Conscious Breath | Reshad Feild

We can be born consciously, we can make love consciously, and we can die consciously. All these three are dependent upon one thing: breath.

We can help in the overall plan of God by learning to breathe consciously every moment of our lives. Once we learn to control the breath, we may find the rhythm of the Mother, the Creative Feminine, from whom we came and through whom we return to the Source of all life. When we have knowledge of the love between the Mother and the Father of all creation, conscious suffering becomes an act of joy.

It’s easy to talk about living consciously, but the question remains: Can we totally commit ourselves to a life of service? Until that commitment is made, we can only talk about what may lie beyond. We have to make the first step, and then the other steps are given, to the extent that we have the courage to face each moment and are completely honest. Honesty is the prerequisite of anyone wishing to understand the nature of the way of love.

The understanding of breath is very important here. We come into this life on the breath and we go out of this life on the breath.

Consider the birth of a child. During the period in the womb, the breath of the child is the breath of the mother. Only when the umbilical cord is cut does the child breathe on its own. Imagine the shock that this transition entails. Consider the intention behind that individual breath given at the moment when the child is separated from its mother. Can we see in our own lives our separation from the womb of life and from the breath of the Mother herself?

Two types of breath exist in every moment: the natural breath of the Divine Mother and the breath that we, in our illusion of separation impose on life. When we find the Mother’s breath, that natural rhythm that underlies every moment, we have the possibility of returning to the womb of the Divine Mother from which we can be reborn. This is called the second birth. In that knowledge, we are eternally present and eternally being reborn with each breath we take.

When a woman gives birth naturally, it is necessary that she learn how to breathe. The birth of a child is certainly painful in the physical sense. But, if the mother is totally conscious in the breath, she does not identify with the pain. The child that is born, even at the moment of the cutting of the umbilical cord, knows deep within its soul that indeed there is no separation.

. Sacred Rhythm of Breathing
We can choose the quality of air we breathe. That quality is dependent entirely upon our degree of awareness. There has to be a rhythm of breath, because there is a rhythm of the universe. The rhythm I work with is called the Mother's Breath. It is a sacred rhythm, 7-1-7-1-7, that corresponds to the octave in music. Man is a cosmic apparatus for the transformation of subtle energies (G.I. Gurdjieff). Each of us is a cosmic apparatus for the transformation of subtle energies. That is what we are, a cosmic apparatus, and that is what we have to learn to be, through working with breath.

In the Mother's Breath, we breathe gently into the solar plexus for a count of seven, pause for one count, then breathe out from the centre of the chest for a count of seven. It is as if you were a lighthouse, radiating love and goodwill to all mankind in six directions.

Through conscious breath we receive the energies that God offers us every moment of our lives. If we do not take breath consciously, it is not surprising that we do not have the energy to make a commitment. If God made man in His image, then man can be conscious to breathe in from the six directions and from all the different kingdoms. If we breathe in from all directions and accept what God has given us, then we have the energy to make a commitment. Otherwise it is often a quasi-commitment. It is not real. The commitment may not go through.

- From Steps to Freedom by Reshad Feild, Threshold Books, 1983. The text here is quoted from Chalice website with personal permission from Reshad Feild, the author and the chalice circle. read the full article here.

. ABOUT Reshad Feild

One morning when Reshad Feild (born 1934, England) entered an antique shop, he met Bulent Rauf (1900–1987), the man who, over the next years, was to become his spiritual teacher and whom Reshad, in his first two books The Last Barrier and To Know We're Loved (The Invisible Way), has given the name “Hamid”. It was through “Hamid” that Reshad met Suleyman Dede (1904–1985), who was, at that time, the Sheikh of the Mevlevi Dervishes in Konya, Turkey.

There Reshad received training into many of their inner teachings, which go back over 700 years. It was also at this time that his name was changed to Reshad, which is in fact very close to his original first name, which was Richard. Reshad Feild’s first book became well-known world-wide. It was followed by many other books as well as lectures, and music tapes and years of an extensive activity in teaching and holding seminars. Reshad lived in the United States for 16 years before he went to Switzerland. 2004 he returned to England. Works by Reshad Feild can be ordered with Chalice Bookshop.

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. related post: Awareness in the Breath | Awareness in the Moment
. image credit: Listen for Joy and Chalice