The breath is a chord that connects us to this life. Meditators use the breath as a guide to awakening and approach it with reverence. Once severed, we are cut off from this world and return to the Mystery from whence we came.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Hebrew word for spirit is Neshama (נשמה) or "soul." Neshama is a cognate of nesheema, which literally means 'breath'. There is a Jewish belief that this breath came from God and is the source of part of man's soul, the God spark.
"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life."
In the New Testament we find the Greek word pneuma (πνεῦμα) which refers to the Holy Spirit, the spirit by which the body is animated, the breath, or wind. "Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." (1 Cor 3:16)
οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν
In the Qur'an it is written:
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ إِنِّى خَـٰلِقٌۢ بَشَرًۭا مِّن صَلْصَـٰلٍۢ مِّنْ حَمَإٍۢ مَّسْنُونٍۢ
فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُۥ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِى فَقَعُوا۟ لَهُۥ سَـٰجِدِينَ
Remember, O Prophet when your Lord said to the angels, “I am going to create a human being from sounding clay moulded from black mud.
So when I have fashioned him and had a spirit of My Own creation breathed into him, fall down in prostration to him." Qur'an 15:28-29
The Qur'an uses the word nafas for the breath of Allah, and the word Ruh for His own soul. These same words are also used to refer to the human breath and human soul.
In this lifetime, we can know peace by following this breath, by respecting it, by appreciating its import. It may seem a little thing, but everything you experience comes because it comes. All things come courtesy of the breath, as the teacher Prem Rawat often says. The breath is no small thing.
Our sense of value and of importance is determined by what we get accomplished. Our valuation of our failure or success comes from the outside. Most neither appreciate the beauty of the breath nor the preciousness of life that flows from its incomings and outgoings. We give more attention to our ambitions and plans and illusions. The breath comes and goes, indifferent to our ambitions and plans and illusions.
And yet, the disjointed, chaotic thought patterns we may identify with can dysregulate the breath. I call this seeming self the Little Self. The Little Self imagines some future probability that doesn't come to pass and feels anxious around that; breathing patterns change, physiology changes. The Little Self imagines some perceived slight and gets angry; breathing patterns change, physiology changes. The Little Self ruminates on the past and sadness arises; breathing patterns change, physiology changes.
But the breath doesn’t judge the worthiness of the Little One. It is impartial and incorruptible. It touches us like the sunshine or the rain whether the Little Ones are saints or sinners, wise or confused, successes or failures as the world defines these things. The breath comes because it is supposed to come whether we deem ourselves worthy or unworthy. It isn't withheld because we stumble or err or sin.
It is a timepiece of sorts and each one holds within it the possibility of awakening. The breath marks time NOW. It is ever present. A new breath comes and touches you. You have never taken this breath before, and will never take this one again. With it comes a new moment, new possibilities, new choices. Did you miss its import?
Along comes another and another and another- each one as fresh as a day, full of life, pregnant with possibility. How bountiful and generous Life is. The gifts keep coming whether we appreciate them or not, whether we are deserving of them or not.
We can appreciate the beauty of existence with each breath, and admire the simplicity of being as life unfolds moment by moment courtesy of this breath.
Each inhalation and exhalation can be a prayer of thanksgiving. "Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks." For, whilst we live, we breathe without ceasing. The breath does not tire nor grow weary of you. The flow is continuous. Let us give thanks...
or not. We can remain unaware and ungrateful. Still it blesses you with Life moment by moment.
Life begins with a breath and ends with a breath. The breath is Alpha and Omega. As Death approaches, the breath pattern changes from normal to Cheyne-Stokes to death rattling to agonal. "Cheyne-Stokes respiration is a form of periodic breathing (waxing and waning amplitude of flow or tidal volume) characterized by a crescendo-decrescendo pattern of respiration between central apneas or central hypopneas" (Rudrappa, 2023). A few hours before death, the muscles of the jaw and mouth relax. Mucus and saliva start to build up in the throat and upper airways. As air passes through, this fluid buildup causes a rattling or gurgling noise. The dying person is usually undisturbed and so relaxed that the body's reflex doesn't bother swallowing. Minutes before departure, the Death-bound appear to struggle for breath like fishes gasping for air. This is agonal breathing. These are the body's dying gasps. It may look uncomfortable to the Breathing Ones, but the body knows how to die. It is predictable and orderly and just so.
