Breath Operation ~ Kapalabhati/Bhastrika Pranayama
Bhastrika means bellows but the breath-infusion practice is more than just breathing in and out like the bellows of a blacksmith. One can go on breathing like that for years, even doing the deepest possible breaths, but if one does not pay attention within the physical and subtle bodies to observe the influence of the infused air/energy, one will make little progress in moving from the 4th stage of yoga to the 5th stage, from breath infusion energization to pratyahar sensual energy withdrawal of interest from what is ordinary and what does not promote self-absorption.
The rate of breathing is important. There is breathing at your own rate, slow, fast or median. But kapalabhati and bhastrika is rapid breathing. However a beginner may do it slowly just to become accustomed to it. Then the student should do it with rapidity.
Why rapid?
Slow breaths do not penetrate into the psyche sufficiently. More important one slow breaths does not compact into the previous breath. Rapid breaths compact into each other because the heart is unable to move the compacted fresh energy which is in the lung cells. Because the heart cannot escort such energy as rapidly as it accumulates that energy compacts into itself into a compact or mass of fresh energy which moves into the blood stream as a large charge of energy. This awakens either cell kundalini or the classic spinal kundalini.
Initially when doing breath infusion with rapid sequence of breaths, one should be attentive to the application of locks, particularly the anus lock, the sex lock, the abdomen-navel lock the chest lock, the chin lock and the mind centering and attentiveness lock. This are necessary. It takes some time to develop the skill of applying these locks. One should practice them step by step until they are spontaneously applied especially as soon as one finishes a series of rapid breaths which are compacted into the lung cells.
While these locks are applied one should be looking down into the physical and subtle bodies to observe the compacted energy which absorbed into the lung cells.
What is the energy doing?
Where is it going?
What changes does it produce in consciousness?
Is it responsive to the observing self?
Is it so powerful that it acts without respect to the observer?
If the energy accumulated is responsive, the yogi should push that compacted energy downwards to the groin area and then direct it to the muladhar base chakra. If this is achieved nothing else needs be done except to hold the locks and observe what else that energy will do.
Later when one is proficient, one should while infusing air, compacting it into the lungs, pull out negative energy and hormonal energy which was accumulated in cells here and there. This is both in the physical and subtle bodies.
In the beginning the big issue is to cause hormonal energy to join with the infused breath energy and to attack the sleeping kundalini. When that occurs spontaneously, the yogi should pull up hormonal energy which was misted by contact with the infused breath energy. There is no need to push down breath energy if that hormonal energy is misted and lifted through the trunk of the subtle body.
