Deep breathing and breath of fire + Swami Rama

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Check out http://kundaliniyoga.org/pranayam.html

 

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Commentary by Swami Rama

(keep Breathing throughout)

from his book on Japji (A Sikh "prayer" that unifies Head and Heart,

bringing about an openness to Soul)

 

Throughout the lengthy span of Indian civilization, saints and sages

have declared the divine nature of the human spirit, and have fathomed

the Reality within. The Sikh gurus are representatives of this

universal tradition. Through their meditation practice they came to

realize the True nature of existence and to manifest it in their time.

The methods of meditation practiced by the great sages form a complete

science of self-transformation and self-discovery. Through meditation

one learns to explore the deepest levels of one's being and to know the

center from which consciousness flows. The systematic practice of

meditation has never been limited to a particular era in history or to

any individual culture. It is given by the wisest of humanity for all

times, cultures, and races. Meditation is an essential method for

attaining peace and harmony both within and without.

 

(how is your breathing.....)

 

The Body

The student should first learn to work with his body. The body is an

essential instrument, but if it is not disciplined it can create

barriers to progress. It is not that the body is something great that

can transform one entirely. It is simply that if the body is not kept

healthy, the mind is constantly distracted.

The first requirement of meditation is to be physically still, steady,

and comfortable. Great strength comes from stillness and inner

tranquillity. If one learns to be still, he can enjoy a peace that

cannot be provided by any object of the world. We are trained to prize

the pleasures of eating, sex, and sleep, but no one imagines that

stillness can give subtler joy. The art of stillness is not taught to

us, but it can be cultivated.

To feel restful and still, it is very important to establish a steady

and comfortable posture. These words, "steady" and "comfortable," are

actually the words of the great sage Patanjali, who has used them to

describe the correct meditation posture (Yoga Sutras II:46). The word

"steadiness" means to sit so that the head, neck, and trunk are

vertically aligned and balanced. There are a number of postures that

can be used for this. The simplest is to sit comfortably on the edge of

a bench or flat-seated chair.

Many people misconceive the purpose of the meditation postures. They

suppose that good posture has something to do with being able to twist

the legs and put the hands and arms into certain positions. While a

number of the postures with folded legs are comfortable for meditation,

the intent of all the meditative postures is to arrange the body so that

the spinal column is erect and comfortably aligned.

In the beginning, as one sits still he will observe that the large

muscles of the limbs may jerk - something which often occurs to people

as they fall asleep at night. Next, the muscles twitch - a second

obstacle. When muscles twitch or when any part of the body throbs,

these are not the experiences that manuals of meditation describe as

signs of progress. These are merely a release of tension. The third

obstacle that might arise is shaking. The body shakes or perspires

because one is straining. If one tries too hard, or does not prepare

his mind and accept the idea of meditation wholeheartedly, then he

experiences mental strain. That mental strain can cause agitation in

the body. So first the student should learn to assume the correct

posture and not look for or think about having unusual experiences.

After a few days he will observe that these throbbings, twitching,

shiverings, and shakings have been arrested.

 

Breathing

Breath plays an important role in life. Both the body and the mind are

disturbed by unregulated breathing - and both body and mind affect the

breathing process as well. For example, bad news can start a person

crying and sobbing. This results in great change in one's breathing

patterns. Exercises like moderate jogging or brisk walking, on the

other hand, can become means for deepening the breath. Learning to

exhale twice the duration of inhalation - for example, while jogging, or

between rallies in tennis - is a very healthy practice.

Stillness provides rest for the muscles and for the voluntary and

involuntary nervous systems. Relaxed diaphragmatic breathing further

strengthens the involuntary nervous system and establishes a balance

between the intake and the output of the lungs. It is not healthy to

retain waste gases in the lungs; doing so allows substances to build up

in the body which may cause disease. A balanced flow of breath, with

inhalation and exhalation approximately equal, is an essential

prerequisite for progress in the meditation process.

The natural breathing pattern, called "diaphragmatic breathing," is

everyone's birthright. Diaphragmatic breathing in itself gives very

significant benefits, and it is a necessity if one wishes to practice

any other breathing exercises. The diaphragm is a muscle lying beneath

the lungs. During inhalation it contracts, creating the effect of

expanding the areas at the base of the rib cage and just below. During

exhalation, when the abdomen is gently contracted, the diaphragm relaxes

and breath flows out.

Shallow breathing occurs because of shallow thinking, shallow habits

such as eating too much, and a lack of activity, as well as a pattern of

not being accurate, exact, or direct in life. Because of their habits,

people lose the natural capacity to breathe diaphragmatically, and this

results in self-created suffering. But it is easy to practice

diaphragmatic breathing. To perform it, one should lie down on his

back, feet and arms slightly apart, in the corpse posture, and put a

small sandbag on the abdomen. Normally twelve to fifteen pounds is the

recommended weight necessary to strengthen the diaphragm for adults.

