Free Breath

The Age of the Guru is over. Blind followers of gurus whether they be of the financial or fashion variety are waning. You can see this in yoga. The days when students threw flowers at the enlightened master sitting on a throne and bowed at his feet are over. The day when the student repeated verbatim the words of the master is over. The time when the student sponged off the teacher is over. 'Methods' of purifying old karma, for example through rigorous, forceful, thrusting breaths, are still practiced. But they have ancient roots at a time when the freshly purified student would then be able to  soak up the energy and consciousness of his teacher. And what if there is no teacher for the 21st-century Bandha lock student? Then what? And who wants to be an energy vampire anyway?

It is the Age of the Individual. It is about the individual coming into conscious awareness with his or her own thoughts and subtle feelings, and with the other. When we consciously shape an asana and our Life, our breathing will be released of karma and old habits all on its own. We won't have to force it. The breath will find a freedom quite naturally and a new pattern will emerge. The starting point for 'consciously shaping' comes from objective observation, to simply observe through the senses without either intellectualizing or having our emotions triggered, with none of our personal likes and dislikes creeping in.

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