“The Discipline of the Breath” From The Scale of the Very
Small
Adi Da Samraj
THE SCALE OF THE VERY SMALL
Appendix D
The Discipline of the Breath
Beloved Adi Da Instructs us to
1. Consciously breathe, or participate in, the energy of
life and in our relationship with Him as the Divine Source
of life with each inhalation and exhalation.
He invites us:
Surrender To Me.
Breathe Me and
Feel Me
In all Your parts.
[The Dawn Horse Testament Of The Ruchira Buddha,
chapter one]
That is to say,
while participating in the natural cycle of the breath,
allow your inhalation to be reception of life-energy and
your exhalation to be release of all negative
conditions:
Simply breathe, and
feel it.
Feel that you are receiving conscious,
revitalizing, and
transforming life-energy when you inhale, and that
you are releasing accumulated tensions,
toxins, and
negative psychological and
emotional conditions
when you exhale.
[Conscious Exercise and the Transcendental
Sun]
This manner of breathing is
the first “conductivity” exercise that an individual is
called to practice as he or she takes up the Way of the
Heart.
As you mature in your practice of the Way of the Heart,
your “conductivity” practice will grow to address more of
the Yogic processes in your own body-mind.
In addition,
your conscious participation in the breath cycle itself
will continue to deepen and develop into a more and more
meaningful devotional art.
Breathing as Devotion to Avatar Adi Da Samraj
AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: My Admonition that you Commune with Me with every breath, or Remember Me with every breath, or Invoke Me with every breath, does not mean that you technically engage every
inhalation and exhalation.
It is an Admonition you must fulfill artfully, in such a
way that even though you are not engaging every breath as a
technical practice, nevertheless every breath effectively is Communion with Me. The practice is done artfully, and, therefore, rather
randomly. The general practice I have Given you is not about observing breaths, counting breaths, noticing breaths in any technical fashion.
It is about entering into relationship with Me via the
breath, Communing with Me via the breath. The breath is not the subject of your practice. I Am!
All the faculties of the body-mind must be devoted to Me,
and, since breath is a primary faculty, you must exercise yourself in relation to Me via the
breath. The practice is not to get very curious about the
breaths themselves, or finicky about breathing. It is to
devote yourself to Me completely and to use the leading
faculties of the body-mind as a principal mechanism for it.
It is a devotional practice, then, not merely a functional
one.
Fundamentally, the practice of Ruchira Buddha Bhakti I
have Given you is a moment to moment practice. Its use is
not limited to meditation. It is simply, in effect, to
Invoke Me. In terms of the breath, it is to practice
reception and release directly in relation to
Mereceiving Me, releasing yourself, releasing all
content. It is a random noticing and engaging of the breath.
If the practice is done rightly, artfully, at random, then
effectively every breath becomes feeling-Communion with Me,
the process of receiving Me, releasing yourself into
Communion with Me, giving Me your attention, giving Me all
feeling, directing the body toward Me, and thereby Invoking
Me. By observing these mechanisms, bring them to Me.
There is a process of adaptation to doing this, not only
in meditation but in daily life, under all circumstances. As
you adapt to this artful practice of real and concrete
devotion to Me, in due course it becomes rather simple, even
automaticbut not mechanical. It just begins to flow,
it just begins to happen, and all of its aspects fall into
place very simply.
Components of the practice of “conductivity” are also
associated with the breath, and I have described these in
The Dawn Horse Testament. Yes, you must adapt to the
practice of “conductivity” technically. You must remember to
do so. You must intentionally introduce its various parts
artfully. As your adaptation develops, however,
“conductivity” becomes more and more simple and
straightforwardall the parts come together. It does
not require so much mental noticing anymore. It is very
simple and spontaneous, yet it accounts for everything.
BREATH, BODY, FEELING, EMOTION, ATTENTION and MIND
The breath is the link between all of the primary
faculties of the body-mind. It is a physical act. Therefore,
it is associated with the body. It is a feeling matter.
Therefore, it is associated with emotion. It requires
attention. Therefore, it requires the leading faculty of
mind. The practice is not to direct body, emotion, and
attention to the breath, however. It is to direct all those,
and the breath, toward Me. It is a matter of participating
in Me, entering fully into relationship to Me, concretely,
with all the faculties yielded.
First there is your response to Me, but then you must
learn this artful, and in some ways technical, practice, by
progressive adaptation. Just that adaptation is part of the
beginners practice of the Way of the Heart. You must
consistently apply yourself, and you must study My
Instruction. [Ishta]
In the Way of the Heart, the breath is simply a way to
participate in your devotional relationship to Beloved Adi
Da. Simply breathe, and feel Him. Surrender to Him, and feel
that you are receiving conscious, revitalizing, and
transforming life-energy when you inhale, and that you are
releasing accumulated tensions, toxins, and negative
psychological and emotional conditions when you exhale.
