We can't learn what we think we know

When we think we know something, the mind closes the door. Once closed, that door is not easily opened. We have had enough discussion, studied the issue, and no further inquiry is necessary, required or even desirable.

We all do this. It is a time saver. "He or she is very opinionated," is a very derogatory thing to say. And yet, we are all full of opinions.

We may have an image of ourselves as "fair and open minded." Our persona may be very attached to the belief that we are "willing to hear more," and yet when we honestly examine all our beliefs, and the things we think we know, our mind is VERY closed on many issues.

Our beliefs harden. Hardened beliefs become opinions of which we are sure of. Once ingrained, those opinions do not change, or at least they are near impossible to change. Maybe the word "viewpoint" sounds a little better. We develop hardened viewpoints.

It is a relief to accept that you and I actually have many hardened opinions.

Breath is a big topic. My breath practice is still very modest and anybody can do what I have done. I am currently practicing, without fail, one hour every morning with 48 minutes of Anuloma Viloma, and I return to practice many times through the day. I exercise using Alternate Nostril Breath.

Most healthy people most of the time breathe in the 12 - 15 breaths per minute range. Another school of breath called “Coherent Breathing” recommends getting into the 5 - 6 breaths per minute and then a lovely synchronicity of lungs and heart occurs. In my sitting practice, my breath rate goes down the 2 breaths per minute range after 40 minutes or so. And this is not a difficult place to get to, but it will require an established practice. It amazes me how whole new worlds of information at the 2 breaths per minute range keep spontaneously opening up.

Biology first, mind second

When the breath slows down, it leads the mind, and the mind behaves differently.

Every morning I am excited to get to practice to see what happens next. I surrender into the flow of the inner body, listen and respond. There is both structure and spontaneity. I am on the edge of my seat, really. I am at the tips of my fingers, on the threshold of every breath for one hour, amazed at what is happening inside. It is like Mindfulness, only 15 times stronger. The farther I go, the less I know. I am humbled by the rishis of old who spent lifetimes of practice with praanaayaama. Grey Ward (Gitanand) was always very fond of saying that once you get fully established in this kind of praanaayaama practice, all the other stages of yoga start happening very quickly and effortlessly. I am beginning understand the wisdom of his teaching which is the wisdom of classical yoga.

When I begin the topic of the breath, the majority of people, especially yoga teachers, already know everything about the breath. They do ujjaayee and slow flow aasana, which is great. Yup. I did that too for decades and led teacher trainings around it. They did lots of study in anatomy class. "Breath is a gas exchange of O2 and CO2, red blood cells, alveoli, bronchial tubes and stuff." And that is that. The door is closed.

Most yogis are missing the complete mystery of the breath and the breath’s innate unknowability.

The yogis talked about many kinds of breath opening up wisdom that is already encoded in the body. The yogis talked about how the breath pervades the universe. What does that famous phrase even mean? The yogis talked about the Breath is Consciousness manifesting from moment to moment. Intellectually, you might reason these ideas out, develop a cogent theory and turn it into a thesis or maybe write a book. But who is going to devote themselves to a actual practice to realize this wisdom first hand?

Why I created the online course “This Next Breath”

A few years ago, I found myself so broken physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. I went through a death experience of sorts. I directed four yoga studios that supported my life on the material plane, and they were gone. All the Yoga Teacher Trainings, 34 in all, that I led were karmically over, complete. The universe did not want me to do that anymore. I tried getting into a more normal sales business and failed miserably. I hated this new life. I started hating myself begin unable to take care of my family financially. Sales was not the dharma I was meant to live. The Dark Night of the Soul became my normal habitat. The Valley of Death is not a valley, more like a pit. Somewhere deep inside, the Way of the Breath, the way of spirit was calling me back.

That little voice inside was saying to go back.

I went back to my roots and the praanaayaama teachings at Kripalu aashram in the 1980s. I surrendered my life because I did not know where to turn. I was guided, or instructed by some voice on where to go. Go back to the place you once were decades ago. Go back to the early morning aashram practice. Fill yourself with love and devotion and let go.

At first, tremendous will is necessary just to begin and set up a breath practice everyday without fail. It has to start small and be modest. 25 minutes a day. At the aashrama, there is a very specific goal to go with your practice. You want to get to an unshakable practice of “One Ghatikaa,” 24 minutes of Anuloma Viloma.

