Chapter 7
The Healing Breath
from the book Breakthrough Consciousness
by Sharon Janis
The soul is the divine breath. It purifies, revivifies, and heals the instrument through which it functions.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
Our breath is much more than just the simple moving of oxygen in and out of the lungs. Breathing is a vehicle for many kinds of energy, from the biological level to more subtle energies referred to by Indian philosophy as prana, the vital life-force.
There is boundless love within. It is supremely true. We inhale and exhale because of its pulsation.
~ Swami Muktananda
One way to tap into this energy is to sit quietly in a meditative space, allowing each breath to get longer and longer, deeper and deeper. Slowly increase the length of each inhalation, as well as the pause while holding the air in; then again each exhalation, and each pause as the air is retained outside. It may be easier to do this while counting mentally, moving each breath into another step, a higher number. It is important not to force the breath, rather gently guide it to become longer, deeper, and subtler. With practice, it is possible for one breath cycle to eventually take several minutes to complete.
When our breath lengthens like this, the mind becomes very still, and our brain waves naturally flow into the deeper, more meditative, relaxing, and healing theta waves. Once this happens, we don't have to fight with our mind to quiet down and stop thinking about daily concerns. When the breath becomes this subtle, it is not possible for the mind to think all over the place. Even one’s gaze becomes fixed and steady. The scriptures of Kashmir Shaivism call this state “Bhairivi mudra,” a rapturous merging into the divine.
As the air is slowly, softly, allowed into the body, particle by particle, there is a sense of energy being carried in with the oxygen, filling not only the lungs, but also the entire body, head to toe. Each tiny cell seems to fill with this prana, like millions of small lungs. Then you hold the energy in, not forcing the breath to stay, but just resting in the space between inhalation and exhalation. Next comes the releasing of the air. If you have done this properly, not forcing the air to come in or be retained, but slowly increasing and allowing the breath to become more and more subtle — the air will not burst out, even though you have been retaining it for much longer than you ever would under normal conditions.
With control, gently open an inner release valve and allow the oxygen to slowly move back into the outer spaces. There is a sense of boundless patience as all focus is centered upon this very pleasant sensation of slow exhalation. It’s probably a good idea to turn your phones off before beginning this practice because your being can become so subtle and sensitive that a loud, jarring sound could be extremely shocking and disturbing.
All the energy that was brought into the lungs with that long, nutritious breath is now dispersed throughout the body, moving through subtle energy channels called nadis by the Indian kundalini scriptures. It’s like taking an inner bath, bathing your body in energy, light and oxygen. Your brain is also doubly nourished -- from the increased energy and oxygen, as well as the healing meditative quietness brought about by your focus on the long, deep breath. This is a healing treatment on all levels, and it brings a blissful, peaceful state that nourishes our body, mind and spirit as we open up to greater possibilities of knowledge, understanding and experience.
Just as the earth breathes constantly, pushing wave upon wave onto the coastline shore, so this same universal energy expresses as the waves of our breath — steady and constant, and filled with the prana life force. As the breath is very slowly and consciously taken in, particle by particle, there comes this moment when the body is filled with air and prana, without room for any more. In that moment, there is a pause, a space. The world seems to stop, and the thoughts in the mind also stop very naturally. The same thing happens at the point where all of the air within the body is exhaled into the air around us. Everything stops. If we can become subtle enough to catch this point of timelessness, this space of complete stillness, it can become a porthole for us to expand into our incredible, higher nature. From this one moment, time can open its doors, blasting with us through to that most wondrous eternal nature.
The Kashmir Shaivism scripture, Vijnana Bhairava (Wisdom of the Divine) explores the process of breathing in several of its aphorisms. One says that "Of the exhalation arising from the center of the body, there is non-return for a split second after the breath moves completely out of the body. And of the inhalation moving in from the outer spaces, there is non-return (or holding) for a split second from the center of the body. If one fixes his mind steadily at these two points of pause, one will find that the essential form of Bhairava, Divine Consciousness, is manifested at those two points."
The breath affects our mental state, and also mirrors it. When we are agitated, upset or angry, the breath becomes quick and shallow. When we are in a peaceful, relaxed state, naturally our breath becomes longer and deeper. It is possible to create an intentional feedback loop whereby we watch the breath, enticing it to calm and slow down little by little. This begins to calm our mind. As our thoughts become fewer and fewer and the agitation of the mind begins to subside, the breath naturally becomes even calmer, thereby making our mind even quieter. According to the ancient Indian Scriptures, yoga, union with the divine, is at its deepest level a “stilling of the modifications of the mind.” When the mental agitation is calmed like the ripples on a clear, peaceful lake, one can begin to see into unimagined depths. Then, with our minds becoming more and more quiet, our breath more and more subtle, something else can begin to happen.
The breath becomes so subtle that no longer do we feel it moving in and moving out. Instead, there is a constant experience of that space we had experienced during that one split second when the breath rested in the completion of our inhalation or exhalation. This space is called madhyadasi, the middle state.
The Vijnana Bhairava explains: "When the middle state develops by means of the dissolution of all dichotomizing thought constructs, the prana energy in the form of exhalation does not go out from the center of the body, nor does that energy in the form of inhalation enter into the center of the body from outside. In this way, by means of Bhairavi (the power of Bhairava, Divine Consciousness), who expresses herself in the form of the cessation of exhalation and inhalation, there supervenes the state of Bhairava."
It’s not that we are holding the breath until we turn blue and die. This is a very deep process whereby the breath just becomes more and more subtle until it feels as though we are not breathing in or out, just resting in the center. Our thoughts have ceased, and there is just an awareness and focus on the expansive energy inside of ourselves. Certainly this kind of experience must have provided great motivation to the seekers of old who gave their entire lives to sitting quietly in the state of inner absorption.
There is a throbbing of the life force — very subtle yet very powerful — in what feels to be the center of our body, in the same space as our spinal cords, the electrical system of our bodies. This pulsing is like the pulsing of the breath, except there is no sensation of the air leaving or entering the body. There is just a throbbing energy pulsating through the center of our being.
This is one of the most blissful experiences available within the human body, even more rapturous than common sources of pleasure. Every cell in our body begins to vibrate with a fresh, blissful awareness. As the quoted verse above explains, all dichotomizing thought-constructs have been dissolved. There is just this pulsating light inside of us, this expansive, all-inclusive oneness taking over our sense of limited identification. This is the experience of Bhairava, Divine Consciousness. And the power to experience and attain this great state lies in the secret of our very own breath.
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