Introduction

This book brings together the work and the vision of two master teachers:
Shakti Malan and Dan Brulé. They are each without question the “real
deal” in their respective fields: Tantra and Breathwork.

They each bring a wealth of genuine insight and direct experience. They
are uniquely qualified to serve as spiritual guides; and they are each
devoted to serving others in the process of awakening.

Dan and Shakti were called to work and play together for a time. And
those who were fortunate enough to take part in their trainings were
forever changed in the most positive ways.

This unique combination of Breathwork and Tantra is as natural as it is

unprecedented. It offers you a rare opportunity to experience profound
healing and growth.

Don’t just read this book. Take the lessons to heart. Practice the exercises
and techniques they share, and experience the benefits for yourself!

Important Note: This book is based on two training events

with Dan Brulé and Shakti Malan. One was a live seminar
and the other was a special webinar.

You can find the audio recordings of the two events and many
other audio/video programs here:

www.breathmastery.com/audio-visual-center

2
 PART 1
Tantra and Breathwork
The Play of Spirit, Breath,
and Sexual Energy

This Seminar took place in July of 2011, at the White Cloud Center in Moscow, at the start
of the Trainings in Russia and Kazakhstan. Luba Bogdanova was the organizer and
interpreter. This is a transcript of that event.

The live recording is available at: www.breathmastery.com/audio-visual-center

CONTENTS

Introductions by Luba, Dan, and Shakti

Waking Up in an Unconscious World
Feeling the Soft Open Caress of the Breath
Giving and Receiving Energy
Limiting Ideas About Love and Sex
The Power of an Open Heart
A Tantric Breath Meditation Exercise
Religious and Yogic Illusions
The Monk and the Dakini
Techniques, the Buddha, and Readiness
Patriarchy and the Age of the Goddess
Letting Go and Seeing with New Eyes
How to Use the Breath to Wake Up and Get Free
Breath of Fire and the “Rippling Blue Flame”
Pain and Pleasure VS Intensity
Mouth Breathing
Tea Ceremonies and Sacred Geometry

3
 PART 2
Breath Energy Ecstasy
And The Sacred Relationship

This webinar was originally held on November 13, 2013, as part of a part of a 7 Week
Course for women called: “Awakening Your Feminine Sexual Essence.” About 100
women took part. This is a transcript of that event.

The live recording is available at: www.breathmastery.com/audio-visual-center

CONTENTS
Introduction by Shakti Malan
Spiritual Breathing and Totality Therapy
Closing the Gap Between Intention and Action
Overcoming Fears, Conditioning and Obstacles
A Practical Way to Get Through Difficult Moments
Learning to Let Go Into Ecstasy
A Short Guided Breathing Session
How to Deal with Tightness in the Chest
Nose Breathing VS Mouth Breathing
Falling Into the Pause After the Exhale
Entering the Heart Space
Yawning and Feelings of Warmth
Forcing the Breath versus Opening to it
Breathing and Posture
How Negative Thoughts Restrict the Breath
Throat Constriction and the “Ujjayi Breath”
Experiencing Intimate Union Through Breathing

4
 PART 3

Special Bonus Section

Vigyam Bhairav TantraText

112 Meditations given by Shiva to Devi

This is an edited translation of one of the oldest known tantric texts. These seemingly
mystical are in fact very simple and practical, and as you will see, they have little to do
with sex and everything to do with waking up!

Practicing these exercises and meditation scan bring you to the state of freedom and
peace that all the saints, mystics, yogis, and masters have been pointing to and talking
about for millennia!

5
 PART 1

Tantra and Breathwork

The Play of Spirit, Breath,
And Sexual Energy

6
Hello dear friends. My name is Luba Bogdanova. I lead the International Center for Conscious
Breathing.

And today I am happy to introduce to you two masters and teachers who have come to Moscow: the
head of our center and master breathworker Dan Brulé, and tantra master Shakti Malan, who is here
in Moscow for the first time at Dan’s request.

And now they will tell you about their upcoming events in Moscow, and about tantric breathing.

DAN: Russia is like my second home. I travel all over the world and when I come home, if I find
anything really wonderful out there in the world, I like to show everyone at home what I have
found. And so I was in South Africa and I found Shakti Malan!

I think that she is someone that everyone I know and love should meet… if you want to wake up...
if you want to become more free… if you want to find a way to fall into yourself. These days, she is
my favorite way of doing that. And so we play together.

The play of male and female energies: that’s how everyone got here. If it wasn’t for some male and
female energies playing together, none of us would be here.

My way has been playing with breath energy. Shakti's way is playing with sexual energy. When we
bring those two energies together—not between people—but within us, then something quite
magical can happen.

One of the reasons that I love Shakti is that it’s impossible for me to go to sleep in her presence.
It’s very hard to remain unconscious around her. That’s the main reason I chose to work and play
with her.

You can wake up in the world and then very quickly fall asleep again, because most people in the
world are sleeping, they are unconscious. At some point in my life I woke up; and I like being
awake. But it’s a conscious process—a real challenge—to stay awake in this world.

It is very easy to fall asleep and go unconscious in the world. There are so many distractions, so
many things that pull us out of ourselves. So what we need are people and places and ways to
keep us awake, to keep going deeper into ourselves, to keep us on the path of reaching higher.
That is why I am working with Shakti.

SHAKTI: I’d like to thank Dan for bringing me to Moscow. This is my first day in Russia. When I met
Dan I knew that we could do beautiful things together, because Dan has such a deep knowledge,
understanding and experience of the breath.

For me whenever I breathe in, it feels like I am making love. So try it now. When you breathe in,
feel the caress of the breath. Feel the way that the breath touches you from the inside out. Feel
how it softens you; how it makes you soft inside, how it makes you expand.

7
The breath is so simple, and yet every time we breathe we can open up more, to feel more, to love
more, to love ourselves more, and to become more open to others.

DAN: When you breathe, everyone and everything, all the energies of the world flow into you. The
all and the small touches every cell in your body. When you breathe out, something of you, your
essence, something from every cell in your body goes out and mixes with everything else in the
world.

It is not just a pretty spiritual idea. The breath actually connects us. It’s a fact in reality: the breath
connects us to everyone and everything.

The breath that’s inside of you now, was in someone else just a minute ago. We can't hide from
each other.

Separation is an illusion—a somewhat useful or convenient illusion—but an illusion nonetheless.

When the breath comes into you, you have a chance to give that breath a signature, to impress
that breath with some of your energy before it goes out again.

The breath energy that is coming in and out of us carries information. Everything is available to us
with every breath, and we can take from it what we want and let the rest come and go.

So what’s important? If you are going to put some energy out into the world, what is the deepest
part of you, the highest part of you that you can send out into the world?

When the breath comes into you, you have an opportunity to give that breath a signature, to
impress it with some intention, some energy, before it leaves you again.

So what is important? If you could send some energy out into the world, what would it be? What
quality? What frequency?

What is the deepest part of you? What is the highest part of you? What is your deepest or highest
aspiration in life? You can share that with the world with every breath.

If the breath brings to you all the energies of the world, which energies do you choose to focus
upon? Which do you drink in?

How about the energies of love? How about the energy of peace and joy? How about consciously
breathing that kind of energy!

SHAKTI: Many of us have been taught that loving is not safe. If we open our hearts to love, we
might get hurt.

8
And we have learned to feel that sexual energy is not safe, that when you love someone sexually
you might get hurt.

Sexual energy causes a lot of separation for many people. That’s because the world doesn’t
understand sexual energy.

If we could really open to the sexual energy that is within us, if we could open our hearts to sexual
energy, it could open our hearts to the realm of love. It could help us to wake up sexually and
spiritually.

For most people the sexual experience is contained or confined to our genitals. And the best that
most people can hope for is about 45 seconds of sexual orgasm.

DAN: If they are lucky!

SHAKTI: 45 seconds is just a taster of what real sexual energy is all about. Imagine that energy, that
orgasm continuing in your body for 8 hours!

Imagine it rippling thru your whole body; beginning in your genitals and moving up through your
whole body, connecting your genitals and your heart.

Imagine this energy circulating between two souls, building up life force, and rippling through two
bodies. This is possible for all of us—if we want to wake up.

If you want to stay asleep then it's better to simply continuing having your 45 seconds of orgasm.

DAN: Some people are always trying to protect their heart—like our heart is so sensitive, so
delicate, so easily broken. It is sensitive, but it’s also the strongest part of us—the part that least
needs protecting!

It’s possible to wake up to our heart and to who we really are in the middle of an orgasm, and then
to stay awake.

When something in you opens, if you can relax with it, it remains open. But we’ve been taught that
when you walk around in this world, when you live in this world, you have to be on guard, a part of
you must remain closed. It’s is a reflex, a habit. But if you can open your heart and remain open,
then a miraculous process begins…

We can create a sacred space here, a safe place in which to open our hearts together. We can learn
to keep our hearts open. And we can learn to quickly open our heart again when it closes due to
old habits and fears.

As we do this, we discover that an amazing thing happens: even if your heart closes, it cannot again
close all the way.

9
The fears may come back and cause us to close our heart—but not completely, not all the way. We
find that it hurts us too much to do that.

And so gradually we learn to live more fully and freely and safely with an open heart. And a few
days are enough. Two, three, four days is plenty of time to master the art of opening your heart, if
that is your intention.

SHAKTI: So Dan and I will give you a chance to be with us for a few days. We will tell you about
that later. For now, you can enjoy the time with us now.

I have found that the breath also makes space in us. When you think of how we usually breathe,
we are not paying attention to our breath.

If we can start to really enjoy our breath, then something beautiful can happen. In the Tantric
texts, there is a beautiful breath. It goes like this:

Follow the curve of the breath as you breathe in; and follow the curve of the breath as you breathe
out.

Feel the moment when the curve of the in-breath meets the curve of the out-breath: the moment
when the in-breath meets the out-breath.

Find that moment when the curve of the out-breath becomes the curve of the in-breath.

In the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath... If you sink deeply into that pause… in
that moment you can wake up.

Try it now. Breathe with me. Breathing in, and feel the pause. Breathing out, and feel the pause.

[Question from the audience: “Is that yogic breathing?”]

SHAKTI: Yes, yogis use that way of breathing.

In the silence between the out-breath and the in-breath… In that moment, nothing exists. And yet
everything exists.

And now breathing… let your body begin to move with the breath. When you breathe in, open up
your spine.

Breathing in, your spine opens and arches; breathing out, you are relaxing the spine. Breathing in,
opening the spine; breathing out, relaxing the spine… How does that feel? Does it feel good?

[Question from the audience: “How can we open our spine? Do we breathe longer, deeper?]

10
SHAKTI: You stretch your spine. When you breathe in, your whole body expands, so the spine also
curves. I will show you now. For many of us our spines are not very flexible because we hold
ourselves very tight.

When we learn to relax very deeply and allow the movement in the body, the breath can go
deeper.

Now imagine if you can breathe like this when you are with a lover. In tantra, when my partner
breathes in, I breathe out. When he breathes out, I breathe in his breath. When I breathe out, he
breathes in my breath.

[Shakti and Dan model tantric breathing together. The audience gets turned on.]

DAN: We haven’t seen each other in several months. We just met again an hour ago. And now we
are making love in public!

[Comment from the audience: “When we did a tantra training here some time ago, we were
breathing like that but we were touching each other.]

SHAKTI: Yes, and so you can see and feel that even without touching we are still building up
orgasmic energy.

Many years ago, I had a couple come to visit me. The man and the woman were almost 80 years
old. Their sexual life was not very good. I taught them to breathe like this.

They didn't want to touch each other. So I gave them each a chair, facing each other. I taught them
how to breathe together.

They made love to each other through their breath. It changed their relationship. They couldn't
believe that they still desired each other so much. And that was even without their bodies
touching.

DAN: Young children are filled with sexual energy: it's not localized. Every cell lives an orgasmic
experience, and children are in touch with that.

That’s why they can't sit still; that’s why they can't be quiet. That’s why they shine. That’s why they
are so joyful. There is so much ecstatic energy naturally flowing thru them.

