It is often said that yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory. In a sense this is true but, as all things only exist for us and evolve depending on how we relate to them, then this 1% becomes extremely important. In this short text we will approach the mode of relationship that is behind the particular point of view of Yoga Breath Modeling, starting by integrating it into the yoga philosophy. Yoga mobilizes all dimensions of existence and can be understood as the philosophy, science and art of realizing our divine nature. Here everyone will have their own understanding of what this divine nature is. Not wanting to reduce it to something particular, in this approach, we are going to consider it as the reality that generates life and all existing beings in a same universal reflective/creative process. Yoga means uniting or joining, which, from the outset, implies that there is something separate. We can consider it to be the union of the mundane with the transcendent, the body with the mind and the soul, or the cultural self with the universal self. In our approach we consider that it is the resolution of the sense of separation, generated between the conscious I and the subtle wisdom of biology's meditation, which is a direct an full expression of the universal creative nature. This is not to say that there is a real separation, but a set of factors that maintain this illusory sense of separation. Therefore, in the practice of yoga, we are going to realize them and discover the particularity of this illusion, which opens up to its spontaneous resolution or integration into the subtle dynamics of existence. In other words, in yoga we are allowing the wisdom of biology to bring the universal nature of life into the dynamics of the conscious process and, with it, complete the subtle integration between body, mind, soul, chakras and the totality of the universe. In a modern sense, yoga is a systematization of the evolutionary path at the base of Indian culture, which went through various stages of enlightenment's “discovery”, understandable as this union between the conscious process and the ultimate nature of life, that we call biological insight . Yoga is the resolution generated by the interdependence of eight dimensions that are continuously present, at all times, phases and stages, opening the different levels of separation factors to an increasingly subtle integration, which deepens, refines and expresses the unity of this interdependence. We are always in a given physical posture, with a more or less ethical attitude, dealing with various contents in a more mundane or spiritual sense, breathing and with a certain level of wisdom of integration and concentration of all these components. Yoga is the relational mode that can operationalize all these dimensions in the sense of fully expressing our ultimate nature, so it implies a training of each one, where all the others are present, helping and evolving, on a path that refines the most subtle ones and integrates all into the wisdom of realization. It is the continuous presence of all these dimensions and the wisdom in their interdependent integration that establishes the yoga's relational mode, that is, yoga. If our practice neglects some dimensions and the sense of their interdependence, it will be a kind of yoga, but not really yoga. This path mobilizes the most subtle and implies bringing, with wisdom, all the factors of separation to experience, that is, our entire problem, so that it can be understood and solved. We must assume it carefully and seriously, as it is a process of transformation that raises the dangers of a complex involvement with the subtle and with this problematic. The first dimension of yoga ( yama ) involves the moral vows that allow us to enter into phase with the ultimate nature and open the evolutionary becoming of the process, including: non-violence towards all beings and ourselves, honesty and truth, sexual balance or chastity, not covetousness, etc. The second dimension ( niyama ), implies taking on a set of practices of self-discipline, study and spiritual delivery that deepen this evolutionary becoming and turn it into a spiritual path, namely: purification of the body, speech and mind; training in contentment and acceptance of others; perseverance and self-discipline; self-reflection on all our facets; study of authentic spiritual sources; total surrender to the nature of the divine and contemplation. With these two bases, the mind starts to become peaceful, yoga is taking place and we can start practicing the postures or asanas. This practice is an integrative training of self and biology, where the problematic factors of separation are gradually raised and expressed in different types of difficulties and patterns (physical, emotional and mental), while being integrated by attention to the various dimensions of yoga. Each posture and their sequence generate a wise path that raises the dimensions and issues in a deeper way, where the various aspects of subtle integration operationalized. As the grosser difficulties are integrated, the practice of postures reaches a smooth and natural alignment of the body that generates immobility and mental souples, opening to the spontaneous becoming of Yoga, a continuous evolution of integration in the totality of the body/mind, conducted naturally through breathing, which reveals the illusion of separation and is the principle of breath modelling . Breathing is the basis of Yoga, as it is the most objective dimension of the meditative becoming of biology, and is always solving the relationship between the conscious process and our subtle nature, expressing, along the various evolutionary levels of integration, the interdependence between its movement, the factors of separation, the definition of the self/observer in them and their influence on the becoming's resolution. Thus, as the practice of asanas begins to be guided by the breath, this interdependence is being solved in a more subtle way, which will be deepened through very careful pranayama training or breathing exercises performed in a meditative posture. The other dimensions of yoga are the meditative path that allows the integration process to be completed: moving the mind away from external stimuli and immersing itself in the inner becoming, entering the stages of concentration, which give rise to meditative deepening and the levels of Samadhi or, union in universal subtle integration.
