"Personne n'a jamais respiré au passé ou au futur."
scrapbook
"Our heads are round so that our thoughts can fly in any direction." Francis Picabia.
Ce qu’un Shaman voit dans un hôpital psychiatrique
"Selon la vision chamanique, les maladies mentales sont un signe de « la naissance d’un guérisseur », explique Patrice Malidoma Somé. Ainsi, les troubles mentaux sont des urgences et des crises spirituelles qui doivent être considérés comme tels afin d’aider le guérisseur lors de sa naissance."
"Selon la vision chamanique, les maladies mentales sont un signe de « la naissance d’un guérisseur », explique Patrice Malidoma Somé. Ainsi, les troubles mentaux sont des urgences et des crises spirituelles qui doivent être considérés comme tels afin d’aider le guérisseur lors de sa naissance."
Sanji's MUM
at the till of the super market she works in,
talking with her colleague sitting behind her:
"My son studied drama two years. When he finished I asked him: "Are you happy with your studies? Are you doing well? ", "Yes mum I love it." he says. "Tell me, what have you learned my son? He replies " I learned how to breathe". "In two years you learned how to breathe? Well done my son! I am proud of you!" Ahahah "I learned how to breathe!" Ahahah!"".
(Both cashiers laughing)
Ahahah!"
(from Cardboard Citizens play "Glass House").
at the till of the super market she works in,
talking with her colleague sitting behind her:
"My son studied drama two years. When he finished I asked him: "Are you happy with your studies? Are you doing well? ", "Yes mum I love it." he says. "Tell me, what have you learned my son? He replies " I learned how to breathe". "In two years you learned how to breathe? Well done my son! I am proud of you!" Ahahah "I learned how to breathe!" Ahahah!"".
(Both cashiers laughing)
Ahahah!"
(from Cardboard Citizens play "Glass House").
"We are all breathing the same air. There is only one proprietor of all who is supplying life breath to us. Who is giving you this life breath? The Lord of life, who gives it to all. Breath is a direct link with the Lord that you have every day. It’s a perfect philosophy. Besides the philosophical aspect, it is also a practical science that is known to only a fortunate few. Your breath is like a barometer that registers both your mental conditions and physical conditions. Breath is the bridge between the body and your thinking process called mind. In our modern world, we either talk only about the body or about the mind but we have not done much research on the breath. (...) What is your body? That something which you can touch, grab, understand is called your body. Your body is composed of five gross eleme is devoted to presenting the ancient ents: earth, water, fire, air, and space. It’s like a jar. You break the jar, earth goes to earth, water goes to water, fire goes to fire, all the elements go to their respective elements. It’s a very interesting subject. Look at Figure 1. You are not body alone. Now this body is related to your thinking being. Who connects you with your thinking being? This is not discussed in books. No book explains why your thinking and physical being function together. I have not seen any book like that. So this is your thinking self and this is your physical self. How do the thinking self and physical self function together? (...) This breath of ours creates a bridge between our thinking process and body. Please pay attention to this diagram, it will help you. Our thinking process is divided into two compartments, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. There are two guards constantly guarding the city of life and they are called inhalation and exhalation. This is such an important link, but see what the scientists are doing. They talk of body, food, vitamins, exercises; they talk of mind and its analysis; but then nobody talks about the breath, because no one knows. Very few experiments are being done. For pregnant women, they have some breathing exercises. Otherwise no one knows much about breath (...) What does the body mean to us? Is the human being a body alone? No. He breathes too. Body without breath has no value, and if we have a body and breath but if there is no thinking, then that human being is also of no use. And if there is a human being who thinks, who breathes and whose body functions, that is also meaningless if he does not direct all his energies, mind, action and speech according to the purpose of life. Inhalation and exhalation are constantly guarding the city of life. Inhalation will become impossible if you do not exhale. Exhalation will become impossible if you do not inhale. If you take proper care of the cleansing systems of your body, your pores, lungs, kidneys and bowels, then the nourishing systems of the body will also remain active. (...) Having learnt to breathe diaphragmatically, you should become aware of four bad habits of breathing. Four no’s. One is, no noise in the breath; two, no shallowness; three, no jerkiness; and fourth, no pause between inhalation and exhalation. Now most of the heart attacks in the world are because of bad breathing. There are other reasons too, but this is one of the primary reasons. I tell you, no cardiologist can challenge me on this. Animals who breathe shallowly do not live for a long time. A yogi does not live the way others live. He lives according to the breath he takes. You can expand your life if you understand this science. Your breath should be deep without any sound. It should not be heavy breathing. Sometimes people snore and you can hear them even in the next building. Jerky breath is also not good for you. Between inhalation and exhalation and also between exhalation and the next inhalation, you create a momentary pause. Pause means death. If I inhale and never exhale, what will happen? I am dead. And if I exhale and then I never inhale, then what will happen? I am dead. Death means pause between inhalation and exhalation. Unconsciously you are creating a pause. Have you seen what children do sometimes? They don’t exhale for some time and they faint. In murcha pranayama, we teach our students to have control over the pause. Don’t allow that pause to be increased. Pause is a killer. A human being is constantly killing many, many tissues of his brain all the time. There are more than 10 billion cells in your brain. And many of these cells are dying all the time. Why? Because of the pause. If that pause expands, we die. Through proper breathing, you can remain healthy. You can maintain your health with simple things. You can protect yourself from many diseases by these preventive methods. You can live for a long time, which you want to, and enjoy the world. But you should have the capacity, you should have strength. And that strength should be inner strength, strength from within.
