In our next chapter, we will take up the Complete Breath in practice, and will give full directions for the acquirement of this superior method of breathing, with exercises, etc.

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW TO ACQUIRE THE YOGI COMPLETE BREATH.

The Yogi Complete Breath is the fundamental breath of the entire Yogi Science of Breath, and the student must fully acquaint himself with it, and master it perfectly before he can hope to obtain results from the other forms of breath-mentioned and given in this book.  He should not be content with half-learning it, but should go to work in earnest until it becomes his natural method of breathing.  This will require work, time and patience, but without these things nothing is ever accomplished.  There is no royal road to the Science of Breath, and the student must be prepared to practice and study in earnest if he expect to receive results.  The results obtained by a complete mastery of the Science of Breath are great, and no one who has attained them would willingly go back to the old methods, and he will tell his friends that he considers himself amply repaid for all his work.  We say these things now, that you may fully understand the necessity and importance of mastering this fundamental method of Yogi Breathing, instead of passing it by and trying some of the attractive looking variations given later on in this book.  Again, we say to you:  Start right, and right results will follow; but neglect your foundations and your entire building will topple over sooner or later.

Perhaps the better way to teach you how to develop the Yogi Complete Breath, would be to give you simple directions regarding the breath itself, and then follow up the same with general remarks concerning it, and then later on giving exercises for developing the chest, muscles and lungs which have been allowed to remain in an undeveloped condition by imperfect methods of breathing.  Right here we wish to say that this Complete Breath is not a forced or abnormal thing, but on the contrary is a going back to first principles—­a return to Nature.  The healthy adult savage and the healthy infant of civilization both breathe in this manner, but civilized man has adopted unnatural methods of living, clothing, etc., and has lost his birthright.  And we wish to remind the reader that the Complete Breath does not necessarily call for the complete filling of the lungs at every inhalation.  One may inhale the average amount of air, using the Complete Breathing Method and distributing the air inhaled, be the quantity large or small, to all parts of the lungs.  But one should inhale a series of full Complete Breaths several times a day, whenever opportunity offers, in order to keep the system in good order and condition.

The following simple exercise will give you a clear idea of what the Complete Breath is: