The Breathing Thing, Part Two

When we use the word “breath” to refer to one cycle in a narrative of cycles called breathing, then it does refer to a thing; that is, a meeting that is a narrative with many participants.

Now “breath” no longer refers to an abstract mental concept. It is one narrative cycle in the larger narrative of a meeting with many participants, a meeting called breathing. It refers to a concrete thing; a meeting with concrete, actively breathing participants. 

You are participating in the meeting of breathing right now. You joined the breathing meeting with your first breath and have been participating in it ever since. You will participate in the meeting until your last expiration.

Everyone that is now breathing is an active participant in the thing, the on-going meeting, called breathing. The meeting has been going on since breathing began. It will go on as long as breathing continues. While we’re breathing, we’re participating in the meeting with everyone else that is breathing. It’s an inter-species meeting.

This cycle of the cosmic, inter-species breathing meeting will end with the last expiration of the last one breathing.

What we do while we breathe together matters. How we treat everyone else we’re breathing with matters.

How we treat air especially matters. It matters to everyone breathing in this cosmic breathing meeting that is happening now. It will matter as well to those who inhale the first breath that begins the next meeting of the cosmic cycle of breathing.

The Breathing Thing, Part One of Two

Breath. The word is not the thing. Nor does the word refer to the thing itself.

We cannot see breath with our eyes. We cannot imagine it. The word “breath” refers to an abstract concept in our mind.

[There is no image of breath to insert here]

 Breathing is a thing. The word “breathing” isn’t the thing; it refers to the thing.

And here’s the thing: breathing happens. We can see, hear, feel, and smell it. But it’s not an object. We cannot hold it in our hand. We cannot put breathing in a box and sell it.

Breathing is a meeting. It is a narrative with many participants. In non-technical terms, the narrative goes like this:

Diaphragm draws downward. Belly and lungs expand outward. Air responds and flows into nostrils downward into lungs. As air fills lungs, lungs expand making room for air. Diaphragm pauses a split second, relaxes, and pushes upward. In response to diaphragm’s push, lungs contract; air retreats from lungs and flows out nostrils. Diaphragm draws downward again…

The narrative of breathing is cyclic. Like the cycles of seasonal winds, each cycle is unique.

Part Two is about the importance of how we treat everyone we breathe with.
 

Spirit, Breath, Wind

Spirit, breath, and wind is spiritbreathwind. One. The same.

Spirit is breath. Breath is wind.

Where there is breath, there is wind, there is spirit.

No wind, no breath, no spirit.

No spirit, no breath, no wind.

Inspired, we breathe in wind and spirit and become alive.

Our breath is the wind and spirit in our nostrils, mouth, lungs, blood and cells. We inhale and breathe it in. We exhale and return it to inhale it again.

We know not the birth of spiritbreathwind. We know not where it comes from. We know not where it goes or how long it will be. It is a mystery.

Spiritbreathwind is invisible to our eye. We see, hear and feel its affects: Leaves speak rustled words and dance in the wind that rustles our clothes and hair. It has done so since long before we began walking the earth and will do so long after we're gone. It needs us not and yet on it our lives depend.

Sometimes it howls. Sometimes it's unnoticed it's so still. Other times it's gentle, refreshing and inspires a smile. At still other times it's warm, thick, and sultry too. Not just the wind. Our spirit and breathe too.

When we breathe out our last breath, we breath out our spirit into the wind never to breathe it in again. We expire.

7 Simple Practices for Being Mindful of Spirit:

1. To be mindful is to attend to. Choose to kindly attend to your own and other's spirit. Set your intention: Breathe in; breathe out and say, "I kindly attend to my own and other's spirit." Return to this intention several times during the day.

2. To be spirited is to be alive. Our aliveness can vary from hour to hour and day to day. How spirited, how alive do you feel right now? Be mindful of your spiritedness several times throughout the day.

3. Pay attention to the connection between how you breathe and how spirited you feel. How do you feel after only allowing shallow breaths? How do you feel when you allow full, deep breaths to flow in and out?

4. Spirit means wind. The next time you're outside kindly attend to the wind. Hear it. See its effects in the trees. Feel it on your skin. Smell it. How is the wind today?

5. When you're outside feel the wind flow into your lungs. Feel it withdraw. The wind flows in and fills your lungs; it withdraws and empties your lungs. It breathes and animates you. Let the wind do what it does. Smile to the wind. Love it as it is and let it breathe you. How does this feel?

6. Spirit means breath. Smile and kindly attend to your breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Accept your breath as it is. Let your breath be as it is, however it is. Simply observe it, be aware of it without judging it good or bad, right or wrong. Let your breath be as it is. Love it as it is. Do this for three minutes and see how you feel.

