The Tao of Natural Breathing (2 page)

INTRODUCTION

A Miracle and a Warning

The process of breathing, of the fundamental movement of inspiration and expiration, is one of the great miracles of existence. It not only unleashes the energies of life, but it also provides a healing pathway into the deepest recesses of our being. To inhale fully is to fill ourselves with the energies of life, to be inspired; to exhale fully is to empty ourselves, to open ourselves to the unknown, to be expired. It is through a deepening awareness of the ever-changing rhythms of this primal process that we begin to awaken our inner healing powers—the energy of wholeness.

To breathe is to live. To breathe fully is to live fully, to manifest the full range and power of our inborn potential for vitality in everything that we sense, feel, think, and do. Unfortunately, few of us breathe fully. We have lost the capability of “natural breathing,” a capability that we had as babies and young children. Our chronic shallow breathing reduces the working capacity of our respiratory system to only about one-third of its potential, diminishes the exchange of gases and thus the production of energy in our cells, deprives us of the many healthful actions that breathing naturally would have on our inner organs, cuts us off from our own real feelings, and promotes disharmony and “dis-ease” at every level of our lives.

What is natural breathing? How would this kind of breathing alter our lives and our health? To answer these questions we must undertake an experimental study of breathing in the laboratory of our own body. We must personally experience how our breath is intimately bound up not just with our energy, but with every aspect of our being—from the health of our tissues, organs, bones, muscles, hormones, and blood to the quality and breadth of our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and consciousness. We must begin to understand the great power that our breathing has to help open us or close us not only to our own inner healing powers but also to our potential for psychological and spiritual development.

Of all the great ancient and modern teachings that have explored the full significance of breath in our lives, the Taoist tradition of China, which is more a way of life than a formal religion, offers one of the most practical and insightful approaches to the use of breath for health and well-being. One of the reasons for this is that from the very beginning of Taoism, at the time of the reign of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) around 2700 B.C., the goals of health and longevity were never separated from the goals of spiritual evolution and immortality. Taoists realized that a long, healthy life filled with vitality is not only an intelligent goal in its own right but also an important support for the more difficult goal of spiritual growth and independence. Supported by more than 4,000 years of experimentation with their own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energies through special postures and movements, massage, visualization, sound, meditation, diet, and many other practical disciplines, the Taoists observed that natural breathing—breathing according to the actual “laws” of the human organism—could have a powerful influence on the quantity and quality of these energies and thus on the quality and direction of our lives. For if the Tao can be defined at all, it means
the way,
the laws, of nature and the universe—the laws of creation and evolution. It is through living in harmony with these laws that we become free to discover and fulfill our physical, psychological, and spiritual destiny.

The Tao of Natural Breathing
integrates key Taoist teachings and practices regarding breath—especially those arising through my work with Taoist master Mantak Chia—with my observations and discoveries over the past 30 years in relation to various other systems and teachings, including the Gurdjieff Work, Advaita Vedanta, Feldenkrais®, and Ilse Middendorf, as well as with important principles from anatomy, physiology, and neurochemistry. It is my experience that any serious work with breathing requires far more than appropriate exercises. It also requires a clear “scientific view” of the human body and a deep work of organic awareness—the ability to sense and feel oneself from the inside.

A WARNING ABOUT BREATHING EXERCISES

The great spiritual pathfinder G. I. Gurdjieff once said that “without mastering breathing nothing can be mastered.”
¹
But he also warned that without complete knowledge of our organism, especially of the interrelationships of the rhythms of our various organs, efforts to change our breathing can bring great harm. It is clear that work with breathing, especially some of the advanced yogic breathing techniques (pranayama) taught in the West through both classes and books, is fraught with many dangers. In his book
Hara: The Vital Center of Man,
Karlfried Durckheim—a pioneer in the integration of body, mind, and spirit—discusses some of the dangers of teaching yogic breathing techniques to Westerners. He points out that most of these exercises, which “imply tension,” were designed for Indians, who suffer from “an inert letting-go.” Westerners, on the other hand, suffer from “too much upward pull … too much will.” Durckheim states that even though many yoga teachers try to help their students relax before giving them breathing exercises, they do not realize that the “letting-go” required for deep relaxation can be achieved “only after long practice.” At best, says Durckheim, giving breathing exercises prematurely grafts new tensions onto the already established ones, and brings about “an artificially induced vitality … followed by a condition of exhaustion and the aspirant discontinues his efforts, his practice.”
²

Based on my own work on myself, as well as on my observation of others, I believe that it is only after many months (or even years) of progressive practice rooted in self-observation and self-awareness that most Westerners can experience the deep inner relaxation, the freedom from willfulness, needed to benefit in a lasting way from advanced breathing exercises—whether yogic, Taoist, or otherwise. Breathing exercises involving complicated counting schemes, alternate nostril breathing, reverse breathing, breath retention, hyperventilation,
³
and so on make sense only for people who already breathe
naturally,
making use of their entire body in the breathing process. It is my experience that natural breathing
is in itself
a powerful form of self-healing. That is why
The Tao of Natural Breathing
explores this kind of breathing in so much depth, describing in detail some fundamental perspectives and practices that can, through increased inner awareness, help us see and transform our own personal obstacles to its manifestation in our lives.

