Breath-Infusion / Careless Practice

Breath infusion is a wonderful practice but it can more productive if one remains focused and notes the energy compressions and shifts during a session. Careless yoga is better than no practice. However careless process could cause the person to abandon the practice over a period of time, when he or she notices that the advancement is not taking place at the desired rate.

To offset careless, the yogi has to remain focused during the session. The question is:

Focused on what?

There is no general answer because it would depend on the type of breath infusion, on the stage of progress and on the desired objective. Some types of breath infusion require infinite patience and attention to complete for the desired results, where sloppy careless application never give what is intended. But the yogi may be unware of the objective. That would be due to incorrect guidance from the teacher.

While I did physical practice, I was being observed on the astral side by Yogeshwarananda. He made some relevant remarks:

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Careless application just will not do. The yogi must be attentive within. The vision should not wonder outside of the body. It should be focused within the psyche to detect even the tiniest of movements or compression of energy. During the infusion session, the yogi should go from posture to posture and in each note the infusion being ingested into the subtle body. He should pause, compress and direct the energy time and time again and not rush through the postures carelessly.

Breath-infusion with asana postures is not the same as asana postures for posture only. In doing postures only for the effect of the poses, the person does not have to track emotions and feeling-energies in the subtle body. Asana mostly concern what the physical system does. Pranayama breath-infusion concerns what happens in the subtle body. That is not a physical observation. Perfect execution of postures with the best form and figure in no way tells us what happens within the psyche. One may do a mediocre physical posture and be doing an ideal energy compression in the subtle body, while some other person may do an awkward posture and have a tight compression or expression of energy in the subtle body.

The switch from posture to posture should be done, rapidly or gradually according to the state of the energy compressed into the psyche. To make a decision either way the yogi must be attentive within. If needed one should use a blindfold or do something to keep the eyes from pursuing external objects. The behavior of the vision to seek external sensory information decreases the attentiveness and causes the yogi to have an ineffective and sloppy practice.