Then as we grow older, culture and family and religion and tradition and society stifle and inhibit
this life-energy in us. We are taught that only in certain places, only at certain times, and only with
certain people are we to allow an experience of this energy.

This creates not just a spiritual problem, but also physical problems. Because that is how illness
and disease take root in the body. The life force is not allowed to flow fully and freely, and so parts

11
of us begin to die. Waking this energy up again and filling your whole body with it can reverse the
aging process. It can make you younger!

I am very grateful to Shakti, because she has brought a certain playfulness back into my work. I had
become very serious about my practice. I’m a serious guy, and she is not! She’s definitely not a
guy! And she’s not so serious either.

[A question from audience for Dan: “Do you have some breathing practice in the morning, or some
breathing practice during the day? What breathing technique do you use in daily life?]

DAN: I have discovered that any technique can have a hypnotic effect. It’s a good idea to practice
various techniques. However, if the technique becomes more important than the one who
practices it, then that is not so good.

My basic practice is to simply bring awareness to my breath, as often as possible and in as many
situations and activities as possible. In addition to “breath awareness,” I also practice “conscious
breathing.”

I practice breathing fast, breathing slow, breathing high, and breathing low. The two techniques
are watching the breath and playing with the breath.

It’s different every day. But there are a few basic or core techniques that everyone can benefit
form, and so I teach and practice those.

I encourage people to explore the basics, to build on those core techniques, and to do so at their
own pace and in their own way.

[A question from the audience about sex and spirituality, what religious people teach, the evils of
the body and the danger of physical pleasure, about the necessity of celibacy.]

DAN: They don't understand life. They don’t see the whole picture. They just don’t get it. They are
buying into a dying philosophy. They have been taught to deny their sacred nature. They are living
out of a spiritual ego.

The ego lives in sinners and saints, monks and murderers. If not watched, it takes over and runs
them. It hides in those monks who suppress and deny their natural feelings and desires. That’s the
purpose and the role of a dakini, a tantrika.

SHAKTI: I will tell you two stories: One story is about a monk who is a student. He has been sitting
on the mountain for 30 years, meditating. He has been celibate for 30 years, drinking no wine,
eating no meat.

Then his teacher looks at him and decides he is ready to wake up. So he sends a dakini to the
student. A dakini is a woman like me who teaches the sacred sexual practices of tantra.

12
So the dakini goes to the monk, she seduces the monk. The monk cannot resist her. He makes love
to her. In the moment that he makes love to her, it is possible that his spiritual ego has such a big
shock, and this last powerful but very subtle ego is shattered.

If he doesn't wake up, then she will give him meat to eat and wine to drink. She will seduce him
into breaking all his spiritual rules. If still the shock has not been big enough to break his ego, then
she will start to teach him the sexual practices of Tantra.

She will teach him how to wake up his sexual energy, how to take it up his body, how to wake up
every cell in his body. She will teach him how to let his heart have an orgasm, so that his heart is
blown open to the whole world.

She will teach him how to let his sexual energy explode through his crown chakra, so that he can
feel that he is at one with everything.

When your orgasmic energy goes through the crown of your head, you will know unmistakably
that you are one with everything and everyone, that there is no separation. The beloved is
everywhere.

2nd story: Somebody goes to the Dali Lama and asks him: “Don't you miss having an orgasm
because you don't have sex?” The Dali Lama looks puzzled. He says: “My dear, I am having orgasms
all the time!”

DAN: You see I don't think we have the luxury of time any more. We are no longer in the age when
you could sit in a cave for 30 years and seek enlightenment at a snail’s pace.

We don't have that kind of time anymore. Things are accelerating on the planet; they are
intensifying. Maybe you've noticed it. Something is happening.

There was a time when there was only one Buddha walking the earth, one Jesus, one Moses, one
Mohammed, one Krishna, one Lao Tsu. Today there are tens of thousands, maybe millions of
Buddha's on the planet! Something is happening. It’s getting easier to wake up.

You could pass a Buddha on the street and not know it. You could sit on the side of a Buddha on
the metro and not know it. You could live next door to a Buddha and not know it. And if you are
not careful, you could be a Buddha and not know it!

Time does not enter into the process of awakening. Time is not a factor. The ancient monks had
the right idea. They pulled themselves out of the world because no one around them wanted to
wake up. They put themselves in a place where everyone around them wanted to wake up, and so
it was easier.

13
But then they practiced these rituals and then they developed an identity linked to these rituals,
and so their practice at some point became an obstacle to the very thing they wanted to achieve.
And this is true of everything.

Something that is meant to help us can actually get in the way. And something that world believes,
that the priests and politicians say is bad and will hurt us, can actually set us free.

If you are ready, whatever you do will work. The next book you read, the next teacher you meet,
the next technique you practice, will bring your liberation.

It has nothing to do with the book, the technique or the teacher. Well, it has something to do with
that. But the real thing, the thing that matters most, is your readiness.

One breath is enough if you are truly, genuinely, and totally ready. You breathe twenty thousand
breaths per day. That’s ten to twenty thousand invitations, twenty thousand opportunities.

How many of those breaths do you use? How many do you take advantage of? How many do you
put toward your liberation?

Become conscious of your breath right now. Feel it, watch it; listen to it. Be with it moment to
moment, totally. Disappear into that moment when the in-breath and the-out breath touch, when
they come together.

Becoming free might be a lot easier than we have been led to believe.

A good friend of mine, Leonard Orr who invented rebirthing, once said: “Most religions make it so
difficult to get to heaven, that even God couldn't make it!”

[Question from the audience about why it can happen so quickly, what is different now compared
to the old days.]

DAN: More and more people are waking up. More individuals are waking up, are finding ways to
raise their own vibrations. And the vibrations on this planet are getting higher.

The energy of the planet itself is getting higher, and this is lifting people up. And the energies in
people are getting higher, and this is raising the vibrations of the planet. Everything is coming
together, creating a great acceleration.

SHAKTI: And we don't have time to waste anymore. For many thousands of years we walked
around with clubs—cavemen with big sticks. We killed animals with big sticks and we ate the meat.

Everything was about survival. Then we discovered each other... that if we do things together, we
are safer. We learned that we could plant seeds and grow our own fields.

14
Men thought that women were divine. They sensed that God, the Source, was a woman (because
women gave birth). Men did not realize that they had anything to do with it. (Men did not connect
sex with babies; they didn't have a clue.)

So in those years, God was seen as being a woman. And the priests/priestess were women. Men
would pay to have sex with the priestess in the temple, because they understood that through
entering the priestess they could have direct access to the Goddess.

They understood that women's sexuality was the gateway to the Divine.

But then the world changed. About five thousand years ago was the beginning of patriarchy. That
was the time men took over, and they made a new story. The symbol of the Goddess, which was
the snake, became the symbol of the Devil.

They say that Eve ate the apple, and because she bit the apple, everyone got thrown out of the
Garden of Eden. So it is because of woman's desire that everybody got thrown out of paradise.

We created a split between the sacred and the sexual forms. You are a virgin or you are a whore—
a split we still struggle with today. The world has lost the beauty and the power of the feminine.

It is time for woman to reclaim our beauty and our sacredness. It is time for us to accept again that
our sexuality is a gateway to the divine.

I know that men want to love and worship the feminine… that men want to love and adore
women. They are waiting for women... for us to be willing to accept ourselves, and to celebrate our
own sexuality.

When a man enters a woman and she deeply opens to her own divinity, she can take him into the
deepest mystery. And that is what all men are waiting for.

So that the time we are living in now, is a time when the masculine and the feminine have to marry
inside of us. It is the time of deep merging of the masculine and the feminine.

It is the age of the waking up of the heart. Patriarchy is over. The old structures are not working
any more. We have to live in the way of the heart, and to get there we have to connect with our
desire and our devotion to the divine, that lives in all of us.

[A comment and question from audience about the ugliness in the world, not seeing hundreds of
Buddhas, but seeing pain and suffering and ignorance, and about the loss of sexual power, and
beauty as we age, about energy, and menopause]

SHAKTI: There comes a time in a woman's life when she stops menstruating, it is called
menopause. I have worked with many women who are menopausal. Many of those women have
lived most of their sexual lives suppressed.

15
In fact for many women, the only sex they have ever had has been to please a man, doing what the
man needs. Many women have not discovered the real pleasure of sex. Many women are not in
touch with their own bodies.

So in my work, I teach women how to connect with their pleasure again. Just through the breath,
just through relaxing, just from starting to feel from the inside out.

And I see women who are menopausal or older becoming orgasmic. Even without touching
themselves, even without touching anybody else. They become exquisitely beautiful because they
are opening to their own energy.

DAN: This Buddha nature we are talking about is within us. Everyone is carrying it. When we begin
to recognize our own Buddha nature, we begin to notice it in other people.

It's like looking at water. You can look at the surface and see your reflection; or you can look
through and see the fish swimming underneath by adjusting your focus.

And we have these photographs now that everyone has seen where you look at it, it’s a bunch of
chaotic patterns, but if you do something with your eyes there is an image there.

So something happens in us. You are looking at the ugliness, the pain and suffering of the world,
and then suddenly something happens, suddenly… this amazing beauty is right there, right here.

Or you are looking inside at your own confusion, and your problems and your emotions and your
negative thoughts. And then suddenly the real nature of those things is seen. Something happens.

If you try and strain to make it happen it gets further away. So it is interesting. We have this
paradox. We have this yearning, this longing to wake up. It's like being so thirsty. It makes us look
and seek and try and work.

It's like trying to remember where you put your glasses, then you stop trying and ah hah! They are
right here on your head! So there is something about opening up and simply letting go.

We can use the breath to do that, and we can use each other to do that. And we can use this
beautiful play of male and female energies to do that. And in the process of playing, something
happens.

[A question from Dan about where the 5-day workshop will be held, and a discussion about the
program and location, about private sessions, where to get information, and how to register]

[Comment and question from the audience about how breathing is like fire, and how to balance our
energies, how to work with the breath… “how do we use the breath to wake up?”]

16
DAN: You combine breathing with thought, sound, visualization, and movement. You can develop
a conscious relationship to the basic elements of life: earth, air, water, fire, space. You use the
breath to contact and embody the essence of those elements.

I have been traveling since March. I have been in eight countries since March. We have been
playing with a couple of basic practical things. We already know the philosophies, the stories. We
are in a bookstore here, surrounded by answers. But how do you translate information into a real,
actual experience?

Every system offers a different approach. For every idea or method, there is an opposite idea or
method. So if we draw from our own nature, if we take from what we are naturally given to enjoy,
and begin to work with that, things become simple...

For example, a simple sigh of relief. When you let go of the breath, you can let go of many other
things. And when you pull in air, you can pull in many other things; you pull in energy. Every breath
can be a prayer. Every breath is a blessing.

When you let go of the breath, you can let go of whatever is holding you back. If you practice
letting go of the breath, you develop the ability to let go of many other things. And if we can let go
completely, just for a moment, then everything opens up to us.

If you cannot let go of the breath, don't be surprised if you cannot let go of pain. If you cannot let
go of your breath, don’t be surprised if you cannot let go of fear, or negative thoughts that are
bothering you, or habits or behaviors that are not serving you.

If you start by learning to let go of the breath quickly and completely, then you can build on that
skill. There is tremendous organic pleasure in a sigh of relief. If you focus on it, you can generate
joy.

[Dan demonstrates a big soothing, pleasurable “coming home breath”]

Is it possible to be in pain and breathe like this?

[Demonstrates soothing sigh of relief]

Have you ever seen anyone who is in pain breathe like this? No. It’s impossible: unless you really
practice! Can you be afraid, can you be frozen in fear and breathe like this?

[Demonstrates another coming home breath]

You cannot.

Notice that whenever you are in pain and the pain goes away, you breathe like that. Something
happens to the breath. You don't think about it, you don't make it happen. It's not a technique: it is
a natural reflex.

17
When you move from one state to another state, from pain to no pain, that breath happens by
itself. The same thing happens when you are afraid: when the fear goes away, that breath
happens.

