Question and answer 25

How, exactly, does restraining the breath end up restraining the mind?

The mind, just like the breath, is really a portion of the vital air. Restlessness is natural to both. Both are born from the very same place. And stilling either one is enough, by itself, to still the other. So there's no doubt at all: restraining the breath restrains the mind.

How is it that the restraint of the breath is a means for the restraint of the mind?

Since the mind, just like the breath, is a portion of the vital air; since restlessness is by nature the property of both; since the birthplace of both is one and the same; and since the stilling of either one is itself the cause of the stilling of the other — there is no doubt that the restraint of the breath is a means for the restraint of the mind.