Primary Essays for Breath Awareness Meditation
Techniques & Tradition
Listening to the Natural Wisdom of the Breath
What can you feel but not hold? Sail with but not ship? What is a current, a flow of energy, that we can learn to ride, but only momentarily guide? To hear it speak we must stop speaking, to feel it move we must stop moving. What is this subtle energy within us that both nourishes and propels us, at both the cellular and subtle levels? By now you likely know that we are talking about the breath, but in reality the breath is a true riddle, something our mind can’t quite wrap itself around— like trying to see the wind, it’s something we can only ‘sense’, yet is somehow also beyond our senses.
Milarepa, the renowned Tibetan Yogi, is celebrated not only for his tumultuous life journey but also for his prolific compositions of poems and songs. He is often pictured with a hand behind his ear, listening…Some say he heard poems and songs in the air, others say he is listening to his Guru’s teachings, regardless of the interpretation, the underlying message remains consistent: to attune ourselves to higher wisdom, we must quiet our mind and senses. Breath meditation serves as a potent practice in this endeavor, urging us to maintain stillness while remaining alert, to approach our practice with gentleness, and to merge with the pulsating flow of Spanda that both encompasses us and emanates from within.
For all of these enigmatic reasons, the breath is considered an advanced tool on the path of meditation, although of course, it is also one of the most intuitive and natural tools of our practice. In the following essays we will explore the breath from many different perspectives, beginning at the most physical and working our way towards the most sutble. Our aim is to lead ourselves, our practice, and future students on a journey of understanding, beginning with the tangible and gradually unveiling the profound, ultimately transcending mere comprehension and revealing its intimate connection to our very essence.
Part One: The Physical Breath
Part One introduces the breath through physical activities, offering students a powerful yet practical approach to getting in touch with this all pervasive pulse of everyday life.
“The Sound of Silence: A Quiet Path towards Breath Awareness” explores the profound link between quieting the mind and observing silence, offering practical guidance for incorporating silence into daily life for inner peace and self-discovery.
“An Inconvenient Truth: The Nose Knows a Brighter Future” delves into the significance of breathing through the nose, emphasizing its physiological, spiritual, and energetic benefits, while urging a shift away from the prevalent habit of mouth breathing for holistic well-being and inner balance.
“Walking Your Worries Away: The Physiology of Walking and Breathing For a Quiet Mind” proposes a novel approach to breath observation by advocating for mindful walking as a means to enhance the connection between body and breath, leveraging the symbiotic relationship between walking mechanics and breathing patterns to foster a deeper, more natural breath experience.
“Savoring Stillness: Cultivating an Appetite for the Natural Breath” underscores the importance of cultivating an appetite for the breath during meditation by embracing stillness as a transformative practice, drawing upon ancient yogic teachings to guide practitioners towards effortless effort and buoyancy in their seated posture, ultimately allowing the natural flow of breath to be savored and integrated into the meditative experience.
The Sound of Silence:
A Quiet Path towards Breath Awareness
One of Swami Muktananda’s most famous teaching images is of him holding his finger to his lips, encouraging the aspirant to not only quiet their tongue, but more importantly, their mind. Closing our mouth quiets our mind. It’s hard to believe that it could be that simple, but according to the teachers of this lineage, there is a powerful link between the two. As ShambhavAnanda teaches:
“The keys to your problem are regular meditation and not allowing yourself to get too distracted. When you find yourself obsessing about someone or something, you have to stop it. Shut your mouth. If you can shut your mouth you have taken the first step towards shutting your mind down. You may wonder, “If I am mindless who am I?” You become a functional human being, a real person. That’s who you are” (SP, 83).
Quiet mouth, quiet mind — a simple yet profound teaching for all of us to explore in our own ways. In the ancient texts which describe the attributes of the Goddess Kali, we see a similar teaching, which author David Frawley comments on: “Her opponent is the ego. She pulls out the tongue of the ego, which is the attachment to gossip, opinions, and all negative speech patterns that are the essence of the small-self focused mind.” No tongue, no ego — it might be that simple.
Observing silence is a worthy endeavor for anyone looking to deepen their experience of the breath and their practice in general. Mataji Ma Yoga Shakti was first female Mahamandaleshwar in the history of the 2,000+ year Saraswati order of Swamis. She also initiated Sri Shambhavananda into the order in 2006, making him the first non-Indian to enter the order. In here book, A Spiritual Message, she talks about the benefits of silence:
“Begin your search for peace in the following manner… Observe Silence! The easiest of all spiritual practices is SILENCE. Embrace Silence! …If you observe silence you will be able to listen to the voice of your soul. You will understand the language of your soul. You will grasp the message which your soul wants to convey.”
The silence of the mouth, and the mind, is what allows us to hear our soul. Much the same can be said of the breath, as without closing our mouth, we can’t begin to really interact with the breath at its subtlest level. So you could say ‘Close the mouth, quiet the mind. Hear the breath, hear the soul.’ It’s a physical gesture that could open up a metaphysical doorway for you. Make a commitment to observe silence at some point this week, and see what you can learn from it.
Some practical ways to incorporate silence into your daily life:
Active Listening: As Mataji described it earlier, we must learn to ‘embrace silence’, and one simple way to do that is with active listening, where you full focus on and engage with whoever is speaking with you. Active listening requires surrender, as we let go of interrupting and judging. As Mataji said, this kind of silence helps you actually hear what is being conveyed, instead of just waiting to speak.
