Meditation during Breath Infusion (Pranayama)

Each feature of ashtanga yoga may be developed separately but it becomes necessary to combine these from time to time. This article discusses the combination of pranayama breath infusion and meditation. When learning how to infuse fresh air into the body, there are many methods and techniques. A student should focus on doing these but when he gains proficiency, he should shift his interest and note the various states of consciousness which he is projected into or absorbed into during the infusion practice.

Meditative states occur during breath infusion but while initially the student does not focus on these and does not stop to be absorbed in these, in the advanced states, the yogi pauses during the infusion process to note, become absorbed and even prolong the meditative states.

This implies that each student will have a different duration for practice and for parts of practice, all depending on the absorption rate of the fresh air, the amount of focus in the psyche, the health of the psyche and the influences which prevail.

For instance, if an infusion practice takes thirty minutes if the session is done without pausing for meditation, then if the student pauses, that same session with the same postures and breath infusion may take forty-five minutes. This would mean that the physical actions of breathing took thirty minutes but fifteen minutes was used for pausing and becoming absorbed in meditative states.

Such a process of breath infusion with meditative absorption does not replace the meditation practice which occurs after the session is completed. There will still be meditation for the usual time which is allotted to that. Hence if the meditation session was for forty-five minutes after the breath infusion session, the total meditation would be forty-five plus the fifteen minutes used during the infusion, a total of one hour for meditation.

It should be understood that meditation in the ashtanga yoga process consist of the three higher aspects of that practice, when those three are in one sequential development from dharana to dhyana to samadhi. This is termed samyama in the Yoga Sutras.