This morning as I meditated on my breath an image came into my mind. It was an animal’s muzzle or snout positioned just to the left of and slightly in front of my face. I could see the dark gray/brown fur, the pattern of whiskers and whisker "dots" along the side of the nose, the dark skin of the lips, and the gentle curving and curling of nostrils with the movement of its breath. I felt the breath of that animal being shared with me as I inhaled and exhaled. It was warm and open(?). I relaxed into it and the image faded but not the memory of it. Like a dream that doesn’t quite go away when you wake up.
My breath was very slow and shallow at that time. I was hardly breathing at all. I was in that space where it feels as though the air simply comes and goes on its own. Or, rather, in that space where there is no need for the air to come and go. You simply exist in it, your body taking whatever it needs directly from the air wherever and whenever it needs to.
Sharing breath with animals is not new to me. Nor would it be to any animal lover. It is simply something that we do – a way we have of communicating with our four leggeds without consciously knowing what it is we communicate. For me, and perhaps for others as well, it began by mirroring what I saw the animals do with each other. An exchange of breath. A sharing of life's essence. A silent story that says this is who I am.
Maybe this image, at this time, is meant to be an affirmation of what I wrote here yesterday. The Presence of Animals. Animals as bodhisattvas. Silent gentle teachers helping us learn to connect with that which is within and around and through every aspect of our being.
Reflections on Life
