Five and five, morning and evening

Hṛd-gati · the locomotive

Phase one's page, the second door. Fifty steps on the toes forward and fifty back, the heels to the buttocks, the arms like pistons, the breath through the nose like an engine.

On an empty stomach. It moves the blood, so that what is held next has already arrived.

Mūla bandha · ten times

Sit upright, the breath easy. Draw the muscles at the root slowly up and hold for five; then let go fully for five, and feel the letting go as clearly as the holding.

The belly, the thighs and the breath stay soft. The muscles are the ones that would stop the stream of urine; that is only to find them, never practise while passing urine.

There are no photographs of it yet; a line drawing goes with it.

Setubandhāsana breathing · the root with the hips

Phase two's page, opened at Setubandhāsana. As the breath goes in the hips rise: the root is drawn up with them.

At the top the chest comes up to the chin: that is the shape of the chin lock. The chin is not pressed down, and the breath is not held, as phase two asks.

As the breath goes out, down in the reverse order, the hips landing last; and as they touch the floor, the root lets go. The lock is in the muscle, never in the breath.

The three locks together · three times

Seated, after a full out-breath, the breath resting out: the chin down to the notch of the breastbone, then the belly in and up under the ribs, then the root drawn up.

Only as long as it is comfortable, never by a count. Let go the other way round: the root, the belly, the head up, and only then a slow in-breath. Touch for each next step.

Not with a hernia or an active ulcer; only on an empty stomach. When kapālabhāti has become easy, the same three move to the end of each of its rounds, on the out-breath that rests there by itself.

The ninth group · in Laya, the root with every lift

Whenever the hips leave the floor, the root is drawn up with them and stays up while they are up; as the hips come back to the floor, the root lets go. Through the whole group, up onto the shoulders and back.

Never stop the breath for it; if the hold tires, soften the hold, never the breath.

If the neck hurts or the blood pressure is high, do not take the legs up; the hips lifted, with the root, is the whole practice in itself.

The complete breath, from the belly · lying

On the back, one hand on the belly, one on the chest. Let the belly rise first under the hand, then the chest.

The out-breath longer than the in-breath. Hold nowhere. Ten breaths.

This is ease, practised; it is not a mood to wait for.

Mūla bandha · ten, attending to the letting go

Sit up. The same five and five, ten times.

This time let the attention rest on the letting go: the root settling, the belly soft, the breath easy. The letting go is half the lock.