Massaging Air: Chewing on your Second Being-Food

 

 

One simple, and Divine, tool that can be used to help in dealing with emotional and physical disturbance, as well as mental discord, is the breath.

Perhaps I feel some emotional disturbance in me in a given moment or situation. I pause and give this disturbance some attention. Then I engage my body, bringing attention to my body. I see what expression the emotional disturbance takes in my body, looking to how the body is reacting to this disturbance, or how the body is involved in it. I bring sensation to my body, and I see if there is any particular bodily aspect or expression that is connected to the emotional disturbance. Perhaps, for example, the emotional disturbance is expressing in the body as a contraction, tension, or unpleasant sensation in the belly and abdomen. Once some sensation has been established in the physical expression of the emotional disturbance, I then bring attention to my breath.

I attend to the substance and energy of the breath and air, attending to how it enters my body and to what results it produces in my body. In my attention, I then connect my breath to the physical expression of the emotional disturbance. In this particular example, I bring the breath to my belly and abdomen. I bring the substance and energy of the breath, and air, to the physical expression of the emotional disturbance. I blend the air and breath with the physical expression of the emotional disturbance. Through sensation, and directed attention, the substance and energy of the breath is brought into the physical expression of the emotional disturbance. I, in effect, begin to ‘breathe through’ the particular physical tension, contraction, or unpleasant sensation that is connected to the emotional disturbance. The substance and energy of the breath then begins to be ‘worked through’ the physical expression with each inhale and exhale, and here we can use the metaphor of the air and breath beginning to ‘massage’ the physical tensions, contraction, or unpleasant sensation etc.

The ‘current’ of air is ‘drawn’ through the physical tension etc, such that one is, in effect, ‘breathing through’ or ‘from’ the given physical tension or contraction etc. Another way of saying this is to say that the results of air, or the results of the assimilation of air, are directed to the given physical localization. Breath, or air, has a particular subtle sensation and feeling connected to it, and this is brought to the given physical localization. With each breath, the current of energy in the air is drawn into and out of the given physical localization. This process can ‘loosen’ the tension or contraction, just as a massage can to a tight muscle, and this process can begin to transform the physical tension or contraction etc. The positive energy in the air, as related to true positive emotions and physical vitality and well being, can begin to be actualized such that it releases the physical expression of the emotional disturbance, and this in itself may sometimes remove the emotional disturbance. If this release of the physical expression to the emotional disturbance does not also give an end to the emotional disturbance itself, then it can certainly make this emotional disturbance easier to deal with, in terms of how this emotional disturbance influences our actions and behaviours and general functioning. Greater ableness can be brought to bear on the emotional disturbance when there is an established assimilation and direction of the results of the air and breath in the body. Our actions are given greater balance such that there is less susceptibility to negative manifestations and outburst etc, our functioning is made more efficient in terms of energy use and expenditure, which then feeds in to how we are able to deal with disturbance and manage our manifestations in response to it.

Consciously ‘coating’ oneself in the energy and substance of the air, by directing and concentrating this material in us through the use of sensation and directed attention, is one way to develop one’s ‘being’ and ‘common presence’. The material of the air and breath can be used to give coherence and stability to the ‘atmosphere’ of the lower centers. This is particularly so for the relation between sensation and feeling, where the breath can be used to give stability to organic sensation, which can then reflect in emotional coherence. The energy of air can organise that of sensation, which helps our overall functioning, and the energy of air also contains a current of positive feeling. So here, the air and breath can combat emotional disturbance and negativity from both ends as it were, working on both sensation and feeling and their relation. ‘Breathing through’ the tension, contraction, or disturbance can not only give relaxation and positive emotion, it can also give results in the way of coating the higher being bodies, as it is a form of inner alchemy.

Aside from the use in dealing with disturbances of the body and feelings, the blending of air and sensation can also aid higher functioning of the mind, as is related to receiving finer impressions and engaging the higher centers etc. The quality of the breath influences the quality of the thinking, and the digestion of air plays a part in the digestion of impression. The breath, or substance of air, can serve as a bridge between the ‘mind’ and ‘body’, such that thought and sensation can be brought into correspondence and alignment. In terms of the Kesdjan body, breath, or the substance of air, is central in providing the means of connection between the Kesdjan and physical bodies. The substance of air enables the connection between the Kesdjan body and the physical body, such that the Kesdjan body can direct the physical. Here, the substance of air and breath is related to ‘Hanbledzoin’ and ‘magnetism’, which are expressed as being the blood of the Kesdjan body and the means of connection between the mind and feelings.

We can liberate hanbledzoin through direct work with the breath and sensation, and this substance or energy can be put to different uses in terms of the different brains or centers and their varied capacities. The intentional blending of air and sensation changes the chemistry of the blood, and in this direction Gurdjieff mentions the change of blood flow that is involved in engaging the subconsciousness; where a change in the physical blood flow can initiate the circulation of the Kesdjan body blood, or change its character.