Mantra Before You Respond: The normal wait time when answering a question is 2-3 seconds, which isn’t really very long. Try waiting just a couple of seconds longer, 3-5, before answering a question. You can even do a mantra before answering as a way of making space for silence. This brief pause doesn’t mean you are bringing awkward energy to the situation, it will just slow the pace a little bit.
Transition slowly: Your daily meditation practice will no doubt be a time to adjust to silence, but too often we jump right into our life right after the bell rings. Try to take advantage of this transition time, being minimalistic with your verbal responses for that time period. None of us want to be annoying to our friends and family of course, but you’d be surprised how much less we can speak when we are open to the possibility of a little more silence.
Notice Silence in Activities: Journaling and drawing are inherently silent activities that allow us to be with silence in an active way for longer than average periods of time. Allow yourself to engage in these activities a little more often in the coming week or two as a way of raising your silence tolerance.
Build A Silent Pause into your day: Look at your schedule and envision a few opportunities that you might have each day to take part in being silent. Maybe its during your commute in place of a podcast or music— or simply a few minutes of silence before pressing play or after a song finishes. Look for openings and you will find them. They don’t have to be all or nothing, just little bits here and there go a long way.
Free Write
After taking time to practice silence in a way that works for your life and practice, reflect on your experience. What is the difference between ‘not talking’ and ‘observing silence’? Did this simple practice have any subtle effects for you?
An Inconvenient Truth:
The Nose Knows a Brighter Future
Nose breathing is a lot like saving the environment— science shows us that it must be done, and we all love bees, but actually slowing down and shifting the way we live our lives takes more than science, it takes surrender. Breathing through your nose is more than just a different way of breathing, it is a different way of living and being, and for that reason breathing through our nose offers us a chance to reconnect with this vital aspect of our vitality, as well as our own inner balance.
Unfortunately, unconsciousness doesn’t lead to nose breathing, it leads to mouth breathing. When we lose awareness of our posture, at our computers or phones for example, our heads begin to crane forward and the nasal passageways become constricted. Try it, pull your head back and lengthen up and feel how much air can flow through your nose. Then let your head slowly crane forward and notice how much more challenging this becomes. Eventually your mouth will have to open to make up for the lack of air being delivered during forward head posture, which leads to a whole list of long term issues as mouth breathing not only strains our neck and shoulders, but causes us to breathe more rapidly, and shallower, receiving less oxygen with more effort. In fact, studies have shown that we receive 20% less oxygen overall when breathing through our mouths— that’s a lot! Imagine if you had to live on 20% less food a day, or water— you’d feel it. Well, the breath is even more foundational than that. As the saying goes, “weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without breath”.
Nose breathing, on the other hand, slows down the breath keeping our O2/CO2 balance in check which allows for better oxygen assimilation. This slower breath flow also activates the diaphragm, pulling our air to the lower lobes of the lunges, where more blood awaits to be oxygenated due to gravity. The nose is also a filter and humidifier of the breath, allowing for better oxygen assimilation. Native American populations cited nose breathing as their greatest ally in defense of disease, often gently holding their sleeping infants mouths shut with their fingertips to create these beneficial life long patterns. On an even simpler level, we’ve had conclusive evidence for over a hundred years that breathing through our mouth causes more cavities than a poor diet or poor hygiene. In fact, a simple google search for nose breathing benefits will show you that many of the top articles are listed by Dentists, recommending nose breathing to their patients for a healthy mouth.
When you look below the surface, you can see even more clearly that the nose was meant for breathing— Just look at the size of the nasal cavity compared to the oral cavity. As breathing expert Patrick McKeown, author of “breathing for Yoga”, says, “There’s nothing in the mouth that's devoted to breathing— your teeth, your tongue, your hard palate, your soft palate, your throat, none of those things do anything for breathing. So, if nature designed the mouth for breathing, something in the mouth would be there for the breath. It's not. That says it all.”
Nose breathing is also a spiritual conduit for Higher Consciousness to enter and flow in many spiritual paths— even the Bible attests to the merit of nose breathing, as it is said that God breathed life into our nostrils. In the subtle body of Yoga, our breath of life if being breathed into us all day every day through our Ida and Pingala, 2 of our 3 largest energetic pathways, which end in our nostrils. These channels form a double helix as they spiral around your central Nadhi, the shushumna. They begin in the sacrum, and after making their way up the spine, passing through every major chakra, they end in the nostrils. This means that your nose is the literal gateway to these incredibly powerful energetic channels— number 2 and 3 out of our 72,000 nadhis total. Just to give this scope, imagine a hallway with 72,000 doors, wouldn’t it be good to know which two led you directly to its most sacred space? That sign on that door is Ida and Pingala, your left and right nostril.
Scientific studies dating as far back as 1895 by a German physician named Richard Kayser, and as recently as 2015 at the University of California, San Diego, have shown that the body naturally alternates which nostril we are breathing through during our day in approximately 2 hour cycles when healthy, or much more rapidly when we are sick. The left and right nostrils have also been shown to act like natural heating and cooling system in order to control our body temperature and blood pressure, as well as our moods, emotions and sleep states. When we perform the alternate nostril breath, which was originally described in the Shiva Swarodaya, we gently accelerate this natural balancing process, bringing ourself towards equilibrium and homeostasis, which though not flashy, is the natural gateway to a quiet mind, open heart, and path to an experience of our true Self. For our purposes, though, the simple act of breathing through your nose throughout your day, and while you sleep at night, allows us to naturally stay in balance.
