The Breath Within the Breath

Yesterday on Twitter, I posted one of my favorite verses by Kabir the poet:

"Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath..."

This "tweet" or post got re-tweeted quite a bit, and one particular person on Facebook, wanted to see the whole poem it came from:

"Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in Indian shrine rooms,
not in synagogues, not in cathedrals,
not in masses nor sacred songs.
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly.
You will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says, “Student, tell me, what is God?”
He is the breath inside the breath."

I later recalled I wrote a poem some years ago that alludes to this verse from Kabir:

The Breath Within the Breath

Kabir wrote:

The Divine is found
In the Breath
Within the breath.

I experience Shakti,
In the Movement
Within the movement.

Just as the Shakti teasingly dances
And arises from the deepest
Core, in my pelvis—
So She gently nudges me,
By refining my poses.

Totally unbidden
And unexpectedly,
I am surprised
As my body responds
By following
the fluidity of the Movement
Within the movement,
As I have followed
The Breath
Within the Breath.

Shakti Energy,
Uniquely expressed
Within me—
Becomes my artistic
Offering, back
To the Divine.

In that pause between the breaths - which the yogis called kumbhaka, a sacred place of stillness, we find the Divine...