This process of reception-release is the effective means
by which you can realign and reintegrate your physical body
with the etheric dimension in which your body arises, thus
enlivening and balancing the physical body in the most
effective manner possible. The practice of the breath, or of
such reception-release, is to consciously release all
negative, tense, contracted, obstructed, and sluggish
conditions of body, emotion, and mind, and receive the
enlivening, healing, transforming, fluid, and intensifying
force of life itself.
It is natural to align the process of reception-release
to the cycle of the breath. Even involuntarily, you allow
the force of life to enter and fill the body with the
inhalation, and you release at least the physical wastes
with exhalation. In the process of reception-release that
Beloved Adi Da Instructs His devotees to engage, this
purifying process is amplified through feeling-Contemplation
of Him, reception of His Heart-Blessing, and release or
surrender of self.
The Six Parts of Conscious Breathing
In The Dawn Horse Testament Of The Ruchira Buddha, Avatar
Adi Da describes what He Calls the “lung-breathing exercises
of feeling and breath”:
. . . The “Conscious Exercise” Of inhalation-Reception,
In Descent, Via The Frontal Line Of the body, To The bodily
“Battery” Assisted By Easy Upward Tensing Of the bodily
base, Followed By exhalation-Release, Likewise Assisted By
Easy Upward Tensing Of the bodily base, and, As A General
Rule, With the Feeling-breath-exhalation Released From The
bodily “Battery” and Radiated Diffusely (In all directions)
Within the entire body . . . [chapter
thirty-three]
Here, Adi Das Instructions about how to breathe are
elaborated:
1. Breathe through the nose with the mouth closed and the
tongue lightly resting against the upper palate behind the
upper teeth.
2. Initiate the breath from the heart (the conscious,
feeling, psychic core of the body-beingthat is,
initiate the breath with the power of emotion, or whole body
feelingthrough and with the throat, to the navel.
3. When you inhale, draw in, relax into, and conduct the
life-energy of the universe with the whole being, even
through the entire skin surface of the whole physical body,
head to toe, down or into the vital center, the great life
region, whose felt point of concentration is below the
umbilical scar. Feel the life-energy at and from this
life-center, radiating through the whole being as
fullness.
4. Inhale fully, with deep feeling of heart and body,
completely filling the lungs with air and the whole body
with life-force. As the life-force moves through the body
with the inhalation, it is first sensed in the soft, life
region of the solar plexus. As it is drawn downward, it
fills and expands the lower body, even the genitals and then
the legs and feet. You may also feel a slight tingling
sensation at the perineum, which is the lowest or terminal
point in the etheric “pathway” of the body-being. Then the
chest and upper regions of the body open, including the neck
and head, and the entire body from the crown to the
perineum, even to the toes, is tangibly permeated with
vibrant energy.
5. The form of breathing described here is supported by
the descent of the diaphragm and the infilling of the
abdomen on inhalation. Typically people unconsciously raise
the diaphragm and draw in the abdomen on inhalation. This
restricts full filling of the lower portions of the lungs
and even the upper portions, making breathing require more
energy while being less effective. Natural breathing is an
easeful flow of the descent of the diaphragm, infilling of
the abdomen, followed by expansion and infilling of the
lower chest, followed by the upper chest.
6. When you exhale, do not discard the energy itself or
allow it to dissipate, but release and relax all hold on it,
allowing it to radiate, from the vital center and the whole
body. Allow and feel the pleasurable force of life to be
pumped by the heart through the entire body (the limbs, the
belly, the sex organs, the head, the teeth and hair and
nails, etc.) and the universe. Exhale fully, and with deep
feeling of heart and body. Let the energy pervade the whole
body and the universe to infinity, and release, via that
radiating and expansive energy, all accumulated conditions,
positive or negative, so that inhalation may bring what is
new and thus become an instrument of change and
refreshment.
The bodily “battery” is the focal point of the abdomen,
known by various names in traditional cultures, including
the Japanese name “hara”. It is about an inch and a half
below the umbilical scar.
There are two alternative practices to the
exhalation-release phase of the lung-breathing exercises.
These are:
1. . . . With the Feeling-breath-exhalation Released From
The bodily “Battery” and Radiated Into The General Pattern,
or Line, Of Ascent, Via The Spinal Line Of the body . .
.
Beloved Adi Da Says that this first alternate form of
“conductivity” is, in general, to be done only occasionally,
as appropriate. In other words, it is, in general, done less
frequently than the basic lung-breathing practice of
exhalation-release radiated diffusely (in all directions)
within the entire body.
. . . With the Feeling-breath-exhalation Released
From The bodily “Battery” and Radiated, Via the legs, Into
the soles of the feet. . . .
This second alternate form of the lung-breathing
exercises (exhalation-release into the soles of the feet) is
also to be done occasionally, to emphasize frontal,
descending “conductivity”. It revitalizes the body and
serves the general health of the body. It also can be used
to balance a too upward (or ascending) tendency in the body.
It can be used as a first aid measure when illness is
impending.
All three forms of the lung-breathing “conductivity”
practice will allow you, over time, to become responsible
for the loss of energy through the bodily base that occurs
as a result of reversing “conductivity” in the frontal line
(via reactive emotions, for example) or the spinal line (via
degenerative orgasm).