Nose breathing allows our body naturally regulates the ebb and flow between these nostrils in order to keep us in balance as we navigate the ups and downs of our daily life. Together they act like a gas pedal (Pingala) and brake (Ida), both of which are needed to get from point A to Point B. But even more importantly, this natural ebb and flow is known in the yogic tradition as Spanda, the pulsation or dance of Shiva and Shakti— a dynamism that literally creates the manifest universe. Breathing through our nose is a way of allowing this natural pulsation to be a part of your everyday life and experience, bringing ourself towards equilibrium and homeostasis, which though not flashy, is the natural gateway to a quiet mind, open heart, and path to an experience of our true Self.
But even though science, religion and ancient cultures have shown that nose breathing is critical for our personal health, the inconvenient truth is that we are addicted to mouth breathing. Sustainability is more than a decision, its a lifestyle. In my personal experience, the path to breathing through the nose wasn’t just a matter of will, it was a matter of surrender on a lot of different levels as you navigate the important tasks of your day. Breathing through the nose requires that we prioritize ‘inner sustainability’ over our mind’s persistent “finish line” approach. The mind will quickly discourage you from breathing through your nose— that’s why it can be helpful to have so much science pointing you towards this new possibility.
You can think of nose breathing as mantra for your breath. When we funnel the energy of our mind through a mantra, we slow down and begin to regulate that energy, just like when we funnel the energy of our breath through our nostrils. Mantra literally means mind protector, which is very much like the filtering, humidyfying, oxygenating, immune boosting, and abdominal pressurizing qualities that come from breathing through the nose. And finally, similar to mantra, just saying it isn’t enough, you’ve got to feel it, and let it affect you— nose breathing isn’t just another way of breathing, its another way of being. An inconvenient truth for your mind, but a liberating new reality for your heart.
Free Write
On a physical level, what is your experience of breathing through the nose? Is it challenging? When you try it during your day, how does it affect your mind and focus? How does it affect your experience of the breath itself?
Walking Your Worries Away
The Physiology of Walking and Breathing For a Quiet Mind
In the realm of breath meditation, the instruction to watch our breath reigns supreme, but let's be real – it's no walk in the park. Those who've delved deep into their practice can attest: the mind has a knack for meddling. Instead of peacefully observing, we end up playing tug-of-war with our breath. So, here's a game-changer: step outside and stride while feeling your breath. Yes, you heard me right. The secret to mastering breath observation might just be found in the simple act of taking a stroll.
This is because your body and breath are literally hard wired together. On a neurological level, numerous studies have shown that walking improves self-perception and self-esteem, mood and sleep quality, as well as reducing stress, anxiety and fatigue — all of which can help you calm your mind and find your breath. On a physical level, your body also uses the power of walking to support the mechanical inflating and deflating of the lungs. This is because our primary walking muscles are also primary breathing muscles. Evolutionarily speaking, we walked a lot, and when you walk a lot you need to breathe a lot too. Two prime examples of this are the psoas muscle and the intercostal muscles. Traditionally the psoas is considered your primary walking muscle, located deep within the abdomen. It originates at the lumbar spine and interweaves with the iliac muscles inside the pelvis to create a strong foundation from which to pull up on the lesser trochanter, the inner upper aspect of our femur bone. But this key walking muscle is also a key breathing muscle. When the psoas is tight or constricted, it can create tension and restrict movement in the diaphragm, which may lead to shallow breathing patterns or difficulty fully expanding the lungs. Conversely, releasing tension in the psoas through stretching or massage can help improve breathing mechanics, allowing for deeper and more efficient breaths. Additionally, since the psoas is interconnected with the nervous system, releasing tension in this muscle can also promote relaxation and reduce stress, further enhancing the breath-body connection.
Consider also the intercostal muscles, nestled between each of our ribs. Traditionally, they're viewed as key players in respiration, aiding in the expansion and contraction of the ribcage to support our breath. However, research into the dynamic interplay of muscles during walking reveals a fascinating dimension: the intercostals play a crucial role in energy management during this activity. With each step, as you gently twist your torso, these muscles act akin to coiled springs, storing energy during the twist and releasing it as kinetic energy when you untwist to stride with the opposite leg. This process occurs naturally, subtly, as long as you allow your body to move with the flow of your walk. Yet, when we neglect walking, these muscles can stiffen, losing their ability to move freely and consequently impairing both breathing and walking. Thus, we observe a symbiotic relationship between breathing and walking—they not only depend on each other but also actively support each other's functioning.
So one powerful practice that can help you get in touch with your breath is the act of smooth and steady walking, while watching your breath. To begin this process, pick a destination that will allow you at least five solid minutes of steady walking without too much incline, decline, stopping or starting. From there, find a comfortable and natural pace. This is not intended to be a ‘slow meditative walk,’ but must be a natural experience of walking— this is pretty important. Let your arms swing a little, let your torso gently rotate, feel the feet land in front of you and traction their way behind you before being effortlessly flung forward — you know, let yourself walk! At first your walk might be a little dramatic, but eventually you’ll get a natural and sustainable pace and glide going, and that’s when you can start to find your natural breath. Try not to force yourself to breathe at a certain count, or with your foot steps, or even with a mantra — treat your breath as you would in a breath meditation. Jjust let yourself breathe as naturally as can while you continue to walk naturally. It will take time for the mind to settle down and let the breath flow with your footsteps, which is why you want to do this for at least 5 minutes.
