Unlock the power of breath with insights from Swami Tadananda, who joins us from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center of Auckland, to reveal how Pranayama can dramatically calm your mind. This episode promises to transform your meditation practice, as we parse through the mechanics of deep, rhythmic breathing and its profound effects on our mental state. Discover the physiological benefits of full lung inflation, learn about the direct influence of posture on your breath, and get practical tips to avoid drowsiness during meditation. Through our engaging discussion, you'll see how simple adjustments in breathing can lead to increased energy, alertness, and a heightened sense of tranquility.
www.vedanta.nz
Unlock the power of breath with insights from Swami Tadananda, who joins us from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center of Auckland, to reveal how Pranayama can dramatically calm your mind. This episode promises to transform your meditation practice, as we parse through the mechanics of deep, rhythmic breathing and its profound effects on our mental state. Discover the physiological benefits of full lung inflation, learn about the direct influence of posture on your breath, and get practical tips to avoid drowsiness during meditation. Through our engaging discussion, you'll see how simple adjustments in breathing can lead to increased energy, alertness, and a heightened sense of tranquility.
www.vedanta.nz
Namaste, dear friends, my name is Sunil. I'm with Swami Tadananda from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center of Auckland, new Zealand. How are you, sunil? I'm good. Sunil, thank you. How are you? I'm good, I'm good, thanks. The last few episodes we've covered the eight stages of meditation and we haven't covered all of them yet, but we've been in that process. We've covered the moral and ethical foundations. You've explained to us how we should sit by keeping our back, neck and head in a relaxed upper position. Then, in the last episode, you introduced Pranayama, which is about breathing. Shall we continue from there today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's a good idea to discuss about breath, or pranayama, as it is said in the teachings of meditation. So, sunil, we all know and observe that there's a correlation between our breathing and the state of the mind, or the calmness of the mind. And you can let us take an example of somebody who is lying in sleeping. You watch, so physically, that person is in a most relaxed state and you watch their breath. It is very deep and rhythmic. So, while we are trying to control the mind and we know that the mind is related to breath and breath is something we can control so by controlling the breath, making it deep and rhythmic, it has an effect of calming the mind, which is so in the initial stages when we want to do as much as possible physically before we use the actual technique of meditation, using the mantra, to calm that down. So that's why it is recommended that one should breathe in harmoniously, deeply, in a rhythmic manner. So let's explore that. What do you mean by deep breathing? Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:So the breath isn't just a shell out type breath. It's quite deep, yes.
Speaker 2:It's yes.
Speaker 1:It's yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And it's rhythmic as well. So it's two of them have to go ahead and yeah, so like deep breathing.
Speaker 2:So you'll see, the posture we sit in determines how deeper breathing is. If somebody's leaning forward, slashed, slashed, so you can visualize the chest. The lungs are now sort of compressed. Yes, it's not allowed to inflate fully. How to expand the? Yeah, and that's why we say sit upright.
Speaker 2:Yes okay, the posture, yeah, but also you should not be leaning backwards or sleeping type of thing. That's not a good posture for for meditation. Sit upright, not in a stiff way. Then relax to you. Now let's go back to this breathing, so you'll notice and even observe yourself that most people do not breathe very deeply. The lungs inflate partially and X, you know, deflate. So if you visualize the lungs to be like a balloon or bladder, where it's inflating and deflating halfway, then 50% of the air sort of remains as a stagnant residual air inside the. Yes, yes, we used, yeah, well, it's not being reused, also because it's become carbon decks right, okay, so we have not been able to exhale stay in there and what it says?
Speaker 2:carbon dioxide is now sort of accumulating partly in there and the the lungs are not fully infillating. So in biology I've read in when you breathe in deeply then all the air goes and fills all this air sex beautifully. And when that happens then the blood clipler is have got plenty of oxygen to take in. If you remember when we were kids, our teachers would come in Before the class would start. They will say it's class it upright breathing deeply. They know that when we do that there's a lot of energy In the body because a lot of oxygen comes in. It's when your oxygen level begins to go down. Then you become a little drowsy and sleepy and you'll see that you know people in there about to sleep. They bend forward, the heads, roll on the checks chest and before they know they're drift off to sleep. You know. So to get more energy, oxygen has to come in yes, so recharge yourself plenty.
