The Revelation of the Breath: A Tribute to Its Wisdom, Power, and Beauty

by Mijares, Sharon G.

• ISBN13: 9781438428765
• ISBN10: 1438428766
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-05
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Faced with unrelenting stresses from daily news, relationships, health, and financial conditions, and unsatisfied with the temporary and side-effect-riddled relief that pharmaceuticals provide, millions are finding measures of peace and positive energy through mindful breathing practices. In this book, Stanislav Grof, Neil Douglas-Klotz, Sonia Gilbert, Sheldon Kramer, Ilse Middendorf, Michael Sky, Puran Bair, and other well-known experts and international workshop leaders take up a wide range of Western, Eastern, and Middle Eastern breathing practices, describing the historical development of these techniques and philosophies, and providing examples of modern practices, stories of healing, and specific exercises for application.

Author Biography

Sharon G. Mijares is a practicing psychologist and teaches at National University and Brandman University. She is the coeditor (with Gurucharan Singh Khalsa) of The Psychospiritual Clinician's Handbook: Alternative Methods for Understanding and Treating Mental Disorders; editor of Modern Psychology and Ancient Wisdom: Psychological Healing Practices from the World's Religious Traditions, and coauthor (with Aliaa Rafea, Rachel Falik, and Jenny Eda Schipper) of The Root of All Evil: An Exposition of Prejudice, Fundamentalism, and Gender Imbalance.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Eastern Breathing Practices
Ancient and Modern Yoga: A Science of Breath, Healing, and Enlightenment	p. 11
Tibetan Buddhism and the Breath	p. 25
The Breath of the Tao and the Tao of Breathing	p. 43
Breathing Respect: Breath and the Martial Way of Aikido	p. 53
Western Breathing Practices
Character Armoring: A Wall Between Oneself and the World	p. 71
Birth, Rebirthing, and Learning to Breathe	p. 83
The Healing Potential of Holotropic Breathwork	p. 95
Freediving: Learning Not to Breathe	p. 107
Buteyko: A Method for Healing with the Breath	p. 119
Breathexperience: A Somatic Science and Art of Living	p. 133
Middle Eastern Breathing Practices
Jewish Mysticism: Kabbalah and the Breath	p. 155
The Holy Breath: Breath in the Cosmology and Spiritual Practice of the Aramaic Jesus	p. 167
The Divine Vibration in the BreathùA Song of Life	p. 181
Further Explorations of the Healing Power of the Breath
The Natural Breath: A Dialogue between Western Somatic and Eastern Spiritual Approaches to the Body Awareness of Breathing	p. 195
Be Wary When You Breathe: Respecting Its Wisdom, Power, and Beauty	p. 211
Children Learning to Breathe: An Education for Our Future	p. 225
Breathing for a Better World: Final Thoughts on the Healing Power of the Breath	p. 239
Final Words	p. 253
Contributors	p. 255
Index	p. 265
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