A complementary audio Listen to The Breath of All Things — companion audio
James Traverse’s original teaching of “universal respiration,” influenced by his studies of Vedanta and the Upanishads, explores life through the image of receiving, abiding, releasing, and resting. Here “breath” extends beyond lung breathing as a contemplative metaphor. The essay invites spiritual awakening through attention to our relationship with life; it does not equate these different physical processes or present a scientific theory.
Begin with ordinary life: sharing a meal, feeling sunlight, and noticing what is received and released. This essay approaches universal respiration through those encounters; its companion develops the symbolic elements and Oṃ model in greater detail.
The “Elements” are Stages of Solidification
Fire, air, water, and earth are traditional elements used symbolically in this teaching. James calls their common ground the “Ultimate Element.” The sequence describes a philosophical movement from subtle to dense, rather than a physical mechanism in which energy slows its vibration and becomes matter.
Digestion is Just “Earth-Breathing”
“Earth-breathing” invites us to see eating and elimination as a relationship of receiving and releasing. Biologically, digestion, hydration, gas exchange, and excretion are distinct processes. Food supplies chemical energy and nutrients; water is essential but does not supply dietary calories. Their shared place in this image is exchange with the world.
Fire as Sunlight and Passion
“Fire-breathing” is James’s image for receiving sunlight and expressing warmth or passion. Sunlight supplies radiant energy, and ultraviolet B radiation can trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin. The body does not absorb vitamin D directly from the Sun or convert sunlight into passion. The NIH vitamin D fact sheet explains the biological process.
“Fire is also passion… its energy flows through the passageways of the form and the waste is given off as heat and light.”
When we radiate body heat or express the fire of our passions, we are completing the cycle—exhaling the processed energy back into the environment, maintaining the balance of the universal flame.
The Four-Part Anatomy of “Om”
James relates A-U-M and the silence following it to receiving, abiding, releasing, and resting. These correspondences are symbolic. When sounding Om aloud, the sounds normally occur during an exhalation; this reflection does not require holding the breath.
- ‘A’ (Inhalation): The coalescence of energy; the flow of energy into form.
- ‘U’ (The Pause/Hold): Energy-in-formation; the phase where energy abides within a structure.
- ‘M’ (Exhalation): The release of that which is known; the flow of energy out of form.
The “U” becomes an image of temporary abidance: something received remains for a time before being released. This is a contemplative invitation to notice change, rather than a claim that physical reality exists inside a held inhalation.
The Power of the “No-Thing”
The sounding of Oṃ resolves into silence. In this teaching lens, the silence is a pointer to Source, rather than a required pause in breathing. Turīya is called “the fourth” from the standpoint of waking, dreaming and deep sleep; it is not a separate fourth state or object. It is the ever-present Awareness that illumines all three.
“A four-part cycle of breathing is the basic building block of everything and that which is not a thing, and yet it is the ‘no thing’ that all things are dependent on for their existence.”
“No-thing” points to Source, by whatever name—not another object waiting between breaths. The symbol of Oṃ is itself known by Awareness. Ātman and Brahman name two teaching standpoints, not two different realities. For the fuller explanation, see All the Secrets Are in the Breath.
The Architecture of Time and Space
From the standpoint of awakened understanding, time and space are emergent properties of appearance. Time measures and describes how experience appears; space describes the apparent relations of forms. Brahman is beyond time and space. Universal respiration offers a contemplative lens for this inquiry.
When you next sit in the warmth of the sun or share a meal, consider that you are not merely consuming; you are participating in a cosmic inhalation. If your very existence is a pause in the breath of the universe, how does that change your connection to the “no-thing” that sustains you?
Universal respiration: the elements, Oṃ and the four-part cycle
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