One could say, of course, as some Taoist masters and other teachers have said, that since natural breathing is natural,
any effort
to breathe naturally both misses the point and is counterproductive. They maintain that when our mind becomes calm and empty, natural breathing will arise automatically.
⁴
Accepting this assertion, however, does not solve the problem; it simply puts us in front of another question: what are the conditions that allow us to calm and empty our minds? What personal work is needed? It is no use to shift the problem from the body to the mind or from the mind to the body. Natural breathing involves the participation of both.

The appearance of natural breathing in our lives is not just a matter of what we do, but also—and perhaps more importantly—of how we do it. If we approach the practices in this book as mere techniques to be manipulated by our so-called will, they will bring us nothing. If, however, we can approach them as natural vehicles to explore the physiological and psychological laws of our mind and body—through direct impressions coming from an inner clarity of awareness—we may in fact begin to learn what it means to calm and empty our minds. No matter how we live or what we do (or don’t do), we are always doing something; we are always practicing something—if only mechanically repeating and further entrenching the narrow, often unhealthy, habits of mind, body, and perception that shape our lives. To gain real benefit from the practices in this book, then, we must approach them as consciously as possible, taking care to
understand
their aim,
feel
their spirit, and
sense
their effect on our entire being.

EXPANDING OUR NARROW SENSE OF SELF

The real power of the ideas and practices described in this book is to help us first experience and then free ourselves from the many narrow, unconscious attitudes we have about ourselves and the world—attitudes that create stress and other problems for us in almost every area of our lives. It is often these very attitudes—deeply entrenched in our minds, hearts, and bodies, and manifested through and supported by our breathing—that diminish our awareness, constrict our life force, and prevent us from living conscious, healthy lives in harmony with ourselves, with others, and with our environment.

Fortunately, we do not have to try to deal with each of these attitudes individually—an impossible task in one lifetime. Like spokes radiating out from the central axle of a wheel, our attitudes radiate out from the axle of our own particular self-image: the narrow, incomplete, yet strong image of self, of “I,” that permeates almost everything that we think, feel, and do. According to Lao Tzu, if we can somehow expand this narrow image we have of ourselves and live from our wholeness, then many of our problems will disappear on their own:

What is meant by saying that the greatest trouble
is the strong sense of individual self
that people carry in all circumstances?
People are beset with great trouble
because they define their lives so narrowly.
If they forsake their narrow sense of self
and live wholly, then what can they call trouble?
⁵

To see and free ourselves from our own “narrow sense of self” is to begin to become open to the tremendous healing forces and energies that create and maintain our lives—to experience for ourselves how the alchemical substances of matter and the magical ideas of mind are linked in the unified, transformative dance of yin and yang—the dynamic polarity of opposites from which all life springs. It is also to experience here and now the return to the primal, expansive emptiness and silence of “wu chi,” the all-inclusive wholeness that is the source of both our being and our well-being. It is our breath that can help guide us on this remarkable journey into ourselves.

1

THE MECHANICS OF BREATHING

The process of breathing,
if we can begin to understand it
in relation to the whole of life,
shows us the way to let go
of the old and open to the new.

The process of breathing is a living metaphor for understanding how to expand our narrow sense of ourselves and be present to the healing energies that are both in and around us. Every time we inhale we take in some 10
²²
atoms, including approximately one million of the same atoms of air inhaled by Lao Tzu, Buddha, Christ, and everyone else who has ever lived on this earth. Every time we exhale, we return these atoms to the atmosphere to be renewed for both present and future generations. Every time we inhale, we absorb oxygen expelled into the atmosphere as a “waste product” by the earth’s plant life. Every time we exhale, we expel carbon dioxide as a “waste product” into the atmosphere where it can eventually be absorbed by this same plant life. In nature, nothing is wasted. Our breath is a link in the cosmic ecology—in the conservation, transformation, and exchange of substances in nature’s complex metabolism. It connects our so-called inner world with the vast scale of the outer world—of the earth and its atmosphere, as well as of all organic life—through the perceptible alternation of yin and yang, of negative and positive, of emptying and filling. The process of breathing, if we can begin to understand it in relation to the whole of life, shows us the way to let go of the old and open to the new. It shows us the way to experience who and what we actually are. It shows us the way to wholeness and well-being.