The meditation instructor speaks of ma,
or emptiness--asks us to listen
to our breathing.
I think of the pleural space,
the vacuum our ribs and diaphragm
pull upon when we take in
breath, that pulls back when we exhale.
How we draw upon this emptiness,
and it draws upon us. How an anatomist
would call it a potential space, meaning
it does not exist--unless intruded upon.
How if your pleural lining is broken
we cannot breathe, until the surgeon
inserts a tube, restores the vacuum. How
it's said nature abhors a vacuum, yet
we cannot exist without one.
Without ma. Without this
emptiness within.
-Peter Pereira, What's Written on the Body
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Isn't it weird to have to consciously think about breathing? I just talked about this. Breathing is one of those autonomous actions that we don't usually make an effort to actively regulate it.
ReplyDeleteWhen we try to hold our breathe our brain prevents us from suffocation. At best we can pass out, and it takes over. Did you know dolphins can kill themselves just by thinking 'I'm not going to breathe'? It would be like having to be fully aware every inhalation.
My chinese teacher could tell a lot from your calligraphy. If you were breathing correctly just by looking at qi flow in your writing. In its purest form, existence is emptiness. To not feel, and just be. Like blank paper.