Breathe and Begin Anew By Keith Porteous Meade
To everything turn, turn, turn, sang Pete Singer and The Byrds, in reference to a famous verse from
the Old Testament. In some wisdom traditions, Time is represented as a circle. We go round and
round again, most likely repeating ourselves, as individuals, and as a collective. In the Buddhist
teachings, this cycle is called Samsara, and is represented by the Wheel of Life. The Buddha, a free
being who stands as an example of the potential within us all, exists off the wheel, pointing the
way to freedom.
While such an epic transformation may feel out of reach for those of us with responsibilities,
beings to care for, and to-do lists that grow exponentially, “micro nirvanas”, or mini-breakthroughs,
are very much within reach. With even a little practice and self-awareness, we can become free
from the magnetic draw of doing things the same old way over and over again. Perhaps we need to
give ourselves permission to get unstuck, to see ourselves anew, and to allow more joy into our
experience. To do so, we can begin with our partner on the path: the breath.
The breath itself is cyclic, but it can also be a portal to aspects within ourselves which are not so
bound in the mundane whirl of life stressors. The breath opens a quiet door to our internal world
and brings us just a bit closer to our innate potential for peace. Every moment, we have the
opportunity to breathe and begin anew.
The yoga practices that work with breath are called Pranayama: an interesting word which
simultaneously means to harness and to free. The etymology is explained below, but what it means
in practical terms is that we have something of immense power (the breath) which we have
probably not yet met fully or learned to work with as an ally on our path. Asana, the physical poses
that represent the 3rd Limb in Master Patanjali’s Raja Yoga system, is very popular. Why stop
there? The very next step on the path is Pranayama, the doorway to internal practices. To learn
more about breathing, who around us can serve as an example?
If you have any experience with newborn babies, you have met a great breather. After the first
brave breath there is usually a wail. These young humans know how to breathe, and therefore
innately know how to use their voices. Any new parent knows the power of these breathers (and
their voices), especially in the middle of the night! As adults, unless you are a trained singer or
deep-water diver, most of us have lost this ability. The breath and the voice become compromised
as we become anxious about identity, social connection, and simply maneuvering through life. A
baby breathes deeply, allowing the diaphragm to fully descend so the lungs can fill. We often
breathe in a shallow way when anxious, keeping a narrow rib basket and compressed abdomen to
not take up space and to be prepared for whatever is coming next. This is not to say babies are
doing pranayama, per se, but they do have unselfconscious, unadulterated full breathing capacity
that can inspire us to remember our own capacity.
Going back to the “wheel” or circle metaphor, taking a good, deep breath can help us out of the
tendency to just go through our patterns again and again on auto-pilot, or get stuck fixating on a
“mistake”. It’s funny how focusing on what we did “wrong” sometimes digs the groove deeper to
do that very same thing again. In Sanskrit this tendency is called a samskara. Much like a groove in
a record, the more it is used, the deeper it gets. If the mind gets caught in self-critical thinking
about the path, practice the mantra “breathe and begin anew” as an affirmation to short-circuit
negative thinking and come back to the power of the present moment. You may have heard the
quote, “we are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a
physical experience.” A pause for a deep breath creates space, and allowing space, we have a
chance to reset, perhaps even to draw on our spiritual nature, which is unbound by cyclic time.
You might imagine that when you breathe in, you draw upon that aspect of yourself which is not
bound in cycles of stress (samsara) but is an undiminished resource you can draw upon anyƟme.
The breath can support us when we encounter some of our greatest challenges. Fear naturally
arises through recollection, or even actual return to places, people, or situations of pain from the
past. As an example, Dr. Miles Neale, author and Buddhist psychotherapist, teaches about
counseling a client who had been injured in a bike accident. Rather than allowing this client a
mindset of never getting on a bike again, after physical injury was healed and counseling had taken
place, he said the real healing happens when you get back on the bike. He encouraged a brave
return to create a new experience, neither in denial of the past nor allowing the past to be
definiƟve. I imagine that this metaphorical return would need a few deep breaths to become
physically and emotionally possible. We all have these scenarios: places or situations of past pain
which most of us would rather avoid. It doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing to go back in
person or even mentally, either. But this is the hero’s journey: when we are supported and ready,
to return to situations from the past as renewed beings rather than to run away, to remember we
are spiritually connected and supported rather than to hide from life. Using the breath as our
spiritual tether, we can evolve to live more fully while we are here, rather than to allow fear to
make our lives small.
In these spring months, enjoy pranayama practices facilitated by Swan River teachers and in your
home practice to renew and refresh your experience. May you be ever-nourished by this intimate
connection with spirit, the wind that carries the voice, the sacred partner with Prana, the friend
that is with us through cyclic time, and that carries us beyond. We can always breathe in support
for ourselves and others who need it. May we never forget this resource that is always with us.
