Breath awareness is an essential part of meditation. Authentic schools of meditation teach breath awareness before leading a student towards advance techniques of meditation, but some of the modern schools have failed to grasp its significance. That is why their teachers are unable to lead their students to deeper states of meditation.

The mind is in the habit of identifying itself with the objects of the world, and it does not become aware of internal states as long as it remains in this dissipated condition. With systematic discipline, however, the mind starts traveling inward toward the more subtle levels of consciousness, and when one attains a perfect stillness and tranquillity, that which is beyond the mind reveals itself.

In learning to meditate, tranquillity of mind is an important factor, but even more important is breath awareness. The primary step is to find a steady, comfortable, and easy posture. The second step is to develop calm, serene, and even breathing. The third is to calm and steady the mind, which is the only means for experiencing the deeper levels of being. The fourth step is to gain control of the conscious mind, for this control can make one dynamic and creative. In the fifth step, the involuntary system as well as a vast part of the unconscious mind, including the memory, are brought under conscious control, and in the sixth step, the mind becomes aware that it is conditioned by time, space, and causation. Through meditation, the mind can be trained to remain aware of the present moment, the door to eternity. In the seventh step, constant awareness is developed through the regular practice of meditation, and the highest state of turiya is attained. This state is full of bliss, peace, happiness, and wisdom.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Science of Breath by Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, and Alan Hymes, The Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, Honesdale, PA, 1979, pages 129 – 129.

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