Show Notes
Anne Klein starts with a few phenomenological reflections on how easeful attention to breath resolves structures that constrict our experience of being. What does breath feel like, and what does it bring us? What changes when we direct breath to different parts of the body, or different parts of the environment? Breath is air. Air is movement, and thus breath is connected with everything that moves. She points to several such connections, the movement of wind currents inside the body and out (rlung), as well as the mobile dynamism of life force (blah) itself, found not only in breathing bodies but in land and water. When breath is directed in certain ways, it opens to experiences of wisdom, famously described as unborn and unceasing, and connects as well as with contemporary notions, such as described by Daniel Stern, of vitality as core to human experience. Anne Klein briefly explores a medley of these connections.
This presentation is part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, which took place online in 2021, with a group of researchers exploring Buddhist practices of working with the breath or the “winds” of the body. The event was co-hosted by Frances Garrett and Pierce Salguero, and co-sponsored by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto and Jivaka.net. You can watch the video of this talk and find other resources from the Buddhism and Breath Summit at Jivaka.net
