There is a Fourth Sphere of Breath Control, which is Internal, And it Goes Beyond the Other Three...

The more you do these stoppages - the gaps - the more the gate becomes a little wider; you can feel it more. Try it. Make it a part of your life. Whenever you are not doing anything, let the breath go in... stop it. Feel there; somewhere there is the door. It is dark; you will have to grope. The door is not immediately available. You will have to grope... but you will find.

And whenever you will stop the breath, thoughts will stop immediately. Try it. Suddenly stop the breath: and immediately there is a break and thoughts stop, because thoughts and breaths both belong to life -- this so-called life. In the other life - the divine life - breathing is not needed. You live; there is no need to breathe. And thoughts are not needed. You live; thoughts are not needed. Thoughts and breath are part of the physical world. No-thought, no-breath, are part of the eternal world.

Patanjali says these three -- stopping inside, stopping outside, stopping suddenly -- and there is a fourth which is internal. That fourth has been emphasized by Buddha very much; he calls it "anapana sata yoga." He says, "Don't try to stop anywhere. Simply watch the whole process of breath." The breath coming in -- you watch, don't miss a single point. The breath is coming in -- you go on watching. Then there is a stop, automatic stop, when the breath has entered you - - watch the stop. Don't do anything; simply be a watcher. Then the breath starts for the outer journey -- go on watching. When the breath is completely out, stops -- watch that stop also. Then the breath goes on coming in, going out, coming in, going out -- you simply watch. This is the fourth: just by watching you become separate from the breath.

When you are separate from the breath you are separate from the thoughts. In fact breath is the parallel process in the body to thoughts in the mind. Thoughts move in the mind; breath moves in the body. They are parallel forces, two aspects of the same coin. Patanjali also refers to it, although he has not emphasized the fourth. He simply refers to it, but Buddha has completely focused his whole attention on the fourth; he never talks about the three. The whole Buddhist meditation is the fourth.

"There is a fourth sphere of PRANAYAM" -- that is of witnessing -- "which is internal, and it goes beyond the other three."   But Patanjali is really very scientific. He never uses the fourth, but he says that it is beyond the three. Must be Patanjali didn't have as beautiful a group of disciples as Buddha had. Patanjali must have been working with more body oriented people, and Buddha was working with more mind oriented people. He says that the fourth goes beyond the three, but he himself never uses it -- he goes on saying all that can be said about yoga. That's why I say he is the alpha and the omega - the beginning and the end - he has not left out a single point. Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS cannot be improved.

There are only two persons in the world who created a whole science alone. One is Aristotle, in the West, who created the science of logic -- alone, with nobody's cooperation. And for these two thousand years nothing has been improved; it remains the same. It remains perfect. Another is Patanjali, who created the whole science of yoga -- which is many times, a million times greater than logic -- alone. And it could not be improved; it has not been improved; and I don't see any point how it can be improved any day. The whole science is there, perfect, absolutely perfect.

Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 6
Chapter #7
Chapter title: Death to The Limited
7 September 1975 am in Buddha Hall