On the last days of our sojourn, we will truly appreciate its value. We won’t be able to buy another one no matter how much wealth we've amassed. We won’t be able to command another one to come no matter how much power we had consolidated. We won’t be able to strong arm life for another day, no matter how imposing we may have been. Recognizing this, we use this opportunity, this moment, this breath, to receive the gift that is given. Another breath comes. Can you appreciate what just touched you?
The in-breath and out-breath are like bits. A bit is a binary digit, the smallest unit of data that a computer can process. A bit represents a state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as either "1" or "0", but other representations such as true/false, yes/no, on/off, or +/− . These values control gates, circuits, polarities, switches, voltages, currents, processes and other states at the machine level. Similarly, the breath has a bi-lateral influence (and is influenced by) respiratory muscle activity, ventilation efficiency, chemoreflex and baroreflex sensitivity, heart rate variability, blood flow dynamics, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, cardiorespiratory coupling, and sympathovagal balance.
All technology, from simple transistors to cloud infrastructure to artificial intelligence, is built atop this binary system of I's and 0's, just as all of the complexity that is your life comes courtesy of In's (I's) and Out's (O's). The aggregate of the operating system, the programs, and the frame called YOU begins and ends with I's and 0's.
In meditation, we ride the breath deeper and deeper to inner stillness and peace. We follow its natural rhythm. The tide rises and falls, rises and falls. We sit along its banks like a beach lover enjoying the constancy of the waves- entranced in the ocean's hypnotic rhythms. Or like a boatman, we remain simply aware of the rising tide, the flow tide, the falling tide, the ebb tide.
The mystery of life dances within us. Everything unfolds because we have this breath: thoughts, emotions, sensations, and consciousness itself. The mind may be fickle and attention wavering, but the breath is steady and faithful. We return and rest in its constancy. We use the breath as an anchor for the mind; it is firm and secure. The mind wanders again, but, as soon as we remember and return, there it is, in and out. As attention becomes more stable, we learn to follow each inhalation from beginning to end and each exhalation from beginning to end, resting in the pauses between breaths.
When I sit to meditate, I sometimes track the beginning, middle, and end of each in-breath; the beginning, middle, and end of each pause; the beginning, middle, and end of each out breath; and the the beginning, middle, and end of each rest before the next inhalation. I may focus on the touch sensation of the breath at the nostrils, the touch sensation of the breath in the nasal cavity, the soft and subtle touch sensation of the breath at the back of the throat. Or I may focus on the rising and falling of the diaphragm, the rising and falling of the abdomen, or the rising and falling of the rib cage. Attention becomes laser focused and at any moment, I can pin point precisely where the breath is.
I use the breath to train concentration. When attention on the breath becomes primary and the sensations are distinct, concentration stabilizes and thoughts remain on the periphery of attention. When attention is fixed on the breath- on its texture, its rhythm, its perfection, its frequency, its amplitude, its movements, its touch- we become aware of subtle proto-thoughts and other movements of mind at the periphery of awareness. The breath is a gentle solvent that dissolves the densest thought forms- the worries, the ruminations, the fear, the anxieties, the resentments, the ideations.
The neural architecture undergirding attention becomes more robust. With practice, those neural networks involved in executive functioning, error processing, and reorienting of attention become stronger and more efficient. At the experiential level, sustained concentration begins to feel effortless.
As thoughts drop away and the mind learns to stay on the breath, the beauty and perfection of mind-beyond-thought begins to shine. Attention and awareness become more stable and concentration is sustained without wavering. Staying the mind becomes effortless. The mind becomes more radiant.
