Sage advice about what happens when you take your nose out of a book on pranayama and get down to what it really means to have a daily practice of pranayama. This senior student of Sri Gurudev offers practical guidance with expertise and shares what he’s learned about doing pranayama in the real world for over 35 years.

Back in 1973, I heard Sri Swami Satchidananda recommend practicing pranayama (Yoga breathing), so I read a book or two, took a few classes and set off to practice. I was fired up with visions of mastering prana (the subtle force that sustains and animates the entire creation on every level, seen and unseen, past, present and future). I was soon going to be like a god—or at least one of the legendary sages of yore. It was all so simple. Then I sat down to practice.

I quickly learned that my mind was far too scattered to practice the complex visualizations about which I had read; even the simplest were well beyond me. The chakras (energy centers) looked very convincing on the chart, but seemed entirely absent from my body. Instead of masterfully directing prana, I faced what seemed like an endless war with back, neck and brain pain. My legs fell asleep. Lotus pose was an unattainable ideal. Nothing I had read or heard prepared me for what I was facing. So let me tell you some of what I wish I’d known back in 1973.

First: The ultimate Goal (God, Absolute Consciousness) was and is right in front of us.

Yoga is not about getting what I don’t have and being what I am not. Yoga is about realizing what I have and what I am. As long as I believe my goal is in the future that’s where it will stay. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “The kingdom of heaven is now or never.” Knowing that what you are looking for is right in front of you now changes everything.

This is not an excuse for laziness. No one achieves anything without some form of dedicated practice. Eckhart Tolle may have suddenly seen the truth one day without any formal practice (“If I can’t stand myself, there must be two of me—one of them must be false”), but he was looking for the truth. As Gloria Copeland said, “Experience has proven that it is easier to restrain a fanatic than to resurrect a corpse.”

Second: Planning to practice pranayama regularly and powerfully is planning to live outside your comfort zone.

As Sri Gurudev has us repeat every day at the Ashram, “ We realize that strict discipline of body and mind and a life of total dedication are necessary to attain this goal...”

I hear people say, “Why should I work to find God, if God is everywhere?” This is like expecting to catch a wave without getting off the beach; the beach in the analogy is your comfort zone, your personal space. Your sadhana (spiritual practice)—pranayama or whatever it is you do—puts you outside of that comfort zone. I wish I had budgeted several years just for the purpose of getting used to it.

Third: What you practice and what happens are two completely different things.

Practice is like digging a well where the water below is under pressure. You dig and dig and then one day, whoosh! The water gushes out. In pranayama, the digging is your sitting and breathing; the water is God. You sit and breathe, becoming more aware of the present moment (by necessity, or you can’t sustain the practice), and eventually you become aware of another dimension of being that is beyond description. No one knows how it happens, but it always does.