Asana — Academy for Learning Pranayama

1. In the last session, we had embarked upon the topic of pranayama. It continues today. Usually asana and pranayama are conceived of as two different things… two different limbs… in yoga. We tend to draw a line, or erect a wall, between asana and pranayama. As far as practice of pranayama is concerned, of course, there’s a clear demarcation [that] totally differentiates it from asana. However, when it comes to teaching pranayama, particularly, initiating someone into traditional classical pranayama…, asanas become a wonderful academy for one of the major aspects of pranayama — breath usage.

2. Various asanas will give the facility to understand the acts, functions, roles, manifestations, and purposes of breathing and breath. The breathing will differ. As you recall, I had said that the breathing of Supta Virasana and Adho Mukha Virasana radically differs.[1]

Not only does the breathing differ, but also the purpose, function, act, and role of breathing changes. Therefore, in various asanas, one would be inducted to the various processes of breathing…, functions of breathing…, purposes of breathing… , and the acts, and roles of breathing.

3. It is so important to be embarking upon pranayama. As I said, it is a regulation of the breath.[2] There is no point in regulation unless you are well oriented with the countless acts, purposes, functions, and processes of breathing. Asanas are a wonderful academy for that purpose.

4. Therefore, as I said last time, at least 10- 20% of practice should be dedicated to develop the necessary observation, study, learning, and experimentation to know how the breath works.[3] It’s a fascinating agency given to us.

Breath Assists Mental & Physical Acts +3.15

1. We don’t just breathe for respiratory purposes. We breathe [to assist certain] acts. If climbing a mountain…, you will develop a kind of breathing which facilitates your act of climbing up or climbing down. You don’t… [maintain normal] respiration while you’re climbing up, climbing down, or doing some extraordinary feat with the physical body.

So, also, for every extraordinary act of mind, intellect, and emotion, there is a corresponding breath and breathing. That’s why in the science, philosophy, and technology of yoga, it is said that breath and mind are two sides of the same coin.

2. The mind has several roles, several functions in our business activity of life. The mind plays variegated roles, enormous roles, that we can identify. So, again, as a part of the study of pranayama, try to understand the various functions of the mind, and various functions of the body. For every act of the body, and act of the mind, there is a kind of breath and breathing.

3. Whenever making a special endeavor in the body…, [such as when] some people find it difficult to sit down, how do they sit? Then, when they get up from the sitting position, how do they get up? So we know that there’s a struggle to sit, and a struggle to get up. We don’t see that there is a corresponding breath for their act. It is [neither] an easy…, [nor] a natural act for them to… stand from sitting, or sit from standing. It becomes a special endeavor. Wherever there is special endeavor…, the breath is a very important contributing factor, assisting factor.

Pranayama — Mind Initiates Inhalation, Breath Affects Mind +5.25

1. When there is an extraordinary act of the mind, there is also a corresponding breath. Have you ever observed that if it is an act of will and volition — “I am going to do” — there is an inhalation act for that. You typically inhale for will, volition, or such kinds of acts of the mind.

Or, when you are say, “I surrender, I supplicate,” there is a kind of breath… for supplication, and surrender. Commanding, demanding, taking commands, giving commands, is not just a different oratory act. It’s not just a different mental act. There is also physical gesture. “I am going to do” is done with a inflation of the chest. “I am going to do” is not done with collapsed chest.

2. There is body language behind all that. Behind the body there is a mind, and behind the mind, there is a body. But more prominently, there is breath behind the body, and breath behind the mind.

Observe the various acts of the body, and various acts of the mind. As students of yoga, you need to observe… that there is a corresponding breath for [both] a physical act, and a mental act….

3. Therefore there are an enormous [number of] breathing physiologies. It’s not just a mechanical process where you have one physiology of breathing. In various states of mind, various moods of mind, various acts of mind, there is a corresponding breathing process. Therefore, there is a very flexible physiology of breathing.

