Learn To Breathe: Studies Of Rumi & Pranayama

The spiritual experience IS the feeling experience. Let’s learn how to feel what it feels like to breathe together using simple observational techniques. Here is the Rumi poem to support your practice: Only Breath “Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or in the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body or soul. I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.”

The hours of 3 to 6 am are the most spiritual hours of the day, when your brain is most attuned to accept a new reality. Let’s honor the morning practice with the dirga pranayama three-part breath practice. Here is the Rumi poem to support your practice: “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.”

The wise ones say, if you don’t have 5 minutes to meditate, you need 10. That is the fundamental truth that is so difficult to embody in a society that values productivity over joy. We’ll help balance your desire to constantly be doing with nadi shodhana pranayama, the alternate nostril breath practice. Here is the Rumi poem to support your practice: “Who makes these changes? I shoot an arrow right. It lands left. I ride after a deer and find myself Chased by a hog. I plot to get what I want And end up in prison. I dig pits to trap others And fall in. I should be suspicious Of what I want.”

Do you know what creates fulfillment in the body? Serving your passions! Let’s heat those passions up with ujjayi pranayama, the victorious breath. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “Passion makes the old medicine new: Passion lops off the bough of weariness. Passion is the elixir that renews: how can there be weariness when passion is present? Oh, don't sigh heavily from fatigue: seek passion, seek passion, seek passion!”

The ego serves a very important purpose: it tells you the story of your consciousness in this dimension. It also serves a very detrimental purpose: egos like to worry about EVERYTHING. Let go of your worries with shitali pranayama, a cooling breath. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “Let go of your worries and be completely clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images. If you want a clear mirror, behold yourself and see the shameless truth, which the mirror reflects. If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require? Between the mirror and the heart is this single difference: the heart conceals secrets, while the mirror does not.”

We have (at least) five dominant senses, and many of us rely on sight as our primary truth. But seeing is not believing! We must see from within in order to know the truth of the joy of this human experience. Let’s tune up your subtle body senses with brahmari pranayama, the bee breath! Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “I see so deeply within myself. Not needing my eyes, I can see everything clearly. Why would I want to bother my eyes again Now that I see the world through His eyes?”

The biggest lie we are told, the one that robs us of our joy, is that we are separate from each other. The truth is, we are all connected, but we still must be discerning about the energy we allow into our atmosphere. Let’s play with bhastrika pranayama, the bellows breath, to create a relaxed boundary that only allows in positive, healing community. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise. Drink all your passion, and be a disgrace. Close both eyes to see with the other eye.” Those last instructions are pretty clear: close both eyes to see with the other eye. Go internal to experience the community of your spirit. You’re your own best friend. You’re your own soulmate. Everyone else is just a bonus, the sprinkles. Bhastrika pranayama is an energizing breath to increase confidence.

It is so much easier to live with the flow of the universal energy, and yet so many of us resist it like it’s our jobs! Let’s find flow utilizing viloma pranayama, the “against the wave” breath practice. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When actions come from another section, the feeling Disappears.”

How is your transformation going? What’s changed in these last few days of mindful breathing? Have you experienced a rebirth? The truth is, every breath is a chance to be reborn into whatever energy you want. Let’s practice the khapalabhati breath, the “breath of fire” or “skull shining breath,” to encourage the rebirth process of transformation. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “I was dead, then alive. Weeping, then laughing. The power of love came into me, and I became fierce like a lion, then tender like the evening star. He said, 'You're not mad enough. You don't belong in this house.' I went wild and had to be tied up. He said, 'Still not wild enough to stay with us!' I broke through another layer into joyfulness. He said, 'It’s not enough.' I died.”

We practice meditation in anticipation of “the big game,” so that we can treat the big moments of life, the core memories, the traumatic moments as much as the joyful moments, with a sense of peaceful equanimity. Today’s pranayama practice, simhasana pranayama, the lion’s breath, is a powerful way to reset any moment, so that you can return to your innate state of peaceful being. Here is your Rumi poem to support your practice: “Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times Come, yet again, come, come.”