Further Study:
Light on Pranayama by Master Iyengar
Breath by James Nestor
On the Mat:
Side bending poses to open the rib basket for deep breathing, such as: Trikonasana and
Parvakonasana
Bound poses to open the shoulders and clavicles and experience being bound / unbound:
Baddha Trikonasana and Baddha Parsvakonasana. Using a strap can make these bound
poses more accessible.
Supta Hasta Padangushtasana (Reclined hand to big toe pose): Floor breathing can be
accessible to many because there is no weight bearing in the torso. Use a strap to reach the
foot without strain, and keep the front chest open to allow deep breathing. Try each
variaƟon (SHP 1, 2, and 3) and see how breathing is affected.
Supta Virasana: Hero’s pose, using many props for support (strap, blankets, blocks, bolster,
and chairs are all options at the Mandir)
Notes from the Dharma:
Pranayama: Breath work, the 4th Limb of Master Patanjali’s Raja Yoga
• Prana: Life-force
• Yama: Restraint
• Ayama: Freedom (the opposite of restraint)
Yoga Sutras on Pranayama:
• 1.34, 2.49, 2.50, 2.51, 2.52
Yoga Sutras overcoming repeƟƟve states of mind and arriving in one’s true nature: • 1.1-1.3
Quotes:
“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a physical
experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“When we practice our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the
inner world. When we exhale the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, the
outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world” but actually there is just one
world.” – Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
“Open your heart into the too-much-ness, slowly, for very short periods of time, and then rest.
Even one or two seconds is enough to give birth to a new world. To begin to encode the circuitry of
pure lovingkindness. Soften into your belly, feel your heart beating, and turn into the shakiness.
Use your breath, your awareness, and your warmth to create new pathways of self-care. Take
pause from the ancient belief that you must quickly understand, shift, or transform your
immediate experience. Perhaps there is nothing to “heal” for now. Only something to hold.
Despite how difficult it can be, the fruits of this work are infinite and eternal. And maybe why you
have come here: To make a love offering to a weary world. And to do whatever you can to help
others to recognize and to rest in their majesƟc true nature.” – Matt Licata, PhD, Author
“In the Upanishads, prana is the very essence of being. Prana is vast and all-pervasive, “smaller
than the small, greater than the great” as suggested in the Katha Upanishad. It is the life-force in a
tumbleweed, the movement of the stars, and the heartbeat inside a fish. It is thought to be both
the source of all physiological activity and the creaƟve aspect of the world. While it is life itself, it is
also the vast anonymous into which all things dissolve in the end.” – Tias Little, Yoga of the Subtle
Body, p. 158
“To bring peace to the mind, watch and regulate the breath.” – Swami Satchidananda, commentary
on Yoga Sutra 1.34
“What you resist persists.” – Carl Jung
“A ‘mistake’ is beside the point, for once anything happens it authentically is.” – John Cage
“He has made everything beautiful in its Ɵme. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no
one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3.11
“The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” – Job 33.4
“Be in the world but not of it.” – Mark Epstein
Teaching Tips:
Themes to explore:
• Spanda
• Prana
• Atha
• RespiraƟon, InspiraƟon, ExpiraƟon
• Altar / Alter
• Inner World / Outer World
• Beginner’s Mind
• Samskaras
• Samsara
• Freedom
• Spiritual Beings Having a Physical Experience
• Being bound/ unbound
• Sukha / Duhkha (YS 1.33 is a great reference)
Further pracƟces to share:
From Tias Little’s Yoga of the Subtle Body:
• Balancing the Lumbodorsal Hinge (p. 141)
• Altar of Devotion on p. 154
• River of Breath meditaƟon on pp. 158-159
• The Lung Tree p. 165-166
• Supported Fish Pose p. 167
• Ventilating the Lungs with Viparita Dandasana p. 169
• Bridge to Shoulderstand p. 172
Quotes for context on breathing:
From Tias Little’s Yoga of the Subtle Body:
“Restraint (yama) of the breath (prana) involves arresting the breath in a variety of ways. Breath
retention has subtle yet potent effects on circulatory rhythms, neurological activity, and cerebral
function. Thus, above the diaphragm and within the chest cavity and the heart chakra, we
encounter a more conscious or higher level of order than is possible within the purely autonomic
churnings of the gut.” (Tias Little, p. 139)
“Unfortunately, for many adults, the natural wavelike movement of the diaphragm is inhibited. This
may be due to trauma of some kind whereby the upper gut and muscular diaphragm get caught in
a startle response.” (Tias Little, p. 143)
“Even if you tell yourself to relax and take the proverbial deep breath, tension in the diaphragm
does not easily subside. It takes time for an emotional charge to dissipate and for the respiratory
rhythm to return to normal.” (Tias Little, p. 144)
“Over time, by generaƟng awareness during states of stress, it is less likely that agitaƟon will
overwhelm your nervous system.” (Tias Little, p. 144)
“The diaphragm is the centerpiece of the body whose movement sparks life into every fiber, cell,
and synapse. Given the sacredness of prana in yoga, the diaphragm could be thought of as a living
altar. Rather than a fixed and static plaƞorm, this altar is in perpetual motion. Its movements, along
with those of the organs and vessels that intersect it, are conƟnuous and cooperaƟve. Its dynamic
pump-like acton is the very basis of life. In Sanskrit this life-generaƟng expansion and contracƟon
is called spanda, a pulse that is necessary for all life.” – Tias Little, p. 152.
