The Royal Path to Union (Cont.)

The Fourth Branch of Yoga—Pranayama

Prana is life force. It is the essential energy that animates inert matter into living, evolving biological beings. As first-year medical students, we took classes in gross anatomy in which there was the implied assumption that studying a cadaver could teach us about life. At the turn of the twentieth century, scientists would weigh someone immediately before and after they died to see if they could quantify what had left. (They did not record a difference, concluding that the soul did not weigh any- thing.) From the perspective of yoga, the difference between a living being and a cadaver is the presence of prana, or vital energy. When prana is flowing freely throughout your body/mind, you will feel healthy and vibrant. When prana is blocked, fatigue and disease soon follow. The concept of an animating force is present in every major wisdom and healing tradition. It is known as chi or qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine and ruach in the Kabalistic tradition. According to Patanjali, a key way to enliven prana is through conscious breathing techniques known as pranayama. Pranayama means mastering the life force. There is an intimate relationship between your breath and your mind. When your mind is centered and quiet, so is your breath. When your mind is turbulent, your breathing becomes disordered. Just as your breath is affected by your mental activity, your mind can be influenced by conscious regulation of your breathing. Pranayama is a powerful technology to enhance neurorespiratory integration. Prana is the life force that flows throughout nature and the universe. When you are tuned into the pranic energy in your body, you spontaneously become more attuned to the relationship between your individuality and your universality. In this way, pranayama can take you from a constricted state to an expanded state of awareness.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga - Deepak Chopra, David Simon