Mind and Breath — Two Sides of Same Coin +7.40

1. Basically, that mind and breath are two sides of the same coin is a precept in yoga. When we study the psychology of the mind, we fail to catch or study the other side of the same coin. If mind is the head, the tail of the coin is breath! Therefore, if there is study of the mind by psychology, [then] study of the mind also [through the] breath, and study of the breath in psychology is also important…, because they are two sides of the same coin

2. This has not dawned upon the modern science of mind. Science doesn’t consider the breath as the other side of the mind. Whereas, in yoga it is postulated that mind and breath are two sides of the same coin. So yoga carries out both studies of mind and studies of breath. That is why it is a complete science of study of the mind. Unless the breath is studied, you can’t study the mind.

It is unlike the notion in modern psychology that absolutely disregards the breath. They just want to study the mind. This is… flawed. So yoga does both — breath studies and mind studies. They are integrated studies. They have to be studied.

3. You can’t just study the head of the coin, thinking that there is no tail on the coin. There can be no coin without a tail…. They are co-existing. They go together.

Therefore, head and tail are mind and breath. Head and tail are body and breath. Tell me, where is there no breath…? In which act of yours is there no breathing…?

Asana — Breath in Doing, Staying, Maintaining Phases +9.55

1. When I said breathing, it [includes] all three — inhalation, exhalation, and retention. [All] three put together is the breathing aspect. Not just in-breath and out-breath. Tell me where there could be a condition where there is neither a supporting or significant in-breath, nor a supporting or significant exhalation, nor a retention. There is no act in life where these three are insignificant, or not to be reckoned with.

2. Asana is a wonderful academy since we have varieties of body movements, body actions, and body positions. How body and breath are related to each other is an important aspect of study. In asana we also have to… address the mind, as well. The mind cannot be not addressed, and just the body addressed, [else] they are [merely] postures. In postures you can disregard the mind, and just carry out the posture. But in asana that is not allowed. That is not at all possible. So we see the mind as a back side of body, as well as the [body as] the back side of the mind.

3. There is enormous scope to carry out the breath studies. In the various phases in asana — doing, staying, maintaining, access, intensity, freedom, settled condition[4] — the breath comes everywhere in variegated ways. So also, the breath is a very significant force in doing, learning, studying, understanding, comprehending, and analyzing various acts for knowledge.

4. The breath to attempt an asana is one kind of breathing, but the breath to get settled in asana is another kind of breathing. You won’t be getting settled in posture without any consideration of the… corresponding breath. Asana is a wonderful academy. Therefore 10-20% of your asana endeavor must be dedicated to carrying out… breath observation, breath addressals, breath uses, and breath applications — [with] both the breath as benefactor and beneficiary.[5]

Asana — Academy to Learn Benefits of Breath +12.40

1. Then identify the benefits of the breath. Unless you are educated about the benefits of the breath, how are you going to regulate it? Would you like someone to regulate [the breath], without knowing… or considering its benefits? That would be exploitation…, anarchy. If somebody were just regulating and controlling you, without considering your benefits, you wouldn’t like it. That would be dictatorial.

2. You can’t consider breath regulation, as the very nomenclature suggests, without understanding, identifying, and making provisions for the benefits of the breath. If you want to use someone, you should consider… doing the necessary things to benefit that person.

If the breath is used in asana, benefits to the breath must be identified. When breath is applied in asana, benefits of the breath must be identified. So the breath must also be addressed.

3. All this education comes in asana, provided it is taken. Usually we don’t take it because we consider asana as posture, and as physical culture, and we disregard the breath. Asana is wonderful academy to become literate about the breath….

4. We all breathe lifelong, for seventy, eighty, ninety, hundred years. But we have an insufficient introduction to the breath. People die without having known the breath. They die having used the breath for a lifetime, but they have no introduction to the breath.

5. Yoga introduces this culture. You must know something about the breath. What is this agency? What is this entity? What are its functions? How it is a benefactor and [beneficiary]? Only yoga considers that.

So, it won’t be an exaggeration that we are all, even if we live a very long and successful life…, utterly exploiting the breath and breathing. That’s very, very unfortunate. And not only unfortunate, it’s highly unjustifiable. We are not getting introduced to the agency which… [sustains] every act, moment…, and stage of our life, which is very, very unfortunate. And it is an unjustifiable sin.

