"Come into the breath. I want you to be very aware of where that breath is."

Elizabeth F. Bunker welcomes her students to class in the usual way.

Seated on the floor, her back very straight, her legs crossed, she is attentive. "Continue stretching and recharging. Find the rhythm of your breath." Deep sighs engulf the room.

Minutes later, Bunker encourages the class to make other kinds of sounds. The students readily moan and groan, seeming to release a plethora of pent-up tension.

"Frustration? Any frustration in here?" Bunker prods. And the groans and moans become louder.

Free Like a Wave

The term yoga comes from Sanskrit--it means, 'to yoke.' Raja yoga, which is what Bunker teaches every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), is in literal and physical terms, a discipline of the body and the mind.

Ironically, the yoga classes are held in the MAC's wrestling room, where a sign blaring, "Harvard Wrestling--Earning the Right to Win Begins Here," expresses the dominant dogma of the MAC and of Harvard: Compete. And win.

During Bunker's yoga classes in this same room, however, pressure is not the name of the game. In fact, the approximately 25 people enrolled in the 12 noon class are there specifically to avoid the cut-throat competition of the University. They simply want to relax.

So as they sit crosslegged, eyes closed, arms rested on their knees, palms open, a soothing voice offers guidance: "The arms are open. Imagine the infinite space and time and light which are held there. The belly is soft and open and expansive. As you continue, notice what happens to the breath. And then just sit and allow the breath to flow. Let it feel blissful and free, like a wave."

Shouts and thumps of more strenuous activities at the MAC can be heard echoing outside of the wrestling room. In the class itself, you can hear a pin drop.

Bunker says her class at first found it "laughable" to share a room with such blatant reminders of competition and aggression. Now, however, students "see [the wrestling room] as a room of transformation," she says.

"A lot of people in the Western world are in that pre-stress syndrome of 'fight or flight' all the time, and they think that's what it means to be alive." But putting the body under so much stress is inefficient, says Bunker. "What you're looking for is to find a way of breathing that is very relaxing." Once an individual gets used to the breathing techniques of yoga, Bunker says, the stress starts to dissipate.

Breathing is the first and most important technique that Bunker introduces to her classes. In fact, the instructor says she does not allow new students to join the class after it has been in session for a week, because by that time she has already covered important breathing techniques. "Yoga's sort of like geometry," she explains. "Each thing builds on the next."

The sun salutations, a series of stretches or postures--including the 'downward facing dog' and the 'cobra'--also constitute the various aspects of the lessons.