Resolving Conflict With The Breath
What we do within ourselves, isn’t limited to ourselves.
It's a big topic.
Sometimes I think we function under the assumption that everything that we’re doing inside of ourselves is a private affair that’s happening in isolation from everything around it.
No—that’s just not true.
There is interconnectivity—essentially everything is Life.
So, everything that happens within this great organism—if we just consider ourselves as part of it—happens to the whole.
And it’s not too difficult then to go, “Oh shit…”
Because sometimes, what I’m doing within myself is not very conducive to the harmony of the whole.
But on the positive side of it—and I think this is far more important—
Anything I do that’s conducive to me is also conducive to everything and everyone.
Any moment I act according to the truth within myself,
that will be an action of truth for everybody.
If I have a moment where I bless something,
or I aspire for something noble—that ripples out.
Like dropping a pebble in a pond.
It doesn’t stop at the pebble—it ripples out.
Even invisibly, even beyond our sensory capacity.
So, sending out loving thoughts inside ourselves?
That’s good ripples, no?
Wishing everybody well.
Ah… such a great ripple to send out.
So we just do our little bit to lean more toward the good side of the ripples.
Of course we send out other kinds of ripples sometimes too.
But you know… it’s good to tip the balance.
What am I doing inside myself?
It’s immense service to the whole of existence
to bring ourselves into harmony with Life—just to be simply not in conflict.
I think sometimes we imagine we need to do something really special out there in the world—
like we need to do good, we need to change the world, whatever.
But it would be more than enough, from what I can see,
if we just didn’t create so much conflict.
Our yoga—is about discovering that, essentially,
we’re managing our life from the inside out.
Life is lived from the inside out.
So if we’re simply not creating conflict with our own bodies in the postures, for example—
that’s huge.
Because if we’re not in conflict with our body, we’re not in conflict with the whole.
So the yogis said:
If you could just—just simply—stay in the best harmony you can with your breathing…
Because the breath reflects our psychological and physiological approach-
what we’re doing from the inside out.
If you can keep that sweet,
you’re going to be pretty much in harmony with Life—and the whole.
And you’re going to have a wonderful effect,
not just on your little piece of Life,
but on your piece of Life’s part of the whole.
Not acting aggressively,
Or not imposing something upon our own little universe—that we call our body—
is actually the same as not imposing or inflicting that violence on the whole.
You become a peaceful warrior.
And that’s a big deal.
I don’t think we need to look like we’re doing a special thing—
instead we just stop doing a little of the shit things.
I’m just taking care to relax,
to be in harmony with the Tao,
to be in harmony with the One.
I’m just practising being easy with Life today, guys.
The best I can.
Even when everybody else is in the spin,
I’m just doing my bit to remain in harmony with that.
And of course, we’re not always.
But we always return.
No problem.
I think that’s huge.
And I think it’s doable, isn’t it?
So our sadhana is supposed to be a microcosm of the macrocosm.
It’s supposed to be a little container
in which we figure out our existence—and how we want to live, breathe and move with Life.
And we just practise being in harmony with our own bodies.
In the old-school way that we would’ve taught—back in the day—
I would’ve been going on and on and on,
For you to really make that Ujjayi whisper muscle in your throat.
Until you really got it.
I would have insisted that you make that the most important part of what you’re doing.
And some of you already have it down.
So just keep doing it.
But those who are just starting out, in the early months of practice—just master that.
The ability to keep that breath going steady.
Because, those of you who have mastered it, if you look back you will see, it’s changed your life.
It’s changed the very mechanism of your nervous system,
And brought coherence to all of your organ functions.
It’s brought a kind of gentle—but quite radical—harmonisation,
and coherence in all of your organ functioning.
It basically makes all the different parts of the body agree with all the other parts.
And then once your body agrees with itself,
it starts to agree with other bodies.
So if I stick your body—which is in coherence,
which is in balance in itself—
into a group of other bodies that are not in balance,
and you manage to keep your coherence intact…
it will affect all the other bodies.
You don’t have to do anything big.
You don’t have to think,
“Everybody f—ing calm down, will you? What’s up? Take up some yoga.”
Just simply be in coherence.
This is how powerful it is to make your breath harmonious and free flowing.
Part of the reason is: if our breath is flowing,
then all the discordance in our psychology—
you know, the psychological instrument and its tendencies
that try to knock us out of balance,
push us into misery, or into conflict, or self-aggrandising…
That mechanism.
If the breath doesn’t agree with that, it starts to crumble.
Our psychology can only hold itself in place
if our breath agrees with it.
But if your breath is flowing—like the tide—
and your mind’s wanting to go into chaos and all your stuff,
but your breath refuses to align with it…
Your psychology loses.
It can’t win against the breath.
That’s an amazing yogic discovery, is it not?
That’s like… the tool of all tools.
If Guruji had given me just that, I’d be a happy, happy man.
Just to be able to follow the breath for the rest of my life.