By developing concentration on the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, we may experience bright lights Buddhists call nimittas. They may appear as discrete or diffused (Lindahl et al, 2013). Buddhism delineates each stage of attention and concentration and the literature also details a range of psychological and physiological experiences associated with each stage. In the Mahamudra tradition (The Great Path), there are clear stages of distinct characteristics of concentration. At the more advanced levels, the perceptual and cognitive experiences are similar to those associated with sensory deprivation which have been shown to enhance neuroplasticity (Boroojerdi et al., 2000; Fierro et al., 2005; Pitskel et al., 2007; Maffei and Turrigiano, 2008). The brain becomes more integrated functionally and we see increased synchronicity among neural networks.
Life unfolds moment by moment because the breath comes- so seemingly simple, this in-flowing and out-flowing. Paradoxically, the seemingly simple is truly complex.
We breathe in about 500ml of air; each breath contains about 732,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (sextillion) molecules of oxygen. Inhalations are 21% oxygen and 0.04% carbon dioxide; exhalations are 16.4% oxygen and 4.4% carbon dioxide. Human consciousness is sustained by this perfect composition of atmospheric gases. If the pressure of oxygen falls below a certain threshold, the organs would still function, but there would be no conscious awareness.
Two clusters of neurons help regulate the breath. One site is the pre-Bötzinger complex (preBötC) which generates respiratory rhythms (frequency and amplitude) to meet behavioral and metabolic demands- i.e, when stressed or calm, healthy or ill, moving or still, etc. These respiratory signals travel via the vagal nerve which branches out to most of the organs of the body. Within the brain, there is also a pathway that connects the preBötC to brain regions associated with emotion, arousal, and motivation. "The Pre-Botzinger complex appears to play a role in the effects of breathing on arousal and emotion," noted UCLA neuroscientist Jack Feldman. Indeed, by paying attention to the breath, we can detect signature patterns when stressed, angry, sad, calm, or excited... and do something about it!
On a podcast, Dr. David Linden, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, referenced studies his colleagues were researching. They were able to record signature breath patterns at different regions of the brain that map to neural activity in the cerebellum, the neocortex, the habenula, and other regions. It is reasonable, he argues, that conscious modulation could therefore have effects on neural function and by extension cognition, emotion, and behavior.
The breath is our point of power, yet its workings are mostly outside of our control. We take over 20,000 breaths often without thought of a single one. And its parameters (amplitude, frequency, volume, duration, etc) are constrained. The longest breath hold without aid, for example, is 24 minutes; maximum breathing capacity is 196 breaths per minute; but, for most adults at rest, 12-25 breaths per minute is the range, and the average breath hold is between 1 and 1:30 seconds without aid. And yet, we have the power to modulate these parameters. We can breathe more or less deeply (controlling amplitude and volume), more or less slowly (controlling frequency), suspending it for a few seconds or for a few minutes (controlling duration). There are physiological and psychological changes that arise when we play in the breath.
We can, for example, dial down the sympathetic nervous system, or "fight-flight-freeze" stress response with the breath. Diaphragmatic, rhythmic breathing improves vagal tone and turns up the parasympathetic nervous system, sometimes called the "rest and digest" response. Signals from the pre-Bötzinger complex travel down the vagus nerve. Vagal neurons innervate many major organs and tissues, including the heart, lung, stomach, intestine, arteries, larynx, trachea, esophagus, liver, pancreas, thyroid, and ear. Within each target organ, vagal sensory neurons can display a diversity of terminals with different morphologies, sizes, molecular features, interacting cell partners, and anatomical distributions, with each terminal type presumably detecting particular sensory cues. These terminals collect data that then travels back to the brain for processing. Based on inputs, the brain calculates the average breaths per minute.
When my father quoted the Apostle Paul affirming that "We are God's workmanship!" I agree with an "Amen!" that rides on the exhalation. And when he says, "Marvelous are Thy works..." that my Soul knoweth right well. And I return to the נְשָׁמָה (neshama), the πνεῦμα (pneuma), the نَفْس (Nafs)... the Breath of Life.
"In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15
I return to the breath and rest with confidence in it's quietness and strength.