That's not an accident of nature. That breathing response is hard-wired into us. If you practice that
breath consciously, you prompt the system to move from one state to another.

And the fact is you now have pain. Just because you are not conscious of it, does not mean that it's
not there. And you carry fear. Just because you do not feel afraid in this moment, doesn't mean it's
not there.

And so what we have discovered is, if you make this breath a habit of your system: expanding and
opening, letting go and relaxing. If we make it a habit of our system, so that it happens
automatically, something amazing happens.

It's like making music. If you have to think about where to put your fingers on the piano, you might
be able to make it through a little song, but you really can't make music. It has to be automatic. It
has to just flow from you by itself, unconsciously. Then you make real music!

So in the beginning you practice certain things, you develop the skill. With deep practice it
becomes second nature, an unconscious ability. Then real music happens!

So it is with this sigh of relief, this coming home breath. Do the math. We have been practicing
math at my seminars.

If you breathe 20,000 times a day and you make use of just 1/10th of 1% of those breaths… Are
there any math professors here? How many conscious breaths is that? 200?

If you make use of just 200 breaths per day for 5 days and don't begin to wake up to your Buddha
nature, I'd be shocked! You must be avoiding it!

200 conscious breaths each day. That’s an easy way to begin. Focus on your heart as you open and
expand and let go. If you do that 200 times a day for one week, and your life does not begin to
change, I won't believe it.

If afterward you say: “I tried breathing 200 times a day for one week, each time consciously
focusing on my heart and generating love, and nothing happened.” I would have to say: “You are
lying. You could not have practiced it.” It's not possible, because with every one of those
intentional breaths, you are waking up and you are falling into your nature.

You can only walk a path so many times before the path becomes a big wide highway. Soon, the
heart connection is open all the time. And it hurts to close it, so you have no interest in closing it.

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Just the opposite: more and more, every breath becomes orgasmic! All that you will want to do is
breathe! You will not want to do anything else!

But you actually have to do it. It's not a philosophy: it is a practice. That's what I love about Shakti,
she doesn't let people live in their heads; she makes people breathe and move and feel into their
heart and body.

So please don't come to the training if you don't want to wake up, if you don’t want to actually
practice. Just read another book. Put more information in your head. Satisfy your mind.

SHAKTI:I want to respond to your question about fire. The element of fire is interesting, because
you can use the element of fire to wake up. You can use the heart fire of sexual energy to wake up
your sexual energy. It's like this. Breathe like this:

[Shakti models the “fire breath.”]

She and Dan model it; then she invites others to practice it. Shakti encouraging people to make
pleasurable sounds on the exhale, to breathe in and out thru the mouth quickly,

Then she instructs people to hold their breath. Then she invites them to let go, and to feel the
warmth and pleasure.

[She demonstrates a natural body movement with the breath]

SHAKTI: Do you recognize this movement [rapid excited breathing]? If you do this movement all
the time when you are making love, the man will ejaculate. It is too exciting. It is too stimulating.

The man gets too hot. His sexual energy gets too hot. He gets too excited, so he ejaculates. And
that's the end.

[Dan mimics going right to sleep after sex; snoring].

Now the woman has just started making love, because we can go for a long time. So we get
frustrated. We start thinking sex is not about our pleasure.

But it is possible for the man to learn how to ride the wave of his sexual energy. In the beginning
you can build up the heat, but when the man gets very aroused he has to notice before it is too
late, and slow down, hold the beloved closer, and breathe deeply.

He can still be in penetration, but now we are going into the deep rhythm of the body. We are
letting the heat ripple through the whole body.

And that quality I call the “Rippling Blue Flame.” Have you ever see pictures of Indian Gods, like
Krishna or Shiva? Have you noticed that they are often portrayed as blue?

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I think it is because they understand the secret of sex. I think it is because those gods understand
the secret of sex.

I think they understand that if you keep building your sexual energy, if you don't throw it off with
ejaculation… what happens is the fire starts rippling over your skin.

Every part of your body gets set alive. It gets set on fire. But it is a cool fire, a fire that can go on
and on.

If you have a lot of wood and you make a big bonfire, you light the match, you light the fire, and
you burn up all the wood: 5 minutes, 11minutes. How long do people make love? 11 minutes, tops.
Then the man ejaculates and it's all over.

But another way is to build a small fire, to build up the heat slowly. When it gets too hot, you slow
down. You add one log at a time. You go deeper; you go slower.

You recycle the breath with your partner. You let the fire spread through your whole body. You
feel it rippling through your skin. That is how you build the fire.

When the man is ready, you can build a hot fire again, then you can go fast again, then when it gets
too hot you slow down, you ride the wave.

Then you build the sexual energy, till just before it gets too hot… then you ride it again, then you
build it again, then you ride it again, that's why you can go on forever.

The first time I experienced this was with my teacher, the orgasm went on for the whole weekend.
Then it only stopped because I had to go home. So in Tantra, the only question we ask is how much
bliss can you stand?

Can you cope with more pleasure, or do you have to throw it off by having an ejaculation? Can you
open to more pleasure? Can you keep building the bliss?

DAN:You see, at some point the body cannot tell the difference between intense pain and intense
pleasure. It's the same: intense. All the body knows is that it is too intense.

So when you approach your limit to pleasure, your system reacts the same way as it does to pain.
The muscles get tense, you hold your breath, and you try to escape and withdraw from the
intensity.

So you have to train your body to relax into intensity. Pain is not the problem. Everybody is very
good at tolerating pain. And I think the Russians hold the world record! No doubt!

So pleasure is the real problem. You can watch your body react as you approach ecstasy.

20
SHAKTI: I teach breathing through the mouth: “ahhh…” It is relaxing. Breathing through the mouth
is good for dropping control.

Breathing thru the nose is good for controlling the breath. But there is too much control, so I teach
breathing through the mouth- especially good for women- relaxing.

DAN: Do what feels good, and then practice the opposite until it feels just as good. Breathe the
energy of the moment. When you see or hear or feel something, breathe it in, connect to the
energy of it with the breath.

[Question about particular breathing technique for a Chinese or Japanese tea ceremony]

DAN: Yes, breathe the energy of the tea. Breathe the essence of the tea. Use the breath to remain
very conscious during the entire ceremony.

When you look at something, don’t just look: breathe it in. When you hear something, don’t just
listen, but breathe it in. Connect to it with your breath.

[Question about mathematics and using sacred geometry in tantra]

SHAKTI: The methods practiced in tantra honor the sacred principles underlying life. I will explain
to you how it got developed.

The master of the practices would go into deep meditation and the energy of the practice would
run through his body.

Students would watch what happened to him, they would write down what they see, and they
would make calculations and draw diagrams.

They would develop a system based upon what they saw happening in the master. Then it became
all about the mathematics of the system. They forgot that the master did it naturally.

All you have to do is get everything out of the way of the natural. It is natural for your body to want
to wake up.

It is natural for your body to be orgasmic. All you have to do is get out of the way, let your ego get
out of the way. And that is the work.

A good way to get there is to spend time with people who have that experience in their body. Be
with people who experience this.

By spending time with us you have the chance to experience this in your own body.

All for now.

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Thank you for your love and attention.

See you at the training!

23
 PART 2
Breath Energy Ecstasy
And The Sacred Relationship

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Shakti: Good morning, women. Greetings from beautiful, sunny Oakland, California, and I’m very
delighted to have with me today, on the line Dan Brulé who’s quite an extraordinary breathwork
master.

And those of you who were clever enough or lucky enough to register in time for this course, have
the opportunity today to not only be sharing and listening to his wisdom, but also to be interacting
with him, as there will be opportunities for you to ask questions later on in the call.

So welcome, and a very warm welcome to you, Dan, and you’re, at the moment, in Boston, I
understand.

Dan: Yes, hi Shakti. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Yes. I’m in beautiful Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Shakti: Awesome. Beautiful. And, you know, I met Dan in South Africa, probably about three or
four years ago. I had an intuition to go for a breathwork session with him and it was, I would say,
one of the most profound encounters with myself that I’ve ever had.

Not just with myself, but a very deep cosmic experience of meeting myself through the breath, and
I just so deeply appreciate Dan’s skill at working with the breath.

But also his capacity to work with deep intimacy, which is what gave me the inspiration to ask him
to join us for this course, and he very gracefully agreed to do so.

The session is entitled “Breath Energy Ecstasy and the Sacred Relationship,” which sounds very
juicy. And what we said in the write-up is that breath is a powerful vehicle for deepening intimacy
with ourselves, our bodies, and our lovers.

In this special session, Dan will sharing his vast knowledge of the breath and how to use breath to
deepen the sacred quality of sexual relationship.

In this supplemental course session, Dan will guide participants to explore the link between
breath energy and ecstasy, understand how to use spiritual breathing to deepen your sacred
relationship, and experience breathing meditations and exercises to connect with your ecstatic
body.

Dan, that all sounds very delicious, I feel like I want to immediately start breathing with you. But, I
know that every sentence will be an experience of the ecstatic breath with you.

So as I was reading, I was just aware that we were speaking about spiritual breathing, which I
know is what you call the breathwork that you’ve developed over time. So do you want to tell us a
bit about that? Just give an introduction to your style of breathwork.

Dan: Yeah, sure. Well, I can say that you’re -- definitely that first time we did a breathing session
together was just a wonderful moment, a wonderful experience for me.

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And, I should add a little caveat that the reason that you had such a profound experience is
because you don't hesitate to be total. When you do anything, you pour your whole self into it.

And when anyone does that, the results are guaranteed. But most people are a little
uncomfortable, a little scared to be total.

Shakti: Ah, yeah. A blessing, Dan.

Dan: It’s one of the secrets of life. No matter what we do, if we can do it truly totally… it’s magic.
Something beautiful always happens.

And if it cannot happen with breathing, then it ain’t gonna happen with anything else… if that
totality is missing.

If the totality is there, then something as simple as breathing can take us all the way to God!

For me, it’s the highest use of breathwork: to use the breath as a bridge, as a force, to connect
with our spirit, to become all that we are, to realize who we are and to express that. And to not
just know it intellectually, but have a cellular experience of it.

The power of the breath, really gives us a way to bring everything together into an unarguable,
unforgettable experience of who we really are. And when it happens, there’s no going back!

And maybe that’s why some people avoid breathwork, because unconsciously, intuitively, they
know that once they start moving forward, there’s no going back. You know?

Shakti: Right, and where does it, where does it take you to? What’s your experience of what
happens through the breathing once people really start to open to it?

Dan: Well, you know, we move through layers, and so in the beginning it seems to me that we get
a real taste of what’s possible. But, what also comes up is all of the stuff that’s in our way, that we
carry as baggage, that blocks us, that distracts us, that causes us to forget. We meet our self-
imposed limitations; we encounter our conditioning and our programming.

And so, the breathing itself becomes a challenge, and if you’re not willing to enter into a deep
process of being honest with yourself, and if you’re not willing to enter into a deep process of
connecting with yourself, then you’re not really going to be interested in breathwork. You’re
going to avoid it in a certain way.

So, what it’s led me to realize is that those people who are ready and they show up, if they’re
really ready, whatever they do is going to work.

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And if they’re not ready, nothing we tell them and nothing we teach them, and nothing we do is
going to work because that readiness is missing. But, with that readiness, something as simple as
breathing can bring everything together for us.

So you are really good at making people ready, I think. You have that ability to wake people up
and, and sort of say, “Look, are you ready or not? And if you’re ready, let’s go for it. And if you’re
not, then go read a book and come back when you are ready.”

Shakti: You know, Dan, as you speak, I’m, I’m so aware in the work we’ve been doing on the
course so far, with the women, that what you say, of course applies the same way for sexuality.

As soon as we start opening more to our sexual energy and our life force, then that does start to
bring up all the discomfort, all the uncomfortable feelings, all the self-imposed beliefs or the ones
that are inherited. And I’ve just been so aware, on the course so far, of the gift that that is in itself.

We can bring… through our attention… taking our attention into our bodies, we can meet those
places in us that are that are sitting with pain or contraction or limitation. That we can meet them
with awareness, and actually bring life into that space.

