Elemental Breaths

Elemental Breaths Copyright 2014, Mark Hathaway, All Rights Reserved (May only be used reproduced with the explicit permission of the author) Based on a meditation practice by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Introduction Stand comfortably, knees soft, feet apart Close your eyes, become aware of your breathing….

Earth As you breathe, become aware of your connection with the Earth. Breathe in and out through your nose. Imagine that you are drawing the air up through the soles of your feet to your heart, and then returning the breath back down to the Earth Become aware of all that is solid within you, particularly your bones and the feeling of support from the Earth itself As you maintain this awareness, experience yourself as living, breathing Earth Every element in your body has cycled through millions of other living creatures. Each time you eat, you are fed by the Earth. Your body in turn will return to the Earth, and become food for others.

Water Now, shift your awareness to the water within you, all that is flowing, all that is fluid. Inhale through your nose, but exhale through your mouth. Imagine that, as you breathe in, you draw the air up to the very crown of your head. As you breathe out, breathe out through the crown, as if water were spraying forth like a fountain of rain. Feel the droplets of water refreshing and renewing you. You are nearly 2/3 water. The water within you is itself the union of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen came into being 13.8 billion years ago in the original flaring forth of the cosmos. The oxygen was born in a supernova explosion, over 5 billion years ago. In water, these two elements – the primordial element of the cosmos mixed with stardust – are combined to sustain all life on Earth. In water, we remember our ancient origins. We remember the rain that fell for the first 300 million years of Earth’s history. We remember the birth of the oceans, the same oceans we carry in our own selves. The blood in your veins has the same salt content as the ancient seas from which land creatures came forth. If no life had existed on Earth, some believe that the water on our planet would long ago have disappeared – slowing breaking apart into hydrogen and oxygen, the former escaping from the atmosphere leaving a desert world.

Yet, we live on a planet covered instead by oceans, lakes, and rivers. Three quarters of our planet’s surface is covered in water. This water flows through all living creatures, linking us all through both time and space. The water in your body has flowed through bacteria, ancient sea creatures, dinosaurs, and your human ancestors. We are living, breathing water, blessed by this miraculous substance sustaining all life.

Fire Shift your awareness once again. Breathe in through your mouth, and out through your nose. As you do so, imagine that you draw the breath in through your solar plexus, and out through your heart, as though you were radiating light and heat from your heart. Become aware of all that pulses within you, your blood as it pulses through your heart, arteries, and veins, bringing food and oxygen to all the cells of your body. Become aware of the energy that sustains you, the fire first born in the unimaginable force of the first moments of creation. Remember that the food that sustains you is simply stored energy from the sun itself. This energy flows to you from the plants, perhaps through other animals, and into your own body. The fire of the sun sustains you and pulses through your veins.

Air Finally, shift your awareness once again to the air surrounding you, both within and without. Breathe in and out very gently through your mouth. Imagine, as you breathe, that you draw air in through every pore of your skin, and that likewise you breathe out through your skin. Let the boundary of your skin gradually dissolve as you become conscious of your connection to all through air. With each breath, you inhale atoms that have been part of nearly every living creature that has ever existed on this planet. With each out-breath, you return some part of yourself to the greater community of life. The oxygen you need to survive is the product of plants whom, through photosynthesis, turn sunlight into food and oxygen. Without the plants, all the oxygen on our planet, over time, would oxidize minerals and other substances until almost no free oxygen would exist. Oxygen is a gift from other creatures, upon whom we depend each second of the day.

Conclusion Take a moment now to return to your breath, breathing in and out through both your mouth and nose at the same time. Become aware of the earth, water, fire, and air flowing through you, connecting you to all. Give thanks to all the living organisms who sustain us, to the Earth, and the entire cosmos from which these were birthed. Feel gratitude for all the beings and entities that sustain us through their free and generous acts of giving.