Breath or Soul?

What is breath? Is it air? Is it life? Is it something more than that? We might recognise that there are overlaps in our language that hint at both things — inspire means to inhale, but also give energy to an idea or feeling; conspire literally means to breathe with someone else, but we use the word to express working together to achieve a goal (often nefarious, actually or tongue-in-cheek). The word Atman is a Sanskrit word that means our essence or soul, but can also refer to the breath. And it's related to the Proto-Indo-European word etmen, which is the root of many words across Europe which mean breath. What is it to you?

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