Is Your Retention Really Pranayama? 5 Checks

Striking Hanumanasana
(just to try it -a few years ago)
does not necessarily make it yoga

For a someone who practices breath extension or pranayama (the 5th limb of yoga) holding the breath is one of the most important parts, so much so that some ancient texts do not make a distinction between the expression for holding breath: retention, and the actual word pranayama.

It is the most important part because when the breath does not move, then the mind is also quiet.

BUT, holding the breath is just a cue that one is trying to practice, not a good indication of whether things are going well.

Retaining the breath is a very coarse, show-off, open, type of action and just like in asana, striking a pose does not make it yoga...

This is Claudia's Book Club. I am inviting everyone to come along and read with me, and the first book in the series is a very timely one: "Pranayama: The Breath of Yoga".

I say timely because it is about time that we leave behind our childhood obsession with asana (poses) and move on to paying attention to our breathing.

But of course, to practice pranayama we need to first understand it. Enter this amazing book.

A few of you (four so far?) have told me that you will be joining in reading and observing discoveries, questions, aha! moments. What a joy!

I am hoping that many others are also peeking from behind the curtain, maybe not commenting but yet tuned in, as I find this read fascinating and I am sure you do too.

If you are not yet following you might want to join in.  You can click on the tab up above for the book club for what we have read so far. I look forward to hearing your voice around.

Back to the aha! moments of chapter five:

THE 5 CHECKS

For it to be real, retention of the breath or kumbhaka, within the practice of pranayama, Maehle says, it needs to have these five parts:

1- Practitioner sited in traditional meditation asana such as siddhasana or padmasana
2- When kumbhaka exceeds 10 seconds the bandhas need to be applied
3- The mind must be focused on a suitable yogic sacred object
4- The length of all inhalations, retention, and exhalations must be predetermined and
5- There needs to be a specific ratio which is followed and increased in time.

Does it NEED to? you may wonder.  Well, I am no expert, but I can tell you I have different experiences when I sit straight, take time to get on my siddhasana, as I am not quite able to withhold the lotus pose for very long, and give the practice the room in deserves.  In general they seem better.

HOW LONG TO RETAIN

There is an interesting discussion on: what is long when it comes to holding the breath?

There seem to be three streams of thinking, one is the length of retention at 40/45 seconds or less.  This Gregor says, is attainable by anyone.  It just needs slow and dedicated practice under right guideance.  Then there is the more masterly level of 2 minutes or so, and then there are the legends, yogis who can retain for hours, weeks even, like the yogi who lived to be 280 years old.

Gregor is very clear that he does not want to get too much into the retention.  You need a teacher to determine what your best would be, because there is a lot to weight in on the decision, from life style, weather you drink coffee or not, how is your health, how is your asana practice, where you live (hot or cold), where and what you work on, etc.  And even then, even with a teacher it is still pretty difficult to assess.

The important thing is to practice and keep extending the breath retention (as well as inhalation and exhalation) slowly, with patience, without fooling ourselves into thinking we can do so much more, letting the mind take over like a monkey.  Many people stop practicing because they started with too long a count! laments Gregor.

"...The idea is to proceed prudently, and slowly until you are completely satisifeid that you have thoroughly digested your current level of practice..." (page 63)

But you knew that.

He also does not want to turn pranayama into a circus of sorts, where people "compete" to see who can hold on longer.   Should you really be curious about this, and not able to hold yourself in your seat unless you read more about it, then there are two books you can look at, he says, this one (wow! 1,300 dollars!) and this one.

"The last thing we want to do with pranayama is turn it into a rat-race in which students with tongues hanging out strive after longer and longer kumbhakas." (page 67)

TYPES OF RETENTION

I recommend reading, page 59, the part where he goes over the two types of retentions, the structured, or intended for, where we try for it with practice, and the spontaneous one, which happens by itself and which is mentioned by Patanjali in the Sutras.

Then also the types as in: the internal (after inhalation) vs the external (more difficult and after exhalation).  A great read, and in it he includes recommendations on the possible order in which to learn them (not what I anticipated)

Still can't get over this book
costing over 1300 dollars. Is the demand
that low for a new one?