In order to characterize the particularity of yoga breath modeling approach, we would say that the subtle sense of yoga's realization passes through the insight of the non-duality of reality, conventionally expressed as the end of the separation between the conscious self and the ultimate nature of existence or, dissolution of the illusion of separation between observer/observed, which brings this nature to experience and to the world. This insight is taking place since the beginning, so it is important to understand it well and have it as partices's guide, so that the dimensions of yoga are realizing it.
Thus, we would say that yoga breath modeling is an approach that assumes the continuity of the interdependent presence of yoga dimensions in the sense of this insight .
We are now going to address some clarifying topics in this sense that can be deepened on the page The Insight, Therapy and namely in the book “Little Mythologies of Creation”.
The conscious process is always reflective/creative, so, more or less wisely, it is in a dynamic of insight . When we approach something and realize difficulties or obstacles, we are reflecting them in the mirror of our nature, within a given perspective. Hence come creative answers or resolutions that depend on this approach and are more or less valid for what is really going on. The wisest insight is that of non-duality, as our nature is non-dualistic, which expresses itself well in the different orders and cycles of biology. Therefore, when we approach something in a non-dualistic way, we are allowing that reality to be reflected in the clear mirror of our nature and the answer has that wisdom, that is, it is an idea, meaning, etc. that mobilizes all levels of reality and, therefore, integrates this something in its most subtle dynamics.
Yoga is this taking of subjects and manifestations to non-duality, which implies approaching and apprehending them properly, letting them manifest as they are, and realizing them without fixing the oppositions that arise. This allows the cycle of reflection and creative responses to gain the wisdom of our nature and the conscious process to come into phase with the ultimate reality of things. Thus, in the simplicity of the modes of relationship and concepts, we understand reality as it is, so there is no separation and biology's subtle meditation acts more fully in the conscious process and integrates everything spontaneously.
Biology (or life) is a non-dualistic process at all levels of its order and dynamic cycles, which generate various meditative levels in the totality of being: microtubular, cellular, connective, muscular, etc. These levels are part of a great meditation that is dynamized, namely, through the heart and breathing, in order for the organism to keep in phase with the more subtle harmonic sources, which keep it alive, that is, to integrate the becoming of the chakras. On the other hand, the conscious process is dealing with the dualities of the world, structures itself in them and activates them in the body to make all its ways (mental, emotional, motor, etc.), which depend on the unconscious projection of dualities that establishes identity.
The basic image of yoga breath modeling is given by the contributions of the heart and breath to this meditative dynamic.
The heart is a muscle like skeletal muscles, but when it contracts and relaxes, billions of cells do their meditations all at the same time. In this synchronized vibration, which mobilizes the blood circulation, it is solving all the complex patterns, which blood receives in a subtle way, and generating a model of perfect integration, which is the base field of the organism's meditation, therefore, each heart beat is a perfect yoga. The heart is the realized yogi or the manifestation of the divine in muscular dynamics, so it don't get tired, etc.
Breathing is the heartbeat of the body which, in this sense, it is a second heart and, indeed, the return of blood depends very much on the wave of breathing. The breath's wave propagates in the body, opening it to a yoga that helps the various levels of biological meditation to integrate within the heart's level, and this subtle dynamic is brought to the muscular level, so to the conscious projection, generating the pranic meditation, whose energy is subtle's integration quality reaching all levels of being and expressing the harmonic nature of the chakras .
However, unlike the heart, the body does not vibrate completely in sync with the breath wave, namely, at the connective and muscular level, it is full of asymmetries and marks of the dualities unconsciously projected and reactivated in the conscious pathways, so there are areas where the wave generates this full integration and others where the resolution is collapsed in various modes. So, by practicing yoga, we are helping this breathing yoga to bring subtle integration to all existential levels and, deep down, we are allowing the body to truly become a heart.