6. Therefore, yoga gives this wisdom that you must consider the breath, try to know the breath, and get acquainted with the breath. People live for eighty or ninety years with the breath and incessant breathing, [lacking] any acquaintance with the breath. This is not justified…. It is inhuman. It is inhuman that we don’t even have an acquaintance with the breath, but we are using it. Therefore, asana is wonderful academy for that purpose.

Asana & Pranayama — Learned in Lineage, Not Texts +16.25

1. This is a traditional wisdom; this doesn’t come in texts. All the texts will tell you… is how to do asana, and pranayama. They will never say a single word about how to teach, because learning and teaching is customized. It changes from person to person. Therefore, a text cannot mention all that. How yoga is done will be described by the texts. It will never describe how yoga should be taught, and how yoga should be learned. This is something that is only in the tradition…. This is traditional wisdom.

2. The pranayama books will… tell you about so many different pranayamas — Ujjayi, Anuloma, Pratiloma, Surya Bhedana, Chandra Bhedana, Bhastrika, Brahmari, Plavini, etc…. Perhaps they will teach how to do them. No book will teach how to learn. That is not a book matter.

3. That’s why there is a long tradition, the guru-shishya parampara (teacher-student lineage). Only that guru-shishya parampara can cast light on how to teach and how to learn. No text will tell you [that]. Patanjali’s text doesn’t teach you how to learn yoga. It will tell you what yoga is, and how to do yoga. But will you not need to learn before you do?

4. What… in your life, can you do without learning? How many things are there that you can’t do unless you learn? You don’t have to learn natural things. You will do them… instinctively…. But we need to get educated about all the other things. That is why this endeavor to get educated in yoga.

Anyway, the point is, asanas are such an important academy. Let me not elaborate much more on that in just one session here.

Pranayama Is Not Shvasayama (Breath Control) +18.45

1. Secondly, it is called pranayama, it is not called shvasayama (breath control). But what is really practiced? You’re only given instructions on the breath: Inhale and exhale, or inhale, retain and exhale. Or, exhale, retain and inhale. This all refers to breath and breathing. Breathe deeply, profoundly, slowly, etc. 

[When] we are just dealing with respiratory breathing… in… non-classical pranayama, there is stress on becoming breath aware, and… then sensing the breath in the nose, and making it long, deep, slow, etc. But, then, in that case, it should have been called shvasayama. It is not called shvasayama.

2. Why is it called pranayama? [Although] we are dealing with the breath, the breath is not the life force (prana). The breath is for the life force. The breath itself is not the life force. Once the life force has departed from the body, and the body has become a corpse, any amount of pumping in air, is not going to animate the person, animate life. So, it is not the life force. Breath is not the life force. It is for the life force. Life is something different. It comes and goes. As long as life stays with us, we keep on breathing. We must breathe.

Breath is not really the life force, it is for the life force. It is by the life force. As long as the life force is there, you will breathe. Or as long as you breathe, there will be life force. These are two separate entities. Otherwise, you can keep the person on an respiratory pump. When the life is departed, that function is not going to work.

3. Why is it called pranayama and not shvasayama? In the popular package, and in the worldly consumer yoga, they’re only taught to deal with the breath. Handle the breath. Then that should be called shvasayama. The point is, why it is called pranayama? In the educational process, we must be made aware of… an aspect in us, which esoteric physiology calls the pranamaya kosha (energetic sheath).

Pranamaya Kosha Infers What Pranayama Is +21.50

1. In esoteric anatomy, but not in exoteric (academic) anatomy, there are five koshas (sheaths) — annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, and anandamaya. These koshas are not known to modern anatomy.

Modern anatomy will not speak about those things. They only speak about the… constitution of the corporeal body — which is made up of body matter, such as skin, flesh, muscles, tissues, hard and soft cells…, hard and soft tissues, and organs of the body — [to keep] it’s system functioning.

The pranamaya kosha is still not in the purview of modern science. However, the ancient wisdom speaks about it. It becomes imperative that we must know what the pranamaya kosha is to get some preliminary understanding of pranayama.

