He said first measure the time between two heartbeats.  Inhale for a duration of 4 heartbeats, hold your breath for 4, and then exhale for 4.  He wanted people to perform introspection during meditation and feel the energy cloud.  He said it's only stage one but if you can feel the energy cloud, you have made significant progress. 

Buddhist meditation has 3 main types.  TM, quietude, and vipasanna (self introspection & analysis).  Most teachers will teach you just one when you start out but eventually devoted monks do them all.  I believe they all work in different ways.  None of them do controlled breathing I don't think.