Breathing in Spirit
Breathing in, I calm body and mind,
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment,
I know this is the only moment.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Thus far, you have learned a method that can help you in health and healing, in improving your physical performance, and in your mental well-being. But it begs the question: Is there something deeper at the core of our being, something intrinsic and organic? Something even greater than our consciousness? What animates us into life as a newborn, and what leaves us at our death? How did we arrive at consciousness in this vast universe and where does it go when we die? How is it that, as humans, we can think about thinking, and actually act on our thoughts, performing our own little acts of creation?
If you’ve gotten this far, have practiced even a few of the exercises, and are beginning to understand the benefits your breath holds, chances are good that you will have experienced some meditations or contemplations about you, the natural world, the universe, and your place in all of it. You may have acquired a new or renewed sense of the complexity of the human body, with its ability to continually rebuild and sustain itself; or the power of the mind and its ability to control physical function; or the heart and emotions, which dictate our state of being. At the core, we hope you’ve learned the value of mindful breathing as a way to bind all of these components together, and that its use not only creates simple “present” moments, the absolute here and now, but also powerful little pockets of dynamic opportunity and potential.
Beyond What We Can See
It’s imponderable to the point of madness, or nearly so, but it’s human nature to reach beyond what we can immediately see. As we explained early on, conscious breathing extends into the realm of our innate nature. Whether you’re a practicing Catholic or Methodist; devout Muslim or an Orthodox Jew; or a questioning agnostic, humanist, or atheist, at some point you will encounter some aspect of the human spirit, a glimmer of that which is not of our body. Just know that the breath, amazingly enough, is intrinsic to many of the world’s most venerable and revered religions, spiritual teachings, wisdoms and disciplines, and is well documented throughout man’s recorded history of these spiritual explorations. We could easily devote several thousand pages to this study, but for our purposes here, it’s impractical. We trust that if your curiosity is sufficiently piqued, you’ll take it upon yourself to explore more of the world’s great religions and other sage teachings.
We can, however, show you how pervasive breath awareness is in this spiritual context, and its power in exploring a deeper, more spiritual you. We are absolutely ecumenical in our approach to religious and spiritual teachings. There is no absolute right or wrong way. To each his or her own path, we always say. But there is great fascination and a deeper understanding to behold when one stops and appreciates the simple fact that breathing carries significant weight in all of these doctrines and disciplines.
The concept espoused in the biblical words “. . . the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” is not unique to the Bible. The breath plays an important role in nearly every spiritual tradition. As Deepak Chopra told us, “Every tradition in the world says that if you are aware of the breath and its power for mind and body, you’ll recognize that the breath is the force of the spirit as well. The word ‘inspiration’ means to inspire and when we’re inspired with the touch of spirit we also make the best use of our breath.”
The Breath of Life
In many traditions it is understood to be the “breath of God”—the universal life force or spirit that animates and gives life to everything. In others, it is the cord that ties the spirit or soul to the body. When the breath stops, the cord is untied and the spirit is released from the body. For example, practices such as Kriya yoga, a highly disciplined form taught by Paramahansa Yogananda, who founded the Self-Realization Fellowship, seek to achieve states of “breathlessness,” where the body, mind, and emotions have become so quiet that breathing can stop for short periods of time. Yogananda even conjectured in his acclaimed book, Autobiography of a Yogi, that St. Paul knew Kriya yoga or a similar technique. In the book of Corinthians, Paul states, “I protest by our rejoicing which I live in Christ, I die daily.” Yogananda offers this insight: “By a method of centering inwardly all bodily life force (which ordinarily is directed only outwardly, to the sensory world, thus lending it a seeming validity), St. Paul experienced daily a true yogic union with the ‘rejoicing’ (bliss) of the Christ Consciousness. In that felicitous state he was conscious of being ‘dead’ to or freed from sensory delusions, the world of maya.”
Several languages use the same word for “breath” and “spirit”: pneuma in Greek, ruach in Hebrew, in Tibet it is called sugs, and prana in Sanskrit, for example. Many different traditions and languages share the perception of the nature of God or “God experiences” with a breathlike feeling. In Chinese, it is called chi, ki by the Japanese, ruh by the Sufi saints, and spiritus, the Latin word from which the English word spirit is derived. It shares the same meaning in all of these languages and diverse cultures. It is the breath of life. Many cultures and contemporary writings describe the experience of the divine as a “mysterious wind.”
Coincidence?
