The  Breath  of  Life

Jack Jenkins

April 16, 2020  108 Mile Ranch, B.C.

This is from the Second Chapter of the Book of Genesis, the Seventh Verse: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Here in one verse is, very succinctly put, the law of Life, the attunement that we share in every moment with Life. The source of life is the breath of Life, and it’s symbolized here in these words as something that’s invisible; and in each moment we have to take a breath in order to remain a living soul.

These nostrils that we have allow for a translation of what was invisible to be made visible, and that occurs in many ways in this process of differentiation into what we know of as “man.” There is oxygen, for example, that goes throughout the body, distributed rather efficiently in the bloodstream to every cell—and it is a rhythmical cadence, our breathing. It has to occur rather frequently, and there is only a certain degree of volume that one can inhale. We can’t hold our breath and expect to stay conscious for very long. So there is the requirement of this process of translation, or differentiation, first through our nostrils, then our lungs, and then the bloodstream, by which life is sustained, the experience of life is known.

Oxygen is just one thing that’s conveyed in this process, conveyed to this form we have. Oxygen might be seen as a principle element that relates to the physical body, but there is far more contained within the breath of life that relates to a much larger spectrum of our experience. Much of human experience is limited to the physical, and yet here is the means that is always present to experience more. The air is free, it’s abundant, and in every moment we have the opportunity to receive that.

I have been exploring the area of chant recently, and I came across some interesting observations that speech therapists and linguists use. It would be easy to assume that there is a reason for the breath of life moving through man other than just sustaining life at the physical level. Air moving through this form also has a means for making sound, creating sound. Here is another level or spectrum of this process of differentiation. Speech therapists have come to an understanding of what it is that allows different vowels, for instance, to be given expression. Within the cavity of the mouth they have identified certain areas and positions of the mouth and the tongue that allow us to give form to various vowels. And they have divided this, interestingly enough, into seven vertical positions; and then moving from the front to the back of the mouth, three distinct positions. So there is a total of seven times three—or 21—distinct positions of the mouth and tongue that allow us to produce various sounds. Here is a spectrum of sound that is available to man in giving expression to something. It was interesting to note that there isn’t a language on earth that uses all of these 21 sounds. It would be interesting to hear a language that does; and perhaps one day we may hear that.

Here is the breath of life that was meant not only to sustain the physical form but to move on out beyond that form. Most people when they speak do not have a great variety in their tone of voice. It tends to be rather monotone. We don’t actually utilize the full spectrum that is available to us, either in terms of sound or in terms of pitch, which is another element of the spectrum of our voices. This monotone probably gives some indication of how limited one’s state of consciousness is and one’s experience of life is. People generally don’t breathe very deeply either, so what is freely available is not taken advantage of. Possibly this is one reason why people are in a state of comatose; they don’t breathe deeply enough.

So we were created to use our voices in what I would refer to as this prism that is contained within our mouths for the differentiation of the breath of life. Man has created a lot of substitutes for doing this. I play the cello, for example. Music could be seen as being a substitute; the cello could be seen as being a substitute. People often compare the sound of the cello to the human voice. I wonder what our voices—if they were capable of giving expression to this 21-spectrum sound—would sound like? Possibly our language would be much more musical. It probably would be much more enjoyable to listen to someone speak!

Some of the other substitutes that have appeared in more recent times have to do with the field of electronics and the reproduction of music. It has become so prolific that most people hardly even sing anymore. The electronic means of generating music has separated us from our voices. How then are we to know what it is to be a living soul if we do not use the mechanism that allows us to speak and sound the Tone of Life?

We should take advantage of the design, the image, that we were created in if we wish to come to know what it is to be a living soul. At some point substitutes need to be relinquished. The toys which may have been useful when we were children may have acquainted us with some idea of what they represented, but at some point they need to be relinquished. And so it is with our own experience in living, so that there once again might be a living form on earth that gives evidence of this full spectrum differentiated through the form of man.

The Light  Between

“The Light Between” is an artistic collaboration intended to direct the listener and viewer’s attention to that which is “between,” whether that is space, light or silence. All of the dimensional reality that we experience through our sensibilities is set in a context, a very large one in fact. Anyone who has had to move from where they were living is confronted with all the stuff that they have managed to collect and cram into that space. It seems that human beings think that the only reason for this space, this context, is to fill it up. I suppose we eventually succeed in that when we have completely obliterated the light, and we’re dead!

YouTube  Audio

What each of us as artists has tried to do through the form of thought, music and image is to point to the greater context within which those forms find their true meaning. You could describe that context as un-dimensional or invisible. That which is “between” actually is what connects. It connects everything. It is what allows us to experience the oneness of it all.

These three friends I have known for a long time and we all share this sensibility to what really has true meaning. I thank them for their generosity and immediate willingness to participate in this project. I think Chris Harris was born with a camera in his hand. He has shown me areas of the Cariboo/Chilcotin region of BC by backcountry skiing and canoeing trips that I otherwise would have never seen. I’ve performed with Maryliz Smith since we were hippies with long hair. She lives in San Francisco so our collaboration was all “virtual.” She is a dear friend. I met Janet Barocco many years ago, although briefly, but we do have a common connection—her husband Richard Heinberg. Richard plays the violin and we played for several years together before he and Janet met. I originally scored Janet’s poem for a women’s chorus and have just recently transcribed it for cello and piano. Enjoy!

Jack Jenkins — sepabay@shaw.ca