Speaker 2:Therefore, you need to do the yes or deep breathing. That's one external reason for this. So because if you are running short of oxygen, then your body doesn't have that energy and the mind doesn't have that energy to stay awake and alert. So from this we sometimes, it happens, people feel a bit drowsy in their meditation, so they must check their posture right.
Speaker 2:Okay, they may be not sitting properly. Secondly, they should maybe just Stop the concentration part and just get back onto the deep breathing part, just, and you'll find that suddenly the mind becomes alert and sharp. Otherwise, what might happens? And it might happen in some people's case? They drift off into this what is called a layer type of sleep, and time passes 10 minutes and they come out and say that was very nice and relaxing, but actually they had drifted off to sleep Because the mind was not alert what it was doing. But in proper meditation you will have a full alertness of the mind, seeing Everything that's happening in almost like a slow motion. Okay so so the state of mind, a breath in all those things are related to so deep breathing and the rhythmic breathing, all right. So sometimes To strike a good rhythm, we'll talk about the importance of the rhythm of it.
Speaker 2:Okay, as an important Subject matter. Out of that word rhythm, which is the subject of our podcast, the English word rhythm has come, and it's good to understand that deeply. But In meditation breathing is called Pranayama, control of the breath. So here breath doesn't mean the inflation and deflation of the lungs. The lungs don't have any muscles of their own to expand and contract. If you've seen the lungs of any animal or something, it's just a very rubbery thing. It doesn't have any muscles. So how does it expand the diaphragm? When it flattens out, it creates a suction and air is drawn in.
Speaker 1:Right, so the diaphragm.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the action of the diaphragm really creates a vacuum type of thing suction, low pressure, and the air fills in and when that deflates, the diaphragm curls in, then the air is pushed out, type of thing. So Pranayama is really about controlling that energy which controls the movement of the diaphragm.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And the inhalation, or exhalation, actually is the last happens.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? It's coming in an hour, yes, anyway.
Speaker 2:So what does really a spiritual practitioner? What is he trying to do through all these exercises? He's trying to go and get a control on the prana. So what is prana, you may ask? In Vedanta yoga we say prana is that cosmic energy, the most generalized form of energy, from which various forms of energy that we know light, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism and all those things are various manifestations. Just like white light doesn't show any colors, but contains all the colors which can manifest in a spectrum, there is a state of energy called prana, which is the sum total which manifests itself as various forms of energy.
Speaker 1:Is this the source of other energies? It?
Speaker 2:is the ultimate sources, so to say. If all the energy in the world had to be resolved to their cause, ultimate source that would be the prana. And that prana manifests at different levels. So at its pure form it's very high energy, high frequency, might say subtle, causal, but it comes down at some level where the mental activities, the thoughts and ideas and emotions and feelings, they are a manifestation of that same prana in the mind space. And when it comes down even further into the gross physical body, then it begins to express itself as muscular energy, maintaining your body temperature, various functions of the tissues and the organs and the whole organism. So this prana has to be understood in its totality, because we are just mostly aware of the very gross form of it and we think it's just the breath. And if you're just breathing prana, why we think that we are okay, it may come down and all that. But the deeper science is to understand that what is manifested in the physical universe and in the physical body is a very low vibration, low energy aspect of the prana. That same prana vibrates at a slightly higher frequency in the mind space and the energy sort of transmits from the higher to the lower. Okay, and so we are trying to ultimately get a grip on the highest aspect of the prana, and that prana, at that level, pervades the whole universe.
Speaker 2:So I meditate, our yogi, who has been able to do that? He has the power to control things anyway in the universe control other people's minds, control other people's action. That is the ultimate. That's not the goal. That's why he is meditating, but that power comes to him so that's why, as one progresses in the path of meditation, the subtle psychic powers begin to manifest.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, so mostly we run and walk through the physical body and therefore we are limited by the limitations of the senses. Eyes can see only certain things, ears can hear certain frequency range and we need to be in touch with, in direct contact with, some things we touch or taste or smell. But when we free ourselves from the body or disconnect ourselves from the body why? How? We switch off from the lower energy to the high energy Then we also disconnect from the physical body and the senses. And what is potentially lying there as the psychic powers capacity to see far away things, hear far away things naturally manifest themselves. These are called the psychic powers, and in meditation one should not those who are seeking the ultimate, highest, should not play around with them, but they will be part of this.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a natural thing inside all of us as you lift over time you might come across those type of psychic powers.
