Have you heard two people whispering, and you feared that they were whispering about you ? What did you do — how did you listen harder ? Now think of this carefully — YOU HELD YOUR BREATH, because instinctively, or through experience, you knew that in holding your breath you would somehow be able to hear better. That is so, is it not ?

BREATHING is the most essential of our functions. Without breath we cannot exist, because it takes breath — containing oxygen and other gases — to activate the brain and keep it working. But our manner of breathing is the coarsest way we can possibly use ‘air.’

We have to know something about breath control before we can go to deal with any form of exercise.

Again, suppose you cut yourself, or, if you prefer, imagine you have sustained one of those painful grazes which one can obtain from a fall on rough concrete. What do you do ? Think of this carefully — YOU HOLD YOUR BREATH ! You find, by instinct, that if you hold your breath there is less shock, there is less pain, but as you cannot go on holding your breath indefinitely you feel pain when you breathe normally.

Have you ever watched strong furniture removal men when they are confronted with a heavy object which has to be taken away ? What do they do ? They first look very glumly at the object to be lifted, then they dolefully rub their hands together while they take a deep breath — and THEY HOLD THEIR BREATH while they are actually lifting the heavy article off the ground. Instinct, or experience, or whatever you like to call it, has taught these furniture removal men, and in fact anyone who has to lift weights, that if they take a deep breath and hold it, lifting becomes much easier.

Does your work necessitate deep thinking ? Do you have to ponder upon a matter — work out some form of solution ? You DO ? Then no doubt you will have noticed that as you think more and more deeply your breath becomes slower and slower.

An Adept who is deeply meditating breathes so slowly, so shallowly, that one has difficulty in knowing if he is breathing at all, and those people who are buried in the earth can suspend their breathing so that one breath might last for several hours !

Breath — air — is essential to us. Air contains prana, but prana is not a matter which the student of chemistry can shove into a test tube, or heat in a retort, or look at through a microscope. Prana is a different thing altogether. One might say that it exists in a different dimension, but it is absolutely essential for the maintenance of life because it is the universal energy of EVERYTHING. It is manifest in everything that we can think of, and yet humans use prana in the coarsest possible way when it is breathed carelessly, clumsily.

Prana stimulates our thoughts. Without adequate prana there can be no thought ; without adequate prana there can be no healing, because for the latter prana is quite essential. A ‘healer’ is a person who can transfer his or her own excess prana to a sufferer. The area of its storage is in the solar plexus. The more prana we have succeeded in storing the more dynamic we are, the more vibrant with life force, the more we make an impact upon others.

There is no point in going into details about the ten Nadis, and how prana moves through them. We have dealt with such things and about Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna in the preceding portion of this book. Instead, we want to have some elementary exercises which cannot hurt us, but which can do us a tremendous amount of good.

First of all — how do you breathe ? There is more than one system, you know. As an illustration, sit comfortably, preferably on a hard-backed chair, keep your spine erect and your head facing forward. Relax as much as you can while maintaining that erect posture. Now take a deep breath, a long breath, allowing your lower abdomen to swell out, but without inflating your chest or raising your shoulders. You have to keep your chest as it was and your shoulders as they were, the deep breath is taken by letting your diaphragm sag downwards, so that only the lower abdomen swells out. This is ‘lower breathing,’ and if you do it properly you will find that your ribs and intercostal muscles do not move. Remember that, will you ? This ‘lower breathing’ is the first of our exercises, so let us call it System Number One.

When you have done that, try another method. Take a deep breath while preventing your diaphragm muscle from moving. This time, breathe with the aid of your ribs and your intercostal muscles. Take a really big breath ; you will find that now your chest is expanding, but your abdomen remains quite normal — unexpanded.

In this exercise you will observe that you have chest expansion instead of abdomen expansion. This method is termed ‘middle breathing.’ We called the other system — System Number One ; so this time we will term it System Number Two.

