-Preface, p.3: ...Just practicing the
following simple lessons for one month will be enough to convince you, we
merely have have to prepare ourselves and take care of the improvement of the
most important circumstances, to see the fruits of the spirit ripen...
-Preparation, p.5: ...Our goal is:
self control, to gain mastership over all the attributes of our being, body,
soul and spirit. To achieve this, we should start with the smallest and rise up
to the highest...
...So our first objective should be: to be fully in control
of this body, and in the teachings of Mazdaznan we will find all the indications
we need to achieve this. For this, we should understand and control all the
functions of the organs. The most important of those vital processes, and
the first we direct our attention to, is breathing. We
are not breathing in sufficiently to revitalize, nor enough to free the lungs
from carbonic acid and other gasses...
...Our bodily posture sgould express a certain pride; not a
pride of clothing, diamonds, money, cars or houses, but of the understanding of
our own being, that we are getting nearer and naerer to all the time. That is
why we may hold our heads up high, we may command ourselfves and cheerfully look
into life, where we are preparing for ourselves the fortune, that has been
granted to us...
...The chest is arched, but the muscles of
the neck should not be tightened, for the lungs would not be able to move freely
in the extended cavity of the chest. The muscles of the lower part of the body
are being drawn in the direction of the belly area, and the muscles of the
kidney area are drawn towards the spine, which makes one feel as if getting a
wasp-waist. For the duration of three minutes the posture remains unchanged and
if one does this little exercise several times a day, it will result in
increasingly greater relaxation every subsequent time, untill the body will have
got fully used to this posture, and no effort whatsoever will be needed to hold
it all day long...
-p.7: ...Whether we are sitting or standing, the trunk
should always be fully straight.Do not lean against anything; the body should be
completely relaxed, except the muscles, that are maintaining it. The belly
should be drawn in. Keep the shoulders back. Drawing up the shoulders while
breathing in does not make the breathing-capacity increase and only points at
tension.Hold the chest high while breathing in and
keep it so, even while breathing out. Under no circumstasnces let the chest sink
back. The lungs should be fully free in their movement within the cavity of the
chest...
-p.8: ...Breath is the primeval principle of life and the
rhytm of breathing in - breathing out, alternated by keeping in - keeping out,
determines the development of body and spirit. For all disease, pain or grief
originates from breathing out insufficiently. All accumulation of carbonic acid
and other gasses not only disturbs all absorbtion of oxygen by the blood, but
also obstructs it, by depositing dead, sick and other kind of matter... ...Always
breathe in through the nose, breathe out through the mouth!...
-p.11, introduction to the exercises: ...We are not
pretending to bring anything new in the Book of Breathing, but the way in which
it is being learned and practiced does have a beneficient effect, almost from
the very start.
...Before we start our talks on the 12 rhytmical breathing
exercises, we would like our pupils to keep in mind the following RULES:
- Never practice the rhytmical
breathing, before you have learned to empty
your lungs to the utmost, with the least possible effort.
- To empty the lungs fully, and totally
effortless, we will relax the muscles of the jaw, neck, chest, belly and
limbs, following the process of relaxation step by step, while at the same
time slowly breathing out.
- Each of the exercises may, regardless
how salubrious the results may be, never last any longer than THREE
MINUTES...
- Under no circumstances make your
breathing exercises, put all together, last for longer than 10 minutes every
4 hours ...