Speaker 2:Just aside mentioning, how do we understand this prana thing? Swami Vivekananda, beautifully in the introduction to Raj Yogaya, gives a wonderful example and I think I would like to describe that so. He says there was a king in the ancient times who had a minister, chief minister, whom he depended on. For some reason the minister did something wrong and the king was not very happy. So for his punishment he sentenced him to be executed.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Must have done something really wrong. So for the time being, before his execution, he was put on a tall tower at the top with no way to climb down and get out and probably would be executed the next day. So that night his poor wife, dear wife, came and called him out. What can I do anything? She was in distress. So the minister says to her can you go home and bring a couple of things, whatever the things he said, find a rhinoceros beetle, some honey, a bundle of silk, some twine, very thin twine, a stronger stout thread and a rope, and you bring all these things.
Speaker 2:So the wives, wondering what all these things are about, went and secured all those things. At night she came and said what do I do? He said, okay, take the beetle, put a little bit of honey on the horn in front of this and tie that very fine silk to the body and set it up on the tower facing upwards. And so the beetle began to smell the honey and began to try to reach it and started crawling up and it ended up crawling right to the top of the tower. The minister got the hold of the beetle and the silk and thread. Then he asked can you tie the next slightly thinner twine A thicker twine, and with that he pulled that up. The next was the thread, and ultimately he got the rope to it, and then he tied the rope and made his escape. The goal was to escape.
Speaker 1:So what's the?
Speaker 2:Started thinking very fine, and then yeah, so what's it about? The purpose of all meditation is to be free. Free from the limitations of the body and the mind and the ego and all those things. So in the physical body, that silk and thread is the breath movement.
Speaker 1:The very first. Thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so if you have seen these old mechanical clocks and you might have opened them inside and you will see a very fine flywheel that's spinning Left hand side, so you can see it's a very distinct, visible movement there. But that movement then successively, through various cogs, becomes transmitted through so many layers, so to say, and almost you can't see the movement. Okay, but that energy is still there. So in the physical body, the breath movement is the silk and thread. The flow of the current in the nerves, in the nervous system is the next level twine. Okay, and that's why we do that pranayama by, you know, breathing from the right nostril in left nostril, making sure that the nerves are purified. The nerves are like the electrical wiring system that the currents are flowing without any interruption and they're sufficiently strong to let the current pass through.
Speaker 2:Okay very thin wires. A little bit of current you pass, you get heated up. Some people are there who are very, very sensitive nervously, so to say and so they get either very excited or they react very strongly to emotions. Other people are very cool. You don't see much of reaction, anger or something like that. You know their nervous system is properly developed.
Speaker 2:You might ask how do we develop a strong nervous system? Is it about food? We talked about Brahmacharya, okay, and that is related to the development of the nervous system in the brain. That's another topic. We can maybe come back to that, because that's very important. In this age and time, people do not know and understand the science of things, so that's why they probably waste away the best energy in the life. But let's go back to the silicon thread and then the movement of the currents in the nerves and the brain. Then the third layer is manifestation of Prana is in the mind, space, thoughts and emotions. Okay, it becomes much subtler, alright, and ultimately the ultimate Prana, which is what we want to get a grip on. So, at the physical level, when you are a human being.
Speaker 2:We have a pretty good control over the movement of breath. You can see, you can stop it, you can, you know, hold your breath, and all that by the movement of the nerves and thoughts and ideas. You can control the movement of the nerve currents or, instinctively, the sense has also moved. You know, something bites you. You put your hand up because the signal went through the nerves to the brain and you reacted to it. But we sort of work around this level, not much different from animals.
