WHAT IS PRANAYAMA?
Pranayama is the study of the way in which
we learn to control, strengthen and increase habitual awareness in the way in
which we breathe.
Taoist pranayama is the technique of breathing in the fullest and most efficient
way and increasing awareness of yin
& yang energy.
It involves working with a cycle of
breathing through the front and the back of the body.
Breathing is something we have done since
we arrived here. It is entirely
forgivable why we all take breath so much for granted.
But there is no reason why we should allow
this to continue to our ever increased physical disadvantage.
Breath and the drawing of oxygenated air
inside us, allows our bodies to expand and contract internally.
We use the lungs to draw the outside world
into our inner space.
The lungs are the place where this air
first arrives and from where the blood stream absorbs the oxygen and other
gases from the external atmosphere. The lungs then go about the essential work
of distributing the freshly oxygenated blood to power our organs and internal
physical systems with vital, life-giving air/prana/life force.
The body and especially the lungs as they
fill with air, expand and contract.
These expansions allow us to feel our inner
physical selves coming into contact with the external physical world.
As a very simple process, we use the simple
drawing in of air through our breathing tubes
- the nose, mouth and throat –
Pranayama simply brings awareness into our
lungs with the air we take in.
Through awareness of the expanding and
contracting mechanisms, the lungs
themselves, we gain contact and increase awareness in the rest of our internal
organs.
Pranayama Breathing is a way in which we not only
become aware of the way we are using the lungs, but also the directions in
which we can then direct the air and life force inside our bodies around other parts of the
body using the consciousness we bring in with the air.
As science has demonstrated, electrical
polarities, magnetism, even north and south poles merely describe a spectrum of
polarities.
There is no actual “end” to polarity any more
than there is an end to an ocean, other than a shore. However the shore
is inevitably only a temporary break, past which, if we continue for long enough in the
direction of the initial flow, so we
would reach another ocean.
Thus it is with duality of polarity.
Pranayama Breathing simply describes a
means by which we allow air to enter our bodies, be conducted infinitely around
inside us and passed on and out towards the next stage without reaching an end,
a polar finite point or cessation of anything. In other worlds it pushes out towards the infinite in everything.
If we don’t think about breathing at all, we
still breath.
If we don’t think about breathing at all,
however, we will also not be aware of hamlet’s “ thousand little shocks which
flesh is heir to”.
These little shocks and constant interruptions break up our breathing processes and disallow our
breath, our bodies, the awareness and our fullest physical functions to be
connected and continuous.
If we discontinue breath for long enough we
die.
If we discontinue our breath just a little
bit, we die a little bit.
We all die sometime.
What we should not do is allow ourselves voluntarily to die prematurely - simply because of an habitual simple lack of breath.
Pranayama cannot be guaranteed to prolong
life, although intuitively, the better we breathe, the longer we will live.
And if not longer – then with far greater
quality of calmness, mindful awareness and inner strength while we are living.
Pranayama is taking ownership of the
process of breathing.
It is practicing how to calm oneself
sufficiently to resist the catching, holding and cessation of the breath.
It is gradually to habituate ourselves to
stay in touch and become ever more in contact with our internal organs and
their various but interconnected functions.
The front of the body is yang.
It goes forward.
It drives.
It presents to the world
As we breath in it expands – it goes out to
the world
The back of the body is yin - the dark side
The area of the body that our major senses
cannot see, touch easily, smell or actually be aware of all the time.
It hides from the world.
As we breath out it returns our awareness
to the basis of everything and fulfils the laws of all gravitational impulses.
Pranayama simply provides techniques to
give us complete choice whether we use
purely yang breath for power and strength, purely yin breath for calmness, and gentle
awareness or tell our breathing mechanism to mix the two and redirect it
around the rest of our bodies to fill them with clear, pure energies.
The only difficulty in breathing is
remembering to over-ride a lifetime of habits in which we have been unaware of
the strength, power and potential contained within the way we breathe.
This ability is contained in the simplest of
exercises.
This is pranayama.