The poet Kabir writes:
Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. My shoulder is against yours. You will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals: not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables. When you really look for me, you will see me instantly — you will find me in the tiniest house of time. Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath.”
Scientists have found a frequency of 5.5 to 6 breaths per minute to be restorative, triggering the “relaxation response." It may take several minutes of controlled breathing to experience this. But the more we practice the faster and deeper we drop into relaxation.
The second site for breath control is the parafacial nucleus. The parafacial nucleus coordinates breathing and speaking and controls non-rhythmic breathing via the phrenic nerve. The phrenic nerve is a faster highway than the vagus. Breathing techniques mediated via the parafacial nucleus/phrenic pathway often produce immediate changes to the body and mind. Effects are felt within seconds, not minutes. Ancient pranayama techniques and modern iterations like the Wim Hof Method change our oxygen/CO2 levels. We adjust the ph balance of our blood in seconds, inducing a hypoxic/hypercapnic state one may experience as tingling, light-headedness, heat, etc.
We can learn to regulate stress top-down and learn how to take control of our bodies and minds at the physiological level. There is a close correlation between anxiety and our ability [or inability] to manage stress. This is a skill that can be trained. Learning to control the breath to regulate physiological and psychological responses is like learning how to hack into a computer at the assembly or machine level. Indeed, we can adjust baselines to stress and change our default settings.
Ancient yogis gave names to the 4 cycles of the breath:
puraka- the in-breath
antar kumbhaka- the pause between the in-breath and out-breath
rechaka- the out-breath
bahya kumbhaka- the pause between the out-breath and in-breath
Each cycle confers a blessing. The sense of smell rides on puraka (the inhalation); the strength required to push or pull heavy weights is usually performed at antar kumbhaka (the pause); speaking, sighing, singing, and the music of reed, wind, and brass instruments rides on the winds of rechaka (the exhalation); and swallowing sometimes occurs in the stillness of bahya kumbhaka (the transition between the in and out breath) or the pause at the top of the breath (antar kumbhaka).
Yogis also created hundreds of pranayamas or breath work exercises for each cycle. Here are a few per cycle:
The In-breath, puraka
Bhastrika pranayama and the physiological sigh are exercises that exploit the inbreath (puraka). Bhastrika stiimulates the nervous system; the physiological sigh quiets the nervous system.
The pause, antar kumbhaka
Sudarshan kriya extends the pause (kumbhaka) between the in-breath and out-breath.
The out-breath, rechaka
Extending the out-breath, making it twice as long as the inhalation (a 2:1 ratio) induces the relaxation response. When we extend the exhalation, we slow our heart rate.
Kapalbhati, or fire breathing, involves rapid and forceful exhalations.
The transition, bahya kumbhaka
Nauli Kriya exploits the pause between the out-breath and in-breath
All 4 cycles
Box breathing, vritti pranayama, is a form of yogic deep breathing employed by the United States Navy SEALs. I use this technique to lower my heart rate after working out or before bed. It consists of breathing in (puraka) for x seconds, holding (antar kumbhaka) for x seconds, exhale for x seconds (rechaka), and hold (bahya kumbhaka) for x seconds. X could be from 3-10 seconds.
We can use the breath to regulate many physiological processes:
Change the blood’s ph balance
Tool: Wim Hof Method
Increase or decrease oxygen saturation
Tools: hyperventilation or breath retention
Increase or decrease C02
Tools: hyperventilation or breath retention
Change systolic blood pressure
Improve pulmonary capacity
Increase body temperature
Slow or raise heart rate
Strengthen the immune system (Kox, et al., 2014).
Increase mental alertness
Change the pattern of brain wave activity which may impact emotional state (Zhang,2022).
Another breath comes so effortlessly, so painlessly, so seamlessly, so seemingly simple and uneventful- so not worth paying attention to (as we have more pressing matters to attend to, says ego). But no breath, no ego.
A signal from the brainstem travels down the spine to the diaphragm which contracts, pushing out the ribcage and abdomen.