7. When you're with another person, be mindful of his or her breath. Gaze into his or her eyes. Gently smile and listen closely. Breathe in when the other person breathes out and out when the other person breathes in. How does it feel? Breathe in and out when the other person breathes in and out. How does it feel? How are the two ways of attuning to the other's spirit different?

Spirit, Spirited, Spiritual

For the purposes of this blog, at this time-

"Spirit" is that which animates; it's breath, wind.

"Spirited" is animated, alive, breathing, windy.

"Spiritual" is of or related to spirit, that which animates, breath, wind.

These definitions are radical. They go to the root meanings of the words. The root meaning of "spirit" is breath, wind and not a ghost-like, non-physical double of our physical body.

These definitions are primitive and pre-Christian. They do not assume a dualistic view of reality in which there are two realms, the physical and spiritual. They do not assume that we humans are spirits trapped in physical bodies awaiting a liberating death.

Rather these definitions are monistic. They assume a unified reality. All is one, connected and interrelated. We humans are breathing, spirited bodies. Everyone is spirited too- all the other animals, plants, wind, earth, water, fire, sun, moon, stars-everyone.

Since we humans are spirited, we are spiritual. We are of or related to spirit, the breath that animates us. Everyone living is spiritual because everyone living breathes.

Try this experiment: Suspend your current belief if differs from what I wrote above. Look at everything as if it everything is animated, spirited, alive. Look at everything as being spiritual.

How does this spirited and spiritual world differ from your normal reality? Do you relate differently when everything physical in this world is spirited and spiritual?

What I believe about spirit

I believe in spirit. Spirit is that which animates, makes alive. I live because of spirit. All that lives lives because of spirit. Spirit is life.

I believe that spirit is of this world rather than an other world. Spirit is as this-worldly as our breath. Spirit is natural rather than supernatural, as natural as the wind.

That I believe in spirit means that I not only believe that spirit exists but I also trust it. I rely on spirit for my life. Spirit is my life.

I believe that everything I encounter is spirited, animated, alive: the sun, moon, planets and stars; the wind, lightning, and clouds; birds and bugs; trees, flowers and shrubs; rivers, streams, and springs; animals on land and in the seas; even Earth herself and her stones. We're all alive.

I value spirit and believe that spirit is worth my close, sustained attention.

I believe that spirits are both alike and different. We are all spirits and yet each one is unique.

I believe that life is richer and healthier for all when we pay close attention to spirit.

I believe that spirit has been and still is neglected and undervalued in Western cultures.

I believe the obstacles to increasing our experience, love, knowledge, wisdom, and mastery of spirit can be overcome.

I believe that overcoming obstacles to spirit and being more mindful of spirit will significantly improve life for everyone.

Spirit as life-giving breath

Our word "spirit" comes from the Latin word "spiritus" which means "breath". Some related words are aspire, inspire, expire, and respiration.

We modern Westerners often associate breath with air. We assume that air is an inanimate thing, oxygen, one of the elements in the periodic table. We assume air is a passive thing and that we are active, living instigators of its movement. We believe we animate the air when we breathe in, draw it into our lungs, breathe out and sigh, speak, or blow out candles. Is this the only way to view our breath? What happens when we examine this assumption?

Breath, spirit, implies a breather. Could it be that our breath is not ours but another's? Could it be that breath lives independently of us, comes from outside of us, flows into our nostrils, mouth and lungs and gives us life? Perhaps breath, spirit, is the instigator of our breathing, and we are its passive recipients. Perhaps we are breathed, spirited, rather than those who breathe. Perhaps this is so for all who breathe: animals, plants, and others.

When I imagine my breathe, my spirit, as belonging to another and only borrowed by me, I see breath differently. I see it as that which animates me. A breath not mine enlivens me. It is my life-giver, my life-sustainer.

When I imagine my breath, my spirit, as belonging to another and only borrowed by me, I see myself differently. Rather than having breath, a spirit, I am breathed, spirited. I am totally dependent on the spirit that breathes in and out of me.

Being totally dependent on the spirit that breathes in and out of me, my appreciation of breath deepens. It inspires me. I value the breath that breathes me. I owe it my life. I give it a worth I did not give it when I viewed it as a an inanimate thing that I breathed. I worship the spirit that breathes in and animates me and all the living.

Given my new view of breath, spirit, how can I continue to conspire with others against the breath on which our life depends? How can I poison it with air-borne pollutants? When I poison the breath we all breathe I poison myself and all who breathe. When I pollute the breath that breathes in me I pollute the spirit that animates all the living.