Session #8: Pranayama
After separating the lead from the gold [Yoga-gym from bushy ancestral yoga], the plunge into the "Pranayama" ocean promises to be even more acidic: the Great Divide:
Less present in yoga-gym, and therefore mostly anecdotal
More central to ancestral yoga, and therefore unquestionably more "medieval".
Personally, I've discovered a landscape of delightful horizons and would like to join you in trying not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater".
Let's see...
Preparation
India, yoga & pranayama:
Light-hearted introduction (just watch the first 5 to 10 minutes, more if you can...)
A biased sample, I grant you.
Well, I can't resist: here's a little article from Le Monde when Ram Dev released his ayurvedic pill to combat COVID and was teased by the World Health Organization, which issued a denial... Here, then.
As a reminder, Ram Dev is a character, a "yogi", quite recognizable in contemporary India... See Wikipedia
Readings
"Breathing
Yoga Journal article (What else?): here
This article is short
BUT I encourage you to read it meticulously and ask yourself after each part how to render it in your own words and if you're convinced. For example: "Tell me how you breathe, and I'll tell you how you feel!
We're looking to make our own the adages that circulate (very quickly) whenever Pranayama is mentioned.
Underline (yes, it's very academic): Two colors: blue for any reference to "Western science", red for any reference to "Hindu" underpinnings.
Bonus: 7 Karma points for anyone who finds the surprising detail on the last page that questions the real practitioners of breathing: divers.
Counterpoint
Breathing well... We Westerners breathe badly... and other preconceived ideas... Yoguists aren't the only ones interested in this. And yet, in "science", I haven't found any clear references or framing to my liking. But Luna (one of your "former colleagues") did! She came back in a panic after reading an article about the Buyteko Technique.
Page to read: https://buteykoclinic.com/buteyko-breathing/
Would it be wrong of us to indulge uncritically in our applications of medieval yogic techniques? Or will there be a critique of the critique? Suspense.
Reading test: Which argument in this text echoes my Bonus question?
Pranayama Encyclopedy Entry
Diving into the origins of Pranyama: an essential text to save you from Mallinson & Singleton's in-depth text in their legendary "Roots of Yoga": so it's a gift of simplicity, in 8 pages.
Here then
Or, in web version: https://www.danielsimpson.info/archive/yoga-breathing-pranayama-sahapedia
And the reference document Roots of Yoga - Breath Control, for the curious or the crazy.
Optional reading
More concrete: I found the notes of a future Iyengar yoga teacher on the subject: practical, illustrated and which will probably satisfy you more if you have little interest in the "criticism" part: here
THE "Indian" reference: Iyengar's book Light on Pranayama, a must-read: I'll review the key points during our session...
THE Western, and ... Belgian reference: Van Lisbeth: Pranayma The dynamics of Breath, with a delicious sixties note and its ambient magnetism...
Contemporary references:
Anusara yoga, shorter, and full of the classic small talk: Hatha Yoga in the Anusara Style, by Doug Keller, Chapter 6 (and as a gift Chapter 7 for the chakras part) - Very easy to read...
Biomedical Institute of Yoga & Meditation (BIYOME): Bandha-Mudra-Pranayama-Manual, P25 to 42, with full illustrations, very easy to digest. Click here. And as a gift: some limipid pages on Bandhas & Mudras.