Speaker 2:Human beings can reason, they can think, they can. So that is a higher manifestation of Prana in the mind space, which probably it's not so much developed in animals. It is there. A crow is pretty intelligent, she can think about, and you have seen so many things in YouTube like that. Animals can also, at some level, reason and things, but not like a human being.
Speaker 2:So what is beyond that thing? The energy is what will control the mind, which you see, what we call the Buddha, the power of observation, the power of discrimination, the power of the man. Yeah, and that, ultimately, is what we are trying to do, or that capacity we are trying to develop as our first tool for meditation. Perfect concentration will come later on. You didn't require that right tools. So you'll see, when we are meditating we give our mind one particular thought in one form. Why one thought, one form? We'll talk about that little later. But we try to keep the mind on that one thought in the loop of that. While you're doing that, a part of your mind should be observing, while a part is actually doing the repetition one past two in the other one is seeing yes, observe, okay so when we might call the active mind is the one which is doing and the observer mind, yes, watching.
Speaker 2:It's like a child. So mother is sitting in watching the child, child looks at you and you know it behaves all right. Somebody is watching, you know, but the moment you go to another room or something he will do other things, you see. Okay. So in meditation. So out of this we get a good tip for concentration. And so Amiji talks about and suppose somebody had a monkey.
Speaker 2:Monkey, by nature, is pit, restless, you know. Suppose, tied with a rope to something, you're trying to make the monkey big, to be quiet, okay. So if you try to show it a stick or something, it'll jump even more because fear comes and is. But suppose he did not do anything, you just watched. So the monkey jumps around here and then it looks at you and he sees that you're looking at it for second or two, it poses and then it jumps around a little bit more, looks at you and it sees you're watching. This time he's maybe waiting for three, four, four, five seconds and then jumps around like this. But ultimately you'll find the monkey will sit down and look at you, okay. So sometimes you watch that one. Children try to do that, you see they will engage with you. See, attention, you'll get the attention because you are giving attention to that, right, all right. When you don't give attention, then they, their attention goes to other things yes okay.
Speaker 2:So even if you take taking a class in a look at a person in the face, all right, and you're engaging. You see, you keep that person's attention. But if you look elsewhere then he looks here and there and it becomes disengaged. Yes, all right. So the mind is that monkey, all right, jumping here and there, looking, jumping from one thought to the other thought, but you're asking to look at me. So when that attend what you call the reflective mind, the watchman is looking at that, at some point the mind will engage with you. Yes, a host trainer, okay. So if you look how they train, the wild horse is looking, seeing all those things there. The first thing the trainer tries to do is get the full attention of the horse. So the horse is tied to a rope and goes around and around. He's watching his ears. When both ears train, turn to the trainer, he knows I've got him now. Until then the horse is not with you. So that's how we use that science to engage with the mind.
Speaker 1:How does this link back to the pranayama? Could you start it off?
Speaker 2:Okay so we said about this pranayama, the ultimate goal is to get hold of the actual prana, which is the sum total of all the energies, but that's very fine and very high. That manifests in the middle level as thoughts and emotions. So we are now beginning to understand the mind. What's happening in the mind? Space is a flow of energy, which is what we're trying to control, and then that comes down into the body as movement in the nerves and ultimately it will become a muscular movement. But we know breath is one of the movements. So basically we have got this sequence of energies.
Speaker 1:Just like the threads. Just like the threads you know.
Speaker 2:And so because we are holding one end of it, that becomes our control. And that's why we say breathe in and out in a very deliberate, deep, rhythmic manner. Make sure that deep breathing is there. Later on we'll explain a little bit more why we suggest that one can use repetition of a mantra because it can keep you in that nice rhythm, for example, as you exhale and you are repeating a mantra om. So you might say well, you're exhaling, I will have one repetition, as if breath becomes kama, you might be, I can comfortably do two repetitions, you know, and later on you might just hit a beautiful rhythm and say hey, I can do three. So if I breathe out with one, I breathe in one. If I breathe out with two, I breathe in with two, breathe out with three repetitions, I breathe in. So now, because you're repeating the mantra and that hits a rhythm in the breath and the two are now synchronized. Okay, so when you sit up properly, you're repeating the mantra.
