bāhyābhyantara-stambha-vṛttir deśa-kāla-saṅkhyābhiḥ paridṛṣṭo dīrgha-sūkṣmaḥ
bāhya-abhyantara-stambha-vṛttiḥ deśa-kāla-saṅkhyābhiḥ paridṛṣṭaḥ dīrgha-sūkṣmaḥ
“[The breath consists of] external, internal, paused movement; observed–by means of location, time, and number–[it becomes] long and subtle.”

As we continue to explore the relation of citta to breath, and breath to the body, it is important to consider the complexity of the nervous system itself. It is shaped by and–then in turn–shapes physical condition, individual experience, patterned behavior. As neuroscientist Stephen Porges says, “The nervous system is not solely a brain independent of the body, but a brain-body nervous system” (see The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory, by Stephen W. Porges).

In Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar describes his personal journey in working with the breath. After much frustration in attempting techniques of breath regulation–“I would start gasping and have to stop” (p. 69)–he came to appreciate that he must work with his body more and seek to “control” his breath less. Āsana itself strengthens the pathways that allow breath to move, he came to believe, and in his teaching of breath practice, he emphasizes support of the body and surrender of the will.

Patañjali here tells us that the breath has three parts–bāhya (outer, or exhalation), abhyantara (inner, or inhalation), and stambha (paused)–and that prāṇāyāma involves the observation (paridṛṣṭa) of these parts. He also suggests how to witness the movements of the breath: by means of places (deśa) in the body where one can feel the breath, duration in time (kala)–is the breath quick, slow?–and number (saṅkhyā) of cycles of breath (or the count of the duration of a phase of the breath). The presence brought to the breath anchors our awareness inward; the breath becomes, says Patañjali, long (dīrgha) and subtle (sūkṣma).

The two terms dīrgha and sūkṣma are rich in allusion and significance. Dīrgha means long as well as tall and so could be breath that becomes longer in time–calmer, steadier–but also breath that is more expansive. The “tall” breath–felt perhaps all the way to the feet–becomes a support within.

Sūkṣma refers to fineness of breath. It is also perhaps subtlety and sensitivity in the perception of breath. In sūtras I.44-45, Patañjali uses sūkṣma to describe the layer of matter that is below the most obvious, what “under-weaves”  the surface of things. The suggestion–throughout Patañjali’s prāṇāyāma sūtras, is that as we become more sensitive to the movements of our breath, we will attune ourselves more clearly, more perceptively to the world around us.

The sensitive attunement to the natural world is illustrated most beautifully by English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. A devoted Jesuit priest, whose poems were unpublished in his lifetime, he kept through his life journals of his observations of nature. His eye to the particular, and his surprising use of sound and word combinations, bring a power and freshness to his writing (see “Pied Beauty” or “The Windhover”). Here is a sample of one of his journal entries. How fine it is. How expansive. How focused.

The winter was long and hard. I made many observations on freezing. For instance…the garden mould very crisp and meshed over with a lace-work of needles leaving (they seemed) three-cornered openings: it looked greyish and like a coat of gum on wood. Also the smaller crumbs and clods were lifted fairly up from the ground on upright ice-pillars, whether they had dropped these from themselves or formed them from the soil: it was like a little Stonehenge–Looking down into the thick ice of our pond I found the imprisoned air-bubbles nothing at random but starting from centres and in particular one most beautifully regular white brush of them, each spur of it a curving string of beaded and diminishing bubbles.

–Gerard Manley Hopkins, Journal, 1870, found in A Hopkins Reader, edited by John Pick.

I have heard it said that each breath is unique, no one like another. Can I turn to my breath with the curiosity, the interest, the pure observation, that Hopkins gives to the air bubbles in ice? It is in the subtlety that breath work happens–not by forcing or pushing or willing–often by releasing. It is an interplay between the voluntary and involuntary, between control and no control, between conscious intention and automatic response, between being and doing.

Note: The sounds of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras are generally melodic. Composed before a widespread availability of written texts, they originated in an oral tradition. Their inner rhythms and euphony made them easier to memorize and pass on. This sūtra has an especially onomatopoetic sound–with many long vowels, stressed syllables, and aspirated consonants. It has a lot of breath in it.

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“By prāṇāyāma Patañjali probably means something much simpler than the complex, occasionally strenuous patterns of later tantric practices. In light of these, prāṇāyāma (literally, ‘breath energy’ plus ‘discipline, restraint’) is generally regarded today as a set of practices in which one consciously directs the breath and its energies in deliberate patterns. Patañjali’s emphasis, however, is different: he describes instead the process by which sustained observation of the breath without deliberation brings about natural and spontaneous changes in its qualities, enabling the deepest levels of focus and bodymind stilling, or nirodha.” —Chip Hartranft, The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali, p. 40

“Breathing itself gets longer with regular, continuous practice over a long period. Subtlety intervenes on two levels. On the external level, the absence of disturbance is reflected in fluid, fine, regular respiration. On the internal level, a greater perceptual acuity appears, and one develops a sort of intimacy with oneself.” — Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga, commentary on II.50

“Philosophically speaking, inhalation is the movement of the self to come into contact with the periphery: the core of being moves with the breath and touches the inner layer of the skin–the extreme frontier of the body. This is the outward, or evolutory process of the soul. Exhalation is the return journey: it is the involutory process, where the body, the cells and the intelligence move inwards to reach their source, the atma, or the core of the being….In kumbhaka, the self becomes one with the body and the body becomes one with the self.” –B.K.S. Iyengar, Tree of Yoga, p. 57

Questions
• What is your experience of inhalation, exhalation, the pause between the two? What has helped you lengthen or expand your breath? What has helped you bring greater calm to your breathing?
• What has been your experience with exercising control over the breath vs. letting go of control and volition? What is the interplay between effort and non-effort when bringing awareness to your breath?
• What places in the body do you feel the breath? What different qualities do you notice in your breath?
• How does your breath affect your perceptions?