Withdrawing Into Sushumṇā
When we chant the mantra Aum, and do it correctly, we pronounce the AA so that it vibrates the physical body. The OO has to vibrate through the throat area, and the MM, the head. In doing this, we are deliberately moving awareness out of the mūlādhāra and svādhishṭhāna chakras, deliberately harmonizing all the forces of the instinct and physical body, and of the iḍā and the piṅgalā currents. Chanting the AA and the OO and the MM brings the sushumṇā into power. We are transmuting and changing the flows of all the energies through the physical and astral body and blending them as much as possible into the body of the soul.
The mantra Aum can be chanted at any time. It can be chanted silently and cause the same vibration through the body. When you chant Aum, the iḍā and the piṅgalā blend back into the sushumṇā.
You will actually see this happening. You will see the pink iḍā current begin to blend back into the golden center of the spine. At other times it is seen winding through the body. The same happens with the piṅgalā force. It, too, moves back into the spine, until you are all spine when you are centered in the sushumṇā. This is how it feels, like being all spine. This beautiful, pure energy flows out through the sushumṇā and the iḍā and the piṅgalā and then on out through the body. This energy becomes changed as it flows through the first three or four chakras. It makes what is called prāṇa. This energy runs in and through the body. It is a great mind energy which is in the world of thought. All the stratums of thought are prāṇa. The human aura is prāṇa.
Prāṇa, or odic force, is transferred from one person to another through touch, as in a handshake, or through a look. It is the basic force of the universe, and the most predominant force found within the body. You have to really study prāṇa to get a good understanding of what it is. It runs in and through the skin, through the bone structure, through the physical body and around the body.
Breath controls prāṇa. This practice is called prāṇāyāma. It is the control of prāṇa, the regulation of prāṇa, or the withdrawal of prāṇa from the external world back to its primal source. That is why prāṇāyāma is so important to practice systematically, regularly, day after day, so we get all the prāṇa into a rhythm. In this way we get a rhythm of the pure life force flowing through iḍā, piṅgalā and sushumṇā and out through the aura. We gain a rhythm of awareness soaring inward, into refined states of the ājñā chakra and sahasrāra chakra, the perspective areas from which we are looking out at life as if we were the center of the universe. This is how we feel when we are in these chakras.
Diaphragmatic breathing is breathing according to nature. When man becomes confused, nervous, tense, fearful, he breathes out of tune with nature—out of tune with himself. Then his breathing is spasmodic, labored, shallow, and he has to expand his chest to get enough breath to keep going on. That’s right: breathing by expanding the chest is incorrect, unnatural, and conducive to nothing but ill health unless you are practicing an advanced breathing exercise, and then the chest is only expanded after the area beneath the chest is filled. And unless you are doing physically strenuous work, you will be able to bring more than sufficient air into your lungs by the simple, natural contraction and relaxation of the diaphragmatic muscle. The diaphragm you can feel right below your solar plexus, in the area where the floating ribs separate. Place your finger tips on top of the diaphragm and cough. If your fingers are directly on top of the diaphragm, you will feel them jump out away from you as you cough.
The quickest way to teach yourself natural breathing (the way you breathed until about the age of seven) is to lie on the floor with your spine absolutely straight. Place a book or some light object on top of your diaphragm. When you breathe in, the diaphragm will extend itself downward in the body and you will feel it push out and up away from the floor; watch the book rise. Breathing out is as important as breathing in, for without expelling all the waste matter and carbon dioxide from the lungs, they are not free to take in more fresh oxygen. As you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes slowly, smoothly and completely. The book, which previously was lifted away from the floor by the pressure of your expanding diaphragm, now returns back to its starting position. You will find that squeezing or contracting the abdominal muscles slightly will aid you in making a complete exhalation, allowing most of the air to leave the lungs. At the end of your exhaled breath, your stomach should be flat, and the diaphragm relaxed, ready for the next inhalation. You are now on your way to perfect breath and mind control.