. A designer needs to see the game in its totality, not just in parts. A good game is designed top-down as one unified whole. Which is of course how God works.
Thinking very big picture, like a film director, is a very good skill to develop. I have that kind of director's mindset. It is the mindset of an executive, a CEO -- where you are responsible for the entirety of a thing. To invent a game, you must be responsible for the entire thing. It's the mindset of founders.

● I used to have crippling social anxiety, even getting off a bus, going to class, and of course talking to girls. This is 90% gone after two years and this alone has done so much for my life. I use to get very frustrated when people told me you have to live with it. I rejected that flat out.
● A lot of health benefits. Overcoming eating problems, dropping ALL supplements, and eating about 60% of what I used to and still maintain my size. I'm 186cm, 94kg and 14% body fat. Extremely active, bouldering, jiujitsu, powerlifiting and I eat almost half as much without losing ANY weight. 
● Sleeping less, and taking less shits lol. It has also enhanced digestion. Maybe 7 hours of sleep which again is crazy for my level of activity. 
● Had very bad OCD (diagnosed) and perfectionism. OCD is almost totally gone. I can plan compulsively sometimes but I don't check the door 50 times in the morning so it's been so liberating. 
● The desire for porn, coffee, eating meat, watching TV, alot of this stuff just naturally fell away. I didn't try to do anything. Sex drive probably halved.
● More frequent non-dual experiences. For example, walking down the street, I suddenly feely merged with everyone around me. Frequent episodes of bliss and love but it's not awakening. 
● A more elusive one, but it's easier to get what I want in life and I am generally much happier. Better emotional states. Feel more balanced and capable.
● I also have a deeper sense now that I don't really need to do anything in life. I just feel fulfilled. I don't feel obliged to help anyone or do anything and I don't think it dictates my worth as a human.
● I have become a catalyst for growth for everyone around. After people spend some time around me they usually want to change. Major impact on family.
I credit a lot of my progress to reading Dr Hawkins book about surrender and for years I took surrender and kriya yoga EXTREMELY seriously. I did it religiously. Sometimes I was doing kriya yoga three times a day. It was addictive.
I have always wanted to make a video about this but I'm afraid people will call me a pseudo scientist full of shit etc... lol

It's complicated.
They are all distinct achievements.
Sahaja samadhi would be abiding God-consciousness as I understand. Other lesser samadhis are temporary. They are not abiding. So in that sense they are like a psychedelic peak. Psychedelic puts you into samadhi automatically. Then from that state you can have profound insights and realizations.
Liberation to me means totally overcoming the self. Breaking free of all identification and all attachment to the material world, such that you are not driven by cravings or suffering. At this point you would be close to just leaving your body because you are so detached from life. You are basically giving up human life to be formless because you've had enough of form. You are no longer interested in exploring form. You just desire to be the Godhead. Liberation should bring you very close to something like that.
No-mind is yet a distinct achievement. Although of course there tends to be overlap between all these. They are all pointing in the same general direction.
I would not worry about these nuances for now. Just focus on having a few solid awakening experiences. You'll figure out the rest afterwards. Don't get ahead of your skiis.

Having fun wingmen is the #1 tip for going out.
Yes, going solo is brutally hard so you won't be motivated to do it. You need good wingmen who make you wanna go out for the fun.

When you are sick you can not do it.
You will still get benefits.
But if you are not sick you should do it every day. It is an issue of priorities. You have the wrong priorities in life.

1) That was a general statement. It could have exceptions for some people.
2) Kriya yoga is different. I think it is more potent and accumulates better over months, so you can do 1-2hrs per day and it builds up. Meditation does not build up so well. For meditation to build up requires like several days of nonstop practice.
Again, these things will vary if you are spiritually gifted.

I'm not doing kriya anymore for now because I have some heart problems. But I can tell that stopping kriya was one of the most horrible experiences of my life. Everything came back after a week or smth. Bad sleep. Bad mood. Mantal claritity dropped like a brick. Memory dropped. Ability to think and articulate thoughts dropped. everyday I dream about when will I be able to start it again  
Kriya yoga was the best thing that happened in my life. I was at a point where I could fall asleep in 2-3min, Mantal balance and constant joy within everyday... all gone...

