Welcome.
In this meditation on the sacred or divine breath,
I'll begin with a brief reflection and then we'll guide you into 20 minutes of silence for you to practice on your own.
And we'll conclude with guiding you out of the silence,
Refreshed and ready for whatever comes next in your day.
So I invite you to begin by placing yourself into a comfortable position,
A position that will facilitate falling awake rather than falling asleep.
You might choose to sit on a meditation cushion or a chair.
Sit or lie in such a way that you have equal weight distributed on both sides of the body.
Allow your head and your neck and your spine to come into a natural alignment without slouching forward and also without straining to sit upright,
But just allowing your body to find that natural alignment and flow.
Sitting in this way will allow your breath to flow as freely as possible.
Sitting in this way also allows your awareness to drop from your head down into your heart space into the presence of your body in this moment.
So I invite you to begin with three slow,
Deep cleansing breaths.
Exhaling all the way up,
Relaxing the diaphragm on the inhale,
Exhaling all the air out on the exhale.
Sinking and allowing your awareness to drop from your head into your heart space into the fully embodied presence that is only available in this moment in your body right now.
And as you take in this story I'd like to share with you from this relaxed and meditative contemplative space.
I heard this story recently while on a retreat.
The story was told by Richard Rohr.
It tells the story of being at an interfaith dialogue where a rabbi commented that most Christians do not accurately understand the first commandment,
The commandment not to take the name of the Lord in vain.
And this rabbi commented in saying the purpose of this commandment is not to avoid swearing as we tend to interpret it as young children,
But rather it reminds us that no name,
Even the name given in scripture,
Can capture the infinite transcendence,
Beauty,
Grace,
Power,
And love of God.
And then he said,
Although in the Jewish tradition we don't pronounce the name of God out of reverence,
When most people try to pronounce the name of God as Yahweh,
That even that is done incorrectly,
And he explained that the only way to say the name of God from the Hebrew scriptures correctly is to match it with the breath,
To say Yah on the inhale and Wah on the exhale.
And his father Rohr told this story,
Finding that very interesting.
At another workshop,
He decided to relay this story,
Another interfaith workshop.
And as he told that story,
He noticed a Muslim man in the audience who began to weep when he heard this story from the rabbi about pronouncing the name of God.
And afterward he came up to Father Rohr and said,
Do you know the name for God in Arabic?
Father Rohr said yes,
Allah,
And the man said,
Do you know how to spell it?
He said yes,
A-L-L apostrophe A-H,
At least in the English alphabet,
And the man said,
That's right,
Now do you know what that means?
And then at this point,
Richard said,
Well,
No.
And he said,
The two L's are what we would call in English grammar intensifiers,
Or in more colloquial language,
They mean very or extremely.
And so he said,
The proper way to say the name Allah is to say Allah,
Which essentially means very.
And then the man told Father Rohr that he wept because in that moment he realized that somewhere in this ancient primal connection between humanity and God,
The breath is so foundational that it made its way even into the root of these two languages,
These two languages that form the basis for the three monotheistic traditions,
And that he was overcome by this similarity,
Especially in light of all the violence that has been perpetrated within and between these three monotheistic traditions.
So there is something almost primordial about the connection between breathing as a human and being connected to God,
To the source,
The creator of our very life,
Our very spirit,
Our very breath.
So as we move into some time for silent contemplation on your own,
I invite you to move into this period of silence,
Cultivating that awareness of breath that is the connection between creator and all of creation.
And if you have a particular practice beyond the breath awareness,
Such as using a sacred word or a mantra or the Jesus prayer or prayer of the heart,
Or if you simply wish to cultivate what St.
John of the Cross calls this quiet interior gaze of love,
I invite you to practice in whatever way supports that awakening to the divine breath,
The spirit of God that flows in and through you and connects you both to the creator but also to all that lives and breathes on this earth and in all of creation.
As you prepare to move into whatever comes next in your day,
Take this interior stillness,
This recollection,
This awareness of resting in the divine breath,
Take it with you into the rest of your day,
Knowing that it is always there to come back to,
Perhaps in a stressful moment or in a quiet moment throughout the mundane tasks of the day,
Coming back to the awareness and resting in the divine breath.
Yahweh.
Ah-la.
I'll conclude with words from the poet Rumi.
He says,
Listen to the story told by the reed of being separated.
Since I was cut from the reed bed,
I have made this crying sound.
Anyone apart from someone he loves understands what I say.
Anyone pulled from a source longs to go back.
And then he adds later,
The reed flute is fire,
Not wind.
Be that empty.
Hear the love fire tangled in the reed notes as bewilderment melts into wine.
So Rumi's metaphor is that we are like a reed cut off from our beloved,
From our source.
And that our melting from bewilderment into wine,
From confusion into joy,
Requires us to be empty,
To allow God to breathe the notes in and through us that God desires to breathe and play in our lives.