Going into a forward bend, and not having the breath break up because you’re coming in so carefully,
making sure you land so softly,
that the physiology doesn’t disrupt the breathing
because the psychology probably wanted to get somewhere quicker,
or do something, or prove something, or whatever.
If you can just control that?
Massive.
A large amount of your psychology has been broken down like this.
And sometimes, you’ll feel like you’re not getting anywhere.
That’s a good sign.
Those are the moments
when the psychology is actually under threat
in its conditioned patterning.
It feels a bit awkward for the psychology.
What it’s saying is:
“I’m not getting you where I used to get you.”
“I’m not controlling you the way I used to control you.”
And then it feels a bit dissatisfied with this whole thing…
and it makes a claim like, “It’s not working.”
But what it’s actually saying is:
“It’s not working for me,”
as a separate psychological piece of software.
So often, the messages from the mind—
especially those thoughts going on—
are actually the opposite of what’s truly happening.
That’s why it’s good to have teachers and Sanghas.
Because especially in the early days,
The mind is so convincing.
And when it’s under threat—it’s clever.
Our egos will seek survival to the very end.
And the yogis called them a lot of things.
“Slippery snake” was a common one.
Devious.
Some traditions even called it “the little devil.”
Not because it’s innately wicked—
but just because it’s so clever at manipulating.
And some of us already know just how clever it is.
Well… we know a little bit of it.
A common thing in old teachings was:
once you’ve decided to be on it,
once you’ve decided to dedicate yourself to it—
just don’t give yourself the entitlement
to have any opinion about it
for, say… the first twelve years or so.
Don’t even evaluate your progress at all.
Don’t look at it.
Don’t wonder about it.
In twelve years—we’ll have a little chat about how it’s going.
We’ll talk about it.
But these first twelve years?
I mean, that’s almost enough to scare most modern people off.
But really go for it.
Because I remember—when I chose to really go for it,
I was asthmatic.
The Ujjayi was really difficult for me.
It felt like I was dying—like I was suffocating.
And also, I wasn’t sure it was worth it.
And then one day—it clicked.
I decided:
and everything changed.
Go easy in the postures.
Super light.
Like… unbelievably light.
So light that your mind’s going,
“We’re doing absolutely nothing.
This is a pointless exercise.
You’re not going to get flexible like this.”
And you just go:
“Yeah… but I’m breathing, aren’t I?
Check out this breath—I’m surfing.”
And then—use the resistance in the breath.
This is why the Ujjayi is such a miracle of a breath:
it gives you something to push against.
If I asked you to jump off a cliff into thin air,
you’d probably go,
“Steve… not today.
That’s an advanced practice and I’m not ready.
I don’t fly yet.”
But if you’ve got a cushion to press against—
you know, something to fall into—
you could fall infinitely, couldn’t you?
If you were cushioned, and the cushion just kept giving,
you wouldn’t go, “Oh, I’m not doing it.”
You’d go, “Yeah…”
And that’s what the Ujjayi is providing.
That’s the cushion.
So if you really get into the exhales—
really take them on a ride.
Don’t just cut them short because you think,
“Oh, that should be enough.”
Ride into them.
You get to ride that cushion right down to the bottom of the bouncy castle.
And then you can spring up out of there.
Don’t control your breathing as an idea of length or duration—
in any way.
Don’t try and regulate it.
But really get into the exhalations,
particularly in the forward bends.
Just see how far you can—not “how good”—
but how far the bouncy castle goes.
And then I’m going to ask you—
you know when you’ve dropped into yourself?
And you just land—ahhh—we all know what we’re talking about, don’t we?
Everything can be seen, can’t it?
From there.
But not when we go chasing.
It’s a cool discovery, isn’t it?
It’s like—we are trying to incentivise ourselves
to return to what we already are.
It’s a weird thing… but it’s necessary.
Because from that deep place,
we can see everything.
And when we can see it—and it’s in front of us—
it doesn’t trouble us anywhere near as much
as when we’ve left the source and gone out to something and been possessed by it
So we all know the feeling of when we’re here
and when we’re out there, don’t we?
Once you know the two,
then you can navigate.
There’s no problem going out into stuff
and losing perspective now and again—
because that just shows us the way back, doesn’t it?
But to know the difference.
That’s the biggest blessing ever.
—that we can feel where we place ourselves.
And there’s no problem either way,
but now we know that we have a choice.
And there—really—I’d say, the path begins.
We just spend the rest of our time establishing ourselves in that place.
Where you can hear the birdsong.
And the trees rustling
You can experience everything
Your emotions
Your thinking
From that place you can see the entire vista of creation
The whole world has left there, to get to the end of an experience,
Trying to have something out there—
and from there, it’s a different experience.
stay here, and you can have that anyway.
But you can also have everything else.
But we imagine that by trying to go and get things,
we’re getting something.
And we’re getting somewhere.
But the question is always:
What are you losing by chasing after it?
Well… okay. That kind of question might just change things.
I’ll leave you with that.
It’s been a great season.
I’ve absolutely loved it.
Every single minute of it—I’ve loved it.
And I plan on continuing to do that
for the rest of my life.
We can all do that together.
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