Pranayama in Patanjalis scheme, otherwise known as yoga, is fundamentally a state of awarenessbeing, rather than a technique as it is in hathayoga texts.

When in the stable stillness of asana the structure of the body no longer impinges on awareness, all that is left is its activity: most apparently the breath. Stillness in the body naturally generates stability in the mind. This stability encourages an effortless awareness of the breath which needs no intentional direction. Only when the mind is not relaxed, and still under the thrall of memory and sensory input, does it need to be directed towards the breath.

Within the awareness state of asana this is not necessary.   As attention casts the light of awareness on the breath it is elucidated in all of its characteristics. This exhaustive elucidation reveals any habitual, conditioned factors unnecessarily influencing the breath. Within this elucidation the mind relaxes into ever more subtle states of the breath and these impositions naturally dissolve. Then the breath, free from even the most subtle imposition (pushing or pulling), becomes quite free from the past. Into this freedom it becomes subtle and its dualities are transcended. It becomes impossible to distinguish the inhalation from the exhalation. It becomes impossible to even recognise the process of breathing as such. The breather and the breath also dissolve from the field of awareness.

The continuous oscillation between inhaling and exhaling is the organic pendulum of duality. This oscillation is not only occurring within our bodies. Body and mind are operationally nonseparate, even though their functionality is separable. As duality is transcended in the breath it begins to be challenged in the mind. The conditioned tendency of dualistic   perception begins to be undermined. This allows the light of awareness to shine more brightly and draw the mind towards meditation.

These five sutras describing pranayama are clearly also not describing a special technique. They describe a special kind of experience beyond the functional dualities of the breath.   An experience that many techniques might access. If they result in this special state of awareness they can be classified as yoga (pranayama) techniques. When they do they are undermining the dualistic sense of self from the realm of the breath.

Patanjali is not referring to controlbased practices which are safely and effectively utilised only within the context of the gurufunction, otherwise they can increase egoism, aversion, attachment, selfclinging and ignorance to a point even of mania. This is not Patanjali’s path of surrender, which while it may be more subtle and painstaking is free from the dangers inherent in the warrior path of direct attack embodied in hathayoga and requiring the strategic and tactical guidance of a masterwarrior the guru if it is not to end in disaster.

The breath then is the meditative seed of ashtangayoga, both while in the dynamic practice of the postures and in the final sitting practice. The potential of the breath as a gateway to transcendentalawareness and therefore liberation is unparalleled. It has the power that it does because the breath when unhindered is not conditional in any way upon the will, and links directly into the mind. It is the omnipresent rhythmtone of the bodymind and is the most tangible, effective route to the nonduality of the infinite.

When a meditation object is not inherently manifest it must be held in the mind by the power of the will. This simple act reinforces the sense of self, so that no matter how deeply the mind focusses and transforms itself all of its insights are external and accrue to the object rather than to the mind and its mechanisms, and result not in liberation but the siddhi of knowledge, which binds the knower with a subtle power that few in its grip can even recognise. This approach to meditation does not bring about the transformationphases of the mind (pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi) that release it from the gunas.

Instead it brings about insight into the nature of the object rather than to the projective mechanism of the mind and therefore cannot undermine them. In fact externallyseeded meditativeinsight reinforces the habit of the dualistic mind and the identityfield. This is the danger in cultivating the siddhis.

Knowledge cannot, does not lead to liberation, only surrender that results from insight can and does. Pranayama as defined by Patanjali occurs naturally within asana as a deepening of that preliminary transcendental state of awarenessbeing through attention being drawn closer and closer to the dualistic mechanism of the breath in all of its characteristics until that duality is transcended. It can occur in any asana, but most likely in those that can be sustained with an effortless alertness until attention is drawn away from the external structure and internal dynamic of the body and into the breath. it is fundamental to all effective mediation, even when it is not being conceptualised, as it actually need not be.

Pranayama is the art of letting go of, or surrendering to the natural state of the breath. This is done by becoming one with the breath in all of its characteristics, of space, time and number. As attention insinuates itself into the breath all impositions are unmasked and disempowered. Then the breath becomes unhindered, dirgha, and subtle, suksma. In this unhindered subtlety it transcends its duality. This is the fourth, transcendent, state of the breath wherein the other three, inhalation, exhalation and transition are no longer perceptually or experientially differentiated. This unhinges the dualistic activity of the mind, thinking with a thinker, and prepares it for meditativeconcentration (dharana) by way of meditativeinternalisation (pratyahara).

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