It's Universal
What Qi can be may be unfamiliar at first, but a significant clue to what it might be is in not calling it Qi at all. Inspirar, to inhale, espirar, to exhale. Speaking in my native tongue gives me a clue to what it’s all about. As I was growing up my Cuban mother used to tell me to get outdoors to get that aire pura, pure air. That purity, that spirit, is universally available and it is something we all seek: to be alive with the spirit. What unites us is the mystery of whatever we chose to call it, and can be found in the universal language of the breath. We take it in by breathing in our surroundings, sensing and sharing the love we feel from our environments, our homes, our bodies. To be breathed into, to allow ourselves to be transparent enough to love and be strengthened as we are rejuvenated by breathing with the Universe, this is what it means to take it in, to be inspired.
I remind students we are all made of stardust and of the astonishing 40,000 tons of cosmic dust falling on the earth every year. I pose the query of how that dust might be recycled and redistributed in our daily practice, how in one collective universal sigh we can exhale, release, and return to the origin where it all began. Invite your curiosity to be open to the elegant spirit within and around you. Inspirar. Espirar. Breathing…it’s universal.
