In the same breath that we speak of Yoga, we speak of meditation. Whether that Yoga meditation school is Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, Taoist, Jain, Vedanta, Tantric, Integral, Transcendental, and the list continues evolving new schools and styles, these are all expressions of Yoga meditation philosophy; a mystic understanding of the infinite, an acceptance of ourselves as finite aspects of light and integral dynamic elements of an infinite light.
Yoga philosophy is a broad, deeply layered subject. In respect to our focus for this article – breathing and meditation – we may only touch lightly on Yoga philosophy and say that the goal of Yoga philosophy, and therefore, the goal of all schools of Yoga meditation is mystic liberation – to die to the human condition of suffering. Just as Yoga meditation has been called by many names, mystic liberation has been called by many names from self-realization and enlightenment in the West to ananda and samadhi in the East.
Everything that we have briefly touched upon above own's one common element, the breath of life, inhaling it for ourselves, exhaling and sharing it with another human being, we are alive because the universe breathes energy in a multitude of forms. All life in the biosphere bonds each to its kind in regards to the manner in which it can participate in breathing and processing the universal breath of energy. Thus spoke Gautama Buddha four to six centuries BCE, "Not one, not two, but the one in the many and the many in the one."
Our breathing guides much of how we live. If Yoga meditation is for the goal of understanding the infinite, and through that understanding to discover mystic liberation, then it makes perfect sense that the question Yoga poses – what is liberation from suffering, and how do we practice it – requires that we consciously and with full awareness unite to our breathing and allow it to lead us to the answer.
It is not a surprise that Yoga meditation treats 'vinyasa' – the rhythm of timing our physical asana work and our contemplative work to our breathing - as the focus of all schools and styles of legitimate Yoga meditation. We learn first the art of the Yoga Breath (use of the diaphragm and proper ordering of our breathing muscles in lower and upper torso), and then we learn an asana, perhaps Tadasana, and at first these are only physical moves. However, through practice we tie our breathing to our growing list of asanas, and an amazing event transpires, we become conscious of an intellectual and emotional change taking place when we practice. Through the mind and body we touch the spirit and are standing in Tadasana deeply embraced by a meditative state.
Our finite light, our infinite light; our breathing, our Yoga meditation – "…the one in the many and the many in the one."