“The word respiration suggests not only the intake of breath but the recurrent pathway of spirit.” –
Tias Little, p. 153
“At the altar of the mid-chest, we aim to make the diaphragm free of restricƟon so that its
movements are fluid and uninhibited; in this way, the very rhythm of the breath deepens in
recurring cycles. When the intonations and cadence of the breath are smooth and rhythmic
(intoning the classical mantra OM is conducive to this), we are altered. Nuanced changes take
place in cardiovascular rhythm, brain funcƟon, and hormonal secreƟon, exalting the vibratory
spirit.” (Tias Little, p. 153)
“The yoking together of mind and breath lies at the heart of all yogic training and is what sets the
physio-spiritual discipline of yoga apart from other activities that use breath mechanics (such as
weight-lifting, swimming, calisthenics, and Pilates).” (Tias Little, p. 158).
“The lungs and heart are not only structurally interwoven; as the body’s primary repository for
sentiment, together they filter emoƟon. The heart-lung chakra is heralded for being the epicenter
of devotional feeling. This feeling, called bhava, in Sanskrit, includes sentiment of tenderness and
love. It is a state where empathy and kindness flourish, in part due to a genuine capacity to feel
suffering, both personal suffering and the pain of all sentient beings. However, resides of emotional
pain (dukha) confine the heart-lung and inhibit the subtle body.” – p. 161
“Lung tissue is extremely light and fragile…the lungs are entirely receptive as they filter and absorb
oxygen from incoming air. Structurally, the lungs are impressionable, meaning delicate and
pliable…The lungs are continuously exposed to the outside environment, given the constant
exchange with the outside air. Not only do the lungs absorb air; they are also vulnerable to the
atmospheric whims of mood and sentiment.” – p. 173
“The lungs are also impressionable in an emotional sense. Below the radar of cogniƟon, the lungs
are susceptible to a whole spectrum, the lungs are susceptible to a whole spectrum of feeling
states ranging from the slightest senƟment to an overwhelming, strong feeling. Feelings, especially
grief and sadness, imprint on the lung tissue.” – p. 173
“In traditional Chinese medicine the lungs are considered the seat of grief in the body while the
heart is the abode of joy. The bittersweet blend of sorrow and joy is inherent to the human
experience. Grief takes root in the lungs and when it festers, melancholy and sadness prevail.
Depression inevitably involves the lungs, due to the way the lungs activate prana, and prana is
correlated with spirit. During episodes of depression, the lungs tend to shut down, muting the flow of prana. When depression sets in, it shrouds the lungs…Yogasana and pranayama are beneficial to
help counter depression, because they foster sustained opening of the lungs.” (p. 174)
Quotes for context on the Wheel of Life, Samsara, and Nirvana: All material is quoted from
Thoughts Without a Thinker by Mark Epstein:
“It is tempting to see Buddhism as advocating escape from the Wheel of Life and psychotherapy as
encouraging adjustment to it, and this is in fact what a number of early translators, teachers, and
students of Buddhism proposed. Yet, as noted earlier, it is an axiom of Buddhism that nirvana is
samsara. The Bodhisattva images inset into each realm of the Wheel of Life imply that it is possible
to learn another way of relating to the emotions of each dimension. This is the sense in which the
enlightened person is said to be in the world but not of it.”
“The entire Wheel of Life is but a representaƟon of the possibility of transforming suffering by
changing the way we relate to it. As the Buddha taught in his final exhortation to his faithful
attendant Ananda, it is only through becoming a “lamp unto yourself” that enlightenment can be
won.”
“The Buddha’s realization of nirvana was actually a discovery of that which had been present all
the time. The Buddha did not enter some new territory: he saw things the way they were. What
was extinguished was only the false view of self. What had always been illusory was understood as
such. Nothing was changed but the perspective of the observer. When asked, “What are you?” by
an awestruck would-be follower, the Buddha responded only, “I am awake.” As one important
Mahayana Sutra put it, “If we are not hampered by our confused subjectivity, this our worldly life is
an activity of Nirvana itself.”