The Way of Breath

Purely Being

May 26, 2015

Saying For Today: Home is so obvious, yet, we have been trained to look the other way and, then, complain that we are lost, or to think we are found when we have no idea we are lost.

Sitting in the chapel, before Eucharist, I recall her sitting quietly, eyes closed, and the sense I got was of calmness, purely being. I keep recalling this over the months, now, being reminded of an intimacy of purely being that I relax into, when I let myself. When I do, I feel Home.

The spiritual writer that has most influenced my thought, I recall his girlfriend saying of him something, too, of this being. Of his meditation, if you may call it that, he wakes up in the morning and simply lies quietly. She says she can feel the energy coming from his body. I get an image of that, also, and sense a stateless Presence of purely being - a Quietness living, more than simply a not-talking or not-doing-anything.

Brahman, the Absolute Reality of Hinduism, interestingly, shares something in common with the idea "Holy Spirit" in Christianity, and "Spirit" in Judaism. "Brahman" derives from a Sanskrit root meaning "breath." In Judaism, "Spirit" means "wind, breath, spirit, Spirit." In Christianity, the Holy Spirit is the Holy "wind, breath, spirit, Spirit." What is of import here is that in these faiths, it seems correct to conclude, that the association of these words with "God" came after their "natural" meanings: that is, the idea "God" or "Absolute Reality" ... is secondary to the rudimentary meanings of wind and breath. So, something(s) led to an association of Grace with the wind blowing and the breath moving and in and out of the body.

What ideas come to mind with "breath"? For me, I think of intimacy. What is more intimate than the breath moving in and out? With a little attention, we can feel the air moving through the nostrils, in rhythmic closeness. And where is the breath? Here, now. We could, also, reply, "Nowhere, for everywhere and anywhere." We do not go anywhere to get breath, before the inhale air is there. Breath is here-now. If breath were not here-now, we would die. Also, we do not get breath; we receive breath. In a true sense, we do not breathe breath, we receive breath. We could say the lungs act to allow breath in and out: even the lungs do not go out and get breath. Breath is not dependent on the lungs. Breath is a gift giving itself. And this is a natural process. So, there is something about Grace that is a process of allowing and is natural. We do not have to be unnatural or have some supernatural experience, at all. Grace, God, Love, Presence, Tao, Spirit, - whatever you want to call it - is always close, so close we can say here-now to be received as a gift.

So, linking this with purely being. Many of us live unnatural, so, unspiritual lives. We are too busy and agenda-ed to appreciate the intimacy of Life, the Closeness of Breath. We are always trying to get somewhere and get something. Indeed, the nature of ego is to reach outside itself to pull to itself, to validate its identity and worth, and this is the opposite of allowing - the Way of Breath, of Grace, of Love.

We can make a choice to learn purely being, which is to learn allowing, to be taught by Grace a graceful way of living and appreciate Life as Life. The only other choice is to live ungracefully (un-Grace-fully), which we are socialized to do, often even in faith groups. Oddly, due partly to our socialization to live ungracefully, we have to choose to learn to live naturally. This is why we have spiritual teachings and practice - ironically, to live the way we already are, but that who we are has been forgotten. This purely being is who we are, and purely being in action is who we are being. Here, there is union between being as prior to doing and being as an act of doing - the nature of ego is to do to prove who it is, the action of Spirit is an expression of Itself and not to prove who or what It is. There is harmony, then, between Pure Being and purely being. In Christian teaching this is the Union of the Father and the Son, by the Spirit, for the Spirit is Love, or Inspiration, that unions Father (Pure Being) and Son (Action, Incarnation) in a diversity that is, likewise, One.

Now, some of us are like the little fish who is swimming in the Ocean looking for water. That is, until a wise fish tells him, "Little fish, the Ocean is water, and the water is Ocean." Then, the restless search is over. Just imagine how many persons are starving for Love, when they live in Love and are Love. And imagine how many persons are seeking experiences of God, when the Truth "God" points to is as intimate as air moving in the wind or into and out of his or her own body. This is much like someone sitting in his or her house and desperate to find home, when the house in which he or she sits is home. Yet, this is the nature of life for most persons, whether of faith or not. And, likely often, most often, atheism is simply the loss of faith in Home - how sad, to be Home and lose faith in Home. And agnosticism is simply, most often, the loss of faith in a way to know Home, so a being stuck in neither having faith or not having faith - we could say a state more sad than pure atheism or a state in which, sometimes, one is just too proud to humble himself or herself, or too afraid to "risk" trusting there is something, or Something, greater than the fly that lands on his or head - faith in no-faith, can be as stubborn and proud a faith as any faith. Home is so obvious, yet, we have been trained to look the other way and, then, complain that we are lost, or to think we are found when we have no idea we are lost.

Yet, the good news is that I am awakening to Grace by Grace and, thereby, realizing Home in the realization that I am lost. That is, being lost and being found are both essential to realization that I Am Home and I am already Home. And, that means, for me, I am learning quietly being as an expression of who I am, not someone or something I must become.