2.50 · Long and Subtle

It is outward, inward or held; measured by place, time and number, it becomes long and subtle.

Word by word

bāhya

outer (the exhale)

ābhyantara

inner (the inhale)

stambha

held, suspended

vṛttiḥ

movement

deśa

place

kāla

time

saṃkhyābhiḥ

and number

paridṛṣṭaḥ

observed, measured

dīrgha

long

sūkṣmaḥ

subtle

Where it fits

Vyāsa introduces it as describing the breath control just defined (Woods p. 193). The cutting off of 2.49 takes three forms, outward, inward and held, each refined by observing place, time and number until it becomes long and subtle. 2.51 adds a fourth kind beyond these.

Reading

The breath moves out, moves in, or is held. Watched by place (how far the breath reaches), by time (how long it lasts) and by number (how many breaths), it becomes long and subtle. This is breath practice as careful observation rather than strain: measuring, the way a spinner draws thread finer and longer by attention, not by force. The practice on this card never asks you to hold the breath.

Vyāsa

“… The third, the held breath, is where both stop through a single effort. Just as water dropped on a hot stone shrinks in on every side, so the flow of both stops at once.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 193–194.

Practice

For ten breaths, count the length of each exhale. Then, without forcing, let the exhale grow one count longer. Notice where in the body you feel it. If you feel any strain, go back to ordinary breathing.

A question to sit with

What would lengthen if you watched it closely?

Where commentators disagree

What do 'place, time and number' measure in breath control?

Vyāsa

Each of the three kinds of restraint is regulated by a certain extent of space, by a number of moments, and by a count of breaths for each 'rising' (udghāta). Practised this way it becomes long and subtle. (Woods 1914, pp. 193–194)

Vācaspati Miśra

Place is measured outside by a span or a hand, tested by a tuft of cotton in a still room, and inside from the soles to the head. A rising of thirty-six measures is mild, doubled is middling and tripled is intense. He names the three kinds as recaka, pūraka and kumbhaka. (Woods 1914, pp. 193–194)

Bhoja

Place means a distance such as twelve finger-breadths from the nose. The udghāta is the striking of the head by breath driven up from the navel. (Tatya 1885, pp. 88–89; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 2.50)

Key ideas

prāṇāyāma (breath control)