So you can see why breathing is the key to yoga. The breath wave is opening us to subtle integration and “showing” all the dualistic marks that collapse it in more or less harmonic ways. This always occurs, but it is more grossly manifested in the practice of postures, which raises the dualities in a very expressive way, where we learn to solve them in the integrative becoming of breathing, namely, with the help of other dimensions of yoga and the sense of insight. The dualizations and its marks have many levels and forms of acting, locally and in the totality of experience, defining what we called the factors of separation, whose approach involves our sense of insight or, the deepening of non-duality trainning .
As we have seen, to be in this training we must assume an equanimous relationship with what arises, a realization that opens up to non-dualistic resolution. This implies understanding duality well and using this sense at all stages. Dualities are organic units because the definition of oppositions, differences or polarities occurs in an interdependent manner. It is not possible to define or mobilize one side without doing the same to the other, so we must pay attention to how we do this and what implications arise from both sides. If we have this attention we will be allowing them to be in a position of equality ( equanimous ) and to reflect organically, generating more non-dualistic resolutions, that is, the dynamics of insight .
Therefore, we do not consider the meaning of yoga as a union, as this implies that there are two things to come together, or a separation to be overcome, which is the error, the evil or, which has already been overcome or not yet, etc. If there is a sense of separation it is only solved if it is understood non-dualistically, if we understand the separation well there is no separation, otherwise the union will be dualistic and will always activate separations. Hence our sense of yoga as a continuation of the biological process that brings the levels of subtle or non-dual integration to more or less dualistic patterns.
If we consider that this union happens through purifying, then it is because there is something impure, so we will define it in a specific way that separates it from the pure and will want to separate ourselves from the impure, as well as have the sense that something will be clean or removed from our pure existence and generate more or less authoritarian disciplines to ensure this exchange. However, if we do this we will be in a dualistic logic that reinforces certain separations. That is, we attribute a malign inherence to the impure (and to those that are impure) and we do not understand it, remaining separated from its causes; but if we understand the impure it solves itself.
Now let's look at the general situation of yoga practice. We are sitting with our eyes closed and we are aware of the body, the movement of the breath, doing its yoga, the dualizing marks to be integrated, showing themselves and collapsing the wave of breath. We have the notion that we are seeing/feeling all this, as if they were separate objects facing an observer, but this whole set is part of us, and the feeling of the self that observes is generated from the projected marks .
So here we intuit the illusion of separation and enter into non-dualistic insight, understanding that the union between the observer and the observed exists from the beginning, it is not something that only occurs in the final insight. We are not seeing/feeling something separate, but having an internal experience of the structure of “separation” of the self/other, which the bodily projection of identity establishes in relation to the outside. As we “look” inward, we recreate this structure and we are seeing/feeling the dualistic projection, some of its marks and the effects on the becoming of breath.
Are we seeing us? No, we can not see ourselves. Seeing doesn't see itself! Or, the subtle integration that we are is non-dualistic, a fullness of interdependence, without differentials, therefore it is empty in experience. Everything we are seeing/feeling, including the notion of the self is part of the conventional structuring, the partial integration, which does not contain any separation or anything wrong, is showing its particularity and revealing how it is constructed, after being seen and understood, as it was now, it is reflected in the void and enters into non-dualistic resolution.
Now a particular object. We are flowing with the breath. However, the notion of the observer derives from dualistic structures and, as it reinforces them to define itself and act, it affects the becoming of the breath. Considering this interdependence, what is the becoming of breath after all, and will it be possible to accompany it? What do we see/feel in breathing, a movement in the face of a braking, a change in braking?
So what are we doing? We are experiencing the interdependence between the intentions/ actions of the self, the dualistic structures and the solving becoming of the breath. In other words, we are modeling the breath and, at the same time, being modeled by it. This is breath modeling, the key point of yoga.
