by Donna Quesada: One of my dear spiritual teachers in the Yogic tradition, often spoke about the breath as a direct pathway to God,
emphasizing that the breath is a gift from the Divine and a tool for spiritual growth and self-discovery. The idea is that by becoming aware of and consciously connecting with our breath, we can access our inner divinity and experience a sense of oneness with God and with all of creation.
In Taoist teachings, too, it is through surrendering yourself to your breath, that you align yourself with “The Way.” This happens in stages. Firstly, by becoming conscious of your usual manner of breathing, then by making corrections, so as to bring your breath down to the belly until this feels natural. Once it feels natural, the practice then shifts to one that is focused on “letting go.“
This is where tension and tightness completely dissolve along with the sense of the personal “I.” Finally, we are then able to surrender the attachment to the ego and become the one being breathed, rather than the one doing the breathing.
The way this works is that the sense of “I” feels that it has to do everything itself. We have a difficult time just allowingthe breath to come and go naturally. We feel we must “fix” and “do,” and when we first set out to control it, it feels very awkward and unnatural. And it feels like we suddenly cannot breathe properly.
So, learning to allow breathing to just happen, is a veritable practice. We are giving up control. The act of truly surrendering is one that brings us therefore, beyond the ego and closer to God.
“Breath is the essence of life and a gift from God,” my teacher used to say. He referred to it alternately, as the “breath of life” and the “breath of God,” constantly reminding us of our own divine nature and connection to God.
In Yoga, this idea of the breath as the invisible link to the mystic realm isn’t something that is taken for granted and then ignored. It comes to life through practice, specifically through conscious breath-work, called Pranayam.
In a way that is not unlike the Taoist approach to breath, as discussed above, conscious breathing, in Yoga, awakens our spirit by way of first becoming aware of the breath, and then by actively engaging with it, until we find that we can quiet the mind. This works according to the Yogic maxim, which states that:
There is only one thing that rules over the mind, and that is the breath.
Knowing that the mind follows the breath, we can regulate our mind, our emotions, and our overall state of being, through the regular practice of Pranayam. Then as a natural extension to this practice, as we go even deeper, we find that breath-work is a pathway to connection and communication with the Divine.
My teacher emphasized that the breath is none other than “The God within you.” For this reason, he said to never breathe unconsciously and to never waste a breath on hatred. He encouraged us to “feel the breath in our consciousness… to feel it in our body, and in our thoughts,” and to “let this breath awaken our soul.”
A Prayer To Awaken The Divine Through the Breath…
“Pray on your breath of life within you and let it go to every cell in your body. (Inhale deeply and hold the breath.) Oh Universe within me. Oh Divine within me. Oh Self within me. Oh breath of life within me, bring me back to the balance of harmony, kindness, compassion, and service. Breath of life, bring in me the peace of mind, body, and soul. When you leave me, bring the peace of the Universe.” (Let the breath go.) ~From the tradition of Kundalini Yoga