Life Force
To dive a little deeper, let’s briefly explore what Davidine Sim and David Gaffney say in Chen Style Taijiquan, a book on the oldest form of Taijiquan, or Tai Chi Chuan, a profound body of ancient knowledge that draws upon the principles of ancient Chinese philosophy and medicine, and has influenced the Chinese way of thinking for many centuries. Sim and Gaffney purport that “the Chinese character for qi is usually translated into English as “energy” or “life force,” although its literal meaning is “breath.” No modern Western idea corresponds exactly to the range of meanings of qi. . . . Qi exists in the human body without form, color, or substance. The ancient Chinese likened it to fire, and early Chinese pictographic characters depicted it as “sun” and “fire.” Within Taoist literature qi was seen as a form of vital heat akin to sunlight, without which life could not exist. Today, the most widely used character for qi depicts steam rising from cooking rice.”
Chungliang Al Huang stresses the importance in modern life of understanding chi and using it to your advantage. “We try to be natural, but we are not,” he says. “We live in very unnatural surroundings. We live in square rooms, in cities with traffic. We become very unnatural, very quickly. It is easy. When we become unnatural in our life patterns, we become unnatural in our breath patterns. That is when we need to pay attention to the relationship of our own breath to the bigger life force that we call chi. It takes constant practice. That is why we need to practice, and that is why I use tai chi and qi gong day to day.”
Sufi master Hidayat Inayat Khan, whom we mentioned earlier, noted that “life can be lived still more fully by awakening faculties which have hitherto remained covered and unnurtured by the breath, just as there may be a piece of ground which may have lain waste and barren for want of water, or where there is water but which the light of the sun does not reach.”
Even a man of science like Dr. Leboyer, of whom we spoke earlier, said, “To breathe is to be in accord with creation, to be in harmony with the universal, with its eternal motion. . . . More literally, it is to take in oxygen, and to expel the wastes, essentially carbon dioxide. But in this simple exchange, two worlds approach one another, attempt to touch, to mix, to meet: the world within and the world without.”
Out of the Silence
Regardless of how the breath is viewed in any particular tradition, conscious breathing techniques are used by nearly every tradition as means to achieve deeper states of prayer, meditation, introspection, and contemplation. Whether it is Christian mystics, the practice of lectio divino, the Jewish Kabbalah, Sufi teaching, or Hindu scripture, all take advantage of the conscious breath’s innate ability to quiet the mind, body, and emotions, and anchor us firmly in the present moment, resisting our predilection for reliving the past and worrying about the future.
There is a pattern emerging here. It is that same nature of the breath as a powerful performance aid—its ability to anchor us firmly in the moment—that makes it such a powerful aid in spiritual pursuits. By focusing on our breath, we keep our mind, body, and emotions quiet. Out of that silence often comes great insight. It is not at all unlike finding yourself in the Zone (see chapter 17).
An example found in Islam, as prescribed by its holy book, the Quran, is the Prayer to Allah, called Namaz. Just as with yoga teaching, it is basically a prescription, a discipline, for entering into conscious prayer through mindful breathing. While yoga is a technique, Namaz embraces holy intent by focusing on realizing God’s presence in the individual.
In an intriguing paper by Shri Adi Shakti, “Islam and Yoga: A Comparative Study of Congruence Between Two Traditions,” she writes: “The spiritual importance of breath is a part of Islam’s teachings. Hazrat Inayat Khan writes on the subject of Islamic purification: ‘Man’s health and inspiration both depend on purity of breath, and to preserve this purity the nostrils and all the tubes of the breath must be kept clear. They can be kept clear by proper breathing and proper ablutions. If one cleanses the nostrils twice or oftener it is not too much, for a Moslem is taught to make this ablution five times, before each prayer.’ According to Hakim G. M. Chishti in ‘The Book of Sufi Healing,’ ‘Life, from its beginning to end, is one continuous set of breathing practices. The Holy Quran, in addition to all else it may be, is a set of breathing practices.’”
In Christianity, the implications run deep in the Bible’s Genesis 2:7 (“The Lord God formed man of dust . . . ”). Writer Donald R. Potts says that throughout the Old Testament, the term neshamah is often used with reference to God’s breath. It identifies God as the source of life in many references through the Old Testament. As he explains further, “Two Hebrew terms are translated, ‘breath.’ Generally neshamah is used in a milder manner to refer to the fact of breath in all forms of life. It is concerned with the physiological concept of breath with a primary emphasis on breath as a principle of life. By contrast, ruach refers more to the force of breath in the extreme experiences of life, judgment, and death. At times it is intensified by the idea of a blast of breath. It thus contains the expanded meanings, wind and spirit. Ruach refers more to the psychological idea of breath by relating it to one’s own will or purpose. This is in keeping with its primary meaning of spirit, which either refers to the inner force of a person or the essential nature of God.”