 

There's nothing wrong with focusing on getting your life together.
Just keep your meditation practice going. It's not a big weight. Plenty of people manage to run their life and meditate an hour a day.
Kriya yoga, for example, was designed to only take about 1 hour per day. The instruction was: spend 1 hour per day on yoga and enlightenment, and the rest of your day handling your business and family obligations.
You do not need to become an ascetic to become enlightened.
Just do your practices more diligently. Quality > quantity.
I know people who do 2-3 hours per day of yoga and still manage to run a busy life.
A very effective structure is this: 1-2 hours per day of inquiry + four 10-day solo retreats per year. The rest of the time, do whatever business you got.
Another option is: take 3 months off and go balls-to-the-wall with inquiry. 24/7. Get your awakening breakthrough and then return to ordinary life, deepening your realization with 1 hour per day of meditation/yoga.

No, it will not give you want I said. I was talking about a serious full-length Kriya practice.
What you are doing is dabbling in one technique. That will not produce a sigificant change.
Yoga must be done seriously. If you are too cheap or too lazy to get the book and follow it rigorously, then yoga is not for you.
Yoga routines must be done perfectly. DO NOT HALF-ASS YOGA!

@electroBeam That is because your general level of awareness is still so low.
It's sort of like you've walked into a dark room full of objects and complain, "Am I expected to see anything in here? Are you actually telling me there are real objects in this room?" To which the reply is, "Yes! Once you turn up the dial on the light dimmer switch."
At the start of Kriya your awareness of your body and spine is so poor that you cannot even feel you have a spine. "Spine" is just an idea for you. You only believe you have a "spine" because some human told you so. After some months of Kriya, you will discover, "Holy shit! I have a spine! I can feel my spine for the first time in my life!"
I find that even more important that visualizing (in Kriya) is feeling into things. Feel into your spine. Feel into your chakras. You're just extremely numb to feeling. That's the problem. You cannot feel anything subtle. In the same way that a heroin addict cannot feel subtle emotions of joy and love and beauty because he's zonked out of his mind on heroin.

I see a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about Kriya yoga, and yoga in general.
A lot of people are attempting to dabble in it. Which will not work.
So I shot a new video about how to start yoga properly. It will be released on my blog in the next day or two.
In a nutshell: DO NOT HALF-ASS YOGA! Yoga must be done rigorously, or not at all.

I don't think it matters much. I put my hands on my thighs, palms up.
3 cycles is what the book says.
That finger technique is however good for tracking your Kriya breaths, which will be in cycles of 12. Works great.
Definitely a must.
Jogging vigorously in place for 1-2 minutes prior to your sit will significantly help clear up blocked sinuses.
It's really easy. You just open and constrict your throat and breath in/out through the nose. You'll get the hang of it in a week or two.

Of course they do. Just not the mainstream westernized Buddhists you hear about.
The Dalai Lama has a personal oracle as one of his advisors. Sadhguru actively tells his advanced yogis not to practice siddhis or perform healings or miracles because it would create a PR nightmare for his organization.
Many enlightened masters have such abilities but will not tell you about them because you would not understand, and because it will distract you from working on your awakening.
You have to understand, people get killed for talking or exhibiting such abilities. There is a huge stigma against witchcraft, even today. Look at how Osho's commune was erradicated. That's what will happen to you when start flaunting spirituality around ignorant people.
Sadhguru was accused of murdering his wife after her supposed mahasamadhi. He was also accused of holding people captive and brainwashing them by parents who didn't understand what yoga is.
Almost every spiritual tradition has deep esoteric teachings which are kept secret and never penetrates mainstream culture because mainstream culture is so closedminded and materialisitic.
These are very advanced things which are not discussed with closedminded people.
I am not saying everything they claim is true, but you'd be surprised how much truth there is in esoteric teachings.
Yogananda's biography is very fantastical. It's not a good resource for skeptical rationalist western minds. For you to understand the things he talks about requires someone like me to break it down into a western anatyical paradigm. Which takes a lot of work and people still don't buy it.
If you really care about understanding siddhis and paranormal abilities, you must spent years practicing them. The proof is in practices.
Spend 5 years doing hardcore yoga and then you'll have a better understanding of the possibilites here.
Kriya yoga's primary intention is unlocking your chakras and liberation, not siddhis. So don't get stuck on all the fantasical stuff. Focus on awakening.
P.S. The deepest truth is so incredible, it will kill you.

@herghly I have not. What's I love about Kriya is that it's supposed to be a private practice not done in groups.
You can always rent a motel room for a week and do your Kriya.

Journaling, contemplation, and visualization should help a lot with this.
You could use just these 3 techniques + psychedelics to totally transform yourself within a couple of years. But you must do them consistently.
And Kriya yoga too! Kriya is excellent for raising your baseline level of consciousness to almost mild psychedelic levels.