The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on February 28, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Most of us take breathing for granted. Yet, as a spiritual tool, breath is an incredible gift! Breath is practical, portable and persistent!
Breath is practical. Most of us do not even have to think about breath in order to do it. Yet the more conscious attention we offer to our breath, the more powerful it becomes. In its simplicity, breath is the first spiritual tool that a baby learns how to use upon being born. Its power is not in complexity, but in its repetition, over and over again, prodding us toward awareness of the Holy One.
Breath is portable. Our breath is with us everywhere we go; usually, no special clothing, equipment, or place is necessary in order to breathe! Portable as it is, we need not be cut off to our sacred connection simply because we are in the wrong place or don’t have the right stuff. On the contrary, we have easy access to the sacred because breath is so portable. Through our portable breath, our access to the sacred is not compartmentalized. Wherever we are, there is our breath. There is a portal to the sacred realm, straight through an ordinary vehicle.
Breath is persistent. Our breath follows along wherever we go, helping our prayer to be more consistent. In, out, pause. Over and over again, the tripartite rhythm of breath leads us on and on, each cycle a new gift and miracle of life. If we understand that the Holy One constantly pursues us in Love, then breath is a vehicle through which that urging finds expression.
Oh gift of breath! So practical! So portable! So persistent! Oh that we could fully reap the fullness of the Divine Harvest that is the gift of breath.
