Breathing – part 1

I get so frustrated these days by the state of the world that I ask myself what it means to go back to the basics in order to survive and rebuild. And my own answer is: Remember to breathe. There is probably nothing more basic than breathing. Not by accident the Holy Spirit is also represented as breath and most — if not all — religious traditions make reference to breath as very important and sacred.

The Sutra of the Full Awareness of Breathing, in which the Enlightened One teaches breathing to his disciples and how this is in itself a complete spiritual method, is a masterpiece in Buddhist Scriptures. Through sixteen deceptively simple breathing exercises, the practitioner becomes aware of her breath, then calms down her emotions, then becomes aware of her thoughts (“mental formations”) and calms them down, then becomes aware of her mind and liberates her mind, observing the disappearance of desire, the cessation of worries, and the letting go of all attachments.

I said “deceptively simple” because for the highly trained Buddhist these sixteen steps become easy, and they are described as such, but for the absolute beginner even the first four, grouped as the first establishment of mindfulness, are a challenge.

Admittedly, there is a high point of contrast between the goal of this Buddhist tradition, i.e. the cessation of desire, and that of the Tantric practices I recently commented favorably upon. (See DM  April 23.) But right now I ask those of us who love eros, and believe in its healing power, to avoid entering into a mental conflict with the tenets of Buddhism, choosing instead to enjoy the first four steps of breathing as taught by the Buddha.

The first two exercises or steps are about becoming aware of breathing a long breath and breathing a short breath. Often, we are not even aware of breathing. Becoming aware of it, and of its lenght, is a good beginning of a new way of being in the world. Try it, before you tell me that I am exaggerating.

The third exercise is about becoming aware of my body while I breathe, and the fourth is about calming my body while I breathe. These steps of course need to be practiced in sequence from one to four and… they work!

It is important to realize that our bodily reality is not negated in the Buddhist tradition, contrary to what one may think superficially when hearing about the “cessation of desire” as the Buddhist goal. Thich Nhat Hanh comments as follows on the first four step: They help us returning to our body in order to look deeply at it and care for it. In our daily lives, it is important that we learn to create harmony and ease in our body, and to reunite body and mind. The Buddha never taught us to mistreat or oppress our bodies.*

The first four steps of breathing are indeed called the first establishment of mindfulness, i.e. the body. In Creation Spirituality, all manners of silent meditation belong to the second path, the Via Negativa, together with the letting go and letting be that in many ways are analogous to the Buddhist practices. Because of its focusing on the body, however, I would rather classify the first establishment of mindfulness in the Via Positiva.

Such classification may hold no particular meaning except that it helps me realize that the starting point, the place where to go and “take refuge” when the world seems to bring only bad news, is my own living, breathing body. A life without Via Positiva is a life of misery, without awareness of our bodies or any contact with the body of the Earth. And yet too often we humans live such a life.

I am convinced that the worst things we experience in humanity, including the assent to evil, originate from such a lack of contact rather than from a supposed “original sin” hiding within the human soul. Let us therefore breathe consciously — perhaps with the help of this Buddhist practice — and let us keep breathing to become aware of our bodies while we engage in civil resistance and everything else we do.

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• *Thich Nhat Hanh, Breathe! You Are Alive (Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 1996) p. 23.
  
  Banner image: “Buddhist monk in sitting meditation.” Photo by TONG KBP on Unsplash

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Queries for Contemplation

Try the fours steps of breathing according to the the first establishment of mindfulness, doing the sequence several times in a calm setting. Long breath, short breath, awareness of the body, calming the body. Each breath one step, and again. What benefits do you derive?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths.

Whee! We, wee all the way Home: Toward a Sensual, Prophetic Spirituality. 

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice. 

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. 

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. 

Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society. 

Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox,  Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation. 

Charles Burack, ed.,  Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.