Pranayama:Illusion of Discovery

1 month ago By Yogi Anoop

Pranayama, Discovery, and the Illusion of Understanding

Most of what is being practiced today in the name of pranayama is less sadhana and more intellectual display. Many gurus continue to add unnecessary structures to pranayama—not because they are essential, but so that they can be called a “new discovery.” Complexity is presented as proof of discovery. The common person also falls into this illusion, believing that the more difficult and complicated a practice is, the more superior it must be.

This is not discovery. This is distortion. This is destruction.

Nature is simple. Any practice that takes one away from nature is not sadhana; it is unnecessary interference. Discovery is not something that is artificially constructed; discovery is that in which an understanding of nature happens. I do not call discovery a construction—I call it understanding.

Turning pranayama into mathematical formulas—two seconds inhale, four seconds hold, eight seconds exhale, sixteen seconds hold out—is called a principle. But this is only mechanical imitation. There is neither understanding in it, nor sensitivity, nor insight. The body is not a clock that can be bound by seconds. The body is alive, sensitive, and its rhythm differs from person to person.

Real discovery happens when the practitioner is able to see what is happening in the body as the breath goes in. How much satisfaction is being generated. How much pause descends when the breath is held. Whether thoughts truly quiet down in that pause and rest, or not. When the breath moves out, whether the mind and brain have actually let go of something, or have merely followed an instruction.

And after the breath has gone out—did you experience that pure silence, because after anything unnecessary leaves, a sense of release naturally occurs. Is that happening, or not?

That which arises not from doing, but from letting go? That moment is decisive. That moment is the moment of insight.

If after exhalation only ease remains, and you are able to experience that ease without interference—then that itself is discovery. In it, the nature of the body and the nature of the mind–intellect are experienced. This very experience is what is called understanding; this very experience is what science calls discovery.

Everything else is practice, discipline, technique—not understanding. If your pranayama has not increased your understanding, if it is not making you more aware, more simple, more calm, if knowledge of nature is not happening, then understand clearly—you are not doing sadhana; you are only refining ignorance.

And refined ignorance ultimately turns into disease. It even begins to give rise to major illnesses.

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