2. Merely dealing with the breath is not going to become pranayama. Respiratory breathing is just going to work for the respiratory organ, and the respiratory system. It is not going to work beyond that. Therefore, it is imperative that, in the educational process, we are [introduced] to the kosha concept… to know what the pranamaya kosha is.

When we have some kind of introduction to… the pranamaya kosha, even just information about pranamaya kosha, we can… infer what pranayama is, and why it is pranayama. But if it we disregard the pranamaya kosha, [how] can we believe in pranayama? Pranayama implies that you must know the pancha koshas. At least it is important to have sufficient information about the pranamaya kosha.

3. All knowledge begins with information. When knowledge cannot begin with perception of tangible objects, it begins with perception [itself]. But there are so many intangible aspects… that we need to have information.

4. At least there must be some information about the pranamaya kosha. Otherwise there is no real way to go for pranayama in the classic… educational process. To know the pranamaya kosha, you must know that there are five koshas….

Pranamaya Kosha Underlies Annamaya Kosha (Nurtured By Food/Blood) +24.55

1. The first of the koshas is annamaya kosha. So we must know something about annamaya, because the pranamaya kosha underlies the annamaya kosha.[6] It is permeated by the pranamaya kosha. Therefore the annamaya kosha is the first kosha that we need to know.

2. In the simplest form, as a preliminary…, I will give only [some] primary information here. I cannot give in-depth information, since we have not come to the annamaya kosha, or the pancha (five) koshas so far. So let me tell you what this pranamaya kosha is….

3. All that lives by food, thrives by food, is maintained by food, is nurtured by food, grows by food is annamaya kosha.[7] Even this temporal mind, empirical mind, cerebral mind, is food generated.

If you don’t eat food then you will not have blood. If you don’t have blood, there will be no blood supply to the brain. If there is no blood supply to brain, will the brain function? So the brain functions because of the blood supply.

And the blood supply means the blood is the essence of all food. The blood is the essence of all food that you have eaten. It’s not only that body matter is annamaya. Even the mind matter is annamaya. It’s not only that the body organs are annamaya, which are made up of skin, flesh, muscle, bones, tissues, fibers. Even the mind, and mind organs, are annamaya….

4. We all have a some amount of memory. This memory is generated by a memory… mechanism in the brain. If that doesn’t function, we can not have a workable memory, a business-of-life memory. This memory is, again, all food.

5. There is a wonderful story in the Upanishads where an acharya (noble teacher) makes a disciple fast, day after day, day after day, day after day, day after day. He goes on… a complete fast for fifteen days. Then he slowly loses even normal faculty functions. When the food is slowly given, the normal faculty functions start slowly [returning] — memory, recognition, perception, cognition.

6. Many of you sometimes feel dizzy. Why? Because there is low blood supply to brain for a while. What happens? You don’t see although the eyes are open. You don’t hear although the ears are open. You don’t even stand, because when you feel dizzy, you collapse. It is not because of the weakness of your legs that you collapse. There are normal faculty functions [that allow us] to stand and… walk. because of the brain and blood supply to brain. We are carrying out… the normal activities of life, and normal faculty functions of the brain and mind because of the blood. So, this blood supply is so important to the human embodiment, be it physical to mental, or mental to physical….

The blood comes from what? From where? Blood comes from your food. Therefore, all this gross manifestation of body and mind, even our mind, is annamaya.

7. Don’t mistake that… the mind is manomaya. No. Not at all. Mind as well, this psychological mind, this empirical mind, this temporal mind, this cerebral mind is annamaya. It thrives on food, which generates blood. It gives the blood supply to… parts of the body and brain. So that’s why even this mind is annamaya.

Annamaya Kosha Fosters Perception & Cognition +29.55

1. Memories are [part of the] annamaya kosha. All perception and cognition are… mental, intellectual, and emotional acts… that depend on blood. If the blood is not there, if the blood supply is cut, then what happens?

If the blood supply to the brain is cut, and somebody is brain dead, what functions? Does the mind function? When the blood supply is cut to the brain, the mind doesn’t function. That means the mind depends on blood. The blood is a product, if not the final product, of the food that we eat.