And I know that the way you work with the breath really facilitates that as well. Do you feel that
by really connecting with your breath that it can help people to move through the blockages and
the limitations in their experience of themselves?

Dan: Oh yeah, I think it’s such a pure and perfect way. What I realize is that energy and
consciousness are basically the same thing; maybe two sides of the same coin. Energy and
consciousness.

And when we breathe, we are engaging in consciousness and we are playing with energy. And so,
when you begin to breathe, you’re bringing feeling into each moment, and you’re bringing energy
to what’s happening, you’re bringing awareness to what’s happening.

And, wow, whenever energy and consciousness come together, something is created, something
is discovered, something is healed, something is awakened.

That’s one of the reasons that we, you and I, I believe, we clicked so quickly and so totally,
because we were doing the same work in our own way. Coming from different traditions in a way,
or with our own style and our own focus. But the underlying purpose and the eventual outcome is
the same. You know?

We each found the way and it’s quite beautiful, because you’re way is obviously feminine. And my
way with the active breathing is as masculine as you can get and uh, so --

Shakti: Why do you say that? Explain to me what you see as masculine about the act of breathing,
just gonna be useful for people to listen to that.

27
Dan: Yes, well, because consciousness is, as I say it’s something feminine. Consciousness… you’re
just opening yourself, you’re just being aware, being totally present, being a space… It’s kind of a
passive or yang type approach.

Shakti: Right.

Dan: And breathing is a primal action. It’s something that you do, and if you do it consciously and
you do it with intention, it has real power. So breathing is like a powerful action.

And very often… everyone… Here’s a very typical scenario: we know we should do something, we
want to do something, but somehow bridging the gap between knowing it, having the intention,
and then actually doing something, that seems to be where people get hung up.

Dan: “Oh, I know I should quit smoking.“ “Oh, I should do this.” But then, making that next step to
actually taking action, that’s where people kind of lose it.

When we do conscious breathing, that’s an action, and we’re linking it directly to a present
moment intention. It closes the gap between an intention or a desire, and some action towards
realizing it. So, breathing closes that gap. It’s quite beautiful in that way.

Shakti: Hmm. That is so beautiful the way you describe it and I know the way that you work with
the breath… I can remember in my own body and also seeing it with other people that consciously
breathing can really take us to the edge of… the willingness of our familiar system.

Say for instance, my body is used to being kind of 70 percent alive or 60 percent, and then the
breath, when I start to breathe consciously, then that can stretch my aliveness to the limit of what
I’m used to.

And then there’s something in my familiar sense of self that doesn’t wanna go any further
because… and then all sorts of reasons come up. This is dangerous, uh, it’s a bad idea, I don’t
know what’s gonna happen. But it’s just that hurdle that the familiar sense of self it’s up against.

And then when I continue over that, then I’m in a whole new territory. And I’ve noticed the way
that you work with that dance in a way that it really makes it feel like a love affair, like coming to
that edge of where the intensity of life through the breath, in this case, become so much that all
our conditioning wants us to shut down.

But then, if we bring that touch of the lover, the gentleness of that dance, that feeling, that kind
of devotion, into that moment, it’s kind of like we get, we get the softness in us to be able to take
that next step over the, over the edge.

Dan: Exactly. Because we’re dealing with ancient programming in our system, survival
programming. Right?

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So there was a time I don’t know, 150,000 years ago, when we were in the Serengeti plains, and if
there was noise in the bushes, we needed an instant, automatic fear response.

Like, this could be a tiger! And, even though it might be a friend and it might be a lover and it
might be God, we didn’t have the luxury to kind of hesitate and consider.

We had a… we needed a survival reaction. And for me, that’s the very thing that now is in the way
of our ascension, of our growth, of our healing.

It’s an ancient, outdated reaction that triggers a contraction and triggers fear, and we need to
retrain our system to react a different way.

We need to open when we feel afraid. We need to relax when we have a sense of closing down
and contracting; and we can use the breath to put that into practice, to actually do it in those
moments. So when something comes up and you wanna hide from it, we can change that
reaction.

Shakti: Ah, that’s right. That is so beautiful, um, what you’re saying there, you know, I kind a, I get
all excited and I wonder Dan, if you could share a bit more about how, how does one do that?

When you come to that moment where there’s a fear or a contraction or a survival response
coming up, which… you know, um, maybe not for you… but for most people on the planet, that
happens a lot in relationships.

Something gets touched within somebody that we are really intimate with, and then suddenly it
feels like life and death, like my emotional survival is dependent on this happening or that
happening.

How can we use the breath to, as you say, relax and open up in that moment when everything
wants to go into survival?

Dan: Yeah, because everything just comes up, it’s like a reflex *reaction+. And it happens before
we have anything to say about it. Before we even notice it, it’s already like a program that has
clicked in; and it’s now determining our experience, it’s now driving our behavior and so on, right.

So in order to make peace with it, we need to practice some things first. Like, the simple practice
of awareness, of fully becoming conscious of our body. Try to get a sense of our entire body as
energy, every cell in our body.

Practice that internal awareness, so that when something arises, we’re actually awake in the
moment, to catch it.

29
If we don’t have the habit of tuning in and feeling our bodies, then when a little change in energy
occurs, we won’t even notice it and then it’ll take over before we have a chance to do something
about it.

So there’s the first step in learning, is to practice, what I would call breath awareness. It’s the, the
practice of tuning into your inner world and just sensing and feeling what’s happening, not in your
head, not in the past, but right now, breath by breath, moment by moment, tracking the subtle
changes in your energy.

That ability puts us in a place where we can then get a handle on reactions when they come. So
that practice…It is priceless and crucial.

We’ve got to develop this ability to focus our awareness inward and to track our inner experience
honestly, and be ruthlessly truthful with ourselves in that process. That’s the first step.

And that’s meditation, right? That’s practicing meditative awareness. That’s what the Buddha was
doing when he became enlightened. Without it, we can’t go to the next step. So anything we can
do to increase our internal awareness, that’s gonna put us in the place of power.

Shakti: Hmm. Hmm. I think we’ve been doing some good groundwork already, with this on the
course, Dan. So, I think, we’re all the more ready. We’re all more ready, now, than we’ve been.

And, um and then, and then, the breath as in… I know I have cultivated this awareness of my
body. I’m aware that there is a contraction happening, there’s fear coming up, and then in that
moment when that happens, what do I do with my breath?

Assume that you’re speaking to people who don’t know anything about breath… maybe there’s
some other breathwork masters on the call… but how do I go about opening my breath, when
there’s such a, um, impulse to, to close and, and to hold my breath?

Dan: Right. So, again, we have to back up a little bit and we have to practice some things, in
preparation for being able to do something in those moments.

So, one of practices that I’m teaching is to bring it all down to one thing, we need to practice
taking sighs of relief. And we need to practice taking an expansive inhale.

That is pulling your breath a little beyond what the normal inhale would be, adding a little stretch
to the inhale, and then deliberately giving ourselves a sigh of relief.

That’s the opening and the letting go that needs to happen in those moments when a program
takes over. And so, if we haven’t practiced that skill, we can’t, uh, you know, we can’t move in, in
that moment, with that ability.

30
So we practice expanding and relaxing. And you do it a thousand times a day. Every time you see
something, you take a breath and you let go.

If someone says something that disturbs you: pull in a long inhale and give yourself a sigh of relief.
If you see a beautiful sunset: expand—pull in an inhale and give yourself a sigh of relief.

If you have a sudden feeling in your body, some pain or some pleasure: let that trigger a breath.
Expand and relax, and begin to train reaction into your system.

Shakti: I feel all blissed out, just doing that a few times now. I really suggest for all of you on the
call, try it. Um, Dan, maybe if you can just go through that again. So the first step is a deeper in-
breath than what we’re used to, right? And then, sighing it out.

Dan: Yep. You’re taking an action, that is related to an intention to change consciousness. “I want
to open myself to myself. I want to open myself to life.”And so, you literally expand by taking an
inhale.

You simply pull the inhale a little longer than usual, a little deeper than usual. Put a little extra
stretch on the inhale. And then snap the exhale loose. Give yourself a sigh of relief. Relax and let
go.

Shakti: Snapping means the body… that as soon as you finish the inhale then you instantly let go.
Is that what, what it means?

Dan: Yeah. You let the inhale come in, as you so beautifully say, you ride the curve of the breath
between the inhale into the exhale. You let go into the exhale.

And so what you’re doing is, you’re training a certain reaction into your system with that breath.
Whenever anything arises in consciousness, it triggers this automatic reaction to open and
expand, relax and let go.

And that gives you what we need in those moments when we’re locked into a habit or some
program has taken over, or we’re locked up in fear. We need the ability in that moment to open
and expand, and to let go and relax.

Shakti: Wow!

Dan: And so we train it into our system so that it’s accessible in those moments. We can actually
use it in those moments. But, you gotta train in it, in order to be able to access it at those times.

Shakti: Right, because those moments are the moments when we tend to lose all awareness of
what’s actually going on. And then we are back in the moment when you’re gonna go deeper in
the breath.

31
Dan: Yeah! And there’s no time to think. If you have to stop and think, oops, you just missed the
moment. And there’s no time to muster it up and do it on purpose, because now time has already
passed.

It has to be a reaction in your system to really work in those moments. And the only way to make
it a reaction in your system is to practice it and train it into your system. And then it will express
by itself in those moments.

As soon as the system contracts, the breath will come in and will open up the system. As soon as
the system begins to become tense, your breath will come and it will wash away the tension.

And the breath is like this beautiful companion that will keep moving us towards the most
resourceful state in those moments when we, you know, when we forget. When we need to relax,
it’s the last thing that we would think to do. And it’s what we need to the most in that moment.

Shakti: Right, yeah, that is so powerful. And I’m also feeling as I’m breathing like that, how much
more of my… of the inner space of my body… I’m connecting to. And its *deep inhale+, and I really
do feel it as like an inner touch of the beloved.

Like that breath… when I breathe in and take that full in-breath, it’s like that passion of being met
with the full force of attraction. And then when I breathe out, it, it feels like this gentle caress of
the finest, subtlest caress of life just coming up through the whole [deep inhale] inside of my body
and just caressing all of me.

So it, it feels when I breathe in as deeply as you’re guiding us to do now, it feels like breath
becomes such essential action just in my own body. Even without being with a partner.

Dan: Yes, natural ecstasy. It’s just natural ecstasy. It’s just the most beautiful feeling to be totally
there as the breath fills you. It’s a beautiful dance we can do in that moment.

We can get lost in the dance where you don’t know who is leading and who is following. And
there’s no me and the breath… they come together. There’s no me breathing, there’s the breath
happening, and I, I disappear into that beautiful living experience.

And it’s, it’s natural ecstasy. it’s just so beautiful and it’s so easy. It’s like cheating! It’s so simple!

Shakti: But it does take everything at the same time. I mean it does, we, we have to fully give
ourselves to it, otherwise it won’t happen.

Dan: Oh yeah. And if we practice giving ourselves to the breath, we suddenly or gradually have an
ability to give ourselves totally to many other things. It just, it develops in us this ability.

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I’ve been working with people with pain, for example, and they say, “I can’t let go of this pain.” Or
“I can’t let go of this anger.” “I can’t let go of this.” And I say, “Well, no wonder you can’t let go of
all of those things, you haven’t learned to let go period.”

Develop your ability to let go, and then apply that ability to letting go of this or letting go of that.
But of course you can’t let go this or that if you haven’t learned the basic energetic skill of letting
go, period.

And that’s what we learn when we use the breath. And when we can let go of the breath
completely, we can let go of many other things.

Shakti: Huh. I’m just noticing that tendency; how we breathe in and then tend to hold that breath
a bit there. Especially if we’re thinking, or we have some tension—there’s some holding there.
And what you’re talking about is that importance of just completely letting that breath go out.

And I think, how often in lovemaking that happens, that we don’t fully release the breath, you
know? We, we try and kind of contract into this orgasm, and then we hold our breath in it, and
then we can’t fully give ourself into the opening and the release of it.

