‘God has breathed into us the breath of life’ – Jewish and Christian approaches to breathing meditation in an Australian context

Breathing meditation in Jewish and Christian traditions treats the breath as the vivifying Spirit, Holy Spirit, or life force. A theology of the body requires an embodied spirituality grounded in a biblical and spiritual theology of the whole person. The article demonstrates the practicality of breathing meditation by outlining possible approaches during a typical week in an Australian context. It explores a shorter series of dawn-to-morning meditations through the lens of Judaism and a complementary longer suite for afternoon-to-night based on Christian tradition, including one meditation from Australian Aboriginal spirituality. Each exercise can be adapted for adults, senior students, or primary students. All exercises except the Dadirri and name of G-d examples are original compositions trialled by the author.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Breathing meditation (BM) in both Jewish and Christian contexts focuses on the breath as the vivifying Spirit, Holy Spirit or life force. A flourishing theology of the body must of necessity be an ‘embodied spirituality’, and ought to encompass a biblical and spiritual theology of the whole person. This article demonstrates the practicality of this BM technique by outlining possible approaches during a typical week within an Australian context. The article explores a shorter series of ‘dawn to morning meditations’ through the lens of Judaism, and another complementary, longer suite for the ‘afternoon to night’ period based on the Christian tradition, including one meditation based on Australian Aboriginal spirituality. Each meditation exercise could be adapted for either adults, senior students or primary students. All exercises, apart from the Dadirri and name of G-d examples, are original compositions trialled by the author.