Coracle Trust E-Reflections

The Everday: Breathing

Tuesday 15 June 2010

There is only one life and that is God’s life which he gives us from moment to moment; drawing us to himself with every breath we take. Thomas Merton

He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Acts 17:25

Being bodily present to the moment

I used to have a breathing disorder, went through various tests, ran up stairs and was attached to large and impressive arrangements of tubes and instruments whilst being intoned with the line, 'Breathing can seriously damage your health'. In considering breath I am mindful of the notion that all experiences are recorded in the body. This intimate connection may make us reflect upon meditation. Meditation often encourage an awareness of our breathing. It is a means of centring, of pulling in the frontiers of our thoughts, our plans for the next hour or day. I guess it is a bodily form of being present to the moment. Given the above scripture I wonder if there isn’t some healing, physical and otherwise, from being present to the moment through concentrating on breathing, on the very breath that comes from God.

The Celtic scholar Brendan O’Malley suggests this exercise:

Inhale the wind and air as the breath of God entering your body, filling you, reaching into your deepest, most spiritual, still centre of your being, the I AM. Sense the oneness that is you and God. Sense also the unity of all created things, one with the other, each having come from God. Remember, just breathe. Andrew Hook