Begin by finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down,
Settling into your body in the space,
Deciding which position you'll be able to inhabit for a period of time without moving.
And begin by paying attention to the movement of breath,
Noticing where the inhale enters the nostrils or the mouth,
Noticing the way the body gently expands to make room for the inhale.
Pay attention to the place where the inhale reaches its maximum length and switches over to an exhale.
And then follow the air as it leaves the body,
Noticing the gentle contraction of the chest or the belly on the exhale,
Noticing that place where the exhale reaches its maximum length and switches over to an inhale.
And follow the cycle of breath again,
Making a decision to be present for one full cycle of inhale and exhale,
Noticing your body in space,
How it responds to each part of the cycle of breath,
The expansion,
The contraction.
And when you finish one complete cycle,
Make the decision again to be present with just one more,
And so on.
Pay attention to the reality that the breath happens without our conscious choice.
It happens by itself.
We can completely let go,
And the air automatically moves in and out of the body,
Sustaining the millions and billions of cells in our body and our blood,
Electricity in our brain,
Our ability to be conscious and present and awake has at its root this movement of breath.
When we notice that we don't choose to take each breath,
We can open to the experience of being breathed,
That there is something greater than us that moves the breath in and out.
Of our body.
You can imagine that as you take each inhale,
The Holy One,
The Divine Presence,
Is breathing into you.
And with every exhale,
That same presence draws the air out.
Completely give over to this experience of being breathed.
Divine Presence breathing in as we exhale,
Taking the air out of us,
And then breathing into us as we inhale.
This kind of awareness allows our sense of separate self to dissolve and allows us to experience ourselves as part of something much greater.
In Hebrew,
The word for breath,
Nishima,
Shares the same root as the word for soul,
Nishama.
Something concerning soulfulness,
Our own essence,
The aspect of who we are that connects with the greater presence.
This is all found in the experience of breath.
I'll be quiet now and breathe together with you,
Being breathed by the Holy One.
And every time you find your mind distracted by a thought somewhere else,
Just gently and easily bring it back to being present with breath,
The experience of being breathed,
Divine life support.
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