A first reading of The Living Breath is not easy, and yet we are immediately drawn in.As we turn the pages and reread the text the ideas presented become clearer. The teaching accompanies us over time it opens a path to the life within us.

This original book is a transcription, in collaboration with Béatrice Viard’s editorial team, of a week- long retreat in the Ardèche in 2002. At times theoretical, poetic at others but always grounded in practice, Peter has cast a light on five symbols representing aspects of life’s energy: the moon, (candra), the sun (sūrya), the earth (mūla) and the vital energies (prāna vāyu) and the exhale (apāna vāyu).

Through successive chapters, Peter invites us to reflect on the symbolism of and the relationships between these elements and their roles in both yoga practice and in our lives.

EXTRACT

A warning to the reader…

“To me, this theme is both exciting and difficult. It is exciting because putting it into a practice involves looking at what it really means to be human. It provides us with elements to answer the question, ‘how to practice? But it also offers an energetic and metaphysical vision of our humanity which answers the question, ‘why practice?’.

It is also a difficult subject because it draws on symbolic and metaphorical concepts which are based in practice.

These deal with an inner life that is difficult to understand from a theoretical point of view alone. As you will see during the week, I will be looking to communicate this as much through the practice as  through words…”

Conclusion…

“We practice yoga so that our body may be a carrier of living breath.”

• Title: La chair vivante. The living breath
• Authors: Peter Hersnack
• Publisher: Art of Yoga - Peter Hersnack
• ISBN: in progress
• Published: 2003

  Date : 03 August 2017