Spirit or Breath, Ghost or Wind?

At lunch today I started reading “Voicing the Vision” by Linda L. Clader, and I had an interesting insight. My insight didn’t have much at all to do with her topic of homiletics, but I mention her book on principle since I like to give authors credit in all circumstances.

Anyway…. The sentence that kicked off my insight was this: “And the Spirit acts and moves and energizes on its own, in ways that…..”

I’ve lately been thinking a lot about the Holy Spirit, in particular the mis-translation of the Latin word “spiritus” as “spirit.” Both the Greek word “pneuma” and the Latin word “spiritus” mean “breath” or “wind” or “a moving force”. The Latin word for “ghost” is “larva” and the Greek word for it is “fantasma.” The original Hebrew word for God’s Holy Spirit is “ruach.” One of the Jewish Names-of-God is “Ruach HaKodesh” which literally means “wind (or “breath”) of the Holy One.

So, this unexpectedly popped into my head: In meditation we often focus on the breath.

Suddenly, I realized that the breath that moves through me is also God’s breath. It shook me, and I sat up and inhaled, the way you do when you have a moment like that…. and then I laughed, because that inhale was also breath.



At that moment, I imagined sitting on my cushion and experiencing my breath and God’s breath as one and the same thing. It stopped me cold, and I wish I could explain how profound and noumenal that suspended moment was, as it expanded in and through me.





God is the life-breath of all Creation.

It’s the wind off of the hilltops on an autumn day—

of vivid sun, and of trees all the colors of flame.



It’s a silent breeze on a hot night—

of distant crickets, whose creaking barely shakes the air.



It’s a warmth lying next to me in the dark—

of my dog whuffling and twitching in her sleep.



It’s a long, strong upswell and slow drop—

of the Source breathing through all beings, all on its own.



It’s the Great Wide, opening on every side—

of me; of you; of All That Is, Seen and Unseen.