Hi all! My first post on DhO. I'm really amazed by the quality of the information here minus dogma and too much religious posturing. Having suspended a daily practise for many years, I have now begun to get back into it.

I'm currently doing 1/2 - 45 minutes of concentration meditation aimed at progress through the Jhanas which I previously used to do for 1-2 hours daily. I also recently learned Yogiraj's Surya Kavach and Kriya Yoga technique. I don't know why I got into this. I was doing yoga at the time and perhaps wanted a practise with Hindu roots with an idea of integrating some of those practises as they are from my home country.

When I started doing them, I immediately obtained minor benefits eg: feeling a bit clearer and energised when I did them in the morning. However some of this stuff did not really sit well with my existing knowledge of Buddhism and insight/concentration practises. Doing Kriya Yoga and Mahamudra, I felt like I was just doing calisthenics with some visualization.

I want to know if there is anyone else here with experience in these practises. Do these work in a profound way? If so I feel I'm not really grasping the core attitudes of these practises and the art/science that goes with them. Partly I think that the teacher I learnt it from may have communicated them to me with adequate technical instruction but without the style necessary to inspire me. Of course it could just be me and my judgemental mind. Perhaps I need to just persist. But when I do these exercises I don't have the 'wow awesome' feeling that I get with concentration meditation practises. Hope someone here can help me!

kriya yoga is pranayama. It deals with different energies. Specially self-energies(kundalini). If you master self energies you can pass paths in couple months.( edit: years, depends if you have done any practice in past lives i think.)

if you want to see fast progress then you need to master how to force more energy to flow into your system by your own will to speed your evolution.
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I say its worth learning and mastering its full potential.

Thanks a lot Rist. Can you give me an example of the sort of attitudes you take with you into Kriya Yoga practise?

You are right, follow your instincts. People can definitely get Enlightened through yoga but the best techniques come straight from the Buddha’s mouth. These techniques can be found the Satiphattana Sutta, which is the most important discourse on meditation (along with maha-satiphattana).

Satiphattana Sutta: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.nysa.html

The most popular insight practices on this forum fall into one of the categories listed in the Satiphattana, including Mahasi-style noting (most popular), along with Goenka’s Body-sensations technique, and the breathing technique, Anapana.

I don't know what you meant by that question but:

My "success" story

i wanted to evolve very fast and then "figured"(*) that the best method is the simplest, i can just be and also force that same feeling of just being. Its not possible to do without relaxing and balancing mind.
Figured out that its part of kriya yoga not long time back..

and i evolved, and i still evolve.
It works. When you do it a lot, you will feel exhausted. and that's a good thing.

*When i am aware, then the time goes by very very slowly and that's unbearably annoying, i thought how it is possible to sit long hours and 40 years straight and when time went fast then i was sleeping/absorbed(not good either). There needed to be a better method i struggled suffered, i prayed/asked God and it worked, i got initiated(got insight?) or whatever it was..

there is no other possibility, to attain everything there is available, to see if it makes me happy. Eating everyday and visiting toilet everyday is very annoying. Working is very annoying, also breathing and heart beating and getting tired are annoying. Only thing i enjoy is only, being me, but i can't because of the annoying things.

My attitude will be there is no other choice but to do it and then i start doing it. Philosophy behind it is that when i don't then i am losing the game. I want the best method.