Softly Breathing

I am in a practice of vigil, now, with a beloved feline member of my family. He has been a good friend in our house for a long, long time. Dear Elliott is making his exit, at his own pace, and I watch his breath. The gentle rise and fall. It is with us until it is not, this breathing and heart beating.

A wise yoga friend said recently, “pran” is not ours — it is universal. When we do “breath practice” (pranayam) we may observe, contain or modify the shape of our breathing. We work with this vital function because we can, it’s easy to experiment. With practice, we can learn to shift our being-tone, our mood or mind-state with this movement of pran. And we do it spontaneously, too, every time we yawn or sigh.

When we modify or simply tune in to our breath, we connect body-mind deliberately, and the wiring that allows us to deliberately modify our breath, also affects our heart rate and other autonomic functions that we don’t have direct control over. This is one of the ways I understand the benefits of “energy” practice like kriya yog and others, that include movement, breathing techniques, and visualizations — by targeting the parts of our nervous system we have the ability to control (breath, voice, facial expressions for example), we simultaneously support and influence those aspects that we don’t control by choice (heart rate, digestion, etc.).

But the point my friend and teacher made is that pran is not ours. When we move “our” energy we are tapping in to something much bigger than our selves, which came before and will carry on long beyond when you and I, and my beloved Elliott, take our last breaths. I am comforted by the humility that sits inside this notion, affirming the deep interconnectedness of all things great and small.

I am seeing breath everywhere.

I am praying for peace, everywhere.

This is a SkyMandala, in the living / breathing illusions of silk. Exquisite in the daylight and the breeze. Find this Black Gold Star SkyMandala silk here.