Dan: Yes, because the body, the body/mind system automatically contracts whenever we
experience intensity of any kind.

And it doesn’t matter whether it’s intense joy or intense pain, the poor body/mind system, the
way it was trained in ancient times, because of that survival reaction, the body/mind system will
contract even as our dreams are coming true.

As we’re opening to our lover, our system is running an ancient program that actually blocks our
ability to fully embrace or fully open to the experience.

So, we’re really living with ancient programs, outdated reactions, and if we can blow those out, if
we can clear those out of our system, it puts us in a place where… if intense joy or intense love
starts to pour into us, we can actually open and receive it and relax and enjoy it. And that’s hard
to do.

Even orgasms, I mean I’ve been with one or two people during orgasms in my life, and you’d be
surprised, well you probably wouldn’t, but it’s amazing how people seem to almost... they want to
climb out of their body at the very moment that they’re having the greatest intense joy.

There’s an unconscious or automatic tendency to almost literally climb out of their body. It’s too
beautiful to handle.

And the poor system hasn’t been trained to open to such ecstasy, and so it reacts in the same way
it would react as if it was in pain: it contracts. Very interesting phenomenon.

33
Shakti: Mm. And then, instead of that, in that moment we could really open and let our bodies
open and our breath open, and fully take in that experience.

Dan: It’s such a great opportunity, and many people miss that opportunity, they don’t take
advantage of that opportunity, you know?

And it’s funny, either way you win, because if you can open to that love… God, what a reward!
And if you somehow manage to overcome, overpower it, like wow! That proves how powerful we
are.

So either way, every life experience is a great lesson, you know, we can celebrate everything.

Shakti: Mm. Beautiful. Dan, I wonder if, would you be willing to, um, breathe with us a bit, just
like maybe teach the women a couple of -- you have such beautiful different ways of playing with
the breath.

And I feel like there’s a transmission that comes from just breathing with you a bit, and you
guiding us through some rhythms of how to, how to open the breath, what we can do with the
breath to access life more fully.

Dan: Yeah, thank you. We’ll start with the very basics. You start with the internal awareness and
just scan through your body and see if there’s some place that you can relax right now.
Everyone has certain places where they hold tension, in their jaw, in their throat, or their
shoulders, or their neck.

And so you spend a few moments just looking for those places and inviting a little extra opening; a
little extra softening, a little extra relaxation in those places.

So you’re deliberately relaxing. And you use a sigh of relief to help in that relaxation process. You
literally give yourself a sigh of relief, and as you’re exhaling, you relax some muscle. Let go of your
jaw, let go of your shoulders. Let go in some way.

And the bigger the inhale is, the more expansive the inhale is, the greater the release can be on
the exhale. So you give yourself a big sigh of relief, and then there’s more room for the next
inhale.

You take advantage of that space, and you expand a bit more, and you produce an even bigger
release and more relaxation. And then the more relaxation, the easier it is for the breath to open
and expand us.

And you get into this beautiful dance of expanding more and relaxing more. Opening and
softening. Pulling in and letting go. Become more and more conscious of the feelings and the
dynamics and the sounds, and just get into each breath. Be very Zen-like.

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Each breath, moment by moment, feeling it totally, inviting extra expansion on the inhale, inviting
a little extra, and then letting go with a sigh of relief.

And when you let the breath go, you let your body go. You let muscles go. You let thoughts go.
You let the past go.

You let go, let go, let go. Each time as if it’s the first time. You don’t want to become robotic. You
don’t want to become mechanical. Each breath is pure and conscious. Experience each one as if
it’s the first time.

You expand, you pull in extra energy. You let go and you relax completely. And then you do it
again as if it’s the first time. And then you can take the process deeper.

As you breathe in, take your time. Don’t hurry the inhale. When you rush the inhale, it’s a panic
response; it’s a fear response to gasp at the breath, to rush the inhale.

You don’t want to reinforce any fear or stress type reactions; so you slow the inhale down. You
take your time on the inhale. Don’t hurry. Savor each detail of the inhale.

As you’re pulling the breath in, you slowly pull the breath in, you feel yourself expanding and
softening around the breath. Track moment to moment the sensations of expansion. No hurry.

It’s like sipping very expensive wine: you don’t gulp down a bottle of expensive wine. You savor it.
You smell it. You look at it. You taste it. You follow it when you swallow it. You enjoy it. You get all
the juice out of it.

So we have to track our in breath that way. Take your time on the inhale; make it long and slow
and expansive, and send the breath to every cell of your body.

Imagine distributing the breath to every cell of your body. So you’re not just breathing into your
lungs, you’re literally breathing into every cell of your body. You’re infusing every cell with light,
with energy, with the life force.

Take your time. Breathe in very consciously. Spread the breath to every cell of your body. Feel
your entire being expanding, and then snap the exhale loose. It’s as if a bubble bursts.

You let go of the exhale and you fall into yourself. You’re relaxing into yourself, and at the same
time you expand outward; you radiate.

So you let go completely, you fall into yourself and at the same time your borders dissolve. You
expand out and you merge with everything.

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So it’s a beautiful meditation: filling yourself, infusing every cell with breath on the inhale. Take
your time, feel every detail. Then when you reach that point of fullness, you just snap the exhale
loose, you dump the exhale out, and fall into your center.

You relax, and at the same time you allow your borders to dissolve, you expand and you radiate
like the sun. Do that breath by breath, each time as if it’s the first time.

You can use breath sounds. Find some soothing or pleasurable sound, a strengthening sound. I
suggest people use an “oooo” shape on the inhale, as if you’re sucking through a straw, as if
you’re feeding yourself.

And then use an “aaaa” shape on the exhale. “Ahh” is the sound of letting go. So you can mix
some sound with the breath. Produce a soothing sound on the exhale.

And be Shakespearean, be theatrical. It sends a very powerful signal to our unconscious. A

soothing, relaxing sound tells the body that it’s safe, and it can allow the body to relax in ways
that you couldn’t directly get it to relax.

So you can use sound. You can use breath. You can use visualization. Use movement: do
something with your hands or your arms to reflect expansion.

You can do something with your body to reflect the letting go, and make it total. Make each
breath very pure, very sacred and very total.

There’s no substitute for doing it, and doing it everyday for some period of time, and
remembering to do it from time to time during the day.

So when I advise people about a practice, I suggest this formula: ten minutes in the morning, ten
minutes at night, and ten times during the day for two minutes.

That’s forty minutes of spiritual breathing everyday, but broken up into those bookend practice
periods: when you awake and just before you go to sleep.

And then—so important—to interrupt your day ten times for about two minutes. Go into the
practice and watch how that transforms your life.

Because you might be on the toilet for one of those two times—two minute periods. You might be
working at your computer for those two minutes. You might be cooking or driving.

And so what you’re doing is you’re bringing this spiritual practice into the everyday activities of
your life; and it begins to make the everyday moments of your life something extraordinary.
Because every moment is extraordinary! There are no ordinary moments!

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Shakti: I am so feeling that this moment, Dan. And you know, I’m getting really curious as to what
the women are experiencing? What they’re wondering about?

So, if that’s okay with you, I think I’m going to open the line for calls, and if anybody would like to
share with Dan, or would like to ask a question or share your experience of breathing with him
now, just press 1 on your keypad there.

Or if you’re on the Webcast you can type in on the Webcast and I will read it. And so, Dan, are
you ready to take a question yet?

Dan: Yeah.

Shakti: Great. So I’ve got Rose on the line. Hello, Rose.

Caller 1: Hello. Hey, Shakti, can you hear me?

Shakti: Yeah we can hear you. Go ahead.

Caller 1: Wonderful. Hi, Shakti, hi, Dan.

Dan Brulé: Hi, Rose.

Caller 1: Hi, I had a couple of questions, actually. Um, one was when I started, the first thing that
came to my awareness was that my rib cage was very tight and I didn’t know whether to sort of
put a little bit, some effort or force into into trying to expand my rib cage more.

Or, whether it is to expect it when you meet that little uncomfortable limit, and then let it go, so
you’re not trying to push it beyond that tightness that I’m feeling? So that was sort of my first
question.

Dan: Okay, hold on a second. You were kind of breaking up. Shakti, can you repeat that question
to me? I didn’t quite get it because she was breaking up.

Shakti: Hmm. Rose, let’s take your questions one by one. So, Rose’s first question is she feels
some tightening in her rib cage as she’s breathing and she’s not sure whether to push through
that or whether to be gentle with it?

Dan: Okay, so if I understand it, uh, I think one general answer is that whenever we’re in a
situation, there is a space that is bigger than the situation.

There’s me, there’s what I perceive, there’s my challenge, and so on. And what we need to do in
that moment is to expand into a space that includes all of that.

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We use the breath to literally open up around what we’re thinking, open up around what what
we’re feeling. Open up to to what’s happening, what we’re doing, and just create some extra
space around the whole thing.

So we kind of we move into that center space and then we let go and relax and then we trust the
next impulse that comes to us.

Shakti: Mm. Mm.

Dan: We can’t think our way out of the box. We can’t, uh, you know, we just have to create more
spaciousness and then let go, and from that spaciousness, see what comes, and follow it.

Shakti: *loud exhale+ Beautiful. I’m gonna give Rose the line back. Rose? Are you there?

Caller 1: Hi, Shakti, I’m still here. Can you hear me?

Shakti: Mm, yes.

Caller 1: Great. Yeah, thank you. I actually dropped off the call, just for the answer and then I
came back I certainly received the aspect of developing more spaciousness around it. Um, and I
think, yeah, I think I have.

I was trying to go into my mind to find the answer to that. But, um, so, um, thank you. The other
question I had was, one was a very simple one, and that was should we always be breathing
through our mouth? Or should we breathe in through the nose?

Dan: Aha! great question. That’s a technical question.

Dan: You know, in the beginning I suggest that people breathe through their mouth, because it’s
easier to get lost in your head when you’re breathing through your nose unless you really
practice. Breathing through your mouth puts you in your body more.

And you can play with breath sounds when you breathe through your mouth, and you can’t do
that when you’re breathing through your nose.

So for those reasons and probably a few more, in the beginning, I would suggest, to enhance and
magnify the practice, breathe through your mouth, in general.

However, that doesn’t mean that air cannot go in and out of your nose even while you’re
breathing through your mouth. There’s a beautiful teacher, Tarthang Tulku, who teaches Kum
Nye. And that’s exactly his practice: to equalize the flow between the mouth and the nose.

38
Don’t choose between the two: keep them both open. But that’s a little more advanced practice,
and so in the beginning yeah, breathe through your mouth so you can be more expressive, more
dramatic, and so on.

Caller 1: Thank you. Yeah, that resonates. Do I have time for one other little question?

Shakti: You can. I think I might want to ask you a question after you ask your question.

Caller 1: Okay. I’ve done tantric practices in the past, and one of the things I noticed as I got very
deeply into the practices, when I exhaled or I would let go of the exhale, as it reached the bottom
of the exhale, I felt myself dropping.

And I haven’t felt this in a long time, it’s nice to revisit this space. I find myself drop into this place
where there was this long pause and so I didn’t even need to take the next breath.

It just, there was this long pause and the next breath arrived, and I thought that I felt something in
this space in between the letting go of the exhale and when the next breath arrived.

And I wonder if you might speak to that a bit because I really haven’t felt that in a very long time,
and I remember when I used to do a little meditation, and sometimes it would go very deep, and
again you’d sort of almost drop into that right at the end of your exhale.

So, I wondered if you might speak about that a little bit? About that sort of thing.

Dan: Oh, okay, there was, you’re kind of breaking up, but I think I got it. You’re talking about the
pause after the exhale?

Shakti: Yeah. I’ve muted her now because the line is bad. But she has this long pause; she’s had
this experience of a really long pause after the exhale. That sounds like, it sounds like it is a very
expanded space of awareness that she went into, and she wanted you speak to that a bit.

Dan: Yeah, there is a natural, anatomical, physiological pause built into the human breathing
mechanism that occurs after the exhale. So normal or natural breathing is: inhale, exhale, pause.
Inhale, exhale, pause.