There is yet another system and we will deal with it now. You are still sitting erect, still with your head facing forward. Draw in your abdomen slightly, as if you are trying to ‘suck’ it up towards the chest. Now, with your abdomen contracted take a deep breath while raising your shoulders and keeping your ribs and intercostal muscles as still as possible. This is a completely different type of breathing, one in which the upper portions of the lungs become well ventilated. We will call this system, System Number Three.

System Number One enables you to take in far more air than the other systems. System Number Three proves to be the least efficient of the lot, with Number Two coming in between.

The best way to breathe is that using all three types. You start by slowly taking in air by swelling out the lower abdomen, and keeping your shoulders still and your ribs rigid. Next you swell out the chest using the ribs and the intercostal muscles, and at the same time you raise your shoulders and force them back. This fills the whole lung area and prevents pockets of stale air which lead to asthma, voice complaints, and often to lung congestion. It is an easy matter to practice this type of complete breathing, but you must remember that breathing in is only half the battle. When you breathe out — exhale — your shoulders should sag, your ribs should close in, and your abdomen should push up to squeeze as much stale air as possible from your lungs. Until we have this clear — until you can get rid of stale air and take in fresh — it is not possible to go farther in obtaining the optimum amount of prana. Presumably you have practiced by now so — let us go a little farther.

We have to remember that breathing consists of three steps : 

There are various ‘ratios’ which enable us to achieve certain objectives. That is, we should breathe in for a certain period of time, then we should retain that breath for a certain period of time before exhaling over a certain period of time.

Let us look, then, at ‘ratios.’

RATIOS : As probably everyone knows by now, the lungs are like sponges inside a sponge bag. If you fill the lungs with air the oxygen is taken into the blood, and waste gases from the blood pass back into the lungs and become lodged in some of the deeper sacs of our ‘sponges.’

We need to exhale for twice as long as we inhale because it may be taken that it needs twice the time to get the impure air out of the lungs. At the same time we should squeeze out as much air as we can.

If we do not completely exhale, then we cannot get full lungs of air on the next inhalation, and the incoming air will be contaminated by the stale air (like stagnant water in a pond) in the deeper sacs.

Stale air lets bacilli remain undisturbed, and so the lungs can be affected by T.B. (Tuberculosis, short for tubercle bacillus, Ed.), which is not so easily the case if one breathes deeply and exhales completely.

The ratio of one unit in and two units out should be adhered to. As an example, breathe in for four seconds and breathe out for eight seconds. With practice you can breathe in over a much higher time and breathe out over twice that time.

We have seen that the average input ratio is one to two. Now let us look at the next step.

How long should we retain our breath ? An average time is four times the amount of seconds it took you to inhale, or twice as long as it takes you to exhale. So on our former illustration you should breathe in for four seconds, retain the breath for four times four seconds, that is, sixteen seconds, and breathe out over twice four seconds, that is, eight seconds. So we have — breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for sixteen seconds, and breathe out for eight seconds.

Naturally, this is just an illustration, just an example, for soon you will want to hold your breath for longer and have some different ratios, but we will deal with that all in its turn. You should keep before you, though, this thought ; if you breathe irregularly, you are irregular in the mind. When your breath is steady so is your mind. As you breathe, so are you.

Now we will have some exercises which it is KNOWN will be of great help to you if you will carry them out conscientiously. To save time and paper, and all that, let it now be stated that for all these exercises you should be sitting comfortably. If you are young, and have some practice in such things, you may like to sit in the Lotus Position, or sit with your legs crossed, but all that matters really is that you sit so that you are comfortable, never mind about the exotic things, just sit comfortably ; keep your spine erect, and your head (unless specifically told otherwise) facing forward.

We shall have to have some period of time — some unit — and just as in the old days of photography people used to count off seconds : ‘Kodak One, Kodak Two, Kodak Three, etc.’ (free advertisement for Kodak !), we can use ‘OM One, OM Two, OM Three,’ and so on.