Speaker 2:Following the flow of the mantra that the mantra rises in the mind begins, it grows, it reaches the peak and it comes down. And when it ends at that junction, that's where the risk is. Another thought can jump in and hijack the mind into some other direction. One is very vigilant. That's where the observer mind comes and he says let me put that back in the loop.
Speaker 1:So if I were to repeat the word, the mantra om I would be. When I'm breathing in is an om, and then, when I'm breathing out, there's an om as well. Yes, so that's one to one.
Speaker 2:One to one.
Speaker 1:But you're saying that over time you can develop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you're breathing deeply now. Yeah, as you breathe.
Speaker 1:I go through to two, two om's in, two om's out.
Speaker 2:Using om, but you might have a slightly longer mantra like om namah shivaya. You might say om namah shivaya, om namah shivaya, in breathing in it, another two of the same breathing out. What I'm suggesting is that one can use the repetition of the mantra and harmonize with the breath, and then it becomes two things are happening together. Your breath is harmonized nicely and your repetition of the mantra is there. But you should not force it. First you observe that you're not stressing out that and pushing, then it will put you off the rhythm.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It should be done in a very natural way. Everyone's natural state of breath and mind is there. You try to sync with that. So we talked about that prana as there and how much, how the fine energy that's in the breath is linked to the flow of the energy in the nervous system and how that is linked to the in the mental space as thoughts and emotions, and then beyond. That is is the ultimate prana, and as you go higher and higher and higher, the prana becomes the common denominator. Okay, so in the physical body, Just like the ocean.
Speaker 2:In the physical body. It's working within your own physical body. Your breath is not affecting another one, but in the mental level, by the time it goes, your thoughts can affect other people's thoughts, right.
Speaker 1:It's energy.
Speaker 2:It's energy because it's like a magnetic field of a magnet, and so it's. You are pulsating very strongly. It's a positive energy and Anyone who comes within that ambit they also feel that energy. So if somebody is very sad, you will feel that sadness. Someone is excited or joyous, or buoyant, you know, so you'll feel that. So we have to understand this energy. It's not something in a static way, it's a very dynamic energy, okay, and we are all energies in that sense affecting and in getting infected by what's around us, type of thing. So that's why it's not only at the time of meditation, because during the day, if you are not mindful of that breath, you know, then that's how we become conditioned. So a person who is really serious about meditation is always watchful about these things, even in the midst of various activities. So at work you're not slouched over something you know sitting upright.
Speaker 2:All right and now and then you are mindful. How is the breath, you know, and you find as shallow, Let me just get that right. You know so even at work.
Speaker 1:These things help you because you can make more oxygen in right. More oxygen and reaction is your energy levels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, suppose you are feeling a little tired or something like that. You might just sit down and just do a little bit of deep breathing. If a little feeling, little stressed out or anxieties they are, you just find a little space and just Do some deep breathing and repetition of the mantra. I know some devotees are there who do this In a very deliberate way, those who are living here. He was a dentist, so it's a very, very stressful job.
Speaker 2:You know, here for hours looking down in a very Concentrated way in somebody's mind, mouth and you know, fixing so, so, and it just, in a sort of standing posture, become very stiff, not moving around, you know. So it's not very. It's a very, very stressful profession. So to say yes, so he would, during his lunch break, find some 10 minutes to do a short meditation, and you said that would help him cover the rest of the day. He embedded this practice Into his work to empower himself with the energy that will take him, help him survive a very stressful profession. So that is Prana, pranayama, breath and control. And, of course, I'm probably in the next episode. We can now look at what is and why we have called this podcast rhythm, because we've discussed the energy and that energy has to be in rhythm with things. So, to be in rhythm is I am there and something else is there with which I am synchronized. Yes, what is that energy that we are trying to be in rhythm with? Right good or someone that's?
Speaker 1:good because, yeah, we could understand that, because we normally think it's another world warped around us. Obviously, that's not the case. There are a lot of other beings and a lot of other things around us which we need to be in rhythm with. Sure, okay, sounds good, thank you, so, meji.
Speaker 2:Welcome. We'll continue with the the meaning and significance of rhythm in our next episode. Thank you, thank you.