And that pause gives the system a chance to kind of maintain a certain stability. Uh, there’s a
period of silence and stillness where it’s necessary for the system to kind of ground itself, to keep
touching that place, and if we are very conscious during that pause, we can squeeze a lot juice out
of it.

We can really fall deeply into the silence; deeply into the stillness. Uh, very useful. So, even
though you’re not breathing in that moment, if you’re very, very conscious and awake, and very,
very relaxed, you can get a lot out of that pause.

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So, it can be very useful; however touching that pause constantly doesn’t allow for
transformation. In order to trigger transformation, we need to eliminate that pause. Otherwise,
the system uses the pause to keep re-setting itself on the same old default.

However when we remove that pause, and we connect the breaths so it’s inhale, exhale, inhale,
exhale—no pauses—then we trigger a transformational process. Now we’re shaking up the
system --

Shakti: Right.

Dan: And causing it to reorder itself. And then when we get through with that practice, the
system will kind of settle onto a new level. And then that pause after the exhale will help the
system to ground itself on that new level.

And when we’re ready, we can go to the next level. So that pause is very useful, very valuable,
and we can use it consciously. And if we’re not conscious of it, that pause can keep us locked into
a status quo.

Shakti: Right. Beautiful. Thank you, Dan. I’m just going to check here with Rose. Rose, did that
answer your question?

Caller 1: It certainly did, thank you, that was very interesting. Thank you.

Dan: Thank you, Rose, really great question.

Shakti: I was wondering if there’s anything happening in your emotional life that is, might be
connected to that tense feeling in your diaphragm? Are you aware of anything?

Caller 1: Yeah, I’m sure there is, um, I’ve recently mentioned to Shakti, uh, my sister lost a baby
last week. And a few years ago, I lost my mom, and I know I have some stored grief in my lungs.

But even before that, many years ago when I first started meditating, I would always feel this
blockage around the top of my exhale when I did yoga, when I sat, there was always a sense that
my rib cage was kind of… I was stuck in it and I wanted to get out of it.

So, I am aware there’s definitely currently things going on in my life, and most stems around
grieving and loss. But I almost feel going even further back that my area of tension tends to be my
rib cage and I’ve often got the feeling that I kind of want to get out of it. *chuckle+ Yeah.

Shakti: I wanted you to share that because I’m sure Dan will have something to have a response
to that sharing of yours. Dan is there anything you want to say to Rose having heard a bit more
about where she’s at?

40
Dan: Well certainly every emotional state has a corresponding breathing pattern. And very often,
when we are locked into our emotional reactions, we don’t have that expansive awareness in
order to see how we are breathing in that moment.

Because the way that we’re breathing in those moments either reinforces and supports the
emotional reaction or it dissolves it. So, to be able to kind of step outside of our experience, which
is, you know, that’s the word ecstasy, to stand apart: “ex stasis.”

Shakti: Hmm.

Dan: And so when we can stand apart in those moments, and see ourselves, you’re basically
moving into that spaciousness, that bigger space, that’s around you and what’s happening and
how you’re reacting.

When you are in that more expansive awareness state, you can make a connection between how
you’re breathing in that moment and that particular emotion you are feeling.

There’s a connection there. If you change the way you breathe, it dissolves the emotional state. If
you move into a certain emotion, you automatically click into a certain breathing pattern.

Once you make those connections, you’ve got a way of dissolving emotions or strengthening
them, magnifying them.

Shakti: Hmm. Ha, thank you, Dan.

Dan: See, before we talked about this sense of spaciousness; and one of the easiest shortcuts is to
literally move into the awareness of the space around our heart.

Shakti: Mm.

Dan: We’re always filtering information and life through our mind; and if we can get heart-
centered, literally, physically center our awareness in our heart space, and look out at the world
through that place, amazing things happen.

And it’s not coincidence that the lungs are wrapped around the heart. And so by playing with our
breath, we’re playing with the space around our heart; and we can begin to get information
through—directly through our heart. It doesn’t have to… We can bypass the mind.

It can come to us very directly, very purely, just getting out of our head and getting into our heart
is such a beautiful shortcut to solving all of our problems.

Shakti: Beautiful. Yeah and whereas I’m also just feeling as Dan is speaking, I know because
you’ve shared that you’re impacted by this death of the little one. And, um, that, you know, that
juncture of life and death coming together.

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I just -- I know how, um, really going deeply into the breath… when we fully let ourselves breathe,
um, breathe in and then fully breathe out… how it’s like we’re fully allowing life in, and then we’re
fully allowing death in. And we’re allowing the full cycle of life to happen through the breath.

So, it feels like this might be a beautiful time for you to just bring some extra totality to your
breath, to just fully, you know, to help you digest the experience of the death of your sister’s
baby.

Caller 1: Yeah, thank you. This obviously feels very perfect for me to be on this call with you both
right now. I thank you very, very much. Yeah. I feel tuned into that, I feel like it’s something I’d like
to embrace going forward, connecting with my breath again, which I haven’t done really,
properly, for many years, so, yeah, thank you.

Shakti: All right, i’m going to move on to some questions on the Webcast here, and so Christa
from Louisville asks, I’m not sure I completely understand this question, but maybe you will, Dan.
“What does the concept of letting go mean when it comes to re-mapping these ancient
programs?”

So, I guess what she’s referring to is we’ve just been looking at how in a tribal context… how our
ancestry can influence the way that we relate to ourself as sexual beings. So she says, “What does
the concept of letting go mean when it comes to remapping these ancient programs?

How can one discern the difference between letting go of a program and expanding into
authenticity?”

Dan: Oh, yeah well, the authenticity is something that’s natural. So for me, it feels like there is,
there’s a -- we’re already in a river. And this river is flowing around us. And when we let go, the
river takes us.

So there’s a force, a force that’s uplifting us, uplifting the planet. It’s a force of ascension in some
way, you know, the model, the analogy, the metaphor is “going higher” somehow.

And that force is already in place. And so when we let go, there’s really nothing else to do. That
force, that river takes us, and if we do anything to get there, we’re really reinforcing the old
pattern.

It’s like if I’m a neurotic, whatever I decide, it’s my neuroses that’s deciding, and whatever I do,
it’s my neuroses that’s doing it. And so, all we really need to do, is to let go; and there’s already a
force in place that’s going to move us upward, forward.

And so letting go of our ancient ties to ancestors, and carrying things that don’t belong to us. We
can do beautiful rituals of giving that back.

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Okay, I took on from my grandmother a fear that she took on during the Great Depression in
America in 1929; and she lived with that fear all of her life, and I absorbed it. So, I could go
through a ritual where “here, I give you back this fear. It’s not mine, it belongs to you.”

I can do a ritual like that, however that greater force is waiting. If I just let go, the greater force
will do the work for me. I don’t need to create rituals, I don't need to make decisions. I just let go
of what’s holding me back, and life itself takes me to the next level.

Shakti: And you can do that through the breath, I’m assuming, Dan when you say you can just let
go, then there’s also a way in which you can just through breathing out, you know, just through
breathing out and releasing the breath, we can let go of all those constraints and those old
patterns that are holding us back.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah, they just, they get caught up in the letting go. So if I let go, whatever I need to
let go of, it will get caught up in that let go.

If I practice letting go of the breath, and I need to let go of some trauma, then that trauma is
gonna get caught up in the flow of the breath, and the breath will release it without me even
having to know about it or do anything.

Shakti: Beautiful. That is so beautiful. Right, I’m going to go on to the next question here. Candida
in London says, um, “Hi, I have experienced a very subtle warmth coming from my legs and the
thighs. Is that possible? I also feel I want to yawn.”

Dan:[chuckle]

Shakti: So, she’s commenting on her experience of the breath, and I guess she’s surprised that
she’s feeling so much in the rest of her body while she’s breathing.

Dan: The feeling of warmth is such a pure expression of getting in touch with the energy. Feelings
of warmth, that’s real energy manifesting and expressing.

So, you want to enjoy that feeling of warmth, celebrate it, relax into it. Such a great sign when we
can feel that warmth. And I forgot the second part. What did you mention after that?

Shakti: No, that’s it. She was just speaking about that. She also said that she feels a sensation in
her body… She said she also yawned. Right.

Dan: Ah, yawning, yes. That’s the body saying, “Oh yes, yes!” It’s the body going, “Yes, this is what
I need!”Because yawning is the body’s way of releasing toxins, taking on extra energy, stretching
and softening, and opening and loosening: that’s the soft and animal of our body saying “oh yes!”

Eexaggerate the yawn. Go into it, enjoy it. Just be wild with yawning, Oh yeah, let it happen! That
is a very natural and very open sharing.

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Both of those things, the warmth and yawning: that’s proof that whoever said that, they are
actually doing something. They’re actually breathing.

Shakti: Beautiful.

Dan:So, that not theory that’s a very pure, genuine sharing. Thank you, whoever that is.You just
proved that you’re not just thinking about this stuff, you’re actually doing it. I love that.

Shakti: And Sakina in Cape Town says, “I often experience tightness in my chest in trying to
breathe deeply, that I often struggle to overcome. I’m experiencing that now.” And she says, um,
“Also, I’m feeling really tired and sleepy. I’m wondering what that is about?”

I mean, I’m also aware that it’s probably about 11 o’clock at night in South Africa where you are
now, but, um, there’s more to it than that. Dan, what do you say to her?

Dan: Yeah. Uh, if we practice non-reaction, that’s a real shortcut. Okay, a thought comes, let it
come. A feeling comes, let it come. We don’t need to do anything about that.

But to help in this particular thing, there’s a beautiful dance, a beautiful experience we can give
ourselves when we breathe in. For example, I could pull the breath into me and then the breath
will respond, and as much as I pull, the breath will come in.

But if I pull too hard, if I try too hard, I actually create contraction for myself, which goes against
the whole purpose of breathing in, and that is expansion.

So, what you do, is rather than pulling the breath in, give yourself a sense of just opening yourself;
and watch how the breath will pour into you by itself.

So, I just relax and open myself, and I can feel how the breath will come in and fill those spaces
that I create. And if I pull the breath in, I can feel the breath wanting to open and stretch me. So I
can relax around the breath and allow the breath to open and expand me.

So, it’s like being a good dance partner. You have a leader and you have a follower. So, if I’m the
leader and I pull the breath in, the breath, like a good dance partner, is going to fill whatever
spaces I can create in myself.

And when the breath comes in as the leader, and I’m the follower, then as the breath comes in, I
sense where I’m expanding, where the breath meets resistance, and I relax around that, and allow
the breath to expand me.

So now we’re into a really beautiful dance with the breath, that’s effortless. And at any time you
can have a rush of energy that takes over.

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And so it’s not a question of trying too hard or getting stuck. You need to back off on the effort
and turn it more into a dance; turn it into a gentle give and take, and make it a game. Play. Don’t,
don’t try too hard.

Shakti: I think that’s a beautiful answer for you Sakina, you know, and just, um, Sakina is such a
young warrior woman. I think that sometimes it can be good for you to know that you can just do
the tango with your experience, or you know, just soft dance with it. [laughter]

Dan: Yeah because if our intention is pure, that’s enough, you know. That’s enough.

Shakti: Yeah. Beautiful.

Then Zarita from Zipton, I don’t know Zipton. She says:

“Dear Dan and Shakti, hello. When we started breathing I had some pain around the solar plexus
and during the breathing, that disappeared. After a while, I became aware of my thoughts and
then I could release that, too. I feel very good now and light. And although I have the feeling the
pain wants to come back, I’m delighted with your breathing teaching and understand how to train
in this. What you say about the pause is also an answer to me, thank you.”

Dan: Hmm. Wonderful.

Shakti: So it sounds like you just had a beautiful experience of opening and just, um, getting that,
the sense of release that’s possible in the body there.

Dan: Good, yeah, she’s getting it. That’s it.

Shakti: All right, and then next I’m gonna, I’m gonna give Sophia, give Sophia the line. Sophia,
you’ve got a question? Hi there.

