Distinguishing between the breath and Prana.

You hear people talking about controlling prana and holding the breath. What are they really talking about?

Prana is a spiritual analog of the oxygen in the air. You hear commentators of Yoga, when talking about the science of the prana, pranayama, as being the science of the breath.

You do these exercises of bringing  the breath up the right side, holding for a certain length of time, and then exhaling down the right , etc.

You are manipulating the breath, right?

Yes, you are manipulating breath. But if you only manipulate the breath, you will never learn Pranayama.

When you first learn pranayama, your awareness is only on the breath. What you slowly begin to understand is that the prana is disguised by the movement of the breath. As you learn more, you begin to understand that the two can be separated.

 Kriya Yoga is especially good at this approach, starting the student on the separation  of the two by having visualizations of the energy traveling up the spine, over the head and back down the spine to the base of the spine. What they don't tell or emphasize until much later, is that your physical breath has stopped during the practice.

So all different variations of Pranayama are to teach the student how to distinguish and separate the breath and the Prana. Once that goal is accomplished, then the process of controlling the prana begins in earnest.

The question should arise in some of the reader's mind, if it is this easy to explain, why is it not taught this way? There are several answers to this.

Some teachers do not know, even in their tradition, that they are to separate the breath and Prana. they use the breath as an adjunct to the Prana, like when they break wood and blocks.

Some teachers do know, but delay instructing that separation has to be achieved, so that the student will stay longer and help the teacher to live his life. 

There is also another reason. The teaching process creates a bond between the teacher and student. In some  way, there is created a current and a connection between the teacher and student. What the teachers does affects the student. What the student does affects the teacher, as well. The teacher, because he has been the student, knows and is wary of how the student can affect his life. But he is reluctant to tell the student of this connection, and even delay teaching something so powerful. Why is this so? Because telling the student empowers the student with this knowledge. Knowledge is truly power.

So if these issues are there, why do I give power to people that could affect my life? it is because it will affect my life, but for the better. It is by creating a different type of aspiration in these students, that the fear of misuse is greatly lessened. What is that aspiration?

That aspiration is the actualization of the great saying, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you". What I teach along with these great secrets is that whatever you do to others will be done to you, and very shortly at that. There are not a great many books written warning people and kids to stay away from hot stoves. It is because the negative consequences are evident right away. The time between action and reaction is too soon for the lesson to be forgotten.