and quietness to our minds and our emotions with the retention of
breath after exhalation. I have said that exhalation empties the brain
and pacifies the ego, bringing it to quiescent humility. When you empty
the brain, you also empty the toxins of memory. With an exhalation
and retention, you let go of resentment, anger, envy, and rancor. Ex
halation is a sacred act of surrender, of self-abandonment. At the same
time we abandon all those stored up impurities that cling to the self
our resentments, angers, regrets, desires, envies, frustrations, and feel
ings of superiority and inadequacy and also the negativity that causes
the obstacles to adhere to consciousness. When ego falls away, they fall
away with it. Of course they return, but the remembered experience of
peace acts as proof that these obstacles are not insurmountable; they
can be detached and disposed of. Ultimately they are not permanent
and integral to consciousness but ailments that can be cured. We carry
so many toxins in memory, feelings that we have stored away and al
lowed to stagnate and fester. We get so used to carrying this sack of
rubbish around that we even conclude it is just part and parcel of our
character.
There is something called "echo" exhalation that impresses this
point even further. Exhale slowly and fully. Pause. Then exhale again.
There is always a slight residue left in the lungs. In that residue is to be
found the sludge of toxic memory and ego. In that brief further exha
lation, let them go-and experience an even deeper state of relief from
burden, of peace and emptiness. In inhalation we experience the full
"I," human potential fulfilled and raised like a brimming cup in of
fering or oblation to the Cosmic Divine. In exhalation we experience
the empty "I," the divine void, a nothingness that is complete and per
fect, a death that is not the end of life. Try it. Exhale slowly and fully.
Pause. Then exhale again.
A practical illustration of how exhalation helps us to calm distur
bance and overcome sorrow is that when someone has received a shock
or bad news, we often say to them, "Take a deep brl·ath." Thl' point
VII' A I. ITY 11 11·. I'.NI'.IU;Y IIOilY 11 '/IANAJ