Here is the first exercise. Remember, you are sitting on a hard chair with your spine erect and your head facing forward. Take two or three deep breaths — just take in the breath, hold it for about a second, and let it out. Do that two or three times. Now — put a finger against your right nostril so that you cannot breathe through that nostril. It does not matter which finger you use, or even if you use your thumb, the whole purpose is to close the nostril so that it cannot be used.

Inhale through the left nostril to the mental count of ‘OM One, OM Two, OM Three, OM Four, OM Five.’ Then exhale through the left nostril (be sure that you keep the right one tightly closed) while doing the ‘OM’ count ten times. In every case such as this the breathing out time is twice that of the breathing in time, that is a fixed rule.

Repeat this twenty times, that is, breathe in through the left nostril, and exhale through the left nostril twenty times, breathing in over a period of five ‘OM’s’ and breathing out over a period of ten ‘OM’s.’

After that just sit still for a few moments, and see if you do not already feel quite a lot better, and remember, you are just starting ! The second stage comes next.

You have just had your right nostril closed, so now you do the same thing but keep your left nostril closed. Again, it does not matter which finger you use, or even which hand you use. Proceed exactly as you did when breathing through the left nostril, take exactly the same amount of time, and do this breathing through the right nostril for twenty times as you did for the left.

You must breathe as silently as you can, and you must take what we term the complete breath, that is, using your abdomen, using your chest muscles, and raising and throwing back your shoulders. You have to get in as much air as you can, and you have to get out as much air as you can. After these exercises you will have no foul or stale air left in your lungs !

This first exercise should be carried out for two weeks. You can slowly — very slowly — increase the time of inhalation and exhalation, but do not do anything which strains you or tires you. You must ‘make haste slowly.’ If you find five seconds in and ten seconds out is too much, then make it four, or even three, seconds in, and eight or six seconds out. These particular figures are given merely as a guide, you have to use commonsense, and you have to suit yourself. If you start with a smaller time, then you will make progress but you will take rather a longer period over it, while being much, much safer.

Observe particularly that in the above exercise you do not retain the breath ; that is done for a special reason, because this exercise is designed to make the nostrils accustomed to breathing properly. So many people breathe through the mouth, or through one nostril, and the exercise given above is a form of training process first.

We suggested that you should do this exercise for two weeks or so. If you take two weeks, three weeks, or four weeks it does not matter, there is no hurry, you have plenty of time, and it is better to do a thing slowly and properly because rushing through does no good. So now, after two, or three, or four weeks, whatever you like, let us get on to what is known as the alternate nostril breathing.

Remember how you have to sit ? Well, it should be second nature by now ! You are sitting, then, on a hard chair with your feet together, your spine erect, your head level, and your gaze straight forward. So you start now by closing the right nostril while you breathe through the left. Hold the breath a moment while you close the left nostril and exhale through the right nostril, that is, in this case, you are breathing in through one nostril and out through the other.

Next time inhale through the right nostril, and when you have a big lungful of air close the right nostril with a finger or thumb, and exhale through the left. Again, you have to breathe in for five or six seconds, and breathe out for ten or twelve seconds.

Have you got that right ? First you close your right nostril with a finger and inhale through the left nostril. Then you close the left nostril and exhale with the right. After that you change things around, you inhale through the right nostril (with the left closed), and then you close the right and exhale through the left. Do that for about twenty times.

After a month you should be able to increase the time so that you are doing eight and sixteen seconds, and when you have been doing it a month, or two months, you will find that you are very, very much better in health. Your sight will improve, and you will become lighter on your feet. It is suggested that this second exercise be practiced for three months because it is still a ‘probationary’ period, or a period in which your breathing mechanism is becoming trained.

Exercise Number Three : this is similar to the Number Two, but we have here retention of breath as well. It should be stated now that although one should retain the breath for four times as long as one took to breathe in, until you are well used to this system it is much more comfortable to retain your breath for only twice as long as it took to breathe it in and then after a few months you can work up to the one to four ratio.