From the outset we know that there is no separation between the self and the breath, as they are just empty integration, but both are defined through the emerging dualistic structures or the so-called “separation” factors. Breathing is the cyclical change in the structure and density of these factors, which is opening them up to empty integration, while the self defines and acts by involving himself in these factors, tending to reinforce them, thus reducing the resolutive opening. Thus, as we adjust this involvement, namely taking into account the relational aspects of yama and niyama as we accompany the cyclical change, the resolutive opening of structures, which is breathing, occurs more freely and, by integrating them, it is bringing this wisdom to the unconscious projection of the self and its active mode of engagement, which deepens the resolution.
These dualizing structures or, factors of separation, have nothing wrong, nor do they have to be purified, controlled, etc., they are just structures of our history that have not yet been able to complete their subtle harmonic integration. For this to occur, they must be able to express themselves as they are and be understood in their particularity, namely through the relational aspects they raise. This expression must be clarified, as these structures are virtual patterns in space, they are not framings, tensions, atmospheres, attitudes, emotions, blockades, pains, etc. The dualistic marks are virtual and generate collapses in subtle integration that leads to the contents of experience. The best example is the observer/observed structure that arises when we close our eyes.
The contents expressed in the experience derive from the unconscious and conscious involvement of the self in these structures, and this is another key aspect, as we are not seeing the structures themselves. Unconscious involvements derive from the various levels of identity projection, whose structures have been established in a relatively fixed way and, therefore, recreate structural contents (physical, relational, emotional, etc.) that seem very fixed, real, with their own autonomy or separation and therefore difficult to solve; and should be addressed by the awareness of the relational characteristic they raise. The more or less conscious involvements generate the contents that are in the transformation zone or, in the self/breath, whose integration affects the totality of the being and gradually brings to transformation the very structures of the identity projection .
To fully understand these structures, we must situate them in the sense of the human condition (see page The Insight or Therapy). In a simplified way we would say that the ultimate nature of things is creating all the existing beings in the universe, as if, from a "zone" or subtle dimension of space that operates in a perfectly non-dualistic way and, therefore, contains the integration of all interdependencies, and we would forever keep saying what it is, because the non-dual itself is just that, non-dual, and we restart: the infinite, reflective, creative, unspeakable... It's like a mirror where are reflected all the steps of creation (forces, particles, atoms…) and integrative responses are generated, whose emergence establishes the non-dualistic relationships that define the new beings.
Inorganic existents express the wisdom of this “zone” by collapsing it into very specific non-dualistic models that combine into more subtle non-dualities and express more and more all the reflexive/creative potential of this zone. Hence the universal evolution appears as an insight, where, under certain harmonic conditions, orders enter into more complex and wiser collapses.
Life is the local emergence of creative void's total wisdom, but it has to be structured within the conditions generated by the partial collapses of existing orders and, therefore, defines itself in an existential differential between its ultimate nature or, subtle integration, and the structures it developed to deal with them. The evolution of species is solving this existential gap and leads to an experience that better expresses the reflective/creative wisdom of emptiness in the conscious process. With the emergence of man, this ultimate solving dynamic, which becomes aware of the partial structures in the mirror of ultimate nature and experiences the transforming response to historical conditioning, came to be in the conscious process. The other animals are in this creative reflective acknowledgment, within the structures they have developed, but man can become aware of them and, therefore, lead them to the non-duality of subtle integration, completing the universal evolutionary path.
Therefore, dualistic structurings are not errors or impurities in our nature, but the expression of universe's evolutionary difficulties history that became life's suffering. Therefore, when they are expressing themselves in the human being and being seen and understood as they are, the evolutions that integrate them non-dualistically are completing the path of the universe and solving its history. This is the insight of its non-duality, of the alchemy of the philosophical stone that appears as the error and the problem but, if understood for what it is, solves the universe in its simple expression.
Thus, in the simplicity of awareness of our dualistic structures and their difficulties, the history of life's suffering and the universe are being resolved. As these structures, being ours, are this history and are being subtly activated in the world space by the action of everyone in their counterparts, then, when the resolution occurs in us, it also reaches everyone, so, in yoga, everything occurs in benefit of all and does not even need to develop that intention to do so.
This is the understanding we must assume non-dualistically in yoga practice.
Having understood the 1% of theory, we are already in the insight that is the essence of practice.
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