The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom (4 page)

When putting things in the context of wind energy, all of these emotions are simply an expression of imbalanced wind energy. However, even though all of these states of mind are a sign of unbalanced wind energy, they feel very different. And though the experiences of neurotic mind, energy, and emotions can appear and feel very different from one to the other, in every single case the mind can be thoroughly pacified and calmed through working with the breath.

Of course, change will not happen immediately. But generally speaking, over a long period of time, working with the breath is effective at cutting through all types of neurotic tendencies, because it brings the wind energy into balance. As the wind energy is brought into balance and becomes more stable, neurotic tendencies lessen and even begin to disappear.

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, we call this style of practice
wind energy training,
or
the purification of wind energy.
We call the broad tradition of purifying and working with the wind energy
Yantra Yoga
. Some traditions of Yantra Yoga also include complementary asanas, or physical poses and postures. While these asanas cannot be practiced by everyone, since every person has different physical capabilities, wind energy training can be practiced by anyone, at any moment, regardless of age or physical condition.

Much research has been done to show that working with the breath benefits not only our physical health but also our mental and emotional well-being. Tibetan Buddhism would also add to these the aspect of spiritual well-being. This research clearly shows that working with the breath balances the two components of the autonomic nervous system by enhancing parasympathetic nervous activity (enabling body and mind to relax) and decreasing sympathetic nervous activity (which causes the body to feel anxious or overly alert). It also improves respiratory and cardiovascular function, decreases the negative effects of stress and the production of stress hormones, and improves physical and mental health.
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The Holistic Nature of the Elements

On a macro scale, the air element is vital to the life of all beings in the universe. On a human scale, air is also vital to the manifestation of the ordinary world around us. The atmosphere and the environment around us mirror the way that wind energy supports our own physical, emotional, and spiritual life.

Weather changes are related to the movements of warm and cold air masses called fronts. According to Western science, the
tilt in the earth’s axis as it orbits the sun causes different parts of the world to receive more heat, which manifests as the four seasons. The movement of warm air brings spring to the world around us, causing the environment to bloom full of color. Rain and thunderstorms, hot and cold temperatures, the falling of snow, and extreme weather such as blizzards, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all disturbances of the air element.

And just as natural disasters occur when there is strong agitation in the air, so it is in the minds of humans. This is simply the law of nature. Imbalance brings the opportunity for great destruction. Wind energy has the same relationship to our mental and emotional energy as it does to the environment and atmosphere. When the wind energy is wild, agitated, or imbalanced, it manifests as physical illness in the body or as mental suffering, neurosis, or any other extreme state in the mind.

We also know that when the air element is harmonious, calm, and in balance, we tend to feel happy. When the sun is shining, the weather is warm, and the air is calm, life feels abundant, and we feel comfortable. Harmony in the elements makes it easy to feel good.

One additional piece of information will help us understand how truly powerful wind energy training is. From the point of view of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, each of the elements itself is holistic. This means that the air element is not separate from the others; rather, it includes them. The air element contains aspects of water, earth, fire, and space, just as all of the other elements each contain an aspect of air. So when we work with any one of the five elements, we work with all of them. For example, the air element in the atmosphere has aspects of warmth or cold (fire), of moisture or dryness (water), of lightness or density (earth), and of expansiveness or contraction (space). Therefore, when there is an imbalance in the wind, all of the elements will fall out of balance. If the air element becomes dominant, then the aspects of water, earth, fire, and space will become weak or unstable. As a result, when one element is out of balance, an entire system becomes
unstable, such as in the case of the atmosphere being disrupted by a hurricane or tornado. On the other hand, when each element is balanced, the whole system is balanced—just like a beautiful spring day. When we balance the wind energy, we bring stability to the systems of body and mind. And this is how wind energy training results in physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

H
OW
B
REATH
O
FFERS
P
EACE OF
M
IND

We have shown how breath is the main support for life. We have also explained why training in the breath is the essential method for achieving peace of mind for oneself, which enables us to help and support those around us. Finally, we have said that it is through training in wind energy that we can heal and release all physical and mental suffering completely. Ultimately, this is the experience of wisdom, or realization. It is said in the Buddhist teachings that there is no human being who does not wish for happiness, but among all those beings who are wishing for happiness, it is extremely rare to meet a person who actually knows how to find it. Working with wind energy gives us the opportunity to find authentic happiness day and night.

From the point of view of the Buddhist scriptures, an ordinary healthy being takes about 21,600 breaths in a twenty-four-hour period. Western medicine also says that the average number of breaths per day is around 21,000.
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If we practice mindfulness and appreciate training in the breath, we have an incredible number of opportunities to balance the body and mind every day. When we recognize the opportunity that training in the breath provides, we give ourselves a gift: the opportunity to transcend ordinary suffering.

Working with the breath provides us with a unique opportunity for healing because the breath is something that is with us all the time, every moment. It does not matter whether we are awake or asleep, working or sitting, lying down or doing something
active—the opportunity to train in and be mindful of the breath is always with us.

In the Tibetan tradition, not only spiritual realization but other mystical accomplishments such as perpetual youth and extreme longevity arise from training in wind energy. From the point of view of Tibetan Buddhism, if we train diligently in the wind energy until our practice becomes stable and we learn how to calm and purify any agitation that arises, this can lessen symptoms of physical illness, and our lifespan will naturally increase. Also, because we are healthy both inside and out, the color and appearance of our complexion can become youthful and glowing. When we are mentally and emotionally balanced and healthy, it shows.