In this third exercise one has to inhale the air through the left nostril while doing our ‘OM’ count four times. Then one retains the air during an ‘OM’ count of eight times. After that, exhale through the right nostril (we breathed in through the left, remember) eight times. When we have breathed out, and without stopping, inhale through the right nostril (and with the left closed), retain the breath for the eight ‘OM’s, and then breathe out through the opposite nostril. You would be well advised to practice this twenty times a day.

It really does not matter what finger or thumb you use to close off the unwanted nostril. So many people say you must not use this finger or you must use that finger, just to try to make things look mysterious. In my case I have been doing it for more years than you would believe, and I can tell you from personal experience, as well as from the observed experience of others, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH FINGER OR THUMB YOU USE !

You will, of course, be practicing and getting bigger and bigger breaths, and longer and longer retentions, and slower and slower exhalations. You will be able to do, to start, four seconds in, hold it eight seconds, and breathe out for eight seconds. But after two months or so you will be able to breathe in for eight seconds, hold it for sixteen seconds, and exhale for sixteen seconds, and to really give you something to work for, when you have been doing it for a year you should be able to breathe in for eight seconds, hold it for about half a minute, and then breathe out over some sixteen seconds. But you should not try that until you have been practicing for some twelve months.

This really is a very good system of breathing, and one which should be practiced every day for ‘twenty rounds.’

Here is an exercise which enables one to keep warm in cold weather. It is something much practiced in Tibet where a lama can sit unclothed on ice, and even melt ice around him and dry off wet blankets draped around his shoulders.

Here’s how you do it. Sit comfortably again, and make sure that you really ARE sitting with your spine upright. You must have no tensions or pressing worries for the moment. Close your eyes, and think of yourself saying, ‘OM, OM, OM,’ telepathically.

Close your left nostril, and take in as much air as you can through the right nostril. Then close the right nostril (your thumb is the best for this because it is most convenient), and retain the breath by pressing your chin hard against your chest, bring your chin up close to your neck.

Hold the breath for a time and then gradually exhale through the left nostril by closing the right nostril (again the thumb is easiest here).

Careful note — in this particular exercise one always breathes in through the right nostril, and always breathes out through the left nostril.

You should do this from a start of ten breathings, during which you gradually increase the time of breath retention, up to some fifty times, but you must increase your breath retention very gradually, there is no need to rush, and while on the subject here is a little note which may free you from worry ; when you have been doing it for some time, and you are doing it with deep breath retention, you may find that you perspire from the roots of the hair. That is perfectly safe, perfectly normal, and really does increase the health and cleanliness of the body.

Have you ever seen how a dog or a cat folds the tongue so that it becomes a vee shape ? Well, in this case we are going to be like the cat ! Sit as before, that is, comfortably on a hard seat with the spine erect. Protrude your tongue just a little, and make it so that it has a vee. Then you draw ALL THROUGH THE MOUTH with an indrawn ‘Ssss.’ Hold your breath as long as possible, and then exhale through the nostrils. You need to do this for twenty times a day.

It is important that you should be absolutely regular in these exercises. Do not miss one day and do twice as long the next day, that is just a waste of time. If you are not going to do the exercises regularly, then it is far better not to start. So — be regular, be punctual, try to do your exercises at the same time every day, and when doing them do not screw up your face, do not indulge in any contortions of any kind. If you find that you get any pain, stop immediately until the pain is gone. Further, you cannot do these exercises if you have just over-stuffed yourself with food. Most people eat too much for too long to too little purpose, and so a moderate diet is to be preferred.

As a final warning, do not do these exercises if you have heart disease or T.B. (Tuberculosis, short for tubercle bacillus, Ed.). Do not try to hold your breath longer than is comfortable. After all, there will be other lives, what you do not learn in this life you can always ‘drop in’ again, and take up where you left off ! And it should be stated, too, that unless you are very young, very supple, and very well insured, you should not do any of the exercises which require you to balance on one thumb or sit with your feet resting on the top of your head or something. Unless you were born an Easterner, or unless your parents were acrobats at the local circus, you will be well advised to leave these things alone.