What you will discover is that your mind doesn’t interfere with your breathing as much because you have your footsteps to focus on. The act of walking also creates a rhythmic experience that naturally calms the thought waves. Eventually this allows you to directly experience your breath in a natural and sustained way. You can feel the experience of your inhale as light and expansive, and your exhale as centering and surrendering. You might find that you can focus on your breath for 20 minutes effortlessly while walking, whereas 5 minutes on your cushion might still be a challenge. You might also find that sitting after this practice helps you find your natural breath flow easier than without it. Walking can become a great preparation for your practice, yet another tool that can help you relate to this invisible friend, our breath.
Free Write
How did it go? Did you find the act of watching your breath easier while walking? How long did it take you? Did it help you relate to your breath while sitting?
Savoring Stillness:
Cultivating an Appetite for the Natural Breath
When you have an appetite for food you naturally appreciate all the subtleties and flavors, and the food seems to just infuse into your very being. On the other hand, without an appetite, you may feel disconnected from the experience, or that act of eating itself is a chore. This is also many people’s experience of the breath during meditation — we are breathing without an appetite for it, either pushing and pulling it with doership, or our minds wander while the breath chooses by us. We need to generate an appetite for the breath so that we can begin to experience a whole new way of interacting with it. But how do we do that? Do we run around in a circle until we are ‘out of breath’ and then meditate on our breath? Although that seems like a joke, there is a little bit of truth to it that we will touch on later. For now there is an even better way of generating an appetite for the natural breath that you can do from the comfort of your meditation seat — practice stillness. Stillness is the greatest resource for generating an appetite for natural breathing, and is a tactile practice that anyone can do no matter how busy the mind may seem.
The trick to stillness is finding the right balance of effort and effort-less. We can’t maintain stillness from the mental or physical will — that only creates tension in the body and mind. However, we must exert some degree of effort to maintain true stillness; unfortunately it’s not as easy as laying down on your mattress! The effortless effort of stillness can be understood as buoyancy — a buoy floats on the surface of the water effortlessly, but try to push it down below the surface and you will soon feel how much silent effort resides just below it’s surface. Our body is meant to sit up straight without much effort; it’s how we are both wired and structured. All we have to do is learn to participate with it harmoniously. That’s where buoyancy comes in.
One of my favorite ways to access buoyancy in my seat is by using the teachings of the Vijnana Bhairava, a 4,000-year-old Yogic text on the practice of meditation. Dharana 57 teaches, “When on a bed or a seat, let yourself become weightless, beyond mind.” And I have always found Dharana 58 to help accomplish this goal: “In a moving vehicle, by rhythmically swaying, experience. Or in a still vehicle, by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles.”
To play with this we can imagine ourselves like a buoy in the ocean, swaying rhythmically in slightly unexpected directions, in ‘slowing invisible circles’ as the text writes. Now imagine the currents of the ocean becoming increasingly still, until you also become still, ‘weightless’ as the text teaches, 'beyond mind’. When you can access this level of stillness through effortless effort, you will feel a stirring inside, an appetite beginning to form. If you maintain this level of stillness, you will feel the only thing moving in you is the breath, and that subtle movement is like a nectar you will begin to savor. If and when you move, you will find the appetite starts to diminish, and the moment you become still again the agni (digestive fire) within your psychic system perks back up. Eventually this appetite for breath, derived from organic stillness, will be a powerful means by which you can consciously access the otherwise unaccessible pranic power of the breath. What is perhaps the most important by-product of this method, though, is that it lets you use effort without getting in the way of the process. The breath begins to flow naturally for once, instead of being pushed and pulled by the will, or overlooked by a distracted mind.
Take time for stillness at the beginning of your breathing meditation practice. It might be the one ingredient you overlooked, and the one that makes the meal divine.
Free Write
Experiment with the balance of effortless effort in your meditation seat— how do you achieve it? Notice the relationship real stillness has with your ability to let your breath flow naturally.
Part Two: The Subtle Breath
Part Two of the breath introduces us to the more subtle aspects of breath awareness, the focus and effort required to maintain awareness, as well as the subtle touch needed to surrender our will and feel its flow. We find that these teachings are both more advanced, and yet more natural, as they guide us towards the Shambhavi State.
"Beyond the Threshold: Embracing the Subtle Challenges of Breath Meditation" explores the challenge of maintaining awareness in meditation, likening it to navigating the threshold between wakefulness and sleep, and offers practical techniques such as the Shambhavi Mudra to aid in transitioning to subtler states of awareness while maintaining alertness.
“Flying Your Mantra on the Breath: The Practice of Ham Sah and So Ham" explores the profound practice of linking a mantra to the breath, offering insight into the significance of breath-based mantras like "Ham Sah" and "So Ham" in guiding practitioners toward deeper states of awareness, and providing practical techniques for integrating mantra repetition with the natural rhythms of the breath to foster inner transformation and spiritual awakening.
“Gotta Let it Flow if You Want it to Grow: The Natural Rhythms of Breath Meditation” intertwines key teachings from Patanjali, Shambhavananda and foundational teachings of the Yogic Tradition to showcase the subtlest experience of our breath. Patanjali teaches that true pranayama is flowing with the breath effortlessly, not trying to control it; Babaji compares the breath to a vehicle, suggesting a gentle, receptive approach like massaging a muscle; this practice aligns with Yogic concepts of Spanda, leading to a merging of the practitioner with life's pulsation; preparing for this experience involves cultivating breath awareness to merge with the Self.