So when you understand something about these two guards of inhalation and exhalation, you understand a lot about life. In yoga manuals there are three phases of breath mentioned, inhalation, puraka, exhalation, rechaka, and controlled retention or kumbhaka. Pause means kumbhaka. It should be controlled, it should be under your control. Anyone who has controlled the pause is victorious and he is free from the call of death. (...) When sleep cannot give total rest, conscious rest is important. Five to ten minutes in the morning and five to ten minutes in the evening you should learn to give rest to yourself through meditation, a simple method. Learn to sit still. If you are not accustomed to sitting cross-legged on the floor, you can sit in this posture called maitreyi asana in the Buddhist scriptures. Place your hands on your knees, close your eyes gently and breathe.
Breathe deeply and diaphragmatically without noise, jerks or pause. Then watch the stream of your breath. You don’t have to search for any other object to concentrate upon. As you watch the flow of your breath, your mind will find it easy to attain, to taste peace. You know what peace is? Peace is a gap between two wars. This peace that you taste is a gap between two thoughts. A thought comes and you get rid of that thought. There is a moment when another thought has not yet come. That period is called peace. If you can expand that moment which is between two thoughts, that is called meditation. (...) After you have learned how to sit still, after you have learned how to have serene breath, after you have learned how to concentrate on the breath, you’ll find that one of the nostrils remains blocked, that is, less open than the other. Rarely will you find that both nostrils are flowing freely. The activation of the left nostril is called ida and that of the right is called pingala in the yoga manuals. Ida is the moon and pingala the sun, night and day. When the day weds the night, at dawn, there is sandhya or joining of night and day. Similarly, at dusk is the sandhya of day and night. These are the best times for meditation because at these times both nostrils will flow freely (...) You can learn how to breathe before you go to bed, before you eat, and in the morning. Three times a day, five minutes at a time it will help you. Deep, easy breathing which does not need much effort. You want to eat the best food but you do not want to breathe properly? That’s not healthy. The moment you wake up, just sit down and make your body still. Now, if a fool eats, he comes out of the dining hall still a fool. If a fool engages in sex, he comes out from his bedroom still a fool. If he sleeps, he wakes up as a fool. But if he goes to meditation he’ll come out as a sage. How to meditate? First step is to be still, then next step is to breathe harmoniously and the third step is to let go. Your mind and your breath are two great friends, inseparable friends, they work together. (...)"
source: The Breath by Swami Rama
So when you understand something about these two guards of inhalation and exhalation, you understand a lot about life. In yoga manuals there are three phases of breath mentioned, inhalation, puraka, exhalation, rechaka, and controlled retention or kumbhaka. Pause means kumbhaka. It should be controlled, it should be under your control. Anyone who has controlled the pause is victorious and he is free from the call of death. (...) When sleep cannot give total rest, conscious rest is important. Five to ten minutes in the morning and five to ten minutes in the evening you should learn to give rest to yourself through meditation, a simple method. Learn to sit still. If you are not accustomed to sitting cross-legged on the floor, you can sit in this posture called maitreyi asana in the Buddhist scriptures. Place your hands on your knees, close your eyes gently and breathe.
