"I am just wondering if anyone else who goes to a studio has been properly taught about how to master or practice mastering the ujiyi pran breath? "
It is not something which is restricted just to the practice of something like pranayam. In most of these yoga studios, which have become popular both in the East and the West, yoga has been transmitted in ways which are absolutely irresponsible. Because while there are many teachers, there are very few masters. When I say a master, I do not mean one who has mastered a particular subject or who is a master over somebody. It simply means one who has come to know oneself, through and through. And all of these methods of yoga are just different means towards this - to come to a direct experience of your own original nature. Because the kind of people who are teaching so called yoga have not come to such an experience, it was bound to happen that what has been transmitted in the yoga studios is not yoga at all - but just a series of exercises to nourish one’s own ego. Nor have the teachers taken these techniques to their innermost depth, because every technique, if you practice it with a certain consistency, reveals something entirely different - what it appears to be outwardly is just a superficial shell. Once your awareness becomes deeper and more sensitive, certain things will enter into the doors of your perception which rarely ever enter into the awareness of the average person. So to truly become familiar with even what one technique has to offer, is something which requires tremendous discipline, effort, mindfulness, and attention. That is why in the yogic sciences it has always been the case that before a disciple would even consider transmitting any of these techniques - he will first have to settle his own situation. And if one - out of one’s own egoistic desire to assist others, tries to teach others before one is prepared, ordinarily there would be consequences for such irresponsible courses of action - which are absolutely dangerous both to oneself and others. If you yourself are carrying a sickness, if you try to assist others, you will simply help to transmit the same sickness. And our system is so complex, that if you are successful at this, you may cause severe damage to what may already be a complex situation.
Originally all of these various asanas were never taught as part of the yogic sciences, those techniques came at a much later time. But initially - most of the techniques, besides methods such as Bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga - were largely of pranayam and meditation, it was very rare even that pranayam would be separated from meditation. But because it was observed that many people experience difficulty entering into meditation - other methods of purification of the body and mind were discovered to help this transition. So something like the uyyaji breath - even if you happen to come across a teacher who knows of how to perform the technique physically - that is not transmitting the technique in it’s fullness. All of these pranayam techniques - if they are to become instruments for transformation, have to be practiced with a certain mindfulness which is flowing throughout. The same action done unconsciously, in a mechanical way - has an absolutely different quality than one which arises out of consciousness. And without a stream of awareness flowing throughout these techniques - they are simply mechanical. Yes, there are certain benefits as far as the health of the body is concerned, which is the fundamental reason why people these days are interested in “yoga”, but that can be called physical exercise - it is not yoga. Yoga is a method for the expansion of consciousness towards the direct experience of one’s divine nature and freedom from the causes of suffering, anything else which is done in the name of yoga is just a distortion of the science.