Learning to Breathe Consciously
To become adept at right breathing will require, in most
cases, careful and constant practice. You may, for instance,
have some difficulty inhaling through and with the fully
open and relaxed throat. Until the process becomes natural
to you, follow this procedure randomly to feel the
difference between the right and wrong ways of
breathing.
Try the wrong way first: Breathe in an exaggerated
fashion with the nose, sniffing deeply, even audibly,
through the nostrils.
Then breathe according to Beloved Adi Das Instructions.
First:
Feel the breath itself as pervasive life-energy, a living
food. Engage the living breath in a natural process of
inhalation-reception and exhalation-release of the universal
etheric (or pranic) energy-field that naturally pervades the
body. Become filled with life-energy on inhalation, and
radiate the feeling-energy diffusely, in all directions,
within and via the entire body, on exhalation.
Then:
1. Relax the whole area of the nose and mouth.
2. Let the tongue curve forward and up, resting lightly
against the hard palate.
3. Rest your attention at the rear and the base of the
throat.
4. Now let the muscles of this area open and become the
channel of inhalation. Allow the facial muscles around the
nose and mouth to remain at rest as you breathe deeply, with
feeling and from the heart, and make an audible “drawing”
sound as the breath passes through the throat, passing down
its backside.
5. With full feeling in every part of the body and mind,
release all thought, all accumulated tensions and negative
emotional-sexual conditions, and all toxic substances as you
exhale. Exhale fully, but naturally and easily, with a
feeling of elimination from every part and every cell.
6. When you inhale, do so consciously, with whole body
feeling, and fully, and allow the universal energy to fill
and permeate every function and every cell of your being.
Allow the life-energy, which is cycled by this process of
reception and release, to permeate and pervade not only the
whole body but all arising phenomena, all space. Feel that
the force of life spreads through and fills the universe,
beyond all that you see and seem to know.
7. Breathe naturally, allowing the inhalation phase and
the exhalation to be equal in length. Breathe easily, but
fully and deeply, and coordinate the breath in a natural
(not self-conscious) rhythm with alterations of posture and
other bodily movements. Let the vital center, below the
navel, receive, enjoy, release, and distribute every cycle
of the life-breath.
You should notice a pronounced difference between these
two forms of breathing. By tendency, you breathe in the
unnatural way, from and with the nose or the mouth. As you
engage the practice of appropriate breathing, you will
observe randomly that the mechanisms by which the body opens
to the breath and the life-force tend to remain obstructed
or else to open only partially and awkwardly when you
breathe unnaturally. But you will find that the entire gross
bodily being, both elemental and etheric, opens
spontaneously or effortlessly when the breath and life-force
are conducted in the natural way, via the throat, with
feeling, from the heart, to the vital center.
Clearly, it is not air that is being drawn into the navel
and lower regions of the body, but life-force, etheric
energy, or “prana”. Physical air and the process of
biochemical respiration in the lungs constitute only
secondary, grosser aspects of the dynamics of the breath.
Breathing principally and directly involves the higher
physics of the etheric or pranic body, and only secondarily
involves the elemental or physical being. Thus, it is also
natural, especially as practice matures, to feel the
“inspiration” or reception of life-energy, not only through
the valve of the throat, but through the entire skin surface
of the physical body. When the breath is felt in this way,
you begin to include direct perception and enjoyment of the
subtlest of the gross elements, which is ether or
life-energy, along with your perception and utilization of
the denser elements associated with the gross body, or
earth, water, fire, and air.
The process of reception-release, or the cycling of life,
is not limited, properly, to the elemental physics of the
breath. It is a psycho-physical event and action, and it
should be engaged at random and often throughout the day,
whether or not in alignment with physical inhalation and
exhalation. That is why the lung-breathing exercise is the
third most important aspect of the three-part “conductivity”
exercise: it is possible (and necessary) to practice
reception-release in feeling-Contemplation of Beloved Adi Da
through even more primitive, or fundamental, aspects of the
body-mind that the breath.
If you simply radiate from the heart to Infinity
(engaging the first aspect of the three-part process of
“conductivity”) you will notice that you are perpetually
letting go every kind of obstruction, and that you are
always opening to and receiving Beloved Adi Das Blessing,
and that you are always being sustained by the universal, or
etheric, life-force that pervades the gross body. Likewise,
if you relax from toe to crown along the spinal line
(engaging the second aspect of the three-part process of
“conductivity”), you will notice that you are naturally
releasing all the accumulated stresses, reactions, and
negative conditions associated with conditional existence,
and that you are even releasing your commitment to the
self-contraction itself. By adding the lung-breathing
exercises (thus engaging the third part of the three-part
“conductivity” exercise), you enhance and magnify both
aspects of the natural and necessary process of
reception-release in the body-mind. That is why conscious
participation in the cycle of the breath is an important
part of your practice of sexual “conscious exercise” and in
learning to control male ejaculatory orgasm (which is a
critical part of the practice of birth control in the Way of
the Heart).