Later in the Bible, Potts observes, “The New Testament contains a few references to breath as the life principle which God gives (Acts 17:25) and as the mighty wind at Pentecost, also in Acts. In John 20:22, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon his disciples. While the word pneuma parallels ruach in the Old Testament in its multiple meanings, it is translated primarily as spirit or Holy Spirit. In Revelation 13:15, it refers to the power to breathe life into the image of the beast.”
Within Christian teachings, there is longstanding tradition of lectio divina, Latin for “divine reading,” a way of praying meditatively with the Bible so that the word of God can reach into heart and mind. Practiced by early monastics, it’s a simple and natural way of meditation. Most of the world’s faith traditions independently developed similar methods for meditative reading of sacred texts.
Writes Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B., lectio divina is “a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the Liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.”
In work begun in the 1960s by Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk who journeyed to Thailand to explore the relationship between Buddhist tradition and Christianity, James Finley has spent years devoted to mystic Christian meditation. Merton died on his trip to Thailand, but not before sharing his passion with the monks, including Finley, at his home monastery at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Finley picked up Merton’s passion, and has continued its study.
Since the third century, Finley offers, Christian mystics have practiced meditation as a way of opening to the direct presence of God in daily life. Legendary seekers such as Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Meister Eckhart explored how meditation can lead us “beyond the closed horizon of the ego,” to an interior and holy refuge that is always available to us.” It centers on the breathing, which we’ll learn more about in the next chapter.
The Jewish faith holds similar views in its mystic tradition, as related in the Kabbalah (which, of late, has entered the pop-culture realm with several high-profile “conversions” of pop singers and Hollywood celebrities). The Kabbalah is believed to be an esoteric system of interpretation of the Scriptures based upon a tradition claimed to have been handed down orally from Abraham.
Respected authority Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh talks of the Hebrew words used to describe the breath (and in keeping with Jewish tradition, does not spell out the word God to avoid defiling the name): “Nashim is the general word for ‘women.’ It is in the plural form. In this plural form it alludes to the word neshima, ‘breathing,’ or neshama, ‘soul.’ The last verse in Psalms says, ‘Kol haneshama t’hallel Yah, Halleluyah.’ Our Sages interpret this to mean that every breath that one breathes should have the consciousness of the praise of G-d, who gives the breath. One cannot breathe one breath without the influx of Divine energy. In the beginning of creation, G-d blew the breath of life into the nostrils of man. This should be the level of consciousness with every breath we take. This level of consciousness, that with every breath G-d is breathing into one good life, just as in the beginning of creation.”
Even in the Jewish birthing tradition, the breath plays a profound role. The Kabbalah explains that every breath contains four actions or stages that relate to the many cycles that exist in the world. The stages include Sheifa (inhaling), Blima (holding), Neshifa (exhaling), and Menucha (resting). Each cycle, it is said, should contain the fourth step, which is time for recovery and regaining strength for the next cycle. This is parallel to the cycle of week with the Sabbath providing time for rest and recovery in order to go through the cycle once again.
One Breath
Whether you call it God, human nature, the spirit, whatever, there is historical and theological precedent for the use of the breath to help touch the spirit.
If it helps, look at it from the perspective of marathon runner Alberto Salazar. Pure respiration physiology aside, for Salazar, a devout Christian, there is a decidedly spiritual aspect to running. “There wasn’t as much of a spiritual aspect for me in the past,” he notes. “But for me, my running now is a time where I’m by myself and that’s where I will do most of my prayer during the day. Running for me has evolved where, in the past, it was something I wanted just for my own personal achievement and sense of achievement and goal-setting. In reaching for those goals, I just wanted to succeed at the highest level. Now for me it’s different. I want to succeed at those levels, but I realize now perhaps that using it to share my faith or to help others is the most important thing.”
“The mystery of life and death,” concludes Paramahansa Yogananda, “whose solution is the only purpose of man’s sojourn on earth, is intimately interwoven with breath.” Regardless of how you might feel about solving that mystery, pondering it presents an intriguing investigation. We can’t say definitively that conscious breathing will solve that puzzle for you. But it provides perhaps the best entry point, means, or method if an answer to that great mystery is one you seek.
Exercise: Four Pairs of Opposites
Tai Chi master Chungliang offers this exercise to help balance yin and yang, the ancient Chinese duality and the underlying and controlling elements of nature’s entirety. Says Master Chungliang, “When we do meditation, it’s really to meditate our own microcosm, the human person relationship to the microcosm of the whole universe. So in the true pure Taoist sense of meditations, we become one with nature.”
Try this ritual of bringing your polar opposites into a centering coherence.
First Pair of Opposites: Sky and Earth
Second Pair of Opposites: Outer and Inner Spaces of Self
Third Pair of Opposites: Forward Action and Retreat Back to Center
Fourth Pair of Opposites: Left and Right Pivotal Yin/Yang Balancing