In Part I of this two-part talk, Zach explores the role of the breath in our meditation and yoga practice. The breath is like a dewdrop on the tip of the lotus flower. Not only does it reflect the lotus flower, but the entire cosmos as well. The divine, love, and happiness, are already right here, right underneath our nose, to be found by being present with the breath.
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Quotes from the episode:
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.
― Kabir
I breathe in the soft, saturated exhalations of cedar trees and salmonberry bushes, fireweed and wood fern, marsh hawks and meadow voles, marten and harbor seal and blacktail deer. I breathe in the same particles of air that made songs in the throats of hermit thrushes and gave voices to humpback whales, the same particles of air that lifted the wings of bald eagles and buzzed in the flight of hummingbirds, the same particles of air that rushed over the sea in storms, whirled in high mountain snows, whistled across the poles, and whispered through lush equatorial gardens . . . air that has passed continually through life on earth. I breathe it in, pass it on, share it in equal measure with billions of other living things, endlessly, infinitely.
– Richard Nelson
The spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
– Job 33:3-4
As a man in his last breath
drops all he is carrying
Each breath is a little death
that can set us free.
– Mark Nepo
So you have to breathe very deeply in order to acknowledge the fact that we humans may disappear from this Earth in just one hundred years. You have to learn how to accept that hard fact, without being overwhelmed by despair. That is why we have to learn to touch eternity in the present moment, with our in-breath and out-breath.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
We exhale, and we let go of the old moment. In so doing, we let go of the person we used to be. We inhale and breathe in the moment that is becoming. We welcome the person we are becoming.
— Lama Surya Das
You cannot fully hold on to anything, just as you cannot inhale and hold your breath indefinitely. The breath teaches you about the process of life, of gathering in and giving out, of giving up the old in order to make space for the new, just as the stale air is expelled to allow a tide of fresh air and energy to flow in
– Vessantara
Oh, the sweetness of realizing: I am not other than what I’m experiencing. I am this breathing. I am this moment, and it is changing, continually arising in the fountain of life.
– Joanna Macy
