Digest Number 2065

[Guest guest]

Perhaps that's why longer exhalations relax, stronger inhalations awaken. The

notion of absolute spirit, Shen, may lie beyond inhalation and exhalation, in

the kind of absorption that seems to require no physical breath. Meditators in

samadhi are said not to breathe, so perhaps their concentration allows them to

retain what usually would be lost.

 

I don't think Celsus (who is my current study) spent time in samadhi, and his

vocabulary for awareness, mind, soul, etc., make constant implicit reference to

terms for wind and breath. He will want to cure asthma, not train the spiritual

aspirant.

 

Thanks for your input, Carl

 

 

 

>>Very interesting. With each breath, we renew our support for

conciousness as the first function to halt when air supply is cut

off is conciousness. Breathing also serves to regulate the

sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (and hence the

emotions in general) as in-breath is sympathetic

(fight/flight/fear/anger/excitement etc) and out-breath is

parasympathetic (relaxation, digestion, sleep, contentment etc).

Could this be a link in understanding the eastern traditons of

meditation which suggest focusing on, among other things, the breath

and their claims that this practice can lead to spiritual

(breath/emotion) mastery?

 

Thanks, Shanna

 

 

 

 

 

Mail - You care about security. So do we.