Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/166



have told you in other chapters of this book, how Prana may be obtained from the air, food and water. We have given you detailed instruction in breathing, in eating, in the use of fluids. There remains but little more for us to say upon the subject. But before leaving it, we have thought it well to give you a bit of the higher theory and practice of Hatha Yoga, touching upon the acquirement and distribution of Prana. We allude to what has been called "Rhythmic Breathing," which is the keynote to much of the Hatha Yoga practices.

All is in vibration. From the tiniest atom to the greatest sun, everything is in a state of vibration. There is nothing in absolute rest in nature. A single atom deprived of vibration would wreck the universe. In incessant vibration the universal work is performed. Matter is being constantly played upon by energy and countless forms and numberless varieties result, and yet even the forms and varieties are not permanent. They begin to change the moment they are created, and from them are born innumerable forms, which in turn change, and give rise to newer forms, and so on and on, in infinite succession. Nothing is permanent in the world of forms, and yet the great Reality is unchangeable. Forms are but appearances—they come, they go, but the Reality is eternal and unchangeable.