Yoga Journal USA — December 2017

YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 80 / DECEMBER 2017

I realized pranayama was a powerful

tool for quieting the mind in the mid-

’80s. I was first introduced to the practice

through Iyengar Yoga and Ramanand

Patel, an early student of B.K.S. Iyengar.

Around 1985, Ramanand started teach-

ing pranayama once a week out of a stu-

dent’s house in Berkeley, California. One

day, after his class, I felt like I was waking

from a hypnotic spell. Ramanand said to

me: “Today is the day you dedicate your-

self to pranayama every day—or let go

of the practice.” Initially, I had felt some

effects from the practice, so I was curious

what would happen if I committed. But

more than anything, what kept me on

track was that I simply trusted my teach-

ers—that they had experienced some-

thing spectacular

with pranayama,

and that if I were

disciplined, I

would, too. From

that day on, I prac-

ticed every morn-

ing for 30 minutes,

for nearly 25 years.

Pranayama is

often interpreted

as “breath con-

trol,” but to me

equating breath

with prana is like

saying the brain

embodies the soul.

Prana is the subtle

force that animates

you, while breath is

what brings oxygen to your cells. But

because it is impossible to measure

prana with our present technology, we

can only sense that life force through

feeling the breath. That said, observing

the breath is a wonderful meditation

practice and probably the single best tool

for understanding subtle alignment in

asana. To feel the breath flowing in an

asana, it is usually necessary to shift your

effort and alignment. When prana is

spread evenly throughout the cellular

body, equanimity and compassion arise,

and the fluctuations of the mind cease.

To think that we are in control of this

phenomenon is mistaken. The hard part,

paradoxically, is to let go of working,

whether consciously or unconsciously,

and to simply listen.

Pranayama and meditation are con-

stant acts of letting go. Through these

practices, you can let go of the tension in

your calves, throat, and belly, but more

importantly you can let go of psychologi-

cal blockages, freeing yourself from your

perspective of, and attachment to, who

you consider yourself to be. Think of

these psychological obstacles as dams

on a river. But unlike river dams, which

block the flow of water, our internal

emotional dams obstruct the flow of

breath and prana. Through your asana

and pranayama practices, you become

intimate with these bindings. From

there, you can assess how you identify

with the blockages and how your ego is

dependent on holding onto your story.

Through this intimate awareness, you

might see the silliness of this trap. If you

let it, prana and love can flow through

and into everything and restore the free-

dom of being.

If you see yourself as separate from

everything outside of yourself, then

there’s potential to be in conflict with

everything. There’s no peace, no relax-

ation. When you start to free up unnec-

essary tension in your body and quiet the

turmoil in your mind, the illusion of iso-

lation lessens. If you can marinate in the

breath and prana, you can move toward

contentment and quietude. Then some-

thing else is revealed. Practicing asana,

pranayama, and meditation can unveil

the reality of oneness and wholeness.

“When prana is spread

evenly throughout the

body, equanimity and

compassion arise, and

the f luctuations of the

mind cease.”

MASTER CLASS

PRACTICE WELL

continued on page 82

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