EFFECTS OF RETENTIONS

The thing to understand is that retentions have different effects.

a-The 40/45 second mark on retentions brings about health benefits.

b-The 2 minute mark is more for advanced practitioners, serious and dedicated seekers who want to raise kundalini, fall into meditation proper, and attain liberation through the eight limbs of yoga, for he makes it clear this is not the only way, it is just the yogi's way.

GREGOR ANSWERS A QUESTION!

The chapter closes with Gregor teaching us that the Pradipika determines the link between pranayama and the higher limbs, meaning how does pranamaya get us to the higher, mystical states of yoga, how do we reach liberation because of pranayama.

"12 pranayamas make one pratyahara (the fifth limb), 12 prahyaharas make 1 dharana (the sixth limb), 12 dharanas make 1 dhyana (the seventh) and 12 dhyanas make 1 samadhi (the eight limb and culmination of yoga)"

BUT WHAT IS ONE PRANAYAMA?

What does that mean?  I did not know, so I asked, and Gregor was kind enough to answer. Here is what he said:

Regarding the passage in the Pradipika: Generally this is meant to be the length of one kumbhaka. The standard internal kumbhaka is 64 seconds but let say one minute:

one pranayama is 1 minute,
one pratyahara is 12 minutes,
one dharana is 144 minutes (2+hours),
one dhyana is 1728 minutes (about a day),
one samadhi is 20736 minutes (28.8 days) that about the time of a moon cycle.

Its interesting that the Pradipika and other texts such as the Kumbhaka Paddhati use such quantitative ways of measuring samadhi. However, it works only if the pratyahara and dharana components of the practice are done in a sophisticated and technically precise way, similarly as an asana succeeds only then if done precisely. If so, then the subconscious mind is suspended (not just the conscious mind) are suspended and then accessing the higher limbs can indeed be measured in a quantitative way.

I have both the pratyahara and dharana components described in my new Meditation book on about 300 pages, that's why I've gone all silent again. It was a lot of work. I'll just do another pass over it and then hand it to my editor. Shouldn't be too long before it comes out.

Gratitude to Gregor for answering!

Pranayama is a yogi technique, so it makes sense that it would only work within the context of the eight limbs, which have been tried and tried for centuries and centuries.  The real question that pranayama poses for us is, will we be able to do it? Can we really quiet the mind enough and stop showing off and go at the right pace.   Can we give it energy but not so much that we burn it alive?

Can we, like B.K.S. Iyengar, accept that maybe one morning we will wake up and just go back to sleep because the practice is not happening, or there is an electric storm?  Can we give ourselves the time and space it deserves?  Can we build breath upon breath and one day experience this? (if you don't see video click here). Watch him breathe from 1:00' on.  Watch him talk as well before that!

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CLAUDIA'S BOOK CLUB: 

"PRANAYAMA THE BREATH OF YOGA"

Chapter One: How Many Breaths Do You Do Per Minute?

Chapter Two: Part I: Who Is An Expert In Yoga?

Chapter Two: Part II: How To Get Your Body To Be 16 Years Old Again

Chapter Three: Meditation is Useless Unless Both Nostrils Are Active

Chapter Four: Is Your Retention Really Pranayama, or Just Holding The Breath? 5 Checks

Chapter Five: How Do I Know If I Am Ready For Pranayama?

Chapter Six: Food, Drugs And Yoga: Stacking The Odds In Your Favor

Chapter Seven: Padmasana (Lotus Pose) A Laboratory for Spiritual Emancipation

Chapter Eight: Pulling Your Brain Updwards. On Bandhas and Pranayama

Chapter Nine: Why Gross Purification Is Critical To Yoga

Chapter Ten: The Breathing Exercise That Gets Rid Of Our Fears

Chapter Eleven: How Not To Be An Idiod In Pranayama. Nerve Purification

Chapter Twelve:  Bhastrika Pranayama - Life Force on Steroids

Chapter Thirteen: What The World Needs Now Is More Left Nostril Breathing

Here is a link to the book in Amazon. Join me in reading!