“Breathing at the Speed of Life: Discovering the Natural Beauty of Breath Meditation” invites us to delve beyond the physical act of breathing, emphasizing the profound connection between breath and awareness, drawing parallels between our daily existence and the subtleties of meditation, ultimately guiding us towards an understanding of the breath as a gateway to inner self-awareness.
Beyond the Threshold
Embracing the Subtle Challenge of Breath Meditation
Sleep and meditation are similar in that they both recharge us from the inside out, but unlike sleep, which we do from day one, learning to go to that same subtle interior space without losing awareness (meditating) is a life long journey. For that reason, as we begin to access this expansive and nourishing space within us, it is not uncommon to feel sleepy, or fall asleep. This is particularly important when we start to work with our breath, especially if we do so with our eyes closed, as the breath is a silent tool that often leads to a drowsy feeling. As Sri Shambhavananda teacehs, “Often when students close their eyes they either go to sleep, they trip out on some kind of daydream, or they fall into a space in between waking and sleeping and get caught up in dreams and movies. If you can pull back and observe them,
you will learn a great deal about where your head is” (Spiritual Practice, 18). As your practice grows, you will naturally gain the inner capacity to pass through this threshold without losing awareness, and then at another stage in your sadhana, you may feel this threshold strongly again. It is a part of the process for all stages of meditation.
In his commentary on Shiva Sutra 2.10, Lakshmanjoo writes,
“This losing awareness is the great crisis in the yogīc world. All yogīs generally experience this state of losing awareness. And when they do, they go to the dreaming state because that state is subtler than the waking state…When, through meditating in continuity, your thought becomes ever more subtle, you will feel that you are about to go to sleep. Sleep comes for those who can not maintain awareness. Those who can maintain awareness do not fall asleep. They enter the gap, the junction of these two states of waking and dreaming. That junction is turya, the real state of being.”
As we see in the sutra, the feeling of sleepiness, of losing awareness, is something yogis have always worked with in their practice. When we feel it, we can see this sleepiness as a doorway, a threshold — maintain your awareness and pass through it to a higher state of awareness. Lose your awareness, though, and your head will bob as you fall into a dream. And we can all practice patience with ourselves, because it might take a dozen passes through this threshold before we make it through consciously once.
The experience of approaching and passing through this very real threshold of the breath is not unlike the pressure you might experience when ascending in altitude in a plane, or diving down in the water. In the physical world, these thresholds show us how all-pervasive the experience can be; it’s a sleepiness that comes at you from all angles. In the world of meditation, you will learn to recognize this pressure as an indication that you are encountering a warehouse of energy, an expansiveness that your current level of awareness simply can’t contain. Don’t try to contain it, simply focus on maintaining your awareness, and let yourself approach and eventually pass through this threshold. It’s not a matter of effort — it’s a matter of surrender (which of course is a unique kind of effort, but not the kind we normally define it as).
One invisible key to passing through this threshold is not based on feats of strength or magic, just good old-fashioned effort over time. As Sri Shambhavanadna teaches, “It is easy to go to sleep during meditation. There is a saying that familiarity breeds contempt. The lethargic nature of complacency decends upon us. You can defeat that complacency by putting a good
structure in place. Just as you have to go to work or to school or to pay the rent, you need to establish a regular practice schedule” ( SP, 30). I myself experienced this in my work with the Guru Gita. There was a few months when I couldn’t stay awake during the last half of the practice, no matter what I tried, but I stoped judging myself and kept doing my best, and the simple equation of effort over time prevailed.
Another method for helping us ‘cross the threshold’ into our subtle breath is the practice of meditating with one’s eyes open — in Sanskrit called the Shambhavi Mudra. This enables us to stay more alert while accessing the subtler realms of awareness. ShambhavAnanda teaches:
“The Shambhavi Mudra is learning how to see inside with your eyes open. My name is Shambhavananda. It means to be immersed completely in your Inner Self while all five senses are working. You can’t close your eyes to the world and to the things that are of it. It is easy to close your eyes and daydream; it is more difficult to be present right here and now…. It is easy to lose focus with your eyes closed—at least until you have established a really solid practice…The Shambhavi Mudra does not involve staring, it is recommended to use a relaxed and soft gaze. Even if you close your eyes, the rest of your five senses are working. You have to learn how to discover your Inner Self without being completely manipulated by all the input that you are getting from the five senses, much of which is wrong” (SP, 53).
As ShambhavAnanda teaches, it may seem that having the eyes open is more distracting, because there is more stimulation to your mind, but having the eyes closed and losing yourself in thoughts is even more distracting than that in the long run. In the beginning, most students prefer to meditate with their eyes closed for a variety of reasons, even if just for the physical comfort, but as a student becomes more serious in their practice they will soon be able to recognize the benefits of open-eyed meditation. Early in our practice, but really at many stages of our work, we are caught in the distractions of our mind so thoroughly that we don’t even know we’re not doing our practice. Eventually one learns to recognize this and can make an informed choice to begin an open-eyed practice, but until the student is able to recognize the state of their own mind, they may not recognize the benefits of the Shambhavi Mudra. That’s ok, it will be there for them when they’re ready. In the mean time, it’s good to know that the Shambhavi Mudra is endorsed by three generations of realized teachers in the ShambhavAnanda Tradition: Root Guru Bhagavan Nityananda practiced it constantly, Swami Rudrananda taught it exclusively, and Shambhavananda not only practices it but is named after it. So take your time, but be sure to open the door to this valuable asset on your path to subtle breath awareness.
