From Pranayama to Pratyahara
 

We will look at the goal of Pranayama and Pratyahara.

Pranayama as we all know is a breath control practice, but we often forget what the purpose of this practice actually is. Sometimes we practice Pranayama related practices that have been given other names and hope to achieve some boon or even enlightenment.

The goal of Pranayama is to lead you to the withdrawal of the senses, which is Pratyahara. Not bliss, not cosmic consciousness, not partial insanity, but Pratyahara. The withdrawal of the senses. Pranayama is the way that leads to Pratyahara, and when we can enter into Pratyahara without the use of Pranayama, then we continue Pranayama not because we need it to help us withdraw our senses, but for its benefits on our gross and subtle bodies.

Jesus said that when we pray to the Father, we must shut the door! This door is the door of the senses, and this is Pratyahara.

May your breathing exercises lead to you to the withdrawal of the senses.

I have observed this during pranayama.

We live in a world of sensory over load so to experience pratayahara is very healing. With the type of work I do, it's been very hard to get my mind to slow and sit to practice breath work lately. But my soul aches for me to turn it all off and let go.

Pranayama is control of the prana in the breath. That’s what the word literally means.
Prana is life force energy, subtle/invisble but it is what we live on.
And our gross physical body needs both oxygen from breath as well as prana from breath because it is composed of gross elements but every cell has a soul too and anything that has a soul needs prana.
So basically we are subtle energy beings living in a gross energy body, symbiotic.*

Pratyahara is the practice of detaching from the outer gross energy world (detaching from senses, silencing the mental fluctuations or vrittis etc) in order to meditate (go within and begin to explore deeper layers of being). Whilst experiencing the more subtle energy of our inner or soul being we continue to use pranayama practice for the wellbeing of the body, learning to drive it masterfully from soul being, bringing deeper wellness and healing, even changing the body from a cellular level.

What I assume the OP was referring to was as Patanjali wrote in the yoga sutras about pratyahara as a process or stage in deepening one’s meditation practice. It is not the only goal of pranayama.

*After we transition from the physical body we continue to live on as disembodied soul feeding on prana. So pranayama continues even after “death” but in a different form.

Pranayama, also known as breathing exercises is athe art and science of yogic breathing techniques.

Excellent. Thank you. :icon_cool: