Rohr, de Mello, Thich Nhat Hanh: The YHWH Breath Prayer
“A rabbi taught this prayer to me many years ago. The Jews did not speak God’s name, but breathed it with an open mouth and throat: inhale—Yah; exhale—weh. By our very breathing we are speaking the name of God and participating in God’s breath. This is our first and our last word as we enter and leave the world.” Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, February 11, 2017, Center for Action and Contemplation
The Indian Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello, is another who spoke and wrote about connecting to our breathe, being aware of our breathe. This spiritual exercise can be done in periods of contemplation or in short bursts, waiting in traffic, waiting in line at the grocery store, dressing our children, walking down the hall, waiting for a meeting. De Mello writes in his first published collection of Christian spiritual practices integrated with eastern contemplation, Sadhana, A Way to God, that being aware of our breathe is connecting us to our body, which grounds us. Most of us live in our head which, for me, so often is not connected to the body. Our head talks to us about the past and the future. Being grounded in the body connects us to the present, and that is where C S Lewis as well as so many others believed that God most often meets us, in the present moment.
De Mello recommends not thinking about the air in our lungs, but trying to be aware and feel the air in our nostrils, whether it is warm or cool. Is the temperature different for the air that we inhale and the air we exhale? We are not to exaggerate our breathing but to try to let it be natural as we concentrate on an awareness of our breath.
Thich Nhat Hanh in The Long Road Turns to Joy also uses our breath as an awareness in walking meditation. He writes about practicing conscious breathing as we walk, how many steps we take as we breath in and how many we take as we breath out. My best experience is breathing in on my right foot and breathing out with my left. Trying to stay conscious of my breath as I walk, quiets my head, connects me to my body and helps me to be aware of what is happening just in this present moment.
Joanna joannaseibert.com