Spiritual Awareness
Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the body.
—Brother Ramananda
There is a natural, innate desire within us to explore a deeper connection with what can be described as an underlying presence just beyond our touch and sight, and that quest to know and understand it can take many paths. Our hearts can sense this presence and we are instinctively drawn to it, but for each us of, that spirituality can mean something different.
For the vast majority of people who have spiritual aspirations, awareness of any kind can become spiritual awareness. Whether it’s physical awareness, mental awareness, or emotional awareness, stepping back and observing the state of our mind, body, and emotions affords us a priceless opportunity. It allows us to live in the moment and act with intention. In many spiritual traditions, it is that capacity for staying in the moment—right here in this moment—that is recognized as the first step toward enlightenment. The monk Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
Whether your intention is to feel connected to the wellspring of all life, basking beneath the blue sky and sunshine, intensely aware of the miracle of creation that surrounds us, or to banish all thoughts and sensory awareness from your mind so that you may devote yourself completely to just “listening,” the breath is your most powerful ally—regardless of your path or process.
This is why the breath holds a central role in nearly every spiritual tradition. Whether it is viewed as the cord that ties our body and spirit together—releasing the spirit when we die—or whether it is viewed as the universal life force—the breath of God, if you will—that manifests and gives life to all of creation, nearly every tradition holds a significant and sacred place for the breath. These qualities make the breath such an effective force for mental, emotional, and physical awareness and a ubiquitous tool for reaching the deepest states of prayer, meditation and contemplation. The universal common denominator, breathing simultaneously quiets our thoughts and emotions, slows our heart rate and metabolism, and creates a silent, peaceful place where we can commune, reflect, or just listen. When we are dwelling in this breath, we cannot dwell in the next one, or the last one.
Tearing Down the Walls
The breath can play several similar yet distinct roles in the different paths and manifestations of spiritual awareness. At times it can act as a wordless mantra that effortlessly quiets our minds, stills our thoughts, slows our heart, and faithfully brings us back when we wander. Other times it allows us to travel throughout our body, carried by the tides of our breath to the rarely visited interiors of our chest, hands, feet, muscles, nerves, heart, and mind.
Developing this awareness can be a transformational bridge on our spiritual journey. Forgotten knots of stress and tension may be wrapped around hidden traumas, scars, and memories that can only be brought to the surface and healed by the light of our awareness. They may have remained out of sight for years or decades in places that are beyond the reach of our senses, though we may have been dealing with the residual effects of their presence on our health and well-being. It is the light of awareness that opens the door to self-knowledge, fully illuminating us and who we are—inside and out, even though we may need to learn, revisit, or overcome thoughts, emotions, and memories that are painful or unpleasant. In each role, however, the breath serves a single purpose: to break down the barriers that separate us and distract us from fully realizing our human potential.
Our senses are keyed to bring us the external world. Our sight, hearing, and touch translate the lights, sounds, and textures that surround us and allow us to make sense of our environment. But these external sensations usually drown out the more subtle interior sensations. Our attention and awareness rarely travel to the inside of our body (save for extraordinary events such as pregnancy and illness).
But this awareness of our body and our interior experience can be a touchstone that constantly keeps us here in the moment. As simple as this may seem, it can be very difficult for us—in our hit-and-run modern lifestyle—to really take time to stay in touch with our body and mind. In yoga traditions, the practice of Shavasana—which entails lying still, stretched out on your back while releasing your mind, muscles, and breath, is considered to be one of the most difficult poses. Just being completely inside our body, following our breath into our legs, our back, our arms, chest and neck can be extremely challenging, so it’s not surprising that the loss of the breath-body connection often becomes one of the constant concessions we make to our hectic schedules.
But just as the breath can be used to keep us intimately in tune with our body, it can be used to detach our awareness from it as well. The breath can help insulate us from our senses, which are constantly flooding our brain with images, sounds, smells, and sensations at a torrential rate. It can help us expand our awareness beyond our skin, beyond the stars, and beyond the three-dimensional physical world where we live.
This is no easy task, but with practice we can feel that we are being drawn deeper and closer to the underlying universal common denominator, the source of creation, self—whatever you choose to call it. As our awareness begins to infiltrate our consciousness, that fleeting feeling of connectedness becomes more and more familiar until we immediately notice its absence when it is gone.
Your breath can be the simplest of all meditations. Regardless of your spiritual inclinations or experience, watching the breath is a simple, soothing, and effective way to quiet your mind and body, and take a short, refreshing vacation.
To begin, make sure you are comfortable (sitting or lying down), close your eyes and focus your attention between your eyes. Take a few deep, slow breaths and then begin watching your breath. It may be helpful to imagine you are watching someone else breathe as we did in chapter 3. Notice when you inhale, and notice when you exhale. Don’t judge your breathing or try to manage, manipulate, or analyze it. Just watch. If you find that your mind has wandered (as it most certainly will), just bring it gently back to watching your breath.
Even a few minutes of this exercise is extremely relaxing and rejuvenating.
Every Breath a Prayer
Although it may seem like a contradiction that the breath is a both a powerful tool for developing awareness of your body and also eliminating awareness of your body—that it can open up our awareness of the world and shut it out completely—the breath is merely a tool. It is our intention that determines how its power is directed. A hammer can be used to both drive nails and pull them. It is purely a matter of how we decide to use the tool.
Once you develop the habit of breath awareness, whether to take control of your health and healing, deliver your absolute best performance, or guide yourself through the emotional minefield that life inevitably presents us with, it becomes possible to find that spiritual connection in every breath that we take. An American Indian proverb advises that “every step, every breath is a prayer.” Our breath touches every aspect of our lives, every thought, every action, and every moment. As our awareness develops in other areas of our life—through our body, thoughts, and emotions, spiritual awareness becomes a natural byproduct for those who seek it.
The original meaning of the word inspiration was to receive the “breath of God.” Each precious breath can fully give meaning to the word. It becomes an opportunity for prayer, meditation, or a chance to live completely in the moment. When we become consciously “aware” of each moment, it becomes easier for us to understand the value of the time we have—the value of this minute, this hour, this day. Awareness can open our eyes to the many blessings and miracles that surround us and give us the opportunity to fill each moment with gratitude, and compassion. Author and Taoist master Chungliang Al Huang says, “I use my body as a link to the sky. I funnel the sky chi into my body. I then dig down and connect to the earth chi like the grass and the trees. Even though we are small and finite, we can tune in and connect to this eternal expansive chi.”
When it comes to making a spiritual connection in our life, there is only one moment where we can fully experience the magic of love, the divine expression, sublime beauty, and infinite complexity of creation. That moment—is this moment: Now. It is the only one we have. Breath awareness—borne out by the fact that nearly every spiritual tradition uses breathing techniques to achieve deeper states of connectedness—can provide an immediate path through all the obstacles that separate us from the real world and our real lives.
The Sanskrit word maya is used to describe the illusion that we are separate from the world. Breath awareness is the light that can guide us through the maze of maya and keep us in touch with and focused on the things that are most precious and most important in our lives. Once you integrate conscious breathing into your daily life it provides a bridge to your spiritual life. A bridge you can cross every moment with every breath. Just breathe.
(For more in-depth information about things of the spirit, see part six: “Our Spiritual Experience.”)