# Why We Need Pranayama Answer Key, Class One: Why We Need Pranayama **1) List a few of the important subjects found in each of the four chapters of the _Hatha Yoga Pradipika.  _How do the chapters reflect the flow of our yoga practice?** (a) Chapter One: Lineage of the tradition; the proper place for practice; the need for goodness; the postures, or asanas; proper diet. (b) Chapter Two: Breathing practices, or pranayama; the six treatments, or kriyas; the eight capsules, or khumbaka. (c)  Chapter Three: The ten seals, or mudra. (d) Chapter Four: Deep meditation, or samadhi; royal (raja) yoga; voidness; prana, the inner channels, and death; dissolution, or laya; the seal of the sky dancer, or khechari; the practice of inner sound, or nada. Here is how the chapters reflect the natural flow of our practice: First and foremost there is always the Master—we must find an authentic Teacher, and learn from Them.  Then we must endeavor to practice all that They have taught us.  In order to do that, we must find a suitable place.  Then we must plant good karmic seeds by keeping our behavior pure, as we practice the asanas, in order for our mind to be a suitable vessel, and we must keep our body pure, by watching what we eat, in order for our body to be a suitable vessel.  The physical asana practice leads us to the deeper practice of pranayama—the science of the breath, and we are slowly drawing deeper within.  Slowly we learn to combine the physical postures with the retention of the breath, in the great art of making a seal of the body.  This sends our mind even deeper within, until we are ripe for the deepest practice: meditation.  We use everything we have learned so far to affect the inner winds in our body, so that we can reach a state of meditative stillness, and realize emptiness itself.   **2) List a few of the important subjects found in chapter 2 of the _Hatha Yoga Pradipika._** Chapter two covers who is a suitable vessel to practice pranayama; what pranayama can bring us if we practice it correctly; the dangers of practicing it incorrectly; detailed instructions on the purification practices that may be necessary before practicing pranayama; detailed instructions on different types of pranayamas. **3) What are the Sanskrit words for _royal yoga,_ and for _yoga of the sun and moon?_  Give also the Sanskrit roots, and related English words.  Finally tell how the two types of yoga are related.** The Sanskrit for royal yoga is raja yoga raj yaeg.  Raja means royal, and comes from the root √irj \j! , meaning to direct.  Related English words are royal and regal. The Sanskrit for yoga of the sun and moon is hatha yoga hQ yaeg.  The word hatha is made of two parts, ha and tha.  Ha here refers to the sun, and the Indo-European root is sahwel, meaning the sun.  Related English words are helios and solar.  Tha refers to the moon, without any obvious root or English cognates. Hatha yoga emphasizes the outer, physical practices which prepare the channels: the asana exercises and breathing practices, for example.  Raja yoga emphasizes meditation and using meditation to perceive ultimate reality.  Ultimate reality is perceived by the mind when the inner winds or prana concentrate into the central channel.  Hatha yoga helps concentrate the winds here. **4) How does the lineage found in the _Hatha Yoga Pradipika _relate to the lineages for the practice of yoga in Tibet?  And how does it relate to the founders of the modern schools of yoga in India?  Finally, is the _Hatha Yoga Pradipika _a Hindu or a Buddhist text?** About the first third of the lineage listed in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika consists of great yogis who are forefathers of the yoga lineages of Tibet, and whose works are found in the Tengyur, or the collection of ancient commentaries from India written in Sanskrit and translated into Tibetan.   The dates of these yogis start around 800 AD, and end around 1000 AD, after which time the Moghul presence in India cut off almost all contact with the Tibetans.  The remainder of the lineage in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika represents an “underground” tradition which continued on in India under the Moghuls for 500 years, up to the present date. All the various modern schools of yoga in India, and now in the West, trace their roots back to the Yoga Sutra, and to the basic asana presentation found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The major figures of the lineage of yoga in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika are claimed by both Hindu and Buddhist traditions.  They lived in a time when the common thread of yoga united great practitioners of both traditions, who on the whole simply considered themselves yogis. **5) The _Hatha Yoga Pradipika _describes how those who have mastered hatha yoga are “born into power,” and “roam the universe,” for they have reached _kala danda.  _Explain the meaning of _kala danda._** Kala danda means to slay death.  The Sanskrit word kala kal means time; it comes from a root √kal, meaning to drive or produce, with the English cognate car.  In yogic literature, “time” is another word for “death.” The word danda d{f means a stick or a club; a related Indo-European root is deru, meaning to be firm, and thus meaning a tree.  