Breath is the channel through which all the expression of the innermost life can be given. Breath is an electrical current that runs between the everlasting life and the mortal frame. Those who have attained any intuition, or miraculous power, or any power have achieved it by the help of the breath.

But the first essential thing is a pure channel for the breath, and that channel is the human body. If the channel is blocked, there is no possibility for the breath to pass freely. Air in itself is not bad, but when it touches the earth, it partakes of the influence of the earth, and therefore becomes polluted. So it is with the breath: breath in itself is pure, but if the channel through which it works is not right, it becomes impure.

The breath makes a circuit through the body, and the channel through which it makes the circuit is the spine. The mystics give this channel great importance; they call it the serpent. They picture it as a serpent holding its tail in its mouth. In almost all symbols the serpent represents the channel of the breath. In the terms of the Yogis it is called Kundalini.

When this channel is made clear by the method of breathing, then this is not only a help to the physical health, but it also opens up the faculties of intuition, and the doors that are within, where lies the real happiness of man. In order to clear this channel of all that blocks the way, one must follow the rules of mystical ablutions and of rhythmic breathing. People who cannot understand the subject and who hear and read things by halves, say that some chakras - centers - are opened by breathing exercises, and that many kinds of distress may be the consequence.

But looking at it from another point of view, one might as well say that the eyes of a child should never be opened, because he will thereby be exposed to temptations of all sorts. All virtue is in self-control; there is no virtue in being dead. Life is worthwhile only when a person leads it fully.

People look for phenomena, but there is no better phenomenon than breath itself, because breath is life and light, and in the breath is the source of life and light. In the mastery of the breath the secret of both worlds is hidden.