Consider the stems of strawberries, apples, and peaches. When you venture to a farm or an orchard to handpick these fruits, you’ll immediately notice a remarkable distinction in taste, sweetness, and overall vitality when you consume them right then and there. If you opt to take them home or wait even just a mere five minutes, the difference becomes evident.
Perhaps you’ve gone so far as to bite into these fruits while they remain attached to the tree or blueberry bush. In doing so, you embrace the vitality, the tangible connection to the living tree or bush. This connection plays a pivotal role in the unique experience of consuming them; they are still very much alive.
The life force of the tree or bush remains intact, coursing through the trunk, branches, and stem, ultimately infusing the fruit you consume and subsequently, your mouth. You are essentially partaking in the very essence of the tree’s life flow, the shefa, the prana. It’s akin to biting directly into the tree’s life force, and the breath we inhale holds a similar connection. Mindfulness of the breath is the tether that binds us to life.
So, what exactly is this breath and the mindfulness associated with it?
Picture yourself standing on the ocean’s edge or atop a towering mountain, beholding a breathtaking panorama. As you expand your senses into the moment, you instinctively draw in a deep breath. This inhalation isn’t merely about taking in air; it’s about embracing the expansion, the prana, the shefa, and the oxygen entering through your nostrils and filling your lungs. This oxygen, prana, and shefa are instantly absorbed into your bloodstream, ascending rapidly to invigorate your cells, synapses, your brain, and ultimately, your awareness. When you expand in harmony with the incoming breath, mindfulness doesn’t just commence with the act of breathing; it blossoms into a profound awareness of life and happiness. This awareness radiates outward, felt as happiness, much like the heat emanating from a fire.
Each of our senses serves as a conduit to life or our true selves through mindfulness. When we open our eyes to the world and light pours in, it becomes an acknowledgment of what we perceive, intertwined with the essence of seeing. This connection mirrors the awareness found in the breath, where oxygen, prana, and shefa flow inward. When all our senses are fully open and imbued with mindfulness, they establish a direct connection to the sense of being alive.
This heightened state can be likened to being ‘turned on,’ for it entails experiencing the flow through the sense door without the distraction of labeling or judgment. It’s about embracing the sensory input in its purest form. During retreats, I’ve experienced how opening the sense doors awakens my senses, allowing me to feel the energy and awareness that surrounds me—it’s profoundly present.
When the sense doors are open, a connection to awareness emerges. In this state, you can let go of the tendency to like or dislike as they arise. Some sights, sounds, or sensations may be more pleasing than others, triggering the urge to gravitate toward or push away from them. Additionally, there’s a proclivity to evaluate all that comes through the sense doors, seeking imperfections. However, when we shed our preoccupation with imperfections, everything simply exists as it is. In this state of pure perception, the natural sense of happiness emanates from the inherent aliveness within us.
The expansion of the breath can serve as a meditation technique to guide us toward letting go of distractions linked to our preferences. With practice, this mental, physical, and spiritual state can extend to our other senses. Over time, we can transition through each sense door, reaching a state of mindfulness that is truly invigorating. When distractions inevitably arise, the moment we become aware of them, we can return to the breath or whatever object of meditation we’ve chosen and gently release that distraction.
In this way, we look beyond the imperfections that often surface, entering a realm where we perceive the perfection of the present moment without imposing our judgments. As we allow all our sense doors to remain open, we rediscover our natural state of aliveness, accompanied by the radiant glow of happiness.
Spiritual Gravity 