2. In that story in the Upanishads, when the food was being slowly administered, the person started coming [back] to life. He… was able to get up. Otherwise, he was flat. Not having eaten food for fifteen days, he could not get up. He was not even conscious…. But, when the food was administered, consciousness came. Then he started even carrying out body movements. He got up, and then started walking. Then various normal faculty functions [returned]. He started recognizing. Perception, and cognition, started functioning. They all depend on blood.

3. All that depends on blood is annamaya… kosha. It’s not only that the physical body is annamaya. Body organs, mind organs, body functions, mind functions, body aspects, mind aspects are all annamaya, annamaya, annamaya!

Even my intelligence is annamaya. If you don’t give me food for fifteen to twenty days, or no food at all for one month, this won’t happen. I won’t be able to do this [speaking]. Because that is the energy behind all this…. The… intake of food [supplies] energy in the form of blood — the food must be transformed into body matter, and then its essence becomes blood. So that blood is nothing but food. It’s a mutation of food, a form of food. And therefore it’s all annamaya.

Pranamaya Kosha — Adhidaivika (Celestial) Aspects +32.45

1. So we’re not just annamaya beings. There is pranamaya kosha…. If you recall, I have given some introductory information about the adhibhautika (pertaining to the five elements in the body), adhidaivika (celestial), and adhyatmika (pertaining to the Self) aspects.[8]

Adhidaivika means the celestial aspects within us. We have heavens within us. We think all the gods reside… in the heavens. There is svarga — there is a heaven — within us, where the gods reside. Unless the gods are within us, we are not functional human beings. Unless the gods are within us, we are not functional human beings.

2. Esoteric anatomy and physiology have described our fourteen organs as having fourteen devatas (celestial forces), which are presiding deities over the fourteen organs.

[Of the fourteen organs,] five are the motor system, five are the cognitive system, and four are the mind system: The five karmendriyas (organs of action), and the five jnanendriyas (organs of sense); and the… antara-indriyas (internal organs) — the four manas-indriyas (mind organs), which are manas, buddhi, ahamkara, and chitta. [9]These are the fourteen organs of mankind, human beings. All of these fourteen organs, as I said during one of these sessions, have special functions.[10] They have unique functions.

3. No terrestrial things work like [these fourteen organs]. They are celestial forces. Therefore they have extraordinary abilities. Your heart… will function for eighty, ninety, or one hundred years. Which part of… an automobile, or any machine, will work for so many years? So every organ is really a unique organ.

4. Our ears are not a tape recorder. They’re not a mechanical organ…. They do not just take in sound. Theywork so much on the mind…, and on… the body as well.[11]They work on the psyche and consciousness. With bad news, you collapse. Just by hearing good news, perhaps a corpse could be able to get onto its legs…! So the [ears] are not just a tape recorder.

Will you ever see a tape recorder dancing in ecstasy because it’s recorded some celestial voice of a vocalist, or top class musician…, or a maestro’s music? You will not see a tape recorder jumping in ecstasy. Whether it is an obnoxious sound, a very harsh sound, or a sweet voice, it has no reactions. It just records. Our ears are not like that. Our eyes are not cameras. Our ears are not tape recorders. So you should not have a mechanical view of the body.

5. Therefore, all these [fourteen] are called indriyas. I explained sometime back why they’re called indriyas, and not called organs… or avayava-s (limbs).[12] They’re called indriyas [after] Indra, the king of all the gods. There are presiding deities in all of our organs of the body, organs of the mind…. Therefore they’re really celestial organs. It’s a wonder to see the heart working incessantly for so many years.

6. The lungs work incessantly for the many years of our lifespan. They have an auto-renewal process…, renewing themselves. Is there any machine that goes on renewing itself? If you… have a mechanical view of the body, the liver as a mechanical organ, it… [would require] replacement [parts]… every… five years — which happens to machines…. But this is auto-renewal…. That’s why it is very celestial. So, the celestial forces are residing within us….