Usually, when we think about how to make ourselves happy, we seek something on the outside, an external object or event. We look for something that we think will complete us; “If I only had ‘this’ I would feel better.” But when we train in wind energy, we do not need to look for anything outside of us. We do not need to go to the store and buy anything to make ourselves feel less empty, lacking, or unhappy. We do not need to turn on our laptops, televisions, or video games to distract us from how we feel, because we are able to influence our own sense of physical, emotional, and spiritual balance at any moment by working with the breath. The breath is something that is readily available to us simply because we are human beings. We do not need anything else to qualify. How marvelous!

Finding Stability in Wind Energy Training

What does it mean to gain stability in wind energy training? Someone who has achieved stable and balanced wind energy is someone who has a steadfast and even-tempered mental state. Although steady, that person is not stubborn. They are mentally flexible, patient, and not easily disturbed or agitated—like a large
body of water without a lot of movement on the surface. Not only would that person’s mental state be pliant and balanced but they would also be calm, relaxed, and healthy.

How many of us can describe ourselves this way? Be honest. We like to project a sense of confidence and well-being to others. And when we perceive others, we have the tendency to think that they are happier, more confident, and less neurotic and agitated than we are. However, when we honestly assess our own state of mind, most of us have the tendency to be emotionally imbalanced in one way or another, whether that tendency manifests as being sharp-tongued and impatient, withdrawn, or generally dissatisfied and skeptical. Whenever the mind is dominated or overwhelmed by a particularly strong pattern of thoughts or emotions, many different kinds of physical and mental sufferings ensue.

For example, some of us experience imbalance as the tendency for worry and anxiety. Our wind energy is so consistently unstable that we have become accustomed to the feeling of instability. The moment we feel calm in the mind, our wind energy immediately becomes unbalanced again and manifests as worry and anxiety. We all know people who have this tendency, or we have this tendency ourselves: it’s as if we simply need something to worry about. We may think to ourselves, “I don’t have any reason to be worried about this,” but we find we are unable to stop. The reason we are unable to stop these mental patterns is that we have become comfortable with, and in some cases addicted to, the feeling of elemental instability, of unstable wind energy. At times, we can feel frightened or hesitant to go beyond our ordinary mode of being.

Why Wind Energy Training Is for Everyone

Based on everything we have learned so far, then, it seems that training in wind energy and attempting to balance the elements within the physical body is not something that only Buddhists should focus on. Western science and Buddhist philosophy agree
that calm, relaxed breathing makes us healthier. Because the breath is such an excellent and abundant support for life and vitality for every being on the planet, everyone can benefit from training in the breath, working with the inhalation and exhalation.

T
HE
P
OSITIVE
R
ESULTS OF
P
RACTICE

One of the positive effects of wind energy training is that the number of times we need to breathe in one day lessens. We may notice this when we sit down to meditate often and become mindful of the breath; there will be gaps of time where we do not need to breathe. In the case of accomplished or realized practitioners who have trained in any style of breath practice from one of the traditions of Asia, including Qigong, Tai Chi, and Yantra Yoga, the number of breaths taken in one hour can become very few. The result of such practice is clarity and peace of mind, and unshakable physical health. Why is this?

Western medicine answers this question in part by noting that ill people need to breathe more often than healthy ones.
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However, this does not explain why breathing less often also benefits our mental and emotional health. The Tibetan tradition often uses metaphors to explain such complex or intuitive ideas, which can be difficult to understand through more direct means. In this case, if we compare the energy of the physical body to a body of water, then we can access the logic behind this statement.

Each time a gust of wind blows over the ocean, ripples and waves cause movement and agitation on the water’s surface. However, when the air is calm, so is the water. It is just so with the mind. The more often we breathe, the more agitated the energy of body and mind becomes. By breathing less frequently, we begin to achieve elemental harmony. This is exactly how it is, in the case of a great yogi—as the number of breaths in a minute, an hour, a day begins to lessen, the wind energy becomes increasingly stable and balanced. Feelings of extreme mental suffering become less and less over time, so much so that the potential exists for these
feelings to completely disappear. This is one way of describing the experience of realization, which will be explored more in later chapters.

Additionally, from the point of view of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, there are 424 classes of illness that can arise in the body. According to these teachings, because of the lessening of the number of breaths, the wind energy within the body becomes more stable, more even and relaxed, and this releases all classes of illnesses from the physical body as well.

Throughout history, the majority of the great yogis in the world, no matter what other practice they were training in, accompanied their practice with an aspect of wind energy training, or breath yoga. Although the specific techniques of breath yoga used by these yogis may have been different, they each had the common result of self-healing the body and mind and the achievement of longevity. Their lives imply that the qualities of physical and mental well-being are directly connected to wind energy training.

Of course, we may not all be able to attain the realization of a buddha or become a great sage in this lifetime, but wind energy training can still benefit us tremendously. Wind energy training not only results in extraordinary wisdom and realization, as described above, but it also results in ordinary worldly wisdom. When we have the qualities of calm and relaxation in body, speech, and mind, we are able to accomplish more, and with better-designed plans. We make clear and thoughtful decisions and have more harmonious relationships. We avoid doing things that are at odds with our personal goals and integrity, and do not sabotage our own growth. We avoid making impulsive decisions, or speaking impulsive words, ones we may regret later. When we lack chaos on the inside, the world outside reflects our sense of inner harmony.