Return Yoga

The Song of Breathing

Like most people, in the beginning my practice was limited to asana. There was drifty philosophy and mention of breath, certainly. This was intriguing and at times gorgeous, but never very clearly taught. I never understood the link between body and yogic philosophy. Nor did I understand how breath/chant/physiology played a role in what was happening to me.

When I finally did find teachers who could teach me about breath, sound, and philosophy other than the dime store version, everything landed. It all came together. The path, and my place on it, became clear.

I don’t exactly know what I’m going to do with this space: teaching breath is one of the most subtle aspects of teaching, and philosophy is not much different. With such subtle teachings, the student is is terribly important: how they are already breathing? What do they currently believe and think? The individual circumstances of the student determine the teaching.

That is to say, there is no conceivable ‘pranayama’ 101, or yoga philosophy basics. It starts with the individual. Unless it starts with the individual it doesn’t tend to work. If it does meet the individual where they are, the practice explodes and diffuses, from the individual to everything, everything, everything.

That said, I want to try. I want to share some of the teachings I’ve been giving 1:1 to a larger group. I’ll cover physiology and biomechanics or anatomy of breath at times, but link philosophy to breathing at other times. We’ll slowly investigate yoga history and philosophy through the lens of sound (which is how it was actually taught, and there were reasons for it being taught as sound. Human beings learn by sing song, dance, and art more completely than they learn by rote or by textbooks). Along the way, both the practices and the philosophy are doing something in your body mind. It is the uncanny link between the two - practical philosophy, a philosophy of practice - that makes yoga yoga. As your mouth makes different shapes, different things happen in your brain. As your breath aspirates or pauses, sounds or silences, different things happen in the nervous system. As the stories unfold, so does your experience of life. It’s a nuanced, beautiful thing.

Start here: Breath and emotional Holding: 15 minutes

Om Dharmaya Namah Meditation

We’ve often heard that yoga is an ancient practice. Sometimes we’re told it is 5000 years old. The historical accuracy of this is confusing: there is zero evidence that postures as we know them were taught that long ago. So what does ‘ancient’ mean?

I’ve been taught that the experience or practice of yoga is in fact that old. The primary experience or practice was doing a little something with your mind, body, and breath around dawn, midday, and dusk. Principally this would have been around the sacred hearth fire and would have brought your attention and intention into line with the rhythms of the day, the seasons, and reality beyond our personal concerns. Doing these little rituals mutiple times a day would change the way a person felt. When she felt differently, she would begin to act and behave differently in the world. And those changed behaviors would have begun to change her experience of life; she would have known that what she was living was different than what people who didn’t have such practices were experiencing as ‘life’.

Some of the most popular rituals and chants were eventually codified and compiled into what we know as the four Vedas, which date to 1500 BCE. However, these Vedas don’t explain anything. They are just prayer books or hymn books. It wasn’t until the classical age of yoga and Buddhism that philosophical treatises like the Yoga Sutras and the Upanisads were compiled. Because these later texts do deal with meaning and philosophy, Westerners have become quite enamored of the stories and texts and systems they discuss.

However, in falling in love with the philosophies, we have not necessarily understood the actual practices or experiences of the ancient traditions. That is, we like the pretty words but don’t have much of the daily ritual. The primary yoga experience is:

• a small period of time dedicated ritually, often to the time of day itself

• chant, and therefore pranayama

• a changed feeling that then changes your behavior that eventually changes the path of your life.

Use this guided meditation several times to get the core teaching of yoga: there is a path. You yourself have a path.