Just Sitting and Breathing

Pranayama ['control of prana' or energy/life-force that sustains life in the body] is the primary art of realization. You cannot find God unless you can master the mortal breath. Breath ties the mind to the sense plane. As your breath becomes calm, your mind goes within. Breathlessness is the way to God. Practice pranayama and you will know how to meditate—how to perceive God and be one with Him. [Kriya Yoga is the highest pranayama technique.] -- Read more: http://yogananda.com.au/gurus/yoganandaquotes03.html#kriya

The science of breath, explained by a beautiful friend... Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Man breathes, but he does not breathe rightly. As the rain falls on the ground and matures little plants and makes the soil fertile, so the breath, the essence of all energy, falls as a rain on all parts of the body. This also happens in the case of the mind, but man cannot even perceive that part of the breath that quickens the mind; only that felt in the body is perceptible, and to the average man it is not even perceptible in the body. He knows nothing of it, except what appears in the form of inhalation and exhalation through the nostrils. It is this, alone which is generally meant when man speaks of breath.

When we study the science of breath, the first thing we notice is that breath is audible; it is a word in itself, for what we call a word is only a more pronounced utterance of breath fashioned by the mouth and tongue. In the capacity of the mouth breath becomes voice, and therefore the original condition of a word is breath. Therefore if we said: 'First was the breath', it would be the same as saying; 'In the beginning was the word'.

The first life that existed was the life of God, and from that all manifestation branched out. It is a manifold expression of one life: one flower blooming as so many petals, one breath expressing itself as so many words. The sacred idea attached to the lotus flower, is expressive of this same philosophy. It is symbolizing the many lives in the one God, and expressed in the Bible in the words: 'In God we live and move and have our being'. When man is separated from God in thought, his belief is of no use to him, his worship is but of little use to him; for all forms of worship or belief should draw man closer to God, and that which makes man separate from God has no value.

   from  https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_23.htm

That second paragraph is truly interesting. Yet I have heard the word, or the om and it is nothing like anything the mouth can produce. The om sound is associated with vibration. The cosmic vibration that brought this creation into being. That is a much larger definition which most likely does not exclude what Anayat Khan is saying here. In the first paragraph we see an understanding of how the breath is connected to something much more sublime; the subtle energy that flows through the spine that is associated with Kriya yoga and meditation. An initial understanding of the breath and mantras helps us understand something much more intrinsic to our spiritual or astral body. There are currents in us that cannot be verified yet thru science, because they are associated with something that is not physical in nature. But as you know that does not make them any less real. It is for us to get in touch with our astral body and the energies behind breath.

Breathing takes on a different quality for me at nite. It is so noticeable when the world around me is quiet and and my minds is also calmed by a few hours of sleep.