Prana and I

"O Prana, be not turned away from me, thou shalt not be other than myself."
Atharva Veda 11.4.26

The air all around us teems with what Gurdjieff calls "active elements," which ancient Hindu texts call "prana," two terms that we will use interchangeably. The usual way the active elements are interpreted in the Fourth Way and prana in Hinduism is as energy. And indeed, the active elements do contain energies, inner energies that can enhance our physical well-being as well as our senses and consciousness. Crucially, the active elements can feed our soul bodies.

All such inner nourishment depends upon the intentional extraction of the active elements from the air by means of our attention, coupled with our inward action to perceive and release them from the air. Without that intentional action, all the prana that comes into us as we inhale leaves us as we exhale. Various spiritual exercises enable us to feed the active elements to our inner being. Examples of these exercises include rightly performed chakra breathing and pranayama exercises, where the inward action and attention take precedence over the physical pattern of the breath. We have addressed this elsewhere.

But the surprising, hidden reality is that there is much more to the active elements, or prana, than energies, important as energies are. The active elements, prana, are also the bearers of will.[1] This means, for example, that they can strengthen our attention as well as other forms of will directly and not only as a secondary effect of increasing our energies by breathing the prana.

This is why spiritual practices that involve holding the breath are effective. Holding our breath is an act of will. During the holding, our attention is focused: focused on holding our breath. That focus attracts to itself the will components of the active elements in the air in our lungs, and thereby strengthens our will: our attention, our intention, and our presence. Because we are our will, that action strengthens us, our I, directly. However, there are methods other than holding our breath that are not as crude nor potentially harmful to our body, but just as or more effective in working with the active elements from the air.

Here are two such methods; the first one on the active side of will.

The Prana and Presence Exercise

Sit quietly. Spend ten or fifteen minutes relaxing your whole body, letting go of tensions wherever you notice them.
As you relax, the sensitive energy in your body comes toward the foreground of awareness. Shift your focus onto the sensation of your whole body and hold it there. Return to this whenever you notice that you've lost that contact.
Sit quietly and bring your attention to your breathing, in particular to the sensations in and around your nostrils and upper lip as you breathe. Stay with the physical sensations of the air passing in and out. When your attention wanders and you notice that, gently bring your attention back to the breath awareness. Keep at this for ten minutes or however long it takes to reach a concentrated state, where your attention is not wandering away.
Now shift your attention from the physical sensations of breathing to the air itself, particularly on the inhalation, as the air comes into your nose. Let your breathing be normal, except for a slight sharpening and emphasis on the inhalation. Become aware of the particles of active elements, or prana, in the air you are breathing in. Set your intention to draw those particles into your body as you inhale. If you could see them, they would be shimmering in the air. Use your attention as a kind of net. Put it out into the volume of air you will breathe in. Then as you inhale draw your attention back in, along with the air and particles of prana. After you draw or suck them into your nose, let the prana particles flow on their own, where they will, throughout your body. While you exhale, let your attention rest in your whole body, noticing how the active elements spread into your body and how they enhance the sensation of your body.
Leave aside the drawing in of the active elements. Move into inhabiting your whole body, being present in your whole body. This means not only being in contact with the sensation of your whole body, but also actively being there yourself in contact with your whole body. It means having the ongoing experience that, if we were to put it into words, would be something like "I am here inhabiting my whole body intentionally right now."
Maintaining that presence, actively inhabiting your whole body, also return to drawing the prana from the air. Let both actions become a single experience. Let the will components of the prana particles be drawn to your presence, your I.
Continuing with that, also notice whether and how the strength of your presence is changing as you draw on the prana. Distinguish this change in strength of your I from the change in strength of the sensitive energy in your body in the earlier step where you were breathing the prana without explicitly practicing presence. Both are enhanced by the active elements. Your I is enhanced by the will components and your sensation is enhanced by the energy components of the active elements.
Sit quietly, doing nothing, letting the results of the exercise settle into you.

Here's another, similar method, but on the receptive side of will. The first four steps are the same as in the first method, but given here with less detail.

The Prana and Prayer Exercise

Sit quietly. Spend ten or fifteen minutes relaxing your whole body, letting go of tensions wherever you notice them.
As you relax, the sensitive energy in your body comes toward the foreground of awareness. Shift your focus onto the sensation of your whole body and hold it there. Return to this whenever you notice that you've lost that contact.
Sit quietly and bring your attention to your breathing, in particular to the sensations in and around your nostrils and upper lip as you breathe.
Draw the active elements from the air into your body as you inhale, noticing how the active elements spread into your body and how they enhance the sensation of your body.
Leave aside the drawing in of the active elements. Move into opening deeply. This is an inward action, akin to contemplative prayer, directed at opening to and connecting with the Sacred deep within you, behind your thoughts, emotions, and impulses, behind everything, behind your ordinary self, yet not separate from the essential you, your core will. We are opening to the creative, benevolent force at the heart of the world. Go behind, behind, and behind.
Maintaining that inward opening, also return to drawing the prana from the air. Maintain both actions as a single experience. Let the will components of the active elements follow you into that opening.
Notice how the active elements, the prana particles, change this act of opening. Is it enhanced somehow?
Sit quietly, doing nothing, letting the results of the exercise settle into you.

[Note 1] Fourth Way literature indicates a connection between the active elements and will. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales, 1950, p. 138ff) discusses the Omnipresent-Active-Element Okidanokh in a way that makes clear its nature as will. This is affirmed by J.G. Bennett (Talks on Beelzebub's Tales, 2012, p. 113). Okidanokh is one of many types of active elements, with others being primarily energy carriers.

Provenance of the Exercises

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