Breathing plays a central role in our lives. It is directly responsible for keeping us alive. Without breathing, our lives would very quickly come to an end. We would not be able to sleep at night if we had to constantly check that we were still breathing. Even a brief pause in breathing immediately triggers fears for our survival.
As soon as we become aware of the life-sustaining function of breathing by noticing our own breathing, our ego, which otherwise feels responsible for our survival, recedes. We realize that we owe everything that makes us who we are—our talents, our strengths, our potential—to a greater power. With this realization, our ego immediately becomes less important, and its impatience, neediness, and reactivity fade into the background. Almost without our doing anything, it is replaced by an attitude of gratitude, contentment, and devotion.
In the immediate awareness of our breath, everything that is right now seems good to us just as it is. For nothing stands between us and the present unfolding of events. We are inside of what is happening right now, and what is happening right now is inside of us. So in these experiences, the difference between inside and outside disappears.
Goodness, Truth, and Beauty
In the consciousness of acceptance and being in harmony with reality, we are connected to the eminent qualities of goodness, truth, and beauty, not in an abstract way, but as an implicit experience, as something inherent in the experience of breathing. For when we dwell in the moment, everything we need is there—inhaling, exhaling. It becomes intuitively clear to us what is good, true, and beautiful. In reflection, we can see that evil, falsehood, and ugliness can only take space in our consciousness when we fall out of this unity with the moment.
Through breath awareness, we know how to interact with other people so that we can feel comfortable and secure while also giving them a sense of security and trust. We know what is necessary and how we must behave so that people can live together in respect, dignity, and peace. It is evident to us what is good and what is evil, what benefits us and what causes harm. We understand intuitively that doing evil causes us the most harm. We recognize that acting morally is exactly what we want to do. We see that good action is the simplest and gives us the greatest joy.
In breath awareness, we are directly connected to the truth. For the breath in the moment is the true reality of that moment. There is nothing untrue about a breath. We understand that it is our duty to stand up for the truth again and again. Truth holds the community together, which can agree on a common interpretation of reality in its light. Spreading untruths, for example to gain personal advantage, is damaging to the community and therefore also self-damaging.
There is something beautiful in every breath if we consciously perceive it. It offers us the chance to discover the beauty of this very moment in life by accepting it as it is. Then it reveals itself in its uniqueness and fullness. By taking a step further, we become aware of the beauty in all people and things. Art begins with inhalation. Our first breath was the first intake of information from a world that was still completely foreign to us, through which we became part of it. Since that event, we have had the opportunity to find in every breath the desire for new things and the readiness for surprises, the basis for science and art. Thanks to our breath, we are all potential scientists and artists.
Confidence in Life
Breathing gives us confidence in life. When we surrender to it, we notice that it continues to flow, whatever external and internal challenges life throws at us. Sometimes it may falter when we are in shock. But eventually the blockage dissolves and the breath continues to flow, leading us out of the frightening situation and then onward, from one moment to the next, continuously and tirelessly. It contains the message that life always goes on, even when situations sometimes seem hopeless. It whispers to us to keep going instead of giving up when things seem difficult or uncomfortable. And it gives us a feeling of liberation when we return to calmer waters.
Connection between Inside and Outside
Breathing connects us with reality inside and outside ourselves. With breath awareness, we are automatically in touch with our inner perception and feel ourselves. We perceive how we are feeling at the moment, what emotions are present, and what mood prevails. Breathing also informs us about the reality around us. We take in the temperature, and smells give us an impression of the state and mood of external reality. When we are aware of our breathing, we are always in the present reality and not in thoughts that have to do with either the past or the future.
The Time of Breathing
In connection with the flow of breath, we are therefore in the present moment. Breathing shows us a completely different experience of time than thinking, which meanders and oscillates between the past and the future on a linear timeline. The experience of time through breathing is one that has more to do with eternity and timelessness than with linearity. For it is the direct experience of change itself, without a variable content.
We grow with time. Every breath makes us richer, richer in experience and insight. We realize that life is a continuous process of learning and expanding, that we have the opportunity to get to know and understand more and more aspects of reality. So we come closer and closer to reality when we seize these opportunities: to be inspired by reality, when we breathe it in with curiosity.
The Path to Simplicity
The breath leads us to simplicity. It is thinking that creates complexity. When it becomes too much for us, simply focusing on the breath is enough to recognize what is important and what is unimportant, what to do and what not to do. The truth of the breath is always simple and at the same time obvious. Where thinking creates doubt, the breath shows us clarity. Where thinking becomes confused, the breath opens our eyes. By breathing consciously, we interrupt our wild thoughts and find our way back to ourselves.
Integration on All Levels
The breath integrates us on all levels of our being. It is involved in all the life-sustaining functions of our body. It keeps processes running, not only by constantly supplying the necessary oxygen, but also by keeping the body moving, day and night. Even when life retreats to its absolute minimum during deep sleep, breathing continues. Even when the body (with the exception of eye movements) freezes during the REM phases of sleep, the respiratory muscles continue to work. We can use the voluntary control of breathing to strengthen our health. This is because “proper” breathing is the guarantee of a sustainably healthy organism.
Breathing accompanies and supports our emotional life. Every emotion has its own breathing pattern with which it can shape its course. Emotions therefore use breathing to unfold and find expression. We can also regulate our emotions through our breathing. On the one hand, breathing helps us to calm emotions that trouble us because of their intensity; on the other hand, it helps us to access emotions that are locked away inside us but still weigh heavily on us. For some, it is important to find access to their anger so that they no longer have to put up with everything in their lives. For others, access to feelings of grief and emotional pain is blocked, and they fall into sorrow and depression; breathing can help them to let their feelings of grief flow, thereby providing relief and regaining vitality.
The First Gateway to the Spiritual World
The breath is the first gateway to the spiritual world. Every meditation is conscious breathing, and conscious breathing is meditation. Focusing on the breath is focusing on what constitutes our inner self, on the spiritual within us. We discover who we are in the breath, again and again, as soon as we become aware of our breath.
Breath itself is not a thing, nor is it a process, but rather that which manifests itself in breathing. Just as the spirit manifests itself in the processes of reality, breath takes shape in every breath. Without “the breath,” breathing is a purely mechanical process. However, this view is only possible for an uninvolved observer. For the person breathing, it is always the breath that is activated by breathing. This also applies to the breath of an observing person.
Just as there is no matter without immateriality, there is no breathing without breath. More precisely, materiality presents itself only in abstract form, that is, as something extracted, something torn from a whole for specific purposes. When we observe breathing from an external point of view, we separate the spiritual aspect of it in order to gain insights or make interventions that we would not otherwise be able to achieve. Free from any purpose, it is solely the breath that flows in every act of breathing and that fills every act of breathing.
Breathing therefore plays a leading role at all levels of our being. It also constantly connects these levels so that they do not appear as distinguishable aspects of our being, but are experienced as a whole. Every breath is simultaneously and inseparably physical, emotional, and spiritual. Breath awareness is therefore always physical, mental, and spiritual. In it, there is no distinction between these aspects; they are one in the breath, which means that we are one with ourselves in the breath. In it, there is also no distinction between the inner world and the outer world, so we are one with the world as a whole.
Respiratory Philosophy in Brief