Once the habit is formed, it is no longer necessary to use the sandbag.

Keeping the head, neck, and trunk aligned and the lips closed, one

should exhale, allowing the abdomen to contract. Let the upper abdomen

and base of the rib cage expands naturally with the inhalation. Do not

create muscle blocks. If this is practiced three times a day, one will

be a totally transformed person in a month's time, thinking differently

and feeling very energetic.

These experiments have been repeatedly and successfully conducted in

the Dana Research Laboratory of our Institute. Dr. John Clarke, a

well-known cardiologist from the Harvard School of Medicine, and Dr.

Rudolph Ballentine, a psychiatrist and famous nutritionist, experimented

on many subjects. They discovered that diaphragmatic breathing, though

a preliminary step, is most essential before practicing the higher rungs

of breath awareness.

A second useful study was undertaken by Dr. John Harvey, Pandit Dr.

Rajmani Tigunait, Dr. Phil Nuernberger, Dr. Kay Gendron, Duncan Currey,

and Doug Bill. They formed a group to investigate the effects of

breathing exercises. They found that diaphragmatic breathing as

beneficial for calming the mind before meditation. They also noted that

diaphragmatic breathing could be employed in daily life, and that this

breathing was very useful for maintaining emotional balance.

Proper breathing means that the breath is not shallow, jerky, or noisy,

and that there are no lengthy pauses between the exhalation and

inhalation. Noisy breathing is a symptom of blockage or obstruction.

Long pauses in the breath mean that one is high-strung and has emotional

blockages. Such pauses are not created when people are happy, but occur

when they are experiencing some agony, problem, or insecurity. There is

a brief natural moment between inhalation and exhalation, but it should

not be expanded by bad breathing habits. Such a pause, if unnecessarily

expanded, can be a killer; it can create coronary heart disease.

 

(still breathing??)

 

Application of Sushumna: How to Make Breath Harmonious

The mind itself does not want to meditate because it has not been

trained to maintain a relaxed focus. Gradually one can understand and

train the mind. If one learns to be still and to breathe well, then

next one can attain a state of mind that is called "the joyous mind."

In the technical language of yoga, this is called the application of

sushumna. It is the method of leading the mind to a state of joy, where

true meditation is possible. Sushumna application means that the breath

is made to flow equally through both the nostrils. When one understands

the basic breathing exercises, then he should pay attention to the

breath flowing through the nostrils. When he becomes sensitive to the

flow of the breath, he will usually find that one of the nostrils is

obstructed. The right channel of breath is called pingala and the left

is called ida. These are the heating and cooling systems in the body;

the right and left channels act to balance heat and cold respectively.

Sometimes one of the nostrils remains open excessively, while the other

remains obstructed. This dominance of the flow of breath in one nostril

reflects an imbalance. Those whose left nostrils flow excessively are

depressed and emotional, accustomed to thinking about death and negative

things, feeling insecure, and crying frequently without any reason.

Those whose right nostrils flow excessively tend to think constantly of

doing active things,(eg; drinking, eating, fantasizing about sex, etc.)

The sages say that by focusing the mind on the bridge between the two

nostrils, one can bring the breath under conscious control, creating

balance. Unless one brings these two vehicles of inhalation and

exhalation under conscious control, the mind will be disturbed by

unregulated breathing.

For meditation, neither the left or right channels should be dominant.

If one inhales and exhales equally from both, he cannot think of

anything negative. The mind will find this experience delightful - an

inexplicable state of joy. Such joy has no external cause; it does not

come from the love of any object. In this state of temporary joy,

called sushumna application, one can easily lead the mind into meditation.

Fluctuations in one's meditation from day to day are often associated

with irregularities in nostril dominance. This relationship can be

deceptive, because nostril dominance is in turn affected by one's

habits. Excesses in regard to food, sex, or sleep, and the play of

fears in the mind, can all created imbalance in the breathing pattern.

Fear in particular should be analyzed. Fear is an attempt to escape,

but the objects, which create fear, have never been thoroughly

examined. Fears invited danger. They arise from the instinctive urge

for self-preservation. When fears are examined, then anxiety is reduced

and often dissipated altogether. By examining all thought patterns

carefully, useless habits and irregularities can cease to be a

distraction to meditation.

 

 

 

mb wrote:

 

> Hi,

>

> i am new and the first thing i should learn is to breath deep.

> But how? The explanations in internet are not very clear!

>

> Marco

>

>