Space holds us. For example, the space in the room makes you in the room possible. The space in one’s body provides for organs to be inside and function. The space of the solar system is held within outer space which includes the Milky Way Galaxy of which we on Earth are a part. Space holds all that is in existence and makes its expression possible. This is one layer of meaning behind Blavatsky’s statement in the Secret Doctrine that “Space is an entity.”

There is a space after the in-breath and another after the out-breath. In both situations, the interlude is both a womb and a dissolution. The in-breath is born from an interlude; the in-breath also dissolves into an interlude which produces its completion. The out-breath is born from an interlude into which the in-breath dissolves, then it, too, dissolves into an interlude which is its completion and the birth of a new in-breath. These awarenesses are valuable: a) space holds us and b) space/interlude is both a womb of beginnings or births as well as the void into which something dissolves and disappears.

In meditation practice, the focus is awareness, plain and simple. In preliminary practices – which may take years or lifetimes to stabilize – one becomes aware of how unaware and constantly distracted one is. Yeah for you! Now one is aware of it! With that, methods and techniques can be employed to disentangle oneself from the snares of mental and emotional wandering. Why does wandering happen? Because human beings distract themselves from boredom and constantly seek to entice and interest themselves in something or interest others in themselves. The proof of this is you and me.

Feel how the breath dissolves within its cycle but that the dissolution is simultaneously the birth of the next part of the cycle. Then consider that any emotion, desire, craving, or thought that arises also dissolves as quickly as it is born. Habitually, then, we rebirth, re-create, or re-instate the desire, emotion, thought or craving that just rose and dissipated. We do this ceaselessly through the day: with innocuous things like “knowing” that the sky is blue and with all that makes up our personal reality.

No harm; no foul, literally. Any flash or fleeting moment of awareness is awareness. In that moment, that flash of presence, or in sustained minutes of presence-being, we are bringing benefit to ourself (no harm) and are not harming anyone else with thought, word, or deed (no foul). Just as significant, we are dissolving habits that are lived robotically and mindlessly. With that, we are birthing awareness – even if only for a fleeting second. Then, with the breath, let’s repeat the fresh, the new, the now and let the old patterns dissolve away.

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