Breath Control (Prāṇāyāma)
Regulate the breath and you regulate the mind — the yoga's most direct lever on consciousness.
Prāṇāyāma is the disciplined control of the breath. Because breath and mind are held to move together, regulating the one is a direct way to still the other: by slowing, lengthening, and suspending the breath, the yogin quiets the mental fluctuations and gathers the vital energy. It is the fourth of Patañjali's eight limbs and, in haṭha-yoga, an elaborate practical art with many specific techniques. Mishandled, the texts warn, it harms; rightly done, it prepares the mind for deep meditation.
How it traveled
- Bhagavad-gītāKuru-Pañcāla region · -150explains
- Haṭhayoga-pradīpikāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1450explains
- Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitāKāśī (Varanasi) · 1700explains
Key passages(10)
Yet some offer as sacrifice, the outgoing into the in-coming breath, and the in-coming into the out-going, stopping the courses of the in-coming and out-going breaths, constantly practising the regula
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Controlling all the senses, confining the mind in the heart, drawing the Prâna into the head, occupied in the practice of concentration, uttering the one-syllabled "Om"—the Brahman, and meditating on
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Compressing his breathings let him, who has subdued all motions, breathe forth through the nose with gentle breath . Let the wise man without fail restrain his mind, that chariot yoked with vicious ho
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