Patanjali on Breathing

pracchardana - vidhaaranaabhyaam vaa praanasya

(regulating the inhalation and exhalation of the vital energy)

Irregular breathing is an indication of some disturbance in the mind or the heart. Watching our breathing provides the most accessible test of suggestion that whatever we pay attention to changes in quality. Breathng goes on all the time, we cannot breathe. But if we watch our breathing, its quality changes. And in its turn, a change in the quality of our breathing affects our emotional state. While we live, we breathe. The movement of breath is require for the life of each cell of the bod, yet we do not decide to breathe. Where does the breath come from? Does it belong to the individual? The source of breath is a great mystery and we are filled with this mystery each time we breathe.

"The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being' (Genesis 2:7).

In all ancient languages, the words for 'breath' and 'spirit' are intimately connected, indicating their close relationship. Respiration is the act of receiving the spirit again and again with the air. The Sanskrit term prana is translated as 'breath', but prana is not only breath in the usual sense of that word. Ordinary breath, the most manifest symptom of life, is only the obvious aspect of prana. Like the Chinese equivalent, chi, prana refers to a whole spectrum of subtle energies, manifesting at the coarse material level as ordinary breath in which we take in air through the nostrils. Our while organism, not only the nostrils, participates in receiving finer alchemical substances, impressions, and energies. The substances we can take in from the whole field of prana depend on the depth and quality of our attention. What an accomplished yogi breaths in and utilizes is not the same substances as breathed in by a novice.

Attention to our own breathing in and breathing out, without manipulating it in any way, is one of the simplest and most helpful practices in yoga for reaching a tranquil mind. The Chandayoga Upanishad (VI 8.2) says:

"Just as a bird tied by a string, after flying in various directions without find a place elsewhere settles down at the place where it is bound, so also the mind, my dear after flying in various directions without finding a resting place elsewhere settles down in breath, for the mind, my dear, is bound to breath.'

- Extracted from "The Wisdom of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra" by "Ravi Ravindra"