7. [If] you want to go to a celestial body like the moon, or Mars, you’ll have to take an oxygen cylinder, otherwise you couldn’t live…. So, also, do the heavenly celestial forces… residing in our embodiment need their atmosphere. [You have to]… take the earth atmosphere to go to any such planet or celestial body, otherwise you won’t be able to stay there too long…. The [celestial forces] have to have a heavenly atmosphere within us. Therefore, in that microcosm of the body, there is a heaven….[13] Also, there’s a whole universe in the body. Because heaven is part of the universe…, where [could be] the question of heaven not existing [in the body]?Therefore there’s a pranamaya kosha.

Pranamaya Kosha — Prana Feeds Celestial Forces Within +39.20

1. Whatever we eat, speak, and do is converted into prana. That creates a pranic atmosphere for the [celestial forces]. [Just as] we need oxygen, the [celestial forces] need prana. If there is no prana, they won’t live…, just as we won’t live if we don’t have oxygen. What is oxygen to us, the prana is for them. And as long as they are there, we are living. If they decide to depart, we have to leave the mortal coil (restrictions of daily life). We can’t say, “I will still stay,” if all the celestial forces depart….

2. There’s also a wonderful story in the Upanishads. [When] each organ departs, nothing happens to the embodiment. The eyes go — the person becomes blind. The ears go — the person becomes deaf, etc. So, one by one, [although] the organs go on departing, it really doesn’t hamper our existence.

But…, when the prana decides to leave, it starts uprooting everything. Therefore, the embodiment doesn’t allow the prana to leave the embodiment. [The embodiment] says, “You must not, you should not leave. Let the eyes leave, I have no problem. Let the ears leave, I have no problem. I still live.” But when the prana decides to leave, the embodiment knows that it cannot live, and it says, “Don’t leave, don’t leave for me to live.” That’s the beautiful description that comes in the Upanishads.

3. This pranamaya kosha is a kosha of all the devatas (deities) who reside in us. If they don’t reside, we are not even human beings. We are corpses. That’s why we are addressed as a body. So that’s the pranamaya kosha.

Pranamaya Kosha Comprised of Five Pranas & Six Chakras +41.35

1. The pranamaya kosha, as described by the science, is made up of five pranas — prana (chest), apana (lower abdomen), samana (navel), udana (throat), and vyana (all over). They are the five pranas.

2. Then shat (six) chakras. We must have some introductory information about these shat chakras because they are part of the pranamaya kosha. So the pranamaya kosha is composed of six plexii — muladhara (coccyx), svadhishtana (sacral), manipuraka (solar plexus), anahata (heart), vishuddhi (throat), and ajna (pineal). And, of course, the sahasrara (crown), the seventh one. So, the pranamaya kosha is made up of chakras.

[Because] the pranamaya kosha is made up of five pranas — prana, apana, samana, vyana, and udana…, we need some introductory information about the pancha (five) pranas. We need to have some introductory information about the pancha koshas to go for pranayama in an educational process….

3. In consumerism, you don’t have to get educated. Today we can even use smart phones, laptops, and computers without education. But [there’s] a difference between one who is educated in software engineering, and an uneducated user… of a computer…. There is a big difference between a qualified person using it, and an unqualified person using it. It’s not just sufficient to be using a computer to say that you are a software engineer. It would be ridiculous…..

4. We are using all these things in yoga… like any Tom, Dick, or Harry uses a smart phone. Perhaps… those who are not smart should not be… using a smart phone…! Similarly…, [don’t assume that if] any Tom, Dick or Harry can use a smart phone, that any Tom, Dick or Harry can [do] yoga… [without becoming] educated.

5. So a little basic introductory information is a must about pranamaya kosha. And, just now, as I said, the definition for you, at your hierarchy, is that it is made up five pranas. No body science will tell you about five pranas. Only yoga will tell you about the five pranas. Ancient wisdom has spoken about five pranas — prana, apana, samana, vyana, and udana. What are their functions…? They’re all over the embodiment. The whole embodiment is conducted by pranas. That’s why when the prana departs, death [results]. Prana is vital to our existence. The prana has it’s locus in the pranamaya kosha.

6. The pranamaya kosha is made up of shat (six) chakras and pancha pranas. A little basic introduction, introductory knowledge about it, is imperative.