Related English words are rhododendron (from the Greek dendron, meaning tree) and endure, meaning to stay fast in the face of hardship.  We also of course see the Sanskrit in the name of the plank pose, or dandasana. The idea of the two words together then is to club death to death. **6) What four prerequisites does Master Svatmarama list for beginning the practice of pranayama, or control of the breath?  Which of these is most important, and why?  Are these the only prerequisites?** He says first that we must already be firm in our practice of the poses, or asanas.  This implies that our inner channels are already somewhat "opened up" by our practice of the outer methods of yoga.   We should also have learned to "control ourselves," through our practice of the yama and niyama: ethical codes to live by, avoiding harm to others and doing all we can do to help them. Next, we should be "eating in a healthy and moderate way," according to the guidelines set forth in the first chapter.  This would very importantly include avoiding foods whose production has caused suffering to other living beings, both human and animal. The Master says finally that we must learn pranayama by "following the way that our spiritual guide shows to us."  This is the most important of the requisites, for many reasons. First, it is only the direct blessing of our Teacher, as an emanation of the divine, which can grant us the energy we need to succeed in any practice.  Secondly, we receive blessings and details of the practice which are only transmitted by osmosis: by "rubbing off" as we work directly with a Master, who is also a conduit for all the wisdom and experience accumulated through the entire lineage, stretching back to ancient India. Thirdly, the Master is able to see into our minds, see what we most need for our own advancement, and push us on to higher places that would be too hard for us to push ourselves to.  Finally, the presence of the Master is a living example for what we ourselves seek to become: the next link of the lineage, a Master ourselves. There is as well a negative side here: pranayama attempted without the direct guidance of a spiritual master can lead to very serious problems, which we'll be reviewing throughout the course.  Each person's body is different, and each person may respond to a different pranayama technique. These are certainly not the only prerequisites for the success of our practice; in the first two cases they are only what we could call physical prerequisites, or prerequisites within the context of hatha yoga.  We still need the prerequisites of royal yoga, meaning basic spiritual insights such as a recognition of our motivation—the suffering of ourselves and the world, our place in saving the world with our practice; and the role of a deep understanding of how the world works, reached through the door of an ability in deep meditation. **7) Master Svatmarama notes how the mind moves "too and fro" when the winds do.  Talk a bit about the connection of mind and inner winds, and the various levels of being that this relationship extends through.** The levels—or koshas or envelopes—begin at the very core with emptiness; the fact that nothing doesn't come from ourselves: the potential or availability or "blank screen" of the universe.  The next level out is our own deeds—mental, verbal, or physical karma—which paint our reality upon the canvas of emptiness. The next level is composed of the various parts of our inner body: the channels, chakras, and drops, all created by our karma.  The next level out is composed of the prana, inner wind, and the thoughts which ride upon it.  This connects to our physical breath; note how our breath is ragged when we're angry or jealous. The breath connects to our gross physical body, which itself is seated in the outermost level of all: the physical world around us.  Even this, as with all the levels beneath it, all the way back to the core, is a reflection of our karma, of how we treat the others around us.  And so our capacity for compassion is ultimately our capacity for yoga. **8) Explain the different meanings of the word _pranayama, _including the traditional Tibetan view, also giving some related English words.** The word pranayama àaayam is made of two different parts.  The first is prana àa, which refers to breath, the "wind of life," the inner wind.  This word is made up of two parts, pra à and ana An . The prefix pra means forward or ahead, and is found in the English words prow, proud, and proceed.  Ana comes from the root √an An!  , which means to breathe.  This came into the Latin word for spirit or breath, anima, and from there into the English animal, animation, and equanimity. The word ayama Aaym means to control or measure.  The root here is √yam ym! , which means to reach for something.  Yama (with an accent on the first syllable) came to mean the reins of a horse, which you reach for to control the horse.  It then became a word for restraining or controlling, and thus we see it used for the different forms of self-control or ethical behavior in yoga.  In this sense, we are seeking to restrain or control the breath with pranayama, first holding it consciously and finally simply stopping the breath without conscious effort. By adding the long a vowel before yama, we come up with the Sanksrit word ayama Aaym, which means specifically a lengthening of the measure of the breath, especially on the exhale; and this how the word is explained in the Tibetan sources.  