Caller 2: Hi, Shakti and Dan. Um, I really enjoyed the exercise. I actually felt, uh my heart was
beating. Like I could just really feel my heart beating, um, at the end of the exercise and just
feeling in tune with it.

Um, and I had a, I had two questions, um, usually, I do find on the, I’ve done different breathing
practices before and I have a lot more difficulty with the exhale especially if it’s through the nose.

I like how you said we should just do it through our mouth because through the mouth it’s easier,
but I always find the exhale is, um, a lot shorter and there’s more tension in it.

Um, and the other question was what about breathing when you’re in different positions, like I, I
do yoga a lot or even if I’m, like right now, doing all the breathing lying down.

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But when I sit I notice there’s other tensions and maybe the breath doesn’t flow as nicely, or if I’m
like in a yoga position where there’s like a lot of, um, other tensions and emotions coming up in
my body, then the breath is like very tight.

It’s almost not there in a sense, like it’s just very tight in and out. Um, I don’t know if you could
speak to that a little, and incorporating it in our breathing practices?

Dan: Mm-hmm. Sure. Okay, well a few things. Quite a few things, but they all come together. So,
not in any particular order, the posture certainly is a big key.

You know, you can put yourself in a position that allows your breath to expand or you can put
yourself in a position that the body has to work really hard to let the breath in.

So, it’s a good idea to practice breathing in all kinds of different postures, relaxing into different
positions and sensing and feeling the forces and dynamics that you encounter when you breathe.

And then your intuition will guide you into postures that support you, uh, for what it is you’re
trying to deal with.

The exhale is a real key. There are a lot of things that control o influence the exhale. And most of
those things are unconscious.

You have unconscious fears or unconscious pains. You’re not conscious of them, but your body is
and your body then will interfere with the exhale.

So, if you have some forgotten, suppressed, unconscious psychological or emotional fear, uh, or
pain, that’s going to influence the body’s ability to release the exhale.

And so as we are doing the work on the level of consciousness, working out our stuff, our early life
experiences, the early traumas, the conditioning and limitations that you were given as a child…
When working on that level, the breath begins to open up by itself.

So if you’re unconsciously holding on to something, even if it’s just a limited idea about yourself…
You know, when you’re a child and you tried to do something and you couldn’t do it, you allowed
a belief that says “I can’t,” or “I’m not good enough,” or “It’s too hard,” whatever.

In that moment it could be, it might have been very true, because you weren’t strong enough, you
weren’t smart enough, you weren’t whatever. And so you couldn’t do it, and you absorbed a
negative or limiting thought about yourself.

Now that limiting thought is currently something that’s in your unconscious and it is interfering
with the breath. So you can’t let the breath go completely because there’s a thought that you’re
holding on to. But you’re not aware of that thought, and so it’s a catch 22 situation.

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So what we do is we use very powerful breathing exercises, to kind of blow through or to burn
away that unconscious stuff that you might never remember or realize.

You use the power of the breath itself. It’s like when you have plumbing, pipes, and they’ve
gotten clogged: you put a lot pressure or you send a strong force of water thru, and it cleans out
the pipes.

So you engage in some powerful breathing exercises to do that work. It clears away these
energetic blocks that are linked to unconscious, subconscious, suppressed, forgotten things. So,
you do that work.

That’s it, and so the breathing is done in the context of spiritual community, consciousness work,
bodywork, movement: you’ve got to bring it all in together and magic happens.

Shakti: Beautiful. Sophia, is that, does that answer your question?

Caller 2: That’s, um, really useful and I, I actually think I’m not sure, um, if Dan, well, I’m sure
you’re familiar with it, but it’s the “Ujjayi Breath,” where you basically are contracting --

Dan: Well, I’m going to interrupt you because as I’m listening to you, I can feel some constriction
in your throat.

That, that voice that I’m hearing is, is coming through a throat that’s, uh, and it’s interesting that
you mention the Ujjayi breathing. Because that’s that, uh you’re playing with exactly that Chakra,
so, you’re intuition is right on.

And so, you should practice some loud chanting. Get out in nature with a deep, hollow voice that
comes from your belly, and clear away any squeaky or narrow voice that’s coming from your
throat. Play with that area and open it up energetically…

Because that might be, there might be something there, you know, your voice, your expression
being welcomed, uh, your confidence in what comes out of you, you know, there’s so many things
that could be tangled up in there.

So some powerful breathing, some shouting from your belly, uh, animal, primal noises that don’t
come from your throat, but come from every cell in your body, you know?

And play with that. It’s very juicy, it’s exciting and it’s fun! And yeah, you have something in your
throat, I can hear it in your voice. And so play with that Ujjayi breathing, good idea.

And because you’re going to find out what you need, when you do that Ujjayi breathing. You’re
going to find how to close your throat and you can also find how open it.

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If you’re doing Ujjayi breathing, you should also be practicing yawning. Yawning, yawning,
yawning. Yawning is going open something in your throat; it’s going to open something in the
back of your jaw.

So trigger the yawn, and breathe in and out, in and out, while you’re yawning. So the yawning will
produce an opening and then you spin the breath like a wheel while the yawn produces that
opening.

Combine yawning and breathing. Make yourself yawn, trigger that opening, because the opening
that the yawn produces, that’s exactly what closes when you do the Ujjayi breath.

So you want to really recognize it. And if it’s unconsciously sort of closed all the time and you
don’t realize it, uh, it can work against you. So, you’re on, your intuition’s right, play with it more.

Shakti: I agree with you, Dan, and I think, Sophia, some lions roaring or baboon roaring for you!

Caller 2: Oh, I’ve got it now. Thank you.

Dan: You’re welcome.

Shakti: Right. I actually want to take a moment, Dan. I have such beautiful memories of working
with you and bringing together working with deep sexuality and breathwork.

And I know we’ve used it at times, the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra; which is a beautiful tantric text that
works with the breath.

So I wanted to just read a few verses from the Vigyan BhairavTantra; and for us to just take a few
moments to reflect on this experience of bringing the breath to lovemaking. So is that, does that
work for you, Dan?

Dan: Oh, what a wonderful idea.

Shakti: Okay, so let me see. So the Vigyan BhairavTantra starts like this: It’s a conversation
between, the divine masculine and the divine feminine.

And the divine masculine in this tantric tradition is called Shiva and the feminine here is called
Devi. And so Devi asks Shiva, she says:

“Shiva what is your reality? What is this wonderful universe? What constitutes seed? Who centers
the universal wheel? What is this life beyond form, pervading forms? How may we enter it fully
above space and time, names and descriptions? Let my doubts be cleared.”

Now Shiva replies and describes 112 meditation techniques. And these are the first three.

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Shiva replies, “Oh radiant one, this experience (of going into the space Devi is asking him about)
may dawn between two breaths. After breath comes in or down and just before turning up or out,
the beneficence.”

And the second meditation: “As breath turns from down to up and again as breath curves from up
to down through both these turns, realize.”

And the third one, “Whenever the in-breath and the out-breath fuse, at that instant touch the
energy-less, energy-filled center.”

Let me just read that again. “Or whenever the in breath and the outbreath fuse, at that instant,
touch the energy-less, energy-filled center.”

And then there are more of these beautiful meditations, but you can hear, women on the line,
just the feeling of this rhythm, this beautiful oceanic rhythm of the in-breath and the out-breath,
and the curving up of the breath as we breathe in, and the curving down of the breath as we
breathe out…

And the moment when the in-breath and the out-breath meet, um, what the text speaks about is
how in that touch there’s such an opening, a realization that can happen.

And so, in my experience and in teaching with Dan, we see such beautiful openings between
partners in breathing together and really allowing that rhythm of the breath to, um, to fully open
between them.

So for instance, when I fully breathe in while my partner is fully breathing out and if you start to
breathe out. I start to breathe in and then letting the bodies also move with the rhythm of the
breath.

The traditional tantric pose for that is called Yab-Yum where the woman will sit in the man’s lap
with her arms wrapped and her legs wrapped around him.

And so that the torsos can really breathe together, so that we move together in that rhythm of
breathing in and out. And really fully letting the ecstasy build and flow fully.

So I wanted to just, um, to share that with you, and ask Dan if you would be willing to share your
experience of this, what comes up for you when I speak about that, and what is your knowing
about the way that the breath can support sexual relationship?

Dan: Well, for one thing, one thing, when we get into an experience of our breath we get out of
our brain, our mind, our ego in a way.

And we actually are beginning to take part in something that’s not personal. It’s really, it’s not
personal, it’s only personal as it’s passing through us for that moment. It’s something universal.

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And so, as we, as we merge with the breath, as we relax into the breathing, and with a partner,
it’s like this spiral, this standing spiral takes place, and we begin to merge with everything and
everyone.

And there’s no me, there’s no you, there’s no thing we’re doing; it all dissolves into some
universal happening.

It‘s the great gateway to all of the promises of the ancients and the teachers and the gurus. You
take an ordinary beautiful human man and an ordinary beautiful female, you know, a woman.

You come together with a sacred purpose. You together dissolve into an experience that’s not
really personal, uh, it’s really bigger than either of us and something beautiful awakens. It, it just
has to happen. So, it’s such a pure and direct way.

But look at how much stuff we have to deal with to simply relax into such an experience. All the
conditioning and the social taboos and our fears and our… Wow, it’s so simple but it’s not easy. Or
it’s easy, but it’s not simple. I’m not sure which way it works, but, uh --

Shakti: Right, and also, what also comes to me, Dan, is that it’s very enlighening to be so open
with somebody else; so intimate and open when we breathe as fully as that.

And then we also start to feel so much, all of that aliveness comes up, and we start to feel our
partners more, and we start to feel ourselves more, and there’s incredible intimacy that opens in
that space of breathing together like that.

Dan: Oh, it’s just phenomenal. I am so glad you’re doing the work you’re doing in the world
because we’re going to reach critical mass. Maybe we’ve already reached it, you know. Maybe
we’ve gone beyond that point, and everyone is going to get liberated here, and it’s accelerating
towards that.

The more of us who take it on as a responsibility and as a practice, and who share it and spread
it—we are helping in the evolution of everyone. I think it’s so important, the work that you’re
doing.

Shakti: Oh, thank you, Dan, and I have such appreciation and gratitude for you, Dan, really, like
devoted his life to supporting people all across the planet, to the farthest reaches of Russia, all
across the world, sitting with people and, and supporting them to find this freedom in themselves.

And I know that you shared with me, also this passion. As you’re speaking now that it’s time for us
to not just care about our own well being, but to come together in awareness like that—whether
in a group like this or whether it’s in a partnership. It’s the awareness of the bigger community of
people who are awakening. We are being a difference that’s going to make a difference on the
planet.

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And so, every time one of us takes a conscious breath or surrenders with awareness into our
bodies, or connects in intimacy with ourselves or with somebody else in a way that brings
awareness in: it’s like something in the world opens up.

There’s a new energy… Something heals, something new becomes possible and, you know, I do
feel like the hurricane that’s happening in the Philippines and all these disasters that we have in
the world: there will come a time when we won’t need them anymore because we will be doing
the work of feeling what we need to feel and showing up in deep intimacy.

And, um, yeah, I just want to, I feel inspired by what you’re saying, Dan, because it’s, it is about,
it’s about all of us on the planet, not just about each one of us who’s here individually on our own
journey.

Dan: Yeah, we’re all connected. It’s not just a pretty spiritual idea, it’s a fact in reality. There’s one
human organism alive on this planet, you know, and we’re all cells in human body, and it, it feels
like we’re individual and separate unto ourselves, but we’re all cells in an organ and, uh, we’re all
connected.

And that’s one of the reasons I love working with the breath, because very quickly in working with
the breath, we, we have the experience that we’re connected, it’s not just an idea anymore. You
feel that connection, you realize that connection. So it doesn’t matter who gets healed, we all get
healed in the process.

The best thing I can do for everyone is to work on myself. And the best thing I can do for myself is
to help as many other people as possible, because we’re all connected! It’s pretty simple for a
simple guy, you know?

