“A yogi measures the span of life by the number of breaths, not by the number of years.” —Swami Sivananda
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika section on Pranayama it opens with this first instruction: “Posture becoming established, a Yogî, master of himself, eating salutary and moderate food, should practise Prânâyâma, as instructed by his guru.“ (page 51) It is important to note that posture is not only mentioned but is the very fist word opening our awareness immediately to vital importance of the relationship between posture and breath.
In his book, Yoga Mala, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois explains it like this: “the method for purifying and strengthening the body is called asana. When the body is purified, the breath also becomes purified, and the diseases of the body are eliminated. Once the asanas have been learned well enough to be practiced with ease, the next limb to be practiced is that of bringing the breath under control. It is this that is known as pranayama.”
In the second paragraph of the HYP, we are told: “Respiration being disturbed, the mind becomes disturbed. By restraining respiration, the Yogî gets steadiness of mind.” This draws the direct link between breath and the mind, explaining to us that it is with the breath that we learn to control the mind. It does not say when the mind is disturbed, the breath is disturbed’ - though this does ring true as well, the explanation is clear - for us to learn how to control our minds, we must start with the breath.
Control of the breath = control of the mind. The energy is drawn inward and into the chakras and the spine where the chakras become magnetized by the energy. Because of the magnetization the energy is withdrawn more inside. Eventually we can draw the energy up to the third eye and crown where the experience of Superconsciousness is available.
“The breath does not pass through the middle channel (susumnâ), owing to the impurities of the nâdîs. How can then success be attained, and how can there be the unmanî avasthâ.” (p.52) This teaching from the HYP is telling us that we are not breathing correctly “owing to the impurities of the nadis”; therefore, we must purify for proper breath to be possible (with asana and then pranayama).
If we can understand our relationship to breath, all our other relationships begin to take holistic form. In his book Yoga Anatomy, Leslie Kaminoff does a great job of explaining breath, asking, “do we pull or push breath into our body?” The answer is neither really. The relationship with the breath is indirect. The fact is, even though we say to expand our bellies when breathing in, breath cannot enter our bellies and has everything do with the diaphragm. When you expand your rib cage, you drop your diaphragm and the volume of your thoracic cavity increases reducing the air pressure and causing air to be pushed into us. When we exhale we release the muscles and the diaphragm rises, the volume available shrinks, increasing the air pressure and pushing air out.
With humility, we create space for air to flow in and out of us. With gratitude, we create space to be breathed. The more are able to expand, the more we can be breathed. … (end excerpt).
Yogi Demonstrating Nadi Shodhana
artist unknown - if you know, please tell us!
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