"Breath of Life"

"And God contrived the person from the dust of the earth, and blew into his face life-breath, and the person became a living soul." -Genesis 2:7 LXX (Brenton translation; conversion to English common-tongue mine)

We all breathe. This is obvious.

But do we all breathe "life-breath"? To a certain extent, of course, otherwise we would die.

The grace of the life of our life is that we're given breath after breath, until it is taken away from us.

And this breath that gives us life is given freely, and taken freely.

But if we were to be honest with ourselves, we don't breathe life-breath all the time.

A lot of the time, our breathing is tense, our movements are tense, our psyches are tense. Let's be really honest...our souls are tense. There's a contraction at the center of our being, and that leads to tension in the breath itself. Instead of taking and giving the breath freely, we constrict it. We fear, we tense. That happens at the center-point of our breathing.

No wonder life has so much suffering.

I'm not one for utopia-talk, but if we were all to breathe the breath of life all the time, more blood would stay in our veins, instead of it crying out [to the Lord] from the ground. (see Genesis 4:10)

Many times we use our breath in hurtful ways. We curse at people, we slander them, we give them our soul's resentment. We withhold love through the life-breath we don't give, and we resist receiving the life-breath by bracing for love, when love is the last thing for which we need to brace.

Breath doesn't just help the body by keeping it alive, giving the chance of movement and vitality at all levels, and for the purpose of continual recovery, but it is also used to speak, to pray, to sing, to warn, to teach, to extend gratitude, etc.

So why this unending focus on the breath in Systema?

Because how we breathe shows us why we do things the way we do them.

And the work in Systema is one of the most direct ways to discover that, but not only that....To discover how much better you can breathe, and thus, how much better you can live.

Systema is a non-tangential path to discovering why you do things the way you do them, and how to do them better; i.e. finding the center of the tension that causes the problems in your life, and giving you the tools to unravel that tension so you can live to your soul's true potential.

Breath work is cool. But the catch is...It has to bring life in order to bring anything good in your life and the lives of others.

How do we get the "life" part of the "life-breath"?

We can huff and puff (as we do) all we want, but it could all just be empty air, getting nowhere, and certainly not penetrating into the center of our very being, making us a "living soul".

That's literally what we're doing in Systema.

We are learning how to "Let every breath" (see Psalm 150 as well as "Let Every Breath" by Vladimir Vasiliev) in a way where everything that we do after that "life-breath" comes into us is the fruit of action that comes from a "living soul". Essentially, it's good, it's balanced, it's done out of Love, it works for everyone.

There's a sparking that happens in the body and the soul of someone who does this breathing. It's not a technique. It's not a muscular effort. Something 'wakes up' in the person, becomes alive....and then everything is different.

In practice, when we go to push someone, is it coming from the life-breath, or from mechanical breathing (effort, but not filled with life; empty breathing)?

When we do a push up, is it coming from life-breath?

When we strike, when we speak, when we defend against a knife or multiple attackers...is what we are doing coming from this life-breath, or from something else?

The difference, when you feel the difference, is not subtle. Not at all. It's stark.

One of the things about Systema breathing, though, is that it opens you up to true honesty, by way of the honesty of what it is and what it's like. When your tension subsides and you get that breath and it expresses itself outwardly, you can't be fake anymore. You can't pretend anymore. You can no longer hide behind facades of character, idealization, false-pretenses, tension, fear, etc.

It's real, honest work.

That's one of the many beauties of Systema as taught by Mikhail Ryabko and Vladimir Vasiliev. "Systema just happens to be a martial art.", as Vladimir once said, is especially true in light of the reality of life-giving breathing. You're immediately invited to be completely honest with your breathing and how you're going about your life moment-to-moment. The breathing sparks you back to life from being under the layers of tension, and then you can live more truly, fully, honestly.

And it's not a future thing. It's something that happens right now, which is the honesty part. You're either conveying the life-breath now or not. You're either receiving the life-breath now or not. You can't have both.

So, how to strike someone with life-breath instead of tension?

Are we truly loving in our interactions with people, or are we not letting that breath go through our bodies and souls into the world?

Tough work. Tough reality. Tough love.

In our upcoming classes, seminars, and media content, we'll be exploring the essence of this breathing directly, and giving you practical, immediate ways of accessing this way of breathing so you can experience the benefits for yourself and for the ones you love (and even for your enemies!).

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned.

Daniel