cleaning the mirror

I'm always encountering mysteries in pranayama that require time and study to figure out. Patanjali, the ultimate authority, tells us that "the mind...attains serenity through prolonged exhalation" (aphorism I.34), without going into detail about how that works, However, Bouanchaud's commentary* on the Sutras makes clear that the emphasis in I.34 is on exhalation because that is the means "by which we eliminate impurities on the physiological, psychological, and even spiritual levels."

I hadn't thought about this possibility before. I knew already that the main physiological purpose of the exhalation technique learned by all pranayama students -- drawing the belly toward the spine -- was to bring the impurities in the intestines closer to the fire of third chakra so they could be burnt and easily eliminated. I also knew that my daily life today is on a new footing, having been transformed in the gut-wrenching fire of divorce and separation from addictive substances, and that such transformations involve the whole being, not just the body.

But I was unprepared for the lucidity that followed in the train of this methodical elimination of impurity through prolonged exhalation, the kind aphorism I.36 refers to as "luminous lucidity." This is the second practice, additional to the practice of prolonged exhalation, which has enabled me to adopt a proactive approach to the sicknesses and blockages I encountered in contemplating past relationships, and in the persistence of unacknowledged emotions generated by them. It seems I was emotionally as well as physically ill, and that the emotional illness predated its physical manifestation due to acting out of angry and destructive impulses, which I can now see with a clarity that only comes when impurities have been cleaned from the mirror of the mind.

I recently wrote about the specific nature of these emotions and impulses in another essay to which I now refer the reader.

At the beginning, the sage tells us that if we pursue the practices in which he instructs us and thereby "focus" our minds, that the inner being would then appear "in all its reality." He does not disappoint.

*Bernard Bouanchaud, "The Essence of Yoga" (Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1997).