Buddha's Breathwork and the True Yoga
Breath Trumps Stretch
Like two golden birds perched on the selfsame tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self, dwell in the same body, the former eats the sweet and sour fruits of the Tree of Life, while the latter looks on in detachment.
- Mundaka Upanishad
One of the oldest traditions of reuniting the Self and the ego, or the right and left hemispheres, is the ancient tradition of Yoga, which like these seals, may be as much as five thousand years old.
Yoga has become wildly popular in the West over the last few decades, and that’s a very good thing. Unfortunately, Yoga has lost the potent punch it once had when it comes to awakening because pranayama, or breath control, is no longer the core practice. Yoga as we know it is little more than a mild form of exercise.
Even the pranayama that is taught in the US is dramatically different from the original pranayama of ancient India, which was a form of carbon dioxide practices focused on breath holding techniques known as kumbhaka. As we will discuss more later, breath control transforms the mind and is the basic principle of all yoga.
This change occurred in the 1870s due to the influence of Western medical ideas that big deep breaths were healthy, and in turn many modern pranayama teachers focus on hyperventilation techniques, and almost none of them understand the principles of carbon dioxide tolerance training.
One of the most important things to understand about breathing is that the breath is a mirror to the mind. When the breath is subtle, the mind will be still. When the breath is labored, the mind will be agitated.
The breath is a mirror to the mind.
- Paul Harvey, Center for Yoga Studies
The relationship between the breath and mind is a two-way street. The breath can be modified by way of the mind, and the mind can be modified by way of the breath. Both techniques have value, but in the beginning, most people will find it much easier to modify the breath than the mind directly. That is why pranayama is the preliminary practice for concentration, the word used to describe meditation in the yoga sutras.
It’s wonderful that mindfulness has become popular in the West, although the loss of the sacred context and ignorance of the true goal of the practice dramatically limits its efficacy. And even in a secular, materialist framework, the mindfulness movement misses the mark in overlooking the western science and the eastern sacred scriptures that explain how the breath affects the mind.
Mindfulness is not particularly effective for people who have disordered breathing, which is almost everyone, but the properly oxygenated brain is automatically mindful. As such, the central goal of a mindfulness practice should be to retrain the chemosensors in the brain to be more tolerant of carbon dioxide and thus automatically breathe less.
This makes the path faster and easier to tread.
Western mindfulness practices are based on Buddhist Vipassana meditation from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Although the instruction given is to observe the breath without modifying it, the Vipassana tradition is well aware that with sustained practice, the breath grows more subtle.
However, this tradition is based on the monastic practice of monks who spend a lot of their time meditating and therefore it is very effective over time due to the sheer volume of hours spent sitting and following the breath.
It’s important to point out at that this tradition goes back to Buddha himself, who practiced the ancient carbon dioxide tolerance training system known as yoga.
Although Buddha later left the ascetic breathing practices behind, they would have permanently altered the chemosensors in his brain, making his breathing much more subtle. When understood in this context, carbon dioxide tolerant training played a crucial role in cleansing his energy channels and clarifying his mind, which ultimately lead to his Realization under the Bodhi tree.
From the perspective of Tibetan Buddhist medicine, the only truly healthy person is an enlightened one, and breath control is the vital to the yogis of Tibet.
“The subtle airs contain the life-force of prana (Tib. srog-lung). The Tibetans identify a reciprocal character between mind and the life-air, so that controlling and stabilizing the airs also stabilizes the mind. This is the basic principle of all yoga. We can understand this relationship if we think of how our breathing pattern alters depending on our mental and emotional state. We have only to think of the difference in our breathing when we are angry and when we are concentrating. Moods and feelings are reflected in the rhythm of the breath. Therefore, we can affect the mind and consciousness by manipulating the breath.”
-Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry: The Diamond Healing
As I’ve written about here before, Dr. Buteyko, a soviet physician involved in respiratory research for the Soviet space program, stumbled upon the healing power of increased carbon dioxide through breath control. He studied the yogis of India and Tibet extensively, and brought a Western scientific understanding to how these practices bring about miraculous healing on the physical level.
“I would like to emphasize that I describe medicine generally in two directions. One direction is the so-called official Western. The other, Eastern medicine. It has transpired that the truth is on the side of the Eastern medicine which has always stated that diseases occur as a result of diseased breathing.”
-Dr. Konstantin Buteyko
Modern research has revealed that beathing exercises balance the brain hemispheres by quieting and calming the left hemisphere's analytical dominance and enhancing the right hemisphere's creative and intuitive functions.
Techniques like alternate nostril breathing and rhythmic, slow breathing improve communication between the hemispheres, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and regulate brainwaves (e.g., alpha and theta states).
It is interesting to note that Dr. Buteyko was deeply involved with the Soviet KGB’s psychic spying program and recently declassified documents reveal that the CIA was convinced that Dr. Buteyko had mastered ESP, extrasensory perception, or psychic powers.
This aligns perfectly with the yogic texts of India and Tibet which state that one of the effects of pranayama practice is the development of siddhis, or psychic powers. It also aligns with other declassified documents regarding Project Stargate, the CIA’s remote viewing program, which reveal the CIA had realized that psychic abilities resulted from hemisphere synchronization such that the left hemisphere could access the inherent psychic qualities of the right hemisphere.
This is why angels are depicted as winged: the right hemisphere consciousness can leave the body through astral projection also known as shamanic flight.
The right hemisphere, unbound by time and space, has access to all of the information in the Universe, which is why it can guide you to your best life. This guidance comes in the form of synchronicity, dreams, and ultimately, with enough practice, the loving, guiding voice of God.