Meditation
on Breath
By:
Susan Ellison
April
2019
The
breath has the same qualities as the Divine, The All that Is, the
Tao, the Presence, Consciousness.
It
is formless, weightless, invisible, available to everyone,
impersonal, unemotional, and always present. It is timeless,
nonphysical, has no beginning and no end, is not born and does not
die.
The
body receives the breath from the Universe, a Universe, which
scientist say they cannot find an end to. With each breath, we take
in a cosmic breath from the atmosphere of eternity, the eternal NOW.
Breath
is the force that ignites consciousness in the body. It is the
portal between Source and this body.
Kafir,
an ancient mystic poet said, “ God is the breath within the
breath!”
A
person can do without food or water for sometime but cannot go
without the breath for more than a few minutes. The breath is life
and it is given freely without you having to think about it, ask for
it, or desire it, It is just there. Without it the body breaks down
to its basic elements and returns to the Universe. The breath
breathes me!
The
breath reminds us of our Oneness with all that is. There is one
breath. We all receive the same breath from the Universe. What I
exhale, you inhale, what you exhale, I inhale, Our ancestors
breathed the same cosmic breath that we are breathing. It sustains
all without discrimination, favoritism, and without conditions.
You
can go any where in the world, where there are different cultures,
ideas, opinions, but you find the breath is the same. You can have
any Muslim, Buddhist, or Christian belief system but the breath is
the same.
It's
the first physical act you take when exiting the womb. It's the last
physical act when consciousness leaves the body at death. It's
likely the first instruction given to us by our parents, or by those
who attended our birth We were told to “ breathe” and it was
the first instruction we gave our children as they were being born.
The first cry was the first breath entering the form.
It
is the only thing about us that does not change, thoughts change,
moods changes, the body changes but the breath doesn't change.
The
breath balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It
detoxifies the body, it balances an
inflamed
nervous system. The nervous system is what needs healing in all of
us not our True Self. Our ultimate nature, our True Self, our
essence, is pure conscience awareness and It is perfect, whole,
complete, needs nothing and is everything.
Even
in deep dreamless sleep our breath is there. Our ego isn't! As we
slip into sleep we leave it all behind, if we are a CEO, a President,
a scientist, a rock star, it doesn't matter, all that leaves us
and all that is there is our breath and pure consciousness,
When
we are angry, breath is there, when peaceful and calm it is there.
No matter our mood, our attitude, our disposition, our joy or our
pain, it is always there.
Where
ever we go, it goes, Do we have to stay in the city of our birth
in order to have our breath. No, it is everywhere. There are no
restrictions, we are free to go anywhere, we are not tethered to any
particular place. Our breath is wherever we are.
With
the breath we also create great beauty, through the formation of
words of affection, kindness, support and we create beautiful songs
that almost take our breath away.
We
know how important breath is but we forget it's importance the
instant we get stressed, which means we are overwhelmed with fear,
and then a shallow breath becomes shallow thinking and shallow
breathing creates shallow thinking. We have forgotten how to breathe
because of anxiety, tension, and fear. Constricted muscles prevent
the deep abdominal breathing the body needs for ultimate alertness.
detoxification, and support.
We
can truly be supportive to our self when something triggers us, we
can go to the breath, when someone uses insulting words toward us,
we can go to the breath instead of our programmed reactions. We can
go to our breath when a car pulls out in front of us in traffic
rather than our programmed reactions. When encountering anything we
can go to your breath and let it support us, lift us, carry us, let
the breath remind us of how supportive life is of life. When we
are breathing we are receiving! Focusing on our breath frees us from
reactive conditioned patterns.
Breath
in vitality, stillness, wholeness. Allow your awareness to go out
to the farthest reaches of the Universe, as far as your imagination
will allow you and draw in a breath from there.
The
breath quiets the mind, and a quiet mind is the portal to the Divine,
to intelligence, to creativity, to intuition and a quiet mind will
allow you to make the most wise, intuitive, decisions possible.
Let
the breath humble you into surrender to Presence, to the Divine, to
the present moment. Allow it to remind you, you are not the
conditioned mind. You are the consciousness in which everything
arises,
Consciousness,
like the breath, is formless, unlimited, non-local, always giving,
always supporting,
always
saying yes to you,
When
we breathe in stillness we are free. Every breath can bring us back
to Source. We breathe in the support of the All That Is and All IS
WELL as we allow everything to come in and everything to go out at
the rate of a breath.