Breathe deeply, really?

A long time ago in my very first yoga class, I remember a teacher asking me to breathe deeply.  I also distinctively remember looking around, and checking "others" to see if I was doing it right.  Was I breathing deeply enough? Then over years and years of practice I began to get in touch with my own breathing and I noticed that breathing "normally", but "steady" is enough.

I find the term "deeply" utterly confusing, it leads people to hyperventilate or make loud noises (sometimes to please the teacher) or worst of all, force the breath.  I find "breathe normally"  much more accurate.

Anything that implies or suggests forcing the extension of the breath is unnatural to me. Iyengar agrees with me (OK maybe more like me with him). Consider this rephrasing of what he said, from Yoga Journal:

"... Iyengar says that the breath must "be enticed or cajoled, like catching a horse in a field, not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in one's hand. Nothing can be forced; receptivity is everything.""

Pranayama is the practice of breath extension, but we never ever force anything, we simply practice, practice, practice and extend the retention, inhalation and exhalation for one count at the time until one day we are able retain the breath for a long period of time, but NEVER forcing anything.  That is why it takes years.

In Ashtanga, where we do pranayama in every practice (we breathe with the ujjai breath (the one that makes a sound as if we were Dark Vader by contracting the glottis), we are working at having a very steady breathing.  It even surprises me when I hear people overdoing the sound.

My teacher once told me "never compromise the breath".  By this now I understand he meant slow down if you need to, but always go with the breath, respect it.  

So breathing normally, at a pace that allows the entering and exiting of asanas in a "flow" is how I like to think of it.  Respecting this force to be tamed!: the breath.

Do you see an issue with teachers asking students to "breathe deeply"?