Breathe deeply and diaphragmatically without noise, jerks or pause. Then watch the stream of your breath. You don’t have to search for any other object to concentrate upon. As you watch the flow of your breath, your mind will find it easy to attain, to taste peace. You know what peace is? Peace is a gap between two wars. This peace that you taste is a gap between two thoughts. A thought comes and you get rid of that thought. There is a moment when another thought has not yet come. That period is called peace. If you can expand that moment which is between two thoughts, that is called meditation. (...) After you have learned how to sit still, after you have learned how to have serene breath, after you have learned how to concentrate on the breath, you’ll find that one of the nostrils remains blocked, that is, less open than the other. Rarely will you find that both nostrils are flowing freely. The activation of the left nostril is called ida and that of the right is called pingala in the yoga manuals. Ida is the moon and pingala the sun, night and day. When the day weds the night, at dawn, there is sandhya or joining of night and day. Similarly, at dusk is the sandhya of day and night. These are the best times for meditation because at these times both nostrils will flow freely (...) You can learn how to breathe before you go to bed, before you eat, and in the morning. Three times a day, five minutes at a time it will help you. Deep, easy breathing which does not need much effort. You want to eat the best food but you do not want to breathe properly? That’s not healthy. The moment you wake up, just sit down and make your body still. Now, if a fool eats, he comes out of the dining hall still a fool. If a fool engages in sex, he comes out from his bedroom still a fool. If he sleeps, he wakes up as a fool. But if he goes to meditation he’ll come out as a sage. How to meditate? First step is to be still, then next step is to breathe harmoniously and the third step is to let go. Your mind and your breath are two great friends, inseparable friends, they work together. (...)"
source: The Breath by Swami Rama
"I wanted to take a look at man as the little fragile link between the dead and those to be born." (Philippe Vauchel).
Les souffles
"Ecoute plus souvent Les Choses que les Etres La Voix du Feu s’entend, Entends la Voix de l’Eau. Ecoute dans le Vent Le Buisson en sanglots : C’est le Souffle des ancêtres. Ceux qui sont morts ne sont jamais partis : Ils sont dans l’Ombre qui s’éclaire Et dans l’ombre qui s’épaissit. Les Morts ne sont pas sous la Terre : Ils sont dans l’Arbre qui frémit, Ils sont dans le Bois qui gémit, Ils sont dans l’Eau qui coule, Ils sont dans l’Eau qui dort, Ils sont dans la Case, ils sont dans la Foule : Les Morts ne sont pas morts. Ecoute plus souvent Les Choses que les Etres La Voix du Feu s’entend, Entends la Voix de l’Eau. Ecoute dans le Vent Le Buisson en sanglots : C’est le Souffle des Ancêtres morts, Qui ne sont pas partis Qui ne sont pas sous la Terre Qui ne sont pas morts. Ceux qui sont morts ne sont jamais partis : Ils sont dans le Sein de la Femme, Ils sont dans l’Enfant qui vagit Et dans le Tison qui s’enflamme. Les Morts ne sont pas sous la Terre : Ils sont dans le Feu qui s’éteint, Ils sont dans les Herbes qui pleurent, Ils sont dans le Rocher qui geint, Ils sont dans la Forêt, ils sont dans la Demeure, Les Morts ne sont pas morts. |
Ecoute plus souvent
Les Choses que les Etres La Voix du Feu s’entend, Entends la Voix de l’Eau. Ecoute dans le Vent Le Buisson en sanglots, C’est le Souffle des Ancêtres. Il redit chaque jour le Pacte, Le grand Pacte qui lie, Qui lie à la Loi notre Sort, Aux Actes des Souffles plus forts Le Sort de nos Morts qui ne sont pas morts, Le lourd Pacte qui nous lie à la Vie. La lourde Loi qui nous lie aux Actes Des Souffles qui se meurent Dans le lit et sur les rives du Fleuve, Des Souffles qui se meuvent Dans le Rocher qui geint et dans l’Herbe qui pleure. Des Souffles qui demeurent Dans l’Ombre qui s’éclaire et s’épaissit, Dans l’Arbre qui frémit, dans le Bois qui gémit Et dans l’Eau qui coule et dans l’Eau qui dort, Des Souffles plus forts qui ont pris Le Souffle des Morts qui ne sont pas morts, Des Morts qui ne sont pas partis, Des Morts qui ne sont plus sous la Terre. Ecoute plus souvent Les Choses que les Etres La Voix du Feu s’entend, Entends la Voix de l’Eau. Ecoute dans le Vent Le Buisson en sanglots, C’est le Souffle des Ancêtres." (poeme de Birago Diop) (in english) |
Je ne suis rien sinon un bout de chair sur un cintre cassé qui s'agite à travers trop de pensées inutiles et ne tient que sur le fil de son propre souffle. Le même souffle que le vôtre. Souffle qui n'appartient à personne. J’offre le mien aux inanimés à qui je prête aussi mon oreille parce qu’écouter est le secret de la porte des secrets.
Listen |
I’m nothing but a piece of flesh on a broken hanger shaking about through too many useless thoughts and holding by the thread of its own breath. The same breath as yours. Breath which belongs to no one. I offer mine to the inanimated to whom I also lend my ear since listening is the secret to the doors of secrets.
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Gary Friedman. A great inspiration. Maybe the one which made me aware of my relation between drawing and (Outside Puppets) puppetry... and Africa.