Welcome to Day 28 of our 40 Day Retreat 2009.
Today, the subject is Pranayama. I introduced the subject yesterday and I am going to continue with it today. It is an extremely important subject on the spiritual journey if you want to go deeper into that energy space, or into the identity of your energy being.
A Powerful Tool on the Journey
Pranayama is a powerful tool on this journey, and what may seem to be an ordinary activity of just breathing in and out, is actually an extraordinary activity that can take you deeper and deeper into your energy being. A simple act of breathing can take you deeper inside to your energy being and identity, when followed with great awareness and focus. I want you to think about this. It can lead you to deeper awareness of the energy centers. It can take you into the energy centers. It can help to activate the energy centers, and it can help to bring energy from the energy centers into your field of activity. So powerful is it.
Importance of Spiritual Awakening
However, we need to understand that for us to experience this deeper dimension to pranayama, we need to be spiritually awakened otherwise the breath will be just a normal breath. When you are spiritually awakened breathing takes on a different dimension. Every breath feels like a draw of energy from that infinite space.
Pranayama –what is it?
In the word ‘pranayama’ there are two parts. It is a combined word. Prana means life force, energy and vitality and ayama means to lengthen or to extend. In this specific case pranayama means to control, to manage. We are managing the expansion or the extension of the breath.
Of course, it is important to understand how to breathe properly. In yoga there is complete breathing where you learn to empty the lungs completely and to fill it in a fuller way, using all the muscles that are involved in breathing. This will be dealt with further in another session, but I want to talk more on the subject of Pranayama.
Sushumna, Ida and Pingala – vital energy channels
Prana is the life force, the vitality that we see everywhere. It is also the energy that comes up when the central channel called Sushumna is opened along the chakra line. All the chakras exist, of course, in the energy dimension, but along a channel that can be physically identified along the spine. When we become spiritually awakened, energy or prana travels from that hidden power that is called Kundalini. It travels along that central channel. Kundalini moves up with its prana and it brings a feed from inside to every different chakra. We feel this energy coming out of the chakra. It is prana coming out of the Kundalini which is the source of energy; hidden energy coming from the lower to the upper opening of the chakras.
Yesterday, I spoke about energy coming through the nostrils. The two nadis are connected to the two nostrils, so when you breathe through the right and left, energy comes through these two channels Ida and Pingala. Ida is left and Pingala is right. They come to every chakra so we draw prana, which is in the air, to these chakras when we become spiritually awakened. We can feel it then.
At these chakra points when Kundalini is awakened, it is bringing prana from deep inside and we begin to understand the Ida –Pingala breath. Then at each chakra point we get the prana from the outside and also from the inside. Each point becomes supercharged with this energy. When these chakras are awakened and you breathe into these points as focal points, then it is magnificent, fantastic! Because you are able to feel the qualities of the chakras, you can feel the prana that is involved in these qualities.
Enhancing the Qualities of Chakras
At the heart, for example, you will be able to feel emotional energy which is prana in a different form. It is coming out of you as love, kindness or compassion. In thought power when you are thinking or imagining or creating images within you, you are also using prana in mental activity, and in vitality. And when sexuality takes another dimension beyond the biology, then we bring the prana in that level as well. When we want to use that prana otherwise, we can transmute the prana from that center upwards.
When we bring the prana to the brow we can actually feel that there is some kind of ecstatic feeling that is coming into the brain, some kind of high! When we bring the prana into the throat we can actually feel that the voice is different; it is carrying energy with it. And when we come to the base chakra and we ground ourselves there, we can actually feel our body infused with pranic energy. When you begin to experience this, it is extremely exciting. I wish that you can experience this, and everyone else. The whole world of spirituality opens up to energy.
Understand the Process
Unless you explore this, how will you understand it? It is therefore extremely important to be aware of the breath during meditation even when it stops and even when it gets shallow. We need to understand the process of the lengthening or the shortening or the expansion of pranayama. We also need to identify the subtle levels of the pranayama.
As you come to the upper centers and the mind becomes quieter, the breathing becomes less. And when the mind stops completely, you may feel that the breathing stops. Sometimes, those of you who have really gotten into the energy body will even feel that prana is moving although the actual breathing has become calm or has stopped. You will actually feel that some kind of energy is moving inside, in the same rhythm as that in which you were breathing, which is a very exciting feeling.
Power to Break Through Energy Barrier
Pranayama can take you into a deeper awareness of Self. What is fascinating about this is a very simple activity, one that we will overlook; it can take us into an extraordinary experience of our energy being. It can help to open the consciousness as we focus on these different centers by breaking through the energy barrier when we are very focused. That is why the subject of kriya yoga which involves breathing techniques, attracts so many people. Breathing is a very powerful tool.
The Magic of Ujjai Breath
One of the techniques in breathing is the Ujjai breath that we need to understand. It is called ‘The Victory Breath’ and in your meditation this Ujjai can become a great help in managing the mind, stabilizing emotions and going deeper into the awareness of different centers. We need to understand the Ujjai breath and to use it effectively. Ujjai means victory and when you begin to learn this breathing, you actually feel masterful; you feel as though you are managing the breath in a powerful way and managing the energy field inside of you.
Just to say that as breathing can take you deeper into the chakras when spiritually awakened, it can also bring chakra energies, as you focus on these levels, into the physical domain and to create balance into your Being. It can streamline your energy when you begin to breathe and bring chakra energies from inside of you into the physical dimension. It balances energies.
Ujjai Breathing Technique
Let us take some time to talk about Ujjai breathing. When we breathe in the Ujjai, we constrict an opening inside that is called the glottis. It is the opening in the windpipe area as we breathe into the lungs. In the glottis area there is a flap that is called the epiglottis that prevents food from going into the air passage. When we are swallowing, the epiglottis closes off the windpipe. When we breathe and constrict the muscles around the windpipe, the breath makes a different sound. The breathing in has a particular sound and the breathing out has a particular sound (demonstrated). To understand the muscles involved, if you make this sound (demonstrated with a hissing sound) it will help you to identify the area.
Benefits of Ujjai
Then you can make the sound in a more gentle way (demonstrated). It actually regulates the breath, makes it slow and long. It is also called a ‘warming breath’ and it is said to be a cleanser of phlegm, improving digestion and helping you to balance energies. In meditation the hissing sound or what is sometimes called the ‘ocean sound’ is a very soothing sound for concentration in your meditation (demonstrated). When you learn that breath you can focus it on different centers.
Learning this Ujjai breathing, making pranayama an important subject to study, having the gift of spiritual awakening which can come by association with the Guru or Master of group can all help us to go deeper into meditation, into self-awareness and into creating balance in the energy field.
Take Time to Practice
Therefore, take time to practice the breath awareness. Just be aware of what happens when you breathe and what happens when you focus on chakra points. Use the powerful breathing of Ujjai and see the magic that it brings. You will then understand why it is called Ujjai – The Victory Breath.
I have given you enough work to do today, to contemplate the subject, to explore it and to master the practice of Ujjai.
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