As a child, I remember trying to spell difficult words like Mississippi. We used the phrase “M I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, hump back, hump back I. It sounds complicated but I still remember how to spell it based on that phrase. I remember the number of days in a month by the common, “30 days has September…” phrase. I also learned to say words like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and my Karate instructor’s last name, Touysinhthiphonexay. Trust me, it’s right, we had an exam for that one!
Pneumonia was just another one of the words we learned. As most people know it’s an inflammation of the lungs and probably almost completely ignored now that we have Covid-19 which also deals with the lungs. The root word is connected to a Greek word pneuma where we probably also get words like pneumatic (moved by air). Most of us know that pneuma is used in the New Testament to indicate Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit or the spirit of man (1 Thes. 5:23).
In the Old Testament, words like ruach were used to describe the spirit of God that hovered over the deep (Gen. 1:2) and neshamah which described the breath that God breathed into man to make him a being, but also used to describe the Spirit (Proverbs 20:27).
To make a long story short, the most common interpretations of these words kind of run together. They are breath, wind and spirit. They are also feminine and I’m not sure what that means except it probably means something.
So what’s the point?
As I have been discovering new practices and letting go of older ones, I have been discovering the importance of breath. Today I was doing a mediation about spirit guides and I didn’t see anything specific, but at some point, I felt a breeze that was gentle yet noticeable. I wasn’t near any source of natural or forced air, so I observed it and continued on. When we do focusing sessions, it is almost necessary to start with good breathing practices that include a body scan before we try to be present with a felt sense of something within us. The best thing I can do for tension and stress is, wait for it—to simply take a deep breath and slowly let it out.
Richard Rohr makes reference, in the Naked Now, to Yahweh (God) originally stated without the vowels sounded more like in and out breathing. So, in a way, reverence could be given to God just by breathing. When I heard Rob Bell talk about the “hum of the cosmos,” I wonder whether that energy sound comes from wind, breath, spirit. Just how important is the breath?
Modern religion in the West either made the Spirit into a side show or dismissed it entirely or relegated it only to recitations and rote beliefs that didn’t really impact our lives.
But, what if there is something deeply spiritual and right and holy about the simplicity of our breath? Usually, it happens involuntarily without our conscious thought. But, when we are intentional and pay attention to the breath, it can become a conduit to so many deeper things that we are just beginning to understand.
Going back to Genesis 2:7, let me just extract this simple thought, “Breath is being and breathing is becoming.”
I would love to hear other people’s thought on your experiences with breathing and it’s connection to life, spirituality and growth.
The way of the mystic seems to be deeply connected with breath, not just to survive, but to moved forward.
Be where you are, be who you are,
Karl Forehand
Order Being: A Journey Toward Presence and Authentic
Karl Forehand is a former pastor, podcaster, and award-winning author. His books include Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father’s Heart and The Tea Shop. He is the creator of The Desert Sanctuary podcast. He is married to his wife Laura of 32 years and has one dog named Winston. His three children are grown and are beginning to multiply!
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* The Rob Bell quote is from Alexander John Shaia. I like it, I just don’t have a direct source.
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