Breathing
Another way of finding nourishment
July 1st 2013
You are hungry, so you take a piece of fruit – a peach, for example. As you eat it, you will be satisfying your hunger, and of course you will find it has a pleasant taste. But once you have eaten it, that’s it, there’s no more; you have to find another one. And then, the time will also come when you are full. So the pleasure has come to an end… Now imagine that instead of eating the peach, you first simply breathe it in: it remains whole, and you are still receiving waves of its perfume. So the advantage is twofold: not only do you keep the fruit, but you do not feel overfull, for a perfume can never have that effect.
This is an image to help you understand something that happens in the spiritual life. In no way am I recommending that you should feed yourselves just by breathing in the fragrance from fruit! You have to eat in order to live. But it is interesting to note the difference between eating (taking in physical food) and breathing (taking in subtle food).