Spirit: The Breath
by Gloria Crook

After the human infant takes its first breath, it is in the process of living independently from the mother. Although there is controversy and debate as to what constitutes a separate human life, whether existing at conception or at birth, the foregoing statement is true that the process of living independently from the mother happens at the first breath.

Few of us give our breathing much attention unless we have some problem. However, the more intimately we might become acquainted with our breath and breathing, the closer we might come to the mystery of who and what we really are. Some very interesting and factual conditions relating to breathing are worth our attention:

1. All living human beings breathe.

2. Few of us consider the strange but true fact that, after we begin to breathe, no ordinary human being can simply make a decision to stop breathing or decide NOT to take the next breath - not without some extraneous forcing process such as suicide. This fact, in itself, suggests the possibility that each of us is being "breathed" by something other than what we consider to be ourselves, over which we have no conscious control.

3. As we all know, the breath acquires oxygen to invigorate the body and keep the heart beating, but a dual process is occurring as subtle energy enters along with the air we breathe. That energy is conditioned by whatever we are feeling, thinking, or are registering in our consciousness. It is called chi, or prana. As we read in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 57 "initiation and liberation are marked in this solar system by the blending of the fires of the body, of the mind and of the Spirit." This is significant.

4. Science has indicated that our brains are a chemical factory; every thought or feeling induces the production of some chemical substance.  A person's emotional or mental state will dictate the quality of chemicals produced, which then enter the blood stream and affect the physical body for good or ill, depending upon the quality of the emotion or thought.  Bodily organs are affected by this, as is our overall health.

5.  The chi, or prana, likewise, affects the nervous system according to the nature of the emotion or thoughts we are entertaining at any given moment. This is an amazing piece of information which might be used by any of us to help guarantee a healthy nervous system and physical body along with a healthy mind. The prana is energizing and vitalizing when of a high nature and debilitating when of low quality, the "high" or "low" defined by its spiritual concordance with the soul.

6.  Spiritually, there is nothing so powerfully within our control as whether we are allowing the natural stresses of day-to-day conditions and relationships to invoke "negative" or unworthy thoughts or feelings, which then affect the quality of our breath. Actually, how we have dealt with that very control is an important part of the story of our total human existence throughout time. ". . to the thoughtful student the air is full of symbology, for it is a synthesis, and that which bridges the higher and the lower strata of manifestation." A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, pg. 896.

7.  The energy centers in the body are altered by the prana of every breath. Every stage of the evolutionary process is reflected in this process.

8.  At some point, the awesome reality of our identity with something or someone beyond what we have regarded as ourselves, registers as a revelation within our consciousness and forever after, we find joy submitting to that connection--seeking ever closer Unity with the Light, Love and Power of Being as revealed. Our breath is transformed--the fires of body, mind and spirit coalesce.

9.  As we merge with this Living Energy of Life, Itself, our perceptions of all former experience is expanded to "see" all relationships, and humanity as a whole, in a mosaic of Living, Harmonic Energies. Past perceptions are "seen through" to the completion, as the Beauty they truly are, divorced from all human glamour and illusion.

10.  Remaining in the physical plane life of the vehicle we have developed, there is an expanded and imperative Purpose, both complicated and simple, defying language to clarify, but is known and lived as long as a Divine necessity, and in Union with others.

11.  It is accepted that manifested perfection lies far in the future for our planet, but the Way toward that Perfection is not elusive. It is a straightforward Path in Bliss, and the Path IS Perfect.