Here the Tibetan is sok-tsul N}#-P};k, where sok refers to the breath or inner wind, and tsul means to practice or become adept at, in the sense of singwa 0Nm$-0k , which means lengthening the breath. The ayama here has sometimes also been explained in the yoga tradition as beginning with a short a, in which case it would mean releasing the breath, relaxing it, not controlling it. Because there were always two reins, it also became a word for pairs or twins (with an accent on the second syllable).  We see this meaning in the English word Gemini, or twins in astrology.  It is also the root meaning for Yama as the Lord of Death: his twin sister was Yami.  In mythology, Yama dies and is mourned by his twin sister, and so the gods create night for her, as a time for her to forget her sorrow.  Here too then we see the dichotomy of night and day, moon and sun, hatha. **9) The text says that "we are alive so long as the winds remain within, and it is death when they depart."  Clarify the meaning of this verse.** The point is, if we are able to bring the winds into the central channel and transform our body into that of a divine being, then in this body of light we are free of death.  If we fail in this true mission of our yoga, then we will be locked into this mortal body, and die in it. **10) Master Svatmarama says that, so long as our inner winds remain "unruly" and fail to "come to the middle," we can never reach the "state beyond the mind."  Explain what "state beyond the mind" means, and the process by which we reach it through the "middle."** One of the principal purposes of yoga is to bring the winds into the central channel, which as we've mentioned above is a major step towards transforming the body into light, and being able to help countless living beings.  The most important intermediate step here, a step without which we have no hope of transforming the body, is the direct perception of emptiness—here called the "state beyond the mind"—which is also triggered by bringing the winds into the central channel. **11) Master Svatmara says that "when all the channels and chakras have been cleared of the impurities which crowd them, then the yoga has attained mastery" at "bringing the winds within" the central channel.  Describe the impurities that the Master is speaking about here.** The impurities here are mental: thoughts like our own anger and jealousy, and the ignorant perceptions of the world which motivate them.  These impurities ride on the winds, taking them out of control, and preventing us from bringing them into the central channel of wisdom.  But since they do ride on the winds, we can also attack them by learning to control our breath, connected as it is so intimately with the inner winds. **12) Why does the Master advise us "always to do our pranayama with the purest of thoughts in our mind"?  How did the ancient Tibetan _lotsawas, _or master translators, render the Sanskrit phrase here for "purest of thoughts"?  How is this reflected in our pranayama practice?** When we have negative thoughts, as mentioned above, then the inner winds are thrown into a state of disturbance.  Pranayama is an outer method to calm these winds down.  If we do our pranayama while consciously trying to keep wholesome, happy, and helpful states of mind, then half the job is done for us before we begin. The ancient Tibetan translators rendered the Sanskrit phrase here—_sattvikaya dhiya—_as _sampa nyingtop chen: _"thoughts of courage."  This indicates that we must have the determination to continue with our yoga practice, and more specifically our pranayama practice, on a solid, challenging daily regimen until we see results. **13) What four different Sanskrit words does Master Svatmarama use here in our first reading for the inner winds?  What is the specific "taste" of each different word, and how did the ancient Tibetans translate them?** The Master uses four different terms here for "inner wind."  The first is vata, which has connotations of moving winds and is used for the humor of the body called wind in ayurvedic medicine, also connoting a restless state of mind. Later the Master uses the word vayu, a general term for the five different functions of the inner wind in the maintenance of the body's functions, such as the elimination of feces and urine, the digestion of food, or movement of the limbs of the body. Still further on, he uses the word maruta, a term which specifically refers to an uncontrolled or wild wind—like a tornado or hurricane—with the implication that we must seek to harness and direct the inner wind into the central channel. And finally he uses the term prana, the wind as it has been purified and controlled by a skilful yogi or yogini, thus bringing us to true and eternal life. All of these terms were translated by the early Tibetan master translators with a single word, lung, which also has other connotations of breath and also a disturbance of the inner winds.  And so although the Tibetan presentations of the inner body are often vastly more detailed and helpful than the Sanskrit presentations, a familiarity with the Sanskrit originals is also vital for getting the full meaning of an idea.  We need both together. The Yoga Studies Institute Course VI: Hatha Yoga Pradipika II Pranayama: Breath and the End of Breath