Shakti: Beautiful, Dan. Thank you so much for coming to share with us your wisdom and your
inspiration and I really feel like you’ve opened that gateway for breath for people here.

And I just wonder if there’s anything else you’d like to say; maybe just mention to them where
they can find you if they’d like to find out more about your work?

Dan: Yes. Thank you. My website is: www.BreathMastery.com

Everybody has to master something; and I’ll get on to walking and talking and more advanced
human skills one day, but I’m still working on the basics.

I really am passionate about mastering the power, the potential of breath. So you can find my
schedule there. I was in nine countries this year. I travel constantly.

I have a beautiful resort, retreat in Los Cabos in Mexico. People are welcome to come down there
and do an intensive, a breathwork intensive retreat.
You can learn all about it at: www.bajabiosana.org

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And, look in my calendar and, if you see I’m gonna be somewhere in your country or
neighborhood, then come and breathe.

Shakti: Mm-hmm. Beautiful. Right. Thank you so much, Dan. That brings us to the end of today’s
call. Thank you to all of you who participated, and, I’m encouraging you, as Dan has said, to keep
breathing deeply and consciously.

Let’s see if we can do that 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening, and 10 times a
day for 2 minutes. That’s correct, huh, Dan?

Dan: That’s it. Perfect.

Shakti: Thank you very much.

Dan: Thank you, Shakti, thank you everyone.

Shakti: Lots of love. Bye-bye.

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 Bonus Section

Vigyam Bhairav Tantra Text

112 Meditations given by Shiva to Devi

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Devi asks:

O Shiva, what is your reality?

What is this wonder-filled universe?

What constitutes seed?

Who centers the universal wheel?

What is this life beyond form, pervading forms?

How may we enter it fully, above space and time, before names and descriptions?

Let my doubts be cleared!

Shiva replies, and describes 112 meditation techniques:

1. Radiant One, this experience may dawn between two breaths… After breath comes in (comes
down) and just before turning up (going out)… The Beneficence!

2. As breath turns from down to up, and again as breath curves up to down… Through both these
turns… Realize!

3. Or, whenever in-breath and out-breath merge…

At this instant touch the energy-less, energy-filled center!

4. Or, when breath is all out (up) and stopped of itself, or all in (down) and stopped… In such a
universal pause, one's small self vanishes!

This is difficult only for the impure.

5. With attention between the eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath
essence to the top of the head, and there shower as light!

6. When in worldly activities, keep attention between two breaths. And so practicing, in a few days
be born anew!

7. With intangible breath in the center of the forehead… As this (intangible breath) reaches the
heart at the moment of sleep, have direction over dreams and over death itself.

8. With utmost devotion, center on the two junctions of breath, as known and the knower.

9. Lie down as dead. Enraged in wrath, stay so. Or stare without moving an eyelash. Or suck

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something and become the sucking.

10. While being caressed sweet princess, enter the caress as everlasting life!

11. Stop the doors of the senses when feeling the creeping of an ant. Then…!

12. When on a bed or a seat, let yourself become weightless, beyond mind.

13. Or, imagine the five colored circles of the peacock tail to be your five senses in illimitable
space. Now let their beauty melt within. Similarly, stare at any point in space or on the wall, until
the point dissolves. Then your wish for another comes true!

14. Place your whole attention in the nerve, delicate as the lotus thread, in the center of your
spinal column. In such (awareness) be transformed!

15. Closing the seven openings of the head with your hands…A space between your eyes becomes
all-inclusive!

16. Blessed One, as senses are absorbed in the Heart, reach the center of the lotus!

17. Un-minding mind, keep in the middle, until…!

18. Look lovingly at some object. Do not go to another object. Here in the middle of the object…
The blessing!

19.Without support for feet or hands, sit only on the buttocks. Suddenly the centering!

20. In a moving vehicle, by rhythmically swaying, experience… Or in a still vehicle, by letting

yourself swing in slowing invisible circles…

21. Pierce some part of your nectar filled form with a pin and gently enter the piercing… And
attain to the inner purity!

22. Let attention be at a place where you are seeing some past happening; and even your form,
having lost its present characteristics, is transformed!

23. Feel an object before you. Feel the absence of all other objects but this one. Then leaving aside
the object-feeling. And the absence-feeling… Realize!

24. When a mood against someone or for someone arises, do not place it on the person in
question… But remain centered.

25.Just as you have the impulse to do something… Stop.

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26. When some desire comes, consider it. Then, suddenly, quit it.

27. Roam about until exhausted, and then drop to the ground. In this dropping be whole!

28. Suppose you are gradually being deprived of strength or of knowledge. At the instant of
deprivation… Transcend!

29. Devotion frees.

30. Eyes closed, See your inner being in detail. Thus see your true nature!

31. Look upon a bowl without seeing the sides or the material. In a few moments become aware...

32. See as if for the first time a beautiful person or an ordinary object.

33. Simply by looking into the blue sky beyond the clouds, the serenity...!

34. Listen while the ultimate mystical teaching is imparted. Eyes still, without blinking, at once,
become absolutely free!

35. At the edge of a deep well look steadily into its depths until… the wondrousness!

36. Look upon some object, then slowly withdraw your sight from it. Then slowly withdraw your
thought from it. Then...!

37. Devi, imagine Sanskrit letters in these Honey filled foci of awareness. First as letters, then
more subtly as sounds, then as most subtle feeling. Then, leaving them aside… Be free!

38. Bathe in the center of sound, as in the continuous sound of a waterfall. Or, by putting the
fingers in the ears, hear the sound of sounds!

39. Intone a sound, as AUM... Slowly, as sound enters sound-full-ness, So do you!

40. In the beginning and in the gradual refinement of the sound of any letter… Awaken!

41. While listening to stringed instruments, hear their composite central sound; Thus
omnipresence!

42. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly...

As feeling deepens, enter into this silent harmony.

43.With mouth slightly open, keep mind in the middle of the tongue. Or, as breath comes silently
in, Feel the sound ‘HHH’.

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44. Centre on the sound ‘AUM’ Without any ‘A’ or ‘M’.

45. Silently intone a word ending in ‘AH.’ Then in the sound of ‘HH’ effortlessly… the spontaneity!

46. Stopping ears by pressing, and the rectum by contracting… enter the sound!

47. Enter the sound of your name… And through this sound, all sounds!

48. At the start of sexual union, keep attentive on the fire in the beginning. And so continuing,
avoid the embers in the end.

49. When in such embrace your senses are shaken as leaves, enter this shaking.

50. Even remembering union, without the embrace… Transformation!

51. On joyously seeing a long-absent friend… Permeate this joy!

52. When eating or drinking, become the taste of the food or drink… and be filled!

53. O lotus eyed one, Sweet of touch, when singing, seeing, tasting, be aware you are… And
discover the Ever-living!

54. Wherever satisfaction is found, in whatever act, actualize this!

55. At the point of sleep, when the sleep has not yet come and the external wakefulness
vanishes… At this point the Being is revealed!

56. Illusions deceive, colors circumscribe. Even divisible are indivisible!

57. In moods of extreme desire, be undisturbed.

58. This so-called universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so.

59. O Beloved, put attention neither on pleasure nor on pain, but between these.

60. Objects and desires exist in me as in others. So accepting, let them be transformed.

61. As waves come with water, and flames with fire… So the Universal comes with us.

62. Wherever your mind is wandering, internally or externally, at this very place… This!

63. When vividly aware through some particular sense… Keep in the awareness.

64. At the start of sneezing, during fright, in anxiety, above a chasm, flying in battle, in extreme

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curiosity, at the beginning of hunger, at the end of hunger… Be uninterruptedly aware!

65. The purity of other teachings is an impurity to us. In reality, know nothing as pure or impure.

66. Be the un-same same to friend as to stranger, in honor and dishonor.

67. Here is the sphere of change, change, change. Through change consume change.

68. As a hen mothers her chicks, mother particular knowings, particular doings, in reality.

69. Since, in truth, bondage and freedom are relative, these words are only for those terrified with
the universe. This universe is a reflection of minds. As you see many suns in water from one sun,
so see bondage and liberation.

70. Consider your essence as light rays from center to center up the vertebrae. And so rises
“livingness” in you!

71. Or in the spaces between, feel this as lightning.

72. Feel the cosmos as a translucent ever-living presence.

73. In summer when you see the entire sky endlessly clear… Enter such clarity.

74. Shakti, see all space as if already absorbed in your own head, in the brilliance.

75. Waking, sleeping, dreaming… know yourself as light!

76. In rain during a black night, enter that blackness as the form of forms.

77. When a moonless rainy night is not present, close your eyes, see blackness. So, faults
disappear forever.

78. Whenever your attention alights, at this very point, experience.

79. Focus on fire rising through your form from the toes up until the body burns to ashes, but not
you.

80. Meditate on the make believe world as burning to ashes, and become being above human.

81. As, subjectively, letters flow into words and words into sentences, and as, objectively, circles
flow into worlds and worlds into principles, find at last these converging in our being.

82. Feel: my thought, I-ness, internal organs… Me!

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83. Before desire and before knowing, how can I say I am? Consider. Dissolve in the beauty!

84. Toss attachment for the body aside, realizing I am everywhere. One who is everywhere is
joyous.

85. Thinking no thing will un-limited the self.

86. Suppose you contemplate something beyond perception, beyond grasping, beyond not being…
You!

87. I am existing. This is mine. This is this. Oh beloved, even in such, know the limitless!

88. Each thing is perceived through knowing. The self shines in space through knowing. Perceive
one being as knower and known.

89. Beloved, at this moment, let mind, knowing, breath, form, be included.

90. Touching eyeballs as a feather, lightness between them opens into the heart…And there
permeates the cosmos.

91. Kind Devi, enter the etheric presence pervading far above and below your form.

92. Put mind stuff in such inexpressible fineness above, below, and in your heart.

93. Consider any area of your present form as limitlessly spacious.

94. Feel your substance, your bones, flesh, blood, saturated with cosmic essence.

95. Feel the fine qualities of creativity permeating your breasts and assuming delicate
configurations.

96. Abide in some place endlessly spacious, clear of trees, hills, habitations…Thence comes the
end of mind pressures.

97. Consider the plenum to be your own body of bliss.

98. In any easy position, gradually pervade an area between the armpits into great peace.

99. Feel yourself as pervading all directions, far and near.

100. The appreciation of objects and subjects is the same for an enlightened as for an
unenlightened person. The former has one greatness: he remains in the subjective mood, not lost
in things.

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101.Believe: omniscient… omnipotent… pervading…

102. Imagine spirit simultaneously within and around you…until the entire universe spiritualizes!

103. With your entire consciousness in the very start of desire, of knowing… Know!

104. Oh Shakti, each particular perception is limited. Disappearing in omnipotence!

105.In truth, forms are not separate. Un-separate are omnipresent being and your own form.
Realize each as made of this consciousness.

106. Feel the consciousness of each person as your own consciousness. So, leaving aside concern
for yourself, become each being.

107. This consciousness exists as each being, and nothing else exists.

108. This consciousness is the spirit of guidance of each one. Be this one.

109. Suppose your passive form to be an empty room with walls of skin…empty.

110. Gracious One, play! The universe is an empty shell wherein your mind frolics infinitely.

111. Sweet Heartened One, meditate on knowing and not-knowing, existing and non-existing.
Then leave both aside, that you may be!

112. Enter space, support-less, eternal, still.

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 Important Note About This Book & CD Set:

This program was taken from files posted in the

Breath Mastery Inner Circle Members Area
at www.breathmastery.com

You will find many other books, articles and essays, including seminar notes and
workshop handouts, complete training programs manuals,
and live unedited audio/video recordings,
as well as other Resources in the
Breath Mastery Inner Circle Membership Area.

VISIT:
http://www.breathmastery.com/breathmastery-inner-circle-membership/

Dan also offers an Online Course:

“21 Lessons in the
Art and Science of Breathwork”

To learn about this course, visit:

http://breathmastery.com/onlinecourse

You can learn more about Shakti Malan and her work at: www.shaktimalan.com

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