Simultaneously, the intercostal muscles contract, pulling the rib cage up and out. The chest expands, the thoracic cavity increases in volume decreasing intra alveolar air pressure. Air is pulled into the nose. It is slowed, filtered, and humidified. It divides into the right and left lungs, traveling further down the airways, dividing another 15 to 20 times and further dividing thousands of times to fill the air sacs where a gas exchange takes place. Molecules of oxygen bind to molecules of hemoglobin. Iron acts as a magnet. These iron molecules are recycled stardust, remnants of supernovae that exploded billions of years ago. Chemoreceptors monitor carbon dioxide levels which will influence the frequency and amplitude of each breath we take. The muscles relax and we exhale. A pressure vacuum is created and we draw in another small breath composed of gases that sustain us.
(Yartsev)
In the 1860s, scientists discovered the Hering-Breuer reflex, which protects the lungs from over-inflation. This reflex occurs when neurons in the lungs detect that the airway is being stretched and quickly signal the body to exhale and breathe less deeply.
The researchers suspected that there might be a second, inverse respiratory reflex that occurs when neurons sense that the airway is getting restricted, lung volume is reduced, and the body needs to take in more air. The resulting sensation of breathlessness or air hunger. When this happens, a dedicated reflex through the vagus nerve gets activated by airway closure and leads to gasping (Liberles, 2024).
The breath isn't personal. It doesn't discriminate by race or color or gender or religion or nationality. It is not even human. All sentient beings- from fungi and trees to birds and bees breathe. It is universal and shared by all. The atmosphere is made up of the in-breaths and out-breaths of all things that respired, past and present, from cyanobacteria and phytoplankton to velociraptors that roamed the earth during the Age of Dinosaurs. It took billions of years for the atmosphere to assume the composition of gases we inhale.
The breath is not a thought; it is not an emotion; it is not a belief. It is one of the Unsullied Truths of existence- without guile, without blemish and without sin. The breath is one of the Primitives.
When I sit in meditation, I rest in the Primitives- the heartbeat, the breath, the sensations of the Life Force pulsing within me, and the Light of Intelligence, the God Spark.
The poet Rumi writes:
Plug thy low sensual ear,
which stuffs like cotton Thy conscience
and makes deaf thine inward ear.
Be without ear, without sense, without thought,
And hearken to the call of God, “Return!”
Like Rumi, I plug my ears and listen to the sound of this wind instrument and the rhythm of the heart drum. I return to my senses. In meditation, the heart beats between 60 and 110 beats per minute. The drumming of the heart beat is warm and resonant. The heart is like an organic electronic drum machine. An electrical pulse causes the lower chambers of the heart to contract. The first beat is systolic and accented. The Loob sound is the sound of the atrioventricular valves closing. There are 2: mitral and tricuspid. They close at the same time. The sound of the heart relaxing is the diastole. The Doob sound is the sound of the semilunar valves closing. There are 2: aortic and pulmonary. The beat and back beat of the heart are like the sounds of two Brazilian surdo drums. The contraction of the heart is like the "primera" the larger surdo drum with the lowest pitch. The sound of the heart relaxing is like the sound of the "segunda" or second surdo. The rhythm of Loob Doob fills my ears.
The sound of the winds of breath are soft. The tone of the breath pulses six or ten times to the striking of the drum and its backbeat: out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob)... The wind sound decays into a soft silence while the drummer strikes for 3 or four measures. Then another rush of wind, the breath pauses while the drum pulses one to three beats. Out again: out (Loob Doob), [diminuendo], out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob), out (Loob Doob)...
Like a lover of classical music, I listen attentively to each note: the beginning, middle and end of the puraka (in-breath), the beginning, middle, and end notes of the antar kumbhaka, the beginning, middle, and end notes of the rechaka (out-breath), and the beginning, middle, and end notes of bahya kumbhaka. When I am deep in contemplation and meditative absorption, these notes come as heart beats. The beginning and end notes of each cycle of breath (1. in-breath/puraka, 2. pause/antar kumbhaka, 3. out-breath/rechaka, 4. transition/bahya kumbhaka) are one pulse of the heart beat. The middle pulses for each cycle are longer (two to four heartbeats for each in-breath/puraka); one to two beats for each pause/antar kumbhaka; two to ten beats for out-breath/rechaka, two to five beats for each transition/bahya kumbhaka. In this way, I can track exactly where I am in breath to the timing of the heartbeat.
