"...way of the Breath..." This work resulted from the concept formed out of personal experience and from research as well as experimentation along with the new knowledge about the body and emotions relating to the mind, which also led to the choice of style and technique used. The concept originated from health problems: sleeplessness insomnia. This is not referring to being consciously awake, but more of thinking about something over and over and going around in circles, to the point of having to go through therapy in order to de-stress. Understanding life and the interrelationship of all things by concentrating on the breathing can lead to consistent internal changes through being conscious of all the movements together with new knowledge about inter-cellular communications. This is the relationship between the mind and emotion: internal and external. This new discovery is the outcome of studies known as "The Heartmath Solution." The study "demonstrated a dynamic relationship between attitudes and emotions and cardiovascular, hormonal, and immune system function. in one study, subjects were able to double their levels of usable DHEA (an anti-aging hormone) and reduce their cortisol (a stress hormone) by 23% in just one month of practicing Heartmath techniques. People can generate more intelligent responses to life that lead to better health, enhanced performance and renewed sense of well being." Also, " we can measure the electrical energy which radiates and transmit to other persons. we have two persons in the lab. On one person we monitor only their brainwaves and on the other person we monitor their (ECG) EKG (heart wave). when they are in fair distance, their waves are normal. When they hold hands you can see that the ECG signal is being picked up in the brainwaves of the other person. Although less pronounced, the same effect took pace when we have people in close proximity to each other. Now, if the electrical energy being produced by the heart is changing relative to how we are feeling, and it is being transmitted from one person to the other when they touch, that has some implications around healing touch and therapeutic massage, and even the doctor/patient bedside relationship. Information from the heart is being exchanged between those people. what scientists don't know yet is what it really means. we know that there is an electrical information being exchanged among people from one heart to another. This is from heart to brain, it's measurable."2 From the above, it can be seen that mind and emotion are working together and we can sense the feelings through the mind. Feelings like love, care, sympathy, compassion, which result from the interrelationship at the inner level that is the cells, and the outer level that is the electrical energy. "In 1983, the heart was actually reclassified as part of our mental system. It produces a hormone called adrenal peptide, and its generic name is the "balancing hormone." This hormone exerts a balancing or mediating effect on the blood vessels, on the kidneys, and on most all major glands and organs. It also mediates or reduces the release of stress hormones, and is produced by the heart. So the heart is actually producing hormones. which means there is chemical communication taking place. The heart produces electrical energy. (EKG or ECG) the electrical energy they are picking up from your beating heart is strong enough to go to every single cell in the body." This electromagnetic energy is much like radio waves that can be measured outside the body. It surrounds us. Therefore, when we are with other people, we are interacting with them at an electrical level. This is in agreement with the knowledge that all things are interrelated at a certain Level although may be not at the level of conversation or acquaintance. The study also reuealed that "the heart and brain are dynamically linked by seueral two-way communication systems. One of these is the autonomic nervous system. Most people know that the brain sends signals to the heart and other glands and other organs, but it is less commonly known that the heart sends just as many messages to the brain. in fact, it is now known that the heart has a highly sophisticated intrinsic neruous system, which has been described as a "brain of its own." The heart's electrochemical messages profoundly effect the higher brain centers, which govern functions such as languages, creativity, problem solving and the ability to make appropriate choices. Considered an independent entity, the brain in the heart is an elaborate network of neurons, support cells and neurotransmitters. Together, these form a complex circuitry, like that found in the brain proper, which enables it to process information, learn, remember and produce feelings of the heart." In addition, "the heart also generates and receives numerous peptides, the messenger molecules by which the body transmits information from one cell to another, including emotional information. when one's emotions are unbalanced, heart rhythms become jagged and uneven. This information is communicated to the brain, and cortical processing is inhibited - making it more difficult to think clearly and make good decisions. People can learn to stop stressful reactions by engaging the power of the coherent heart rhythms - literally changing the messages that the heart is sending to the brain. With some practice, the electrical patterns of the brain can synchronize with the rhythms of the heart. This leads to increased emotional balance and mental clarity in the times people need it most" We can see that the heart's electrical energy patterns can be measured and identified as having "incoherent spectrum - the pattern is very jagged, irregular and incoherent looking - shows up when experiencing negative emotions Like anger or frustration, or coherent spectrum - the pattern is ordered and coherent - shows up when we are feeling sincere, love, care or appreciation."' From the studies we can see that the internal and external are interrelated and affects the mind and emotions as measured by the electromagnetic waves and the rate of the heartbeat which we may refer to as "mental condition." Therefore the Eastern way of focusing on breathing, as is the way of Buddhism, is the meditation of the mind which relies on "absolute peace of mind." In creating this piece of work, I monitored the electrical wave of my heart under the state of meditation along with those of other experienced meditators to see the difference in pulse rate within certain period of time. The results showed the changes clearly. This suggests that the mental condition while in the state of meditation differ from person to person. Such monitoring is analogous to focusing on the breathing, which may be broadly termed as perceiving through the mind and body. "Life is the establishing of relationships. Every time we inhale and exhale, feel the relationship of each breath through the body, to the mind, and the way of life, and perceive what we have been observing inwards."' The important aspect of this work is in creating the image of the interrelationship that result from meditating on breathing and observing the movement of each breath. Every breath in and out is to be made with awareness. Inhale gently like the cool flow of water, and exhale relaxingly and steadily like sturdy cliff: like a blossoming flower, consistently and endlessly in "repetitive" cycle, consciously or subconsciously. in synchrony, like the movement of the clock's hand, the pulse rate, or walking meditatively in circles. This is like the murmur of the mind and the voice that controls our senses. The voice that conveys meanings and emotions is represented in the work by patterns of the heart waves that cover the walls of the room like the walls of the heart. some are laid out on the floor that connects between the different rooms. symbolizing the movement of the mind from room to room, as if walking by using the eye of the mind to perceive the changing emotions. This is done by the use of yellow light to convey the abstract meaning through the shedding of each layer of the outer shell until reaching the inner essence of the core meaning of each room, which is the one and only peace. For the path of consciousness, I used the heart wave patterns of 1690 volunteers in the project. These are the patterns of those with heart problems as well as those that are normal together with who have transcendental meditative abilities and those who have never meditated, aged between 24-99 years old, including my own in the state of transcendental meditation. The other important part of the work is a large print at the center of the room. This is a large printout of the heart wave patterns of those also in the state of transcendental meditation, installed to form a large circle. The placing of the prints is at the same level as the heart of those in the meditative state. This is so as to emphasize the meaning more clearly. Lighting at the top and bottom part of the circle is an analogy of the rays that emanate from the hovering Dhammacakra or wheel of Dhamma, and suggests a sense of revolving motion with every movement both inside and outside, in the peaceful silence. Yet there is the sound of heartbeat, which is the voice from within, and the murmuring of the mind, or perhaps the sound of our own breathing that reminds us to retain our consciousness. The entire discourse above... can be metaphorically summarized as: ...similar to... drawing a tiger and being scared by it...drawing a picture of love and loving it...
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