Three Doorways to God: Breath, Body, Sacred Word

In this guided meditation,

We will explore three doorways to God or the Divine Presence,

The breath,

The body,

And the use of a sacred word.

I will use the word God in this meditation.

I invite you to draw upon the God of your understanding in this meditation.

This may include God as a Divine Presence,

A higher power,

Or source and ground of your being.

If you wish,

You may also consider how your own conception of God grows and develops along with your practice.

You may have moments that feel like profound insights or sweet consolations.

You may also have moments in which darkness,

Confusion,

Or a lack of God's Presence predominate.

These are all a normal part of the contemplative experience.

Accept your experience of God as it is,

Whatever it may be.

Begin by making yourself comfortable and placing yourself into a physical position that supports a relaxed attentiveness.

You may choose to sit on the floor on a meditation cushion or on a chair with your feet on the floor or lying down on your back.

Whatever you choose,

Place yourself in such a way that your spine,

Your neck,

And your head are straight and aligned without straining,

With both sides of your body equally supported by a cushion,

A chair,

Or the ground beneath you.

Place your hands folded on your lap or on your knees or thighs or beside you on the ground.

Palms up if you wish to receive energy,

Palms down if you wish to feel grounded and supported.

Sitting in this dignified position facilitates ease of breath,

Relaxation of the body,

And clear attentiveness in the mind.

Begin by bringing your attention to your breath without any need or desire to do anything.

Quickly notice the rise and fall of your abdomen and your chest,

The natural extension of the body on the in-breath,

The natural contraction on the out-breath,

The feel of the air in the nostrils.

Sense the fullness of each inhale,

The fullness of each exhale.

Begin to soften the belly and allow the breath to become slower,

Deeper,

Richer.

As we continue,

You may notice the breath become shallow and indistinct as you relax into the embrace of God's presence.

The entire universe moves in and out with the breath of God.

The going forth and the returning home of all created beings is like the oceanic ebb and flow of the divine breath.

All the beauties and mysteries of creation manifest in God's creative exhale.

All divine manifestations,

Including you and me,

Dissolve and return back to their source in God's inhale.

All of creation desires and seeks God as naturally as the rise and fall of the breath.

It is the very breath of God that you breathe.

This expansion and contraction is a participation in God's creative spirit going forth and calling home.

This ebb and flow is like waves laughing on the shore of our human consciousness.

Underneath and within the breath,

We are not the waves,

We are the ocean.

God is the ocean.

We are not separate from God.

Our breath is not separate from God's breath.

During the rise and the fall of the breath,

We dip our toes into the ocean of awareness itself.

Union of breath and awareness gives way to awareness of our fundamental union with God.

This is the first doorway to God's presence.

To become aware of the union of breath with God is to awaken within the body.

The body forms the physical space within which the breath supports awakening to union with God.

In many ancient scriptural languages,

Including Sanskrit,

Hebrew,

Greek,

And Arabic,

The same word is used to designate breath and spirit.

This is what St.

Paul means in the New Testament when he writes that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Medical doctors speak of perfusion,

The process of the circulatory system delivering oxygenated blood to tissues throughout the body.

And mystics speak of infusion,

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit throughout one's entire being.

Allow yourself to feel the perfusion and infusion of the Spirit as it moves through your body,

Providing it with the vital nutrients and graces necessary to sustain your existence in each moment.

You may feel a sense of warmth,

Light,

Or heaviness in the body as you open to the Divine Presence within and around,

Sustaining and infusing your human experience of embodied consciousness.

Care of your body is care of your soul.

Anything you do to care for or connect more intimately with your own body is a sacred act,

An act of welcoming the Divine Presence,

Of thanking God for your existence.

Your body is the second doorway to the Divine Presence.

In the creation story in the Hebrew Bible and the book of Genesis,

God speaks a creative word into the formless void.

All creation emerges from this Divine Word.

Many contemplative traditions suggest that the use of a sacred word can be a helpful tool for awakening to our union with God.

Once we find stillness within the breath body,

We often find that the mind remains fidgety and active.

When this occurs,

You may be tempted to believe that you are failing or that your wandering mind is an obstacle to the contemplative journey.

The sacred word provides a tool for relating to the unruliness of the mind.

One mystic compares the mind to a millstone that is constantly churning.

Give it something to churn.

This something is your sacred word.

You may already have a sacred word,

From centering prayer,

A mantra,

Or a similar practice.

If you do,

Then I invite you to use that word for your practice today.

If not,

Then take a moment to allow your sacred word to arise,

Perhaps praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

A fitting sacred word is usually short and simple.

For this practice,

It is not the meaning of the word itself that matters.

Rather,

It is the intention that you attach to the word,

The intention to say yes to whatever arises in your experience and to God's presence and action within.

As you rest in the smooth breath and the still body,

You may notice the mind wandering and exploring thoughts,

Memories,

Experiences,

Sensations in the body.

When you notice this,

Simply repeat your sacred word silently to yourself,

As gently as laying a feather on a soft pillow.

Praying in this way,

Your sacred word thus becomes grist for the mill,

Placeholder for your desire to say yes to God,

To awaken to divine union.

God's first language is silence.

Praying with the breath,

Caring for the body,

Using a sacred word are all practices that prepare you to enter into sacred silence.

Silence is the primordial,

Divine presence that is underneath,

Within,

Subtler than every moment of existence.

My voice will now become silent for the next ten minutes in order for you to practice following the breath,

Tuning into the body's wisdom,

And using your sacred word to draw you into the silence of God.

After ten minutes,

My voice will return to guide you out of the practice.

This divine silence is always present.

Whether you are consciously aware of it or not,

It is always present as the source of your being,

Of all that is.

Faith within,

Subtler than the breath,

The body,

Or the sacred word.

Even amidst the external chaos and noise of the world,

God is silently,

Eternally present.

These three doorways are always available as a source of strength and hope,

And most importantly of love.

May you awaken to God's presence now.

May you experience God's infinite love and mercy now.

May you embody the divine love to all whom you encounter on this contemplative journey.

This concludes our meditation on the three doorways to God by working with the breath,

The body,

And the use of a sacred word.

Feel free to remain where you are as long as you like.

When you are ready,

Bring some gentle movement to your fingers and toes,

Moving slowly and intentionally into whatever comes next in your day,

Maintaining a loving interior gaze toward God,

And allowing this gaze to be like a mirror that reflects that same ray of love outward to all.