Occasionally, there may be a splash of sound, a grumble, or a growl from the recesses of the digestive tract. From the depths of the abdominal cavity arise the sounds of digestion or hunger- the borborygmus. Food solids and liquids are mixed with the gases of the air we breath. These sounds resonate from the lower chambers of the body.
From the mind come melodies of thought. The skilled meditator conducts the thoughts- shushing this section or allowing that section to emote. Then dialing all down to just the percussion of the heart beat and the winds of breath.
Sensations dance to the Sacred Song of Life, and the Observer sits in bliss while the Soul worships in this Temple. One could tune in at any time while time remains. When Death comes to usher us out, the music is over.
Sitting still in silence, there is sound and there is movement. The heart is beating, the ribcage is moving out laterally, the lungs are inflating, blood is circulating, there is peristalsis, contraction, the comings and goings of the breath.
The breath is the strong tower from which one can observe the movements of mind and take refuge in the mind storms that perturb the Little One. The breath is the Quiet Space. We can rest from the cacophony and din of thought. When the mind noise increases in intensity and we get lost in the comings and goings of its musings, we can decouple identity and listen to the natural and Primitive rhythms of heart beat and breath.
For when the thought forms become dense, we become as dead. As the poet Ryokan wrote:
A bush warbler
And of a hundred passersby
Not one knows it's there.
The haiku reads more powerfully in Japanese:
鴬や
百人なから
気かつかす
鴬 is the name of the song bird や (ya!) is an exclamation. It's as if the poet's reveries were interrupted by the trills of the song bird. He stops to listen. Wow! A warbler! Hark! Listen!
百人 hyaku nin (100 people)
なから nagara (of a 100 people)
気かつかす
The kanji for ki 気 derives from the Chinese character qi 氣 - the same qi of qi gong or tai chi. It has multiple meanings: spirit, energy, life force. The last line ki katsu kazu (気かつかす) can be read in different ways: the Spirit is scattered, the mind is distracted; the life force is so dispersed that they cannot notice. It can also be read as an injunction: Be careful.
The song of the Japanese bush warbler is loud and distinct.
But the bush warbler isn't singing to entertain the Zen poet. It isn't singing to be recognized or eulogized or noticed or written about. It isn't singing to enlighten or wake up a man from his stupor. The breath is like this. The bush warbler sings according to its nature. It cannot not sing anymore than I cannot not write or teach. It is my nature.
And of a hundred passersby, not one knows it's here.
I live in the city. Every morning, when I sit to meditate, the sounds of birds perfume the ether.
A song sparrow!
And of a hundred passersby
Not one knows it's there.
The song sparrows are not the only buskers in my city. A blue jay, a raven, a nuthatch, a Carolina wren, a cardinal, a blackbird, a purple finch, a robin, a red tailed hawk, a mountain chickadee, a white throated sparrow, gulls, geese, a murder of crows...
And of a hundred passersby
Not one knows they're there.
Why not? We're attending to our thoughts, listening to our worries, our hopes, our plans, the cravings, the resentments, the anger, the disappointments, the fear, the cacophony of wants, the din of noise.
There are tulips in full bloom, flowering cherry trees, wispy cirrus clouds against a blue sky, an alpine glow, a waxing gibbous moon, a squirrel, a sunset festooned in ribbons of color...
And of a hundred passersby
Not one knows so much beauty is here.
The breath brings me back to my senses. When the mind assumes its proper place, we can see and feel and hear and touch the Aliveness.
The breath is my faithful and trustworthy Guide. It points us to the Ultimate. Feel the breath come in and out, and feel the One who feels the breath coming in and out. And give thanks to the One who gives breath to the one who feels that breath coming in and going out!
First published 4/28/2022
Edited and republished 10/26/2024
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