The Shambhavi Mudra is different than a drishti we may hold in a yoga class to aid our balance, which is more like staring at a single point. This open-eyed focus is on a general area of focus, with a very soft drishti. The accompanying video helps to illustrate the subtleties of this mudra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6t_29V_b4U
Free Write
Have you experienced the threshold of sleepiness when meditating on your breath? How have you, and do you, work with it consciously?
What is your experience of Open-Eyed meditation? How does it benefit your practice?
Flying Your Mantra on the Breath:
Working Skillfully with the Practice of Ham Sah and So Ham
The breath is like the wind, invisible to the eye. A breath based mantra is like a kite, allowing you to feel the movement of breath and focus your awareness with a light, yet persistent touch. A kite of mantra gives you a focal point, helping to harness the mind and keep it steady amidst the constant movement of the breath and mind. The kite of mantra helps you maintain a light touch, as you feel you are playing within the wind, not forcing your fun against it.
The subtle mantra used in conjunction with the breath by the ShambhavAnanda Lineage is “Ham Sah,” which means ‘I am That.’ The mantra ‘Ham’ is repeated silently with each inhale, and ‘Sah’ is repeated silently with each exhale. Like a kite, we must feel the breath first and foremost, and then allow our mantra to sail on that experience. For this reason a breath based mantra is actually a very advanced tool, although it is also a very intuitive one.
The translation of the mantra Ham Sah is itself a teaching, as Swami Muktananda tells us in his text “I Am That”: “The syllable ham…is the seed mantra of the Self...This aham, this I, has two forms. One is the ordinary I-consciousness, the ego sense, which identifies itself with the body and senses, which considers itself to be man or woman, American or Spanish or Indian, black or white. The other I is the true aham, the pure I-consciousness, and this I is God. The ordinary I is consciousness in bondage. The pure I is consciousness in the state of liberation. As you repeat hamsa with the understanding of the perfect aham, this realization dawns.” (Citation Note: There are no page numbers in his book).
As Swami Muktananda teaches here, the meaning of the mantra dawns in us as we practice the mantra. We begin from a physical experience of our breath and ourselves, and as we persist with our practice a new more subtle experience is allowed to dawn within us. The actual practice of the mantra itself yields the experience of its meaning, and this points to the subtle practice of Ham Sah as well. Because we find that even repeating the mantra with the breath itself takes a certain quality of effort—as Swami Muktananda teaches in that same text: “This is what we also need to understand. Hamsa is not a mantra that you merely repeat. What you have to do is become established in the awareness of the mantra going on inside you, in the goal of the mantra, in the pulsation which exists in the space where the syllables arise and subside…”
The subtle teaching here is to go beyond the assumption that we are repeating the mantra, and instead try to feel the mantra of Ham Sah repeating itself through us as we breathe. Yes, we start by repeating the mantra clearly in our mind/heart as we breathe, but as our mind settles down, we want to try to let the breath, and the mantra, happen naturally. In our metaphor of flying a kite, we may start flying the kite by running with the kite to get it up into the air, but as the wind starts to take it, we surrender that running effort and put our energy into the effort of feeling and working with the breath/wind. We go from repeating the mantra to feeling the mantra repeating itself. The fun of flying a kite is the feeling of the wind moving through you, similar is the joy of a breath based mantra.
One practical method to help you do this is to explore the qualities of sensation associated with your breath, allowing you to look deeper into the experience of your inhale and exhale, and to associate those qualities with the mantra. For example, the inhale is more than just a breath inwards, it’s physically cooler and can be felt in the nostrils and throat, it’s also a physical and subtle experience of expansion and light. When we feel these qualities as we inhale, it is easier to repeat the mantra Ham from a space of felt-awareness, instead of just rote memorization. The exhale is more than just a breath out, its a full body release of stress and tension, and naturally draws our awareness to the navel as our body contracts to dispel the CO2. It is also a deep experience of letting go, or surrender— all of these qualities can be joined to the mantra “Sah” to help you ‘become established in the awareness of the mantra going on inside of you’ as Swami Muktananda taught. In this way we see that using a mantra like Ham Sah as we breathe is an incredible opportunity to feel the subtlest level of our mantra practice, and the very pulsation of life itself.
It should be noted that you can also repeat this mantra as “So Ham, ”which translates to ‘That I Am.” In this version of the mantra, we begin by repeating the mantra “So” with our exhale, and then repeat “Ham” with our inhale. Swami Muktananda taught that both of the mantras (Ham-Sah and So-Ham) are equals, and that a practitioner can use the one that best suits them.
The exhale-based mantra, So Ham, can be helpful because it allows you to bring your initial focus to the exhale, which has been shown scientifically to be the most overlooked, and yet most important, aspect of our breath. Studies have shown that longer exhales allow for a better balance of the CO2 and O2 levels in our lungs and blood, allowing for more oxygen absorption overall. In fact, the cue to ‘take a deep breath’ is usually counter-productive as there is a general tendency to over-breathe in our culture, as shown in numerous studies. Without a proper exhale, you can inhale all you want, but your body can’t assimilate the oxygen. And if the inhale gets too over-powering, you actually invite a whole host of problems associated with over-breathing, also known as hyperventilation. Patanjali also wrote that between the two, the exhale is more important because “when you clear the pipe, the water must flow,” meaning that a well-performed exhale naturally invites a beneficial inhale. Try it for yourself and see. For those reasons you might enjoy the exhale focus that the So-Ham mantra inspires, but of course all of those benefits are possible with either mantra as long as you take time to allow the exhale to end in a natural way.
