In Other Words....

I have always liked the following quote by Tennyson -- even using part of it occasionally as a sort of mantra in my haphazard, fumbling version of centering prayer.

Speak to him, thou, for he hears

And spirit with spirit can meet....

Closer is he than breathing

And nearer than hands and feet.

Yesterday when I was looking through some of the categories on the World Scriptures – A Comparative Anthology of World Scriptures site, in the section labeled “Immanent and Near at Hand” I came across a scripture from the Quran that sums up that same sentiment, worded just a little differently.

We indeed created man; and We know what his soul whispers within him, and We are nearer to him than the jugular vein. 1. Islam. Qur'an 50.16

Perhaps not as poetic, but it certainly gets the same idea across....in him we live and move and have our being. Nearer than the jugular vein...nearer than hands and feet. Closer than breath.

Bryon Katie speaks of the realization that she was “being breathed” rather than the way we usually look at it...that we are breathing. Are we really? It seems to me that it is not a conscious act (unless, of course, you have a stuffy nose...then we are oh so aware of each diminished breath!!!)

In Genesis it declares that God breathed the breath of life into man and he became a living soul.

In Job there are several references to our dependence upon God for our very breath....

Job 33:4 "The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Job 12:10 speaks of God: In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind.

In Daniel 5:23 it refers to the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways

Take a breath. Pay attention to the sensation. Mind boggling that he could be closer than that!!! How could he be closer than breath? Closer than the jugular vein?

Psalm 139 says:

⁶Your knowledge of me is too deep; it is beyond my understanding. GNT

You can say that again!!

Okay, I will. This time from the NRS

⁶  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;  it is so high that I cannot attain it.