Dear Friends,
Over the past several days, we have explored the air element as breath, motion, and continual change. Yesterday, we paused to cultivate equanimity – learning how to meet change with steadiness and care. Today, we return to the air element to explore what it can show us about not-self in a very practical way.
With air, this becomes especially tangible.
Each breath is an exchange. Air enters the body, supports life for a moment, and then leaves again. What we inhale does not originate with us, and what we exhale does not remain with us. Breath by breath, the air element is moving through – never staying, never belonging.
The air you breathe has traveled widely. Oxygen produced by plants across the planet – on land and in the oceans – has moved through countless living beings before arriving here. The air leaving your body will disperse again, circulating through the atmosphere, becoming part of weather, wind, and breath elsewhere.
Seen this way, breathing is not a private activity. It is part of a vast, shared process.
This can gently shift how we understand “my breath.” What we usually think of as inside and outside begins to blur. Air moves freely across those boundaries, reminding us that the body is not sealed off from the world, but in constant exchange with it.
The same is true moment to moment in daily life. As we move through shared spaces – indoors or outdoors – we are breathing air that others have just breathed out, and they are breathing air that has passed through us. Plants and animals are part of this same cycle, continually exchanging gases that sustain life.
Noticing the air element in this way invites a closer look at what is already happening. Breathing reveals itself as a process we participate in, rather than something we possess.
Today, I invite you to notice the air element as something shared – flowing through bodies, environments, and time. You might see how this softens the sense of separation, or how it loosens the feeling that experience is happening in isolation.
As always, I love to hear what you notice. You can reply to the email or post a comment to share a brief reflection.
With good wishes,
Andrea
Andrea, since the emails started focusing on air element, I was beginning to get a felt sense in sitting practice of sharing air with others nearby. But your ideas here have really expanded my sense of how vast this shared process is. Especially the recognition that we share it across time, breathing the same air as who have gone before. It brings a sense of deep connection, and a kind of expanded focus in sitting practice. Many thanks.
…oops – (Barb here again..) – just wanted to add that in sitting practice, it feels like both an expanded focus, and also a sustained very fine/narrow focus, at the same time. Not sure how to articulate that. But it leads to a deeper stilling of the mind in practice, somehow.
Hi Barb, Thank you for your thoughtful reflection. I love the way you describe the widening of the air element – not just with those nearby, but stretching across time. I find something settling about sensing ourselves inside that larger process. And what you noted about attention really resonates. The combination of a broad, spacious sense and a very fine, steady point of focus often supports the mind settling more deeply. You captured it beautifully. I am glad the practice is opening in this way for you.