Pranayama: breathing is life!
Autor: D. Harald Alke
A standpoint, not an encyclopedia entry. An essay by D. Harald Alke (extract from “Die Stufen des Pranayama”). Background knowledge: encyclopedia entry Pranayama.
“Before you can master the task of shaping your whole life consciously, first learn to breathe properly!”
What does breathing mean for our life?
Breathing is of elementary significance for our life. It releases the energy that we need in order to maintain our body, and creates the connection between the physical and the mental level. Our life energy is, ultimately, sun energy: over billions of years, living beings have found a way to assimilate the sunlight. The plants build up carbohydrates with the help of chlorophyll; we breathe the oxygen they give off and take up, via food, the stored sun energy.
With the end of breathing, the “light of life” goes out. How fitting is this symbolism: the candle too functions through a process of combustion – once lit, it gives light as long as fresh air and fuel are there. It is no different with our life.
How does life begin? The Gaia spark
As soon as a mental impulse seizes a mature sperm cell, our life begins. The egg cell contains, according to this idea, already the impulse of life, the Gaia intelligence, which has not broken off since the beginning. The spirit that incarnates and the spark of the Gaia consciousness unite. (A detailed account is found in my book “Energie für Millionen”.)
What is prana?
Together with the breathing air we take up prana – according to this teaching, free energy particles that reach the earth with the solar wind and are taken up at the root of the nose into the energy body. Out of prana we build up, according to the idea, our astral body. Whoever constantly lives in gloomy rooms draws the necessary prana rather from food – or feels powerless “like a plant without sunlight”. A part of the prana is consumed in the life process and breathed out again as apana. That is a spiritual, worldview-based view – no physically proven measure.
Learning to see prana
We can learn to perceive prana according to this exercise: when the sun shines, cast a relaxed glance into the blue sky (not into the sun). Concentrate on nothing and fix a region in front of you, as if a bird were flying past at 50 m height. In this relaxed state one quickly discovers tiny, glaring points of light that hop about like water fleas. Once one has understood what is meant, one sees them everywhere – only the density is different.
Why concrete castles and smog weaken us
In dense smog there is, according to this image, hardly any prana present any more – a reason why many people are so exhausted in smog. Constant stays under fluorescent tubes too are, in this view, experienced as energetically draining. To the degree that we have moved from nature into concrete castles, we have lost the connection to the natural forces. That is a holistic worldview, no medical statement – but it invites us to give more attention to our own surroundings and breathing.
Breathe consciously
The connection to the natural forces can be improved when we consciously observe the natural processes of our life. We can learn to breathe quite consciously and perceive ourselves more attentively. Even a single, quite conscious, deep breath can give new power.
Breathing is unavoidable. It is necessary – in German, not-wendig, literally “distress-turning”: it wards off distress (Not). Breathing is life!
This article is an extract from the book “Die Stufen des Pranayama – Das Geheimnis von Atmung und Konzentration” (The Stages of Pranayama – The Secret of Breathing and Concentration).
Frequently asked questions
What is prana?
In the yoga tradition, fine energy particles that reach the earth with the solar wind and are taken up via the breathing. That is a spiritual, worldview-based idea – no physically proven measure.
Can one see prana?
D. Harald Alke describes an exercise in which, with a relaxed gaze into the blue sky, one perceives tiny, hopping points of light. That is a subjective exercise of perception.
What does 'breathing is life' mean?
That conscious breathing connects body and mind and gives us energy as well as clarity. Even a single conscious, deep breath can give new power.