In the realm of breath meditation, the journey with the breath is akin to flying a kite in the invisible currents of the wind. Just as a kite requires a delicate balance of effort and surrender, so does our practice of breath observation, especially when guided by a mantra. The mantra "Ham Sah," meaning 'I am That,' acts as the tether connecting us to the subtle currents of our breath and consciousness. As we repeat this mantra with each inhale and exhale, we embark on a journey of self-discovery, guided by the teachings of Swami Muktananda and the wisdom of the ShambhavAnanda Lineage. Through the playful dance of breath and mantra, we come to realize that the true essence of the practice lies not in mere repetition, but in the deepening awareness of the mantra pulsating within us. Just as we surrender to the wind's embrace while flying a kite, so too do we surrender to the rhythm of our breath and the subtle vibrations of the mantra. So whether we choose "Ham Sah" or "So Ham," let us embark on this whimsical adventure of breath and mantra, allowing ourselves to be carried away by the gentle breeze of self-discovery and inner peace.
Free Write
What is your experience of the Ham Sah Mantra? How do connect with a deeper experience of the mantra, to ‘become established in the awareness of the mantra going on inside of you’ as Swami Muktananda taught?
When was the last time you flew a kite?
Have you tried the So-Ham method? Which do you prefer and why?
Gotta Let it Flow if You Want it to Grow
The Natural Rhythms of Breath Meditation
A profound truth lies deep in the teachings of the Yogic Tradition— that the highest practices resemble the most natural experiences. In our work with the breath, we see this to be true, as the most advanced form of breath work are not elaborate pranayama practices, long breath holds, etc, but is simply the ability to consciously support a natural breath flow. Ultimately we see that the highest purpose of pranayama lies not in exerting control over the breath but in allowing us to gracefully flow with its natural rhythm.
Patanjali, in his wisdom, offers a profound insight into the essence of pranayama—the art of breath control. He suggests that beyond the various techniques of manipulating the breath lies a subtler approach, one that transcends the boundaries of the physical body. This ultimate pranayama, he implies, is simply the ability to flow with our breath effortlessly. However, as we often find through experience, simplicity does not equate to ease.
“Besides these [aforementioned] methods of altering the breath [pausing the breath, focusing on different parts of the body, changing the volume of the breath, and so on] there is another, more subtle approach to pranayama which transcends the concept of the breath existing merely inside or outside of the body” (2.51)
Finding this profound connection with the breath demands that we gradually reduce our effort while increasing our awareness—a delicate balance akin to catching a soap bubble. Sri Shambhavananda eloquently describes this practice, urging us to perceive the breath as a gentle vehicle rather than a forceful tool. Like riding a wave or massaging a tense muscle, working with the breath requires both effort and receptivity. It's about moving with feeling, allowing the breath to guide us rather than imposing our will upon it.
“Think of the breath as a vehicle rather than a jackhammer. Often students use the breath too strongly. You should attach your attention to your breath in a way similar to the way you attach your attention to a mantra. If you are sitting and beginning to still your mind, and you are also consciously using the breath, you will be totally with the experience of the breath. You will not be using the breath to cut the rock open. Instead, the breath is a vehicle that you are riding on, and you are consciously feeling it move through the chakras, or at least to experience where they are. For example, when you take a breath in, you can feel the heart chakra. You do not try to tear and rip it open with willfulness. The breath is like a massage, and as you exhale you surrender all the negativity that gets kicked up. When students are able to be open and simple with their breath, they realize that watching the breath is not the same as trying to control it. The pranayama within the breath is simply flowing with the breath.” (SP, 13)
Babaji's teachings encourage us to shift our perspective on breathing—from "taking" a breath to "receiving" it—a subtle yet transformative shift in attitude. This merging with the flow of breath represents the pinnacle of conscious breathing, where we allow the breath to breathe us. Swami Muktananda further elucidates this concept, emphasizing the seamless union of the mantra, the practitioner, and the goal—the Self.
“In the [natural breath meditation] practice of ‘ham sah,’ the mantra takes place on its own, and the goal of the mantra is the Self. It is That which repeats it, it is That which is its goal, and it is That which is attained by repeating it. When the mantra, the repeater of the mantra, and the goal of the mantra become one and the same for you, you attain the fruit of the mantra.”
Ultimately, our journey with the breath leads us to the pulsation of energy itself, transcending the tools and techniques of practice. The Yogic concept of Spanda illuminates this dynamic force underlying all of existence—a pulsating, oscillating dance of consciousness. When we merge with our breath, we merge with this dynamic essence of life, transcending the boundaries of self and object. As Christoper Wallace describes it in Chapter 12 of his commentary on the Pratyabhijnahridayam, “Awareness is a pulsating, oscillating, vibrating, dynamic force (Spanda) that accomplishes everything and transforms itself into all the objects of experience.” Spanda pulses through us just like our breath, but it operates at the subtlest level of reality. When we merge with our breath, we are merging with the dynamic energetic pulsation of life itself. At this level the tools themselves dissolve, as Patanjali describes it in Yoga Sutra 3.2 and 3.3:
“Dhyana, or meditation, is when the focus of dharana becomes a steady, uninterrupted flow of attention. Here, the separation between the practitioner and the object dissolves. Samadhi [merging] is when, in the practice of dhyana, both the practitioner and the object of focus dissolve into the Self. Then there is no such thing as practitioner or object, only absorption in the Self.”
