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Mindfulness of Breathing (36) Embodiment Leading to Joy

I think many of you have heard from me, and maybe other Buddhist teachers and teachings, the value of being embodied. So much so that I sometimes imagine that it would be nice if we had translated sati^[1] not as mindfulness, but as "body-fulness." It's such an important part of this practice.

In the two classic teachings by the Buddha on mindfulness practice—the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[2]) and the discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati Sutta^[3])—it begins with an emphasis on mindfulness of the body. One of the reasons for this is that the more present we are for our body, the more aware we are. The more there's awareness that's alive and available through the body, the more the body becomes an instrument for the growth of meditation practice.

It becomes the vehicle and space for some of the deeper feelings and qualities of meditation that begin to arise. As the body receives some of the benefits of meditation, those benefits grow and fill out, and we get the most out of them.

What I'm talking about here, partly, is that as the body becomes more alive, more sensitive, and more of an instrument of sensations, experiences, and feelings, it's not just feeling the body itself. The body also becomes the sensor for feeling some of the goodness that comes from meditation. I use the word "goodness" in a very abstract, vague way, referring to some of the positive feelings that can come with meditation.

Classically, it's joy (pīti^[4]) and happiness (sukha^[5]), but it could also be contentment. I like the word "ease" quite a bit. There can be gladness, deep feelings of equanimity (upekkhā^[6]), and deep feelings of confidence that can arise. There can even be feelings of inner cleanliness and inner purity that are really embodied feelings coursing through us. All these qualities are felt more fully when they're felt throughout the whole body, felt with the body.

If the body is not available, then it becomes a mental thing. Sometimes that's quite wonderful and profound in its own way, but especially in the beginning stages of meditation, it's a way of being quite limited in the experience. It gives us a different impression of what meditation is about and a different orientation. If it's too much towards the mind, it doesn't really help us develop the wholeness and unification of all of ourselves, which is ideally what we're looking for in Buddhist meditation.

I think one of the meanings of samādhi^[7] is unification—bringing it all together, here and present.

So again, the body is not just a bunch of physical stuff that we have to carry around with us. The body is a significant repository of nerve endings, a significant location for emotions, feelings, and the goodness of meditation to course through us, to fill us, and be here.

To begin tuning in, relaxing the body, sitting in with the body, and feeling the body is one way in which we begin to open up to this repository of goodness. As I said, classically, what comes next after the first four steps of ānāpānasati^[8], as practice deepens, are feelings of well-being, joy, ease, or gladness. Knowing that this is coming, knowing that it's part of meditation, can encourage us to be a little bit more sensitive to when they start appearing. Hints of them appear, and we start feeling these good feelings a little bit.

Sometimes it feels like pleasure in the body, tingling in places, or a sense of lightness that comes. It's not that we're trying to make it happen so much, searching for it, or striving for it, but when it begins to show itself a little bit, there's an art to opening to it, to relaxing with it, and including it so it goes along with the breathing, or the breathing goes along with it.

We are encouraged to become even more embodied, to feel these in our body. As we feel this goodness, we can breathe with it, open to it, and continue this process of feeling, sensing, and developing as we go along.

Contentment is part of this. To feel contentment allows for this filling out of the practice, really being rooted and centered here in this body, feeling more and more. It isn't a moral obligation to feel content.

The same thing applies to the idea of being in the present moment and not thinking about the past and future. It's not like a moral obligation we have to fulfill, but when we're no longer caught up in thoughts of the past and future, it allows for the possibility of filling out more into the wholeness of this moment, which includes so much more of us. It's like a momentum, a movement towards becoming really whole and present with all of who we are.

Part of that comes along with relaxation, tranquility, and calmness. There is more and more space for delight, joy, well-being, a sense of pleasure, and just being alive and being here.

I think of this joy of meditation as being a joy that has no opposite. It's just a joy that exists in its own way. If it had an opposite, we could swing from one to the other. Certainly, it can be absent, but it doesn't swing; it's not part of a pendulum that goes from one to the other.

For example, if your joy is dependent on praise, the opposite is blame, and the pendulum can swing because it's dependent on getting something.^[9] If your joy is dependent on success, there can be failure. If it's dependent on physical pleasure, the opposite can be things being uncomfortable, and so on.

But the joy of meditation does not have an opposite. It just has this wonderful, simple, and clear quality of surfacing, arising, and being here without depending so much on the things that come and go in the world. Instead, it is a wellspring that flows within the body.

The more we can center ourselves in the body, relax, and be present, the more we will start to open up to our potential and our capacity for well-being, joy, and happiness. That's a wonderful thing. It turns out that meditative joy and happiness continue this process of unification and wholeness, bringing more and more of ourselves into the picture so that we can continue on a path to liberation.