meaning the circulations of pranic (etheric) energy. In verses 1.92-
98, the text gives the following advice: when you walk towards
your guru, friends and relatives, all those who love you and want
to help you, you should inhale deeply. When you walk towards
enemies, thieves, beggars and other people that you want to keep
away, you should exhale deeply. It is dangerous to inhale deeply in
the middle of a quarrel, or in front of a superior who is angry at
you, or in the company of wicked people or thieves.
Let us try to put this into practice immediately.
20.6 Closing the aura through deep exhalation
If you have gone through all the protection suggested so far, at
this stage it is likely that you are starting to get a sense of when
your aura is open or closed. So proceed in the following way: Sit in
front of a friend or a mirror, though in this particular case a
friend is preferable, for a force usually needs to be matched by
another to express itself freely.
Position yourselves as you would for the practices of eye contact
(section 5.2). Keep your eyes open throughout the exercise.
Phase 1
Become aware of how open or closed your aura is at that particular
moment.
Then make a deep, slow exhalation with a slight throat friction,
and sense the quality of your aura while exhaling.
Then inhale deeply and slowly, and sense the quality of your aura
while inhaling. Do it as if you were inhaling the other person,
taking him/her in. Sense how open your aura feels while inhaling
and compare with the phase of exhalation.
Keep on breathing slowly and consciously for a few minutes.
During this first phase, your friend is neither deeply inhaling nor
deeply exhaling, but just breathing normally and trying to
perceive the modifications in your energy. To allow him/her to
follow what you are doing, you can raise your hand slowly each
time you are inhaling and lower it while exhaling.
Phase 2
Drop any particular awareness of your breath and become the
perceiver while your friend inhales and exhales with full
awareness.