By Sandra Sadon
“Then the LORD G-d formed man of the dust of the ground,
And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
And man became a living soul.”
Genesis 2:7
Breathing fills your body with light and life. The movement of spirit in the body is reflected in the movement of breath. Conscious Breathing is the fastest and direct pathway to quiet your thoughts, open up your heart, expand your lungs, settle your stomach, and
calm your nerves.
Spiritual Breathing To Ground and Uplift You
According to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, “the fact that by the breath of G-d man becomes alive, means that the breath is not only our connection to G-d, but our connection to the realm of G-d: that part of our experience that is deeper than language, deeper than speech, deeper than form…”
All The Way Down is a meditation extracted from Jewish Meditation and Contemplative Judaism by Rabbi Alan Lew based on the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. It is an excellent practice that guides us into a moment of peace while attending our busy life schedules.
With
All The Way Down we follow the breath as it comes in the nostrils, we watch it go down the throat and down the breathing tube and all the way to the pit of the belly. And we pay close attention to that wonderful subtle moment when the inhale becomes an exhale.
Then we follow the breath up the belly, up the breathing tube, through the throat, and out through the nostrils again. And then we really pay attention, in this moment of faith, for this moment occurs every time we breathe – every moment of our life, the breath leaves the body and there’s no guarantee (and nothing we can do) to make it come back. It comes back on its own accord, by the will of G-d. A kind of moment of fear, a moment of awe. And back down we follow it again. Down the throat, down the breathing tube, then down the belly…
Responding To Pain
If we feel pain of some kind, instead of trying to push it away, instead of trying to resist it… instead of tensing the muscles of our body just soften the breath.
When we soften the breath, the body becomes softer. When the body becomes softer it offers less resistance to whatever we’re feeling and whatever we’re feeling has a chance to arise and express itself without being locked in by the hardness of the body. So we breathe soft. And the harder our reality gets the softer we breathe. And we follow this soft breath, that primal realm deeper than language and form and thought.
Listening To Reality
A wonderful exercise that Rabbi Nachman suggests is when we hear a sound and we have come to the realization that we have heard a sound; then what we hear is the primal essential nature of sound: “When we notice that a sound has come into our mind and into our awareness we breathe very softly into that sound and when we breathe out we let go of the word of that sound and we just hear it in its primal essential nature. Just as sound.
We don’t say bird. We forget it’s a bird, we just hear the sound. We don’t say air condition; we just listen to that low primal hum. We don’t say somebody fidgeting; we just attend to those sharp little sounds that they make. We just hear the thing itself not the word for the thing. And in doing so we open ourselves to the primal speech of G-d, not the words or the meaning that we give to the world, but the primal reality of being”
Your Breath..Your Name…Your Soul
In its original language, Hebrew, the word ‘breath’ is NESHIIMA and is directly related to the word ‘Soul’: neshama.
Thus, from Genesis we learn that God fashioned Adam from the earth and then blew breath,
Neshima, into Adam’s nostrils. And,
Neshima also means Soul, so, G-d also blew a Soul into Adam. When we look closely to the Hebrew word
Neshima we notice that at its very centre we find the Hebrew word
Shem which means 'name'. Thus, at the heart of your Soul is your name..
Connecting To Our Souls
Take three deep breaths, slowly and softly, feel the breath of life go in through your nostrils, hold it for a second or two and exhale through your mouth. Relax your body and sit in a comfortable position, Close your eyes and visualize your name, (best in Hebrew if you know the spelling) the letters are written in a bright white light on black background.. Take as long as you need. And when you are ready, ’looking’ at your name, pronounce it over and over and slowly add a tone to it…
Pronounce your name clear, until you forget that is a name, until the sound becomes a part of your breath…your sound.. The sound of your Soul. Allow the sound to take a form, it may turn into a prayer, or maybe love, a demonstration of faith or maybe forgiveness…Allow that form sound / breath to take its natural flow.
And when you reach this point, you have entered into a state of wholeness. Spiritual Breathing is the bridge that takes you directly to your Soul and unites you with the Divine Source of all. When you reach this point you have reached yourself. When you reach yourself, you have entered into a state of Holiness.
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