Prāṇāyāma is just an aid to restrain the mind but will not bring about its annihilation
In a comment on one of my earlier articles, The fundamental law of experience or consciousness discovered by Sri Ramana , a friend called Chimborazo wrote: Michael, sometimes it is said that the source of the ego (all thoughts, ‘I’-thought) is the heart. And the same heart is said to be the source of the breath. Therefore thoughts and breath have the same source. So if one holds one’s breath no thoughts would rise. I cannot confirm that and I did not learn it in my experience of meditation. Please could you comment on this or clarify. In reply to this I wrote a comment in which I explained: When it is said that the source of the ego and the source of the breath are both only ‘the heart’ (which does not mean any physical organ or location in our body, but only the core of ourself, which is what we really are), and that therefore when either the ego or the breath subsides, the other will also subside, what is meant by the word ‘breath’ or prāṇa is not just the physical act of breathin...