Prāṇāyāma - the gateway to consciousness
Prāṇāyāma - Der Schlüssel zum Bewusstsein
Definition of Prāṇāyāma
You practice Prāṇāyāma every single moment of our life. You are either inhaling, exhaling or holding your breath. To make all this useful according to the Yoga Sutra we observe and modify place, length and number of breaths. Prāṇāyāma makes us aware of most subtle sensations in our nervous system and focuses the mind on the amazing process of breathing. It is an amazing tool for binding our awareness uninterruptedly on one mental impression. This mental transformation process is called dhārana (“concentration”) and prepares the mind for dhyāna (“meditiation”). The raw experience of the present moment, in which breath, breathing and the breather become empty of form and fall into one, is samādhi.
Authoritative definitions of prāṇāyāma as a yogic practice
We must overcome a lot of nonsense about Yoga on the market today. Therefore we must go back to it's origins. There is no other way.
- Inhalting-exhaling, (and) interruption is prāṇāyāma ।
- Observing external, internal, holding modifications, place, time and count, long and subtle ।
- The "fourth" (mode of prāṇāyāma) transcends "external" and "internal" ।
- Then, destruction of the covering of light. |
- And integrity of the mind (manas) in concentations (plural of dharana, see YS III.1) ।
- Prāṇāyāma is the restraint of all modifications of the mind< (cittabandha)
by regarding all mental states like the citta as Brahman alone ।- The negation of the illusionary world (the world as we know it) is known as rechaka (exhale).
The thought "I am verily Brahman" is called puraka (inhale) ।- The steadiness of that thought thereafter is called kumbhaka (restraint).
This is the real course of Pranayama for the enlightened, whereas the ignorant only torture the nose ।
What all that means? Come and practice with us.