I told you about the annamaya kosha, which is food-generated body and mind. With food, not only does the body grow, but the mind also grows. Food is given to a baby, nourishment is given to a baby, not only to grow the body, but [also] to grow the mind. So, food works for both body and mind. What aspect of mind? It can be easily understood — the cerebral mind, temporal mind, empirical mind — which is the brain generated mind. That is annamaya kosha….

A little introduction to these koshas is necessary. I’ve just given a brief, brief introduction to pranamaya kosha which is a part of human embodiment. Then let’s try to understand what prana and pranayama is… the next time.

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[1]           I had said that the breathing of Supta Virasana and Adho Mukha Virasana radically differs: See.“Breath Customized in Virasana Variations +22.35,” Lesson 23: Pranayama (Part 1).

[2]           As I said, it is a regulation of the breath: See “Asana Connected to Pranayama & Meditation +3.05,” Lesson 23: Pranayama (Part 1). This (asana) having been perfected, regulation of the incoming and outgoing flow of breath with retention is pranayama. [PYS II.49]

[3]           I said last time, at least 10- 20% of practice should be dedicated to develop the necessary observation, study, learning, and experimentation to know how the breath works: See “Breath Customized in Virasana Variations +22.35,” Lesson 23: Pranayama (Part 1);  “Identify Breath Potential As Beneficiary Through Asana +30.35,” Lesson 24: Pranayama (Part 2).

[4]           phases in asana — doing, staying, maintaining, access, intensity, freedom, settled condition: See “Doing, Staying, Maintaining Asana +24.50,” Lesson 9: Adhyatmika Sadhana 5-3-20; “Vachika Kriya — Address Body, Mind, Breath in Bharadvajasana +13.45,” Lesson 11: Mind External Part of Chitta.

[5]            Therefore 10-20% of your asana endeavor must be dedicated to carrying out… breath observation, breath addressals, breath uses, and breath applications — [with] both the breath as benefactor and beneficiary: See “Asana — Academy for Learning Pranayama,” at the outset of this lesson.

[6]           we must know something about annamaya, because the pranamaya kosha underlies the annamaya kosha: In the Samkhya Yoga concept of evolution, the more gross objects are born of the more subtle objects. Here, the grosser annamaya kosha is born of the more subtle pranamaya kosha. Thus the pranamaya kosha is the underlying substrate.

[7]           All that lives by food, thrives by food, is maintained by food, is nurtured by food, grows by food is annamaya kosha: anna means food, both in the literal and mystical sense. Here, maya means consisting of. Thus annamaya denotes something composed of, consisting of, or made from food.

[8]           I have given some introductory information about the adhibhautika (pertaining to the five elements in the body), adhidaivika (celestial), and adhyatmika (pertaining to the Self) aspects: See “Adhibhautika, Adhyatmika, & Adhidaivika Dimensions of Embodiment +18.25,” Lesson 14: Dhyana ServesEmbodiment 5-17-20.

[9]           the four manas-indriyas (mind organs), which are manas, buddhi, ahamkara, and chitta: For the map of yogic consciousness, see Samkhya Cosmogeny in Asana.

[10]         these fourteen organs, as I said during one of these sessions, have special functions: For example, see “Aindriya-kriya (sensely acts)— Eyes in Asana +26.50,” Lesson 22: Chitta Vrtti.

[11]         Our ears are not a tape recorder. They’re not a mechanical organ…. They do not just take in sound. They work so much on the mind…, and on… the body as well: See “Senses Influenced by Subjective Substrate,” Lesson 21: Pratyahara 6-6-20.

[12]         I explained sometime back why they’re called indriyas, and not called organs… or avayava-s (limbs): See “Indriyas Are Not Organs +22.20,” Lesson 13: Japa Benefits SubtleBody 5-16-20.

[13]         The [celestial forces] have to have a heavenly atmosphere within us. Therefore, in that microcosm of the body, there is a heaven: See “Adhyatmika in the Embodiment +28.35,” Lesson 14: Dhyana Serves Embodiment 5-17-20.