These lofty peaks of experience are not achieved through force but through skillful effort and surrender. Merging with the flow of breath, feeling the pulsation of life force, and experiencing a state of pure being—all these unfold naturally when we wholeheartedly engage in the practice. As Jai Deva Singh suggests in his commentary on Shiva Sutra 1.7, the true purpose of all yoga practices is to prepare us to receive the descent of Grace—the ultimate merger with the Self..
“Then why all this pother about gaining the Turya consciousness? What is the value of the Upayas or Yogic disciplines mentioned in the Siva-Sutras? The answer is that though it remains as the background of all we are and do, we are unaware of it. It is not a feature of our normal consciousness. The Upayas are mentioned so that we may prepare ourselves for its reception” (40).
Like our awareness itself, the breath is happening in the background of all that we do, and we are generally unaware of it. Our work with the breath is a way of turning our attention to this gentle pulsation at the core of our being. At first, when we turn our focus towards it, we can only feel our own effort. This is where we begin. But over time, with the right tools, attitude, and discipline, we are able to slowly release our hold on the breath while retaining our awareness of it. This is the experience of true breath awareness, the experience of flowing with our breath. In this way, ‘watching our breath’ is much more than a cue, it's a state of being.
Free Write
How do you relate to the concept of the breath as beyond the physical inhale and exhale?When you sit to practice, how do you work towards the experience of ‘flowing with the breath’? Do you feel you have had this experience before in your practice?
Breathing at the Speed of Life
Discovering the Natural Beauty of Breath Meditation
Breath awareness meditation is not just about the breath, it’s also about your awareness. Most of our day is spent in a very low level of awareness, identifying with the objects of our awareness more than our awareness itself. In Shiva Sutra 3.3 we are told that those “who are unable to grasp undifferentiated knowledge” which means those who are more focused on differentiated reality, the objects of your awareness, “live in” that world of differentiation. The Tantrasadbhava goes on to describe this experience like being ‘an animal trapped in a fence’, the more it struggles the more ensnared it becomes. When we meditate on our breath we are not just trying to perceive the breath, we are using the breath as a vehicle to perceive our own Inner Self, described in the Sutras as “undifferentiated Knowledge”, knowledge of our non-difference from Shiva.
The breath is a pulsation of reality, a physical manifestation of the pulsation of spanda that creates and dissolves the world around us constantly. It is always in motion and is always subtlety changing it’s shape so to speak. To focus on the breath is to maintain awareness of reality throughout these constant changes, neither “accepting nor rejecting” any particular manifestation, yet whole heartedly staying present with it.
To prepare to watch the breath you can observe things in nature as they live their life. A plant moving in the wind, ants crawling on a rock, your dog sniffing the air, a gecko observing it’s surroundings— you know, those kinds of things. Try not to get pulled into any particular aspect of the scene, or even relate to it from the mind through story telling— just keep watching it like a scene. You find that the fence you were caught in was not outside of you, but your own mind. And only through waiting in this way can it begin to dissolve. Watching the breath is a process of un-grasping it, un-gripping it, in order that we may experience the energetic flow of which it is a part.
This is not an experience that we can ‘will’ into being. As the Sutras tell us, this experience is an ‘emerging’, a ‘spontaneous recognition’ known as Grace that we can only prepare to receive.
In his Exposition to Sutra 1.7, Jai Deva Singh writes, “it is not reality that can be produced by our effort, by any Yogic discipline or technique. If it were to be produced, it would no longer be eternal. It cannot be ordered about. Then why all this pother about gaining the turya consciousness? What is the value of the upayas or Yogic disciplines mentioned in the Siva-Sutras? The answer is that though it remains as the background of all we are and do, we are unaware of it. It is not a feature of our normal consciousness. The upayas are mentioned so that we may prepare ourselves for its reception.”
You could say we don’t practice to achieve, we practice to receive.
Today I was listening to a Martin Luther King speech. He preached about the all too common reality that we don’t always arrive at our destination when we plan to. Most of us gauge our experience of a practice on whether or not we reach our perceived destination, the experience we expect at the end of the session— but this is a mistake that leads to suffering. MLK said that the only thing we can perceive is the content of our hearts, and that we should place our attention there in order to ascertain our progress. Are you on the right path to your destination? There might not be mile markers, or signs to mark the way, but if you check in with your heart you’ll know. Working with the breath can be alot like that— it takes time, it takes effort over time, it’s operating at a different time signature from our minds— all we can do is keep trying to feel it, and hold our focus there, allowing the experience to arrive in us.
I’d like to finish this section with a poem I wrote on the experience of watching the breath, in-joy!
“Arriving”
Observation is a practice that reveals
Subtle beauty that is right in front of you.
Sit and watch something for a minute,
Set a timer if it helps,
and watch how much work it takes
to watch something.
Your eyes want to stare at a point,
Soften your focus a little,
See the object and the space it’s in,
Watch the subtleties of it’s movements,
Like a tree branch lightly bowing in the wind,
Insects moving across it so naturally,
one.
This work prepares you to watch
The pulsation of your breath.
It moves within you
As naturally as bugs across leaves,
one.
Focus and re-focus,
Play with the interaction of
observation and the
inevitable manipulation—
Like a see saw,
Let the weight of the kid
On the other end
move you—
This is the play
Of watching your breath,
Always unfinished
Until
Free Write: What did you observe in your everyday reality that helped you slow down and feel the natural pace of the breath? How would you describe this transition? Would you consider writing a haiku about it? 7 syllable first line, 5 syllable second line, 7 syllable third line… could be fun!