There are so many problems in the way. Even seasoned master vinyasa teachers might love 3 or 4 minutes of AV, but lhey loathe anything over 15 minutes. I have heard many great yogis say, “What for? 24 minutes of Anuloma Viloma is just a waste of time!”

I recognize now, that voice is one of the barriers. The breath has these built in barriers to practice. The body, mind and personality will put up huge resistance at first to Anuloma Viloma. This is where Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of Love and devotion, which is the ultimate yoga, can come to the rescue. In the ashraama days, we were filled with Bhakti, love for the guru, love for god. We were to instructed to praanaayaama practice because the guru said so. “Have faith.” Faith is what is necessary to get across the ocean of life and death. Faith is what will propel a person to stay with the Anuloma Viloma long enough and persevere through whatever obstacles show up. And there are many obstacles on the way.

Once I got clear on where to go, and identified what the obstacles were (95% personality obstacles) I did some problem solving and experimentation. I could not immediatly, consistenntly and without fail get back to the practice of 24 minutes of AV. That door was not open yet. it started with a few minutes at first.

I still teach 5 local classes a week in Providence and I experimented endlessly on them. My students rebelled anytime AV got over 5 minutes. They reported that they really loved Anuloma Viloma for the short term, and really hated it for longer periods. Right there, was a big clue! Anuloma Viloma has a few walls to break down at the beginning. I had to figure out how to personally get there, so I created this baby step by baby step course to get me back there.

Building the online course was a way of personal salvation.

I underestimated how difficult building an online course was. I am not a super techie person. I tried paying, and begging my friends and family to help, but soon realized that I could not rely on others to build this for me. It was too large of a task. It requires thousands of hours. If this was ever gong to happen, I had to do most of it myself.

At the young age of 60, I started learning about filming, Final Cut Pro and all those tutorials, websites, more tutorials, online platforms, animation software, social media integration blah blah blah and the tools I needed to convey the fountain of breath information that was coming from the practice. I naturally have a great resistance to learning technical stuff, but I recognized the usefulness of developing these skills. There was really no other way but forward.

I adopted the spirit of my friend and ashram brother Tony Kasowski. Tony K was a computer expert at the ashram. All the Kriplau ashram residents would go running to Tony with our ‘broken’ computers. He said to me, “the problem, is not your computer. The problem is that you give up too easily. It is just software. Find the bug and fix it. If it is a hardware problem, that is easy to fix too.” Tony went on to the bigger picture, “I live in the place where I declare ‘no machine can beat me.’ In your life Tom, you don’t have a hardware problem; you have a software problem. Your software problem is that you give up too easily.”

I got to work on my personal software problems and I started learning enough of the technical stuff necessary to make a reasonably good quality video that was engaging. It has to be engaging. Make the moment interesting. In the process, I discovered a new avenue for making jokes. Going through lots of physical, personal and emotional pain in life is a superior path for finding what is funny. Videos are a great way to make people laugh. I set out to make praanaayaama instructional videos that have a tongue in cheek, quirky fun edge, afew belly busters sprinkled in with a program of purpose and depth. Day by day, morning by morning, the effects of morning practice started kicking in and supporting the daily technical work. I started getting so much clarity from the praanaayaama, so much energy started flowing, it was guiding me to keep going without stopping. Practice happy. Never miss a day. Build it slowly.

If you have read this far, if being obsessed with the breath speaks to you, if you are interested in laughing sometimes, begin the course, This Next Breath.

It will support your life, no matter what else you are doing. If you jump into this course wholeheartedly, you will reap huge the benefits. Study the lessons and practice the days, and if you are not absolutely thrilled with what it has given you. I am happy to refund the small investment you made. At present, as yoga teacher, I live below the poverty level. I do charge a small fee for the course to pay for the thousands of hours I have worked on this project. If this course does not benefit your life in a significant way, I am happy to give you your money back.

There are many different kinds of restaurants in this world, French, Italian, Indian, and they serve different food. When you eat French, it is different from when you eat Thai. Likewise, there are many different schools of breath practices. And they are not all the same. Eat the sweet foods of Love, devotion and surrender and most of all laugh along the way. Practice happy. The results are better. And even if you already know everything about the breath, you might be surprised how much more there is to go.

I am humbled by the immensity of the material that is coming together for the Advanced course.