Breath Infusion Air Absorption

Student Questions:

·       Does moving the body and hands to different positions move the prana to different parts of the body?

·       Does covering the head with hands move the prana to the head region?

·       At the end of a breathing session are you applying locks and holding the breath in and for how long?

·       After releasing the locks are you exhaling through the mouth instead of nostrils? If yes, why?

·       Your breathing session is short compared to holding the locks? Why don't you continue breathing for little more time if the lungs capacity is more and are capable of compressing more air?

Answers

·       Does moving the body and hands to different positions move the prana to different parts of the body?

Using different body and hand positions causes the breath energy to go to different parts of the body. One way to understand this is to sit in lotus posture for say 20 and 30 minutes or more, invariable one will find that when one unlocks the thighs and legs, they are cramped, where one cannot walk immediately but must let blood circulate and allow the tendons and muscles to resume working order and response capability. Even samadhi yogis who are accomplished experience this. That means that at least in the physical body, a tight lotus posture causes certain areas like the thighs, legs and feet to be deprived of blood flow in the physical system and subtle energy in the subtle body. That proves conclusively that a particular posture either gives access to or deprives a certain area from energy.

·       Does covering the head with hands move the prana to the head region?

Covering the head with the hands may cause energy to move into the head. It depends on the postures which were done before doing this and also on whether the system was responsive to one’s will power. However if one uses the finger nails and scratches the scalp, it is likely that if one does breath infusion while doing this, much of the infused energy will reach into the brain and also saturate the scalp and skull bones.

·       At the end of a breathing session are you applying locks and holding the breath in and for how long?

At the end of most of the breath sessions I do apply the locks. In some poses after a series of breath I may not apply the locks because I sense that it is not necessary or that it is being done in the subtle body or that the energy itself holds itself in confinement and does not need for the locks to be applied.

Suppose you train a horse. Then after some time the horse behaves in a way where it does not leave the paddock unless you blow a whistle. At that point there is no need to lock the door to the paddock because the animal became responsive and no longer has to be restricted.

Students should as a matter of course apple the locks after every series of breaths because otherwise there is the risk of losing objectivity which would result in damage to the physical body if it falls.

Advanced students may not have to do this. In the advanced stage due to increased sensitivity and due to the energy being responsive to the yogi’s will power and also due to the energy being interested in introspection by advanced pratyahar practice, there may be no need to apply the locks.

But a yogi should not careless about this. The decision to apply the locks or not to apply after a series of rapid breaths is made on the basis of inner observation of the condition of the infused energy, as to where it is located, as to its attitude, as to its movements, as to it being compressed or expressed, as to the extent of its bliss aspect, and as to if the bliss is of a certain higher quality.

·       After releasing the locks are you exhaling through the mouth instead of nostrils? If yes, why?

In some instances the exhale after releasing or even while hold locks is done through the mouth. This is when the yogi senses that a release through the mouth would be a larger release because of the design of the esophagus (throat). Most students should exhale through the nose however.

One thing to know is that a release of exhale through the mouth is likely to be done with no release of the neck/throat lock, while a release through the nose must be done carefully so that the neck lock is not relaxed.

·       Your breathing session is short compared to holding the locks?

My breathing sessions are short as compared to the time holding locks or the time while observing the infused energy. This is because in such a short time, my lungs take in such a high percentage of the air that enters the lung, that it takes a long time to observe, compress, direct and dissipate the air which is ingested.

Be sure to understand that in a bellows (bhastrika) of a blacksmith much air goes in and gets out but the leather bag itself takes in no air. Similarly in most people doing kapalabhati/bhastrika pranayama breath infusion, most of the air which goes into the lung simply come out on the exhale and is not absorbed, just as in the bellows of a blacksmith.

The walls of the air bag in the bellows do not absorb any air and similarly the lung cells hardly take any of the air. One has to do the practice for a time, for years even, and one must also train the lung cells (alveoli) to absorb the air.

In my case they are trained for many years and also I use a friction pull on the in breath to force the incoming air to rub aggressively against the walls of the lungs and that cause high percent, so about 85-95% instead of 5-15%.

This make for a longer time for checking the infused breath energy and its distribution situation.

·       Why don't you continue breathing for little more time if the lungs capacity is more and are capable of compressing more air?

I do not continue once the lung cells are saturated and they refuse to absorb any more air. It is not a matter of how much air is in the lung but rather how much air is absorbed into the lung cells and how much those cells were able to force into the blood stream.

Once the lung cells are saturated and once the arteries near the lungs are saturated and give a signal that they cannot absorb any more air, there is no point in breathing more because the alveoli’s will simply ignore the air which is coming into the lungs. They will not absorb any more of it.

At that point it is time for distribution. As soon as the distribution is done and one should know that by inner observation, one should resume with a new series of breaths. One should do this on and on until one is satisfied that the system is saturated in every possible place intended.

Inner attentiveness to know what the alveoli are doing in terms of absorption and saturation with fresh air is a big part of this practice.