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Guided Meditation: Intimacy with Breathing

Warm greetings from IMC in Redwood City. In continuing with this series this week on mindfulness of breathing, if one is sitting still, being still, not moving the body, but then going to notice the largest movements that are still happening, chances are you become aware of the movements of breathing. Even if the rest of the body is still, not moving, the movements of the chest, the diaphragm, the belly, the shoulders, the back, ribcage—all the parts of the body that come into play with breathing are still moving, as they're supposed to. And so if we're sitting still and attentive to the body, one of the things that we will start noticing is the breathing. The breathing will make itself known.

And this idea of what makes itself known is a very interesting idea, because often we are directing our attention, we have an agenda for what we want, what we're looking for, what we're concerned with, and there might be a lot of will, a lot of directedness in our attention. And there's another whole way in terms of meditation, or the way of being in life even, and that's fascinating and kind of deepening for the purpose of meditation: What is it that is known? What is it that makes itself known?

So the breathing can make itself known, and there's a play here a little bit between our directing our attention to the breathing and our kind of receiving the breathing. It's maybe a little bit like we intentionally open a window and then we can feel the breeze coming in. So we open the window of attention to the breathing and then we start feeling that experience. That experience becomes known. And so it's a little bit less, at some point, of directing the mind on the breathing, as it is repeatedly opening the window to receive the sensations of breathing. And then those sensations become known or felt.

One of the first things we can do is we can feel the breathing, feel the sensations. The feeling of the sensations is one of the ways to develop concentration, to stay close to the sensory experience. So one of those is the movements of the breathing. Another is, as you breathe in, maybe the expansion, the pressure. At the top of the in-breath, there might be a tautness as we reach near the limit there. And on the exhale, there's a release, relaxing, a smoothness maybe. And sometimes that breathing in and breathing out feels like a smooth feeling, and sometimes it feels choppy, kind of like little segments that are going in and going out. Whatever it is, to feel it, and to feel it where in the body it's most compelling, where the experience of breathing is easiest, and that's sometimes called the home base.

For some people, it's a particular spot. Sometimes people really love feeling it in the lower belly just below the navel. Some people feel it in the chest around the solar plexus diaphragm area. Some people will feel it at the nose, the sensations of the air going in and out through the nose, the tip of the nose, the top of the lip. Some people find it very nice to just feel the whole experience of the body, so it's kind of a holistic sensing of it all.

As we get concentrated, there's a subtle shift that can begin happening. Now in addition to sensing and feeling it, there's a very quiet, relaxed knowing that we can engage in. We know that is movement. We know that is pressure and release of pressure. We know that is a sense of expansion and contraction. We start kind of recognizing, knowing what those sensations actually are.

And then to go further down, as it gets quieter, the knowing begins to fade away or is not as important, and it becomes a quiet observing where there's not much recognition, just observing. The intimacy of the feeling at the beginning is replaced by an intimacy of observing. The observing has a clarity to it and a beauty to it at the right time as it gets more and more settled.

So, to assume a meditation posture. Adjusting the posture to make it a little easier for your lungs to breathe, your diaphragm to move. And for some people, that's letting the chest be a little bit more open. Sometimes sitting a little bit straighter so that we're not collapsing in the front of our body can make it easier to breathe.

Gently closing the eyes, and relaxing.

Seeing where in the body you can relax. Maybe relaxing around the belly. And if you relax a lot in the belly, you might want to readjust your posture slightly so that the weight of your body through your spine feels just right.

Relaxing your shoulders. And there too, maybe some subtle shifts in how your hands are can feel good in the shoulders, let them relax more.

Softening in the face. Maybe letting there be a soft little opening in the mouth.

Relaxing around the eyes.

And then to allow the breathing to be known more fully as the breathing comes into awareness, gently take two or three deeper breaths, receiving the full sensory experience of breathing in and breathing out.

Letting your breathing return to normal. And don't be too concerned what normal is. If you find yourself controlling the breath or the breath a little bit held in check, it's okay. For the purpose of mindfulness, it's just to feel it how it is, without any need really for it to be different. It's okay the way it is. The task is to feel it as it is.

What is the body's experience of breathing? Where's the predominant place where you feel the body breathing? The belly, the chest, the nose? Or the whole body in a certain way, the whole torso?

The more you allow yourself to feel the sensations of breathing, the less the energy of attention goes into thinking about other things. Now is not the time to be thinking about other things. At least put those things into the background of the mind. In the foreground, receive the sensations of breathing.

Like the window is open and the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out is like a gentle breeze, or gentle waves lapping up on the shore. To feel the experience of breathing is to be intimate.

Mindfulness is never in a hurry. Mindfulness has an attitude that you have all the time in the world to sense and feel what's happening.

As a gentle way of staying connected to your breathing, there's a very subtle way of thinking, an alternative thinking to being distracted. It is to very gently, with all the time in the world, recognize some of the sensations that come into play as you breathe. Kind of like you're stroking the sensations or like you're putting a gentle hand on them to just acknowledge their presence.

It can be as simple as recognition of movement, tingling, warmth, coolness, pleasure if anything of breathing is pleasant, or unpleasant if anything is unpleasant. Pressure, tightness, looseness. Sometimes there's a little pulling with the exhale or releasing. Jagged or smooth. The gentle little recognition that keeps you gently tethered to your breathing.

Saying it in such a quiet voice that the act of recognition is quieting for the distracted mind. Stay close to the sensations of breathing. Feeling the breath has a gentle contact, a gentle holding of those sensations. Recognize them with a little word or act of recognition for what they are. Not all of them, not straining, whatever is obvious and easy, in such a way that the recognition supports you to be intimate with the sensations.

Where the act of recognition is not a final decision at what's there, but rather it's more like opening the window, almost like a question mark so that you feel it more fully.

And then as we come to the end of the sitting: Is there any way that your breathing has become more easeful, a little more fluid or relaxed in the course of the meditation? And to feel that sense of ease or an easeful breath. And if it hasn't, that's okay. It's also very important to recognize well a breathing which is not easeful. Both ways can be a reference for appreciating other people, understanding that they and their breathing is sometimes difficult, sometimes labored and tense, held. And that all beings have the potential of an easy breath, an open, relaxed, easeful breath.

And it's not an incidental thing to do, to have an easeful breath, because the breathing is connected to our psychology, our minds, our hearts. To breathe easy is to be relaxed in other ways too, to be at ease in this world.

And may it be that as we end the sitting, we can wish that others also have the experience of having enough ease and safety and well-being that they can breathe easily. It's one of the great luxuries of life, to have breathing room for our breathing. And through that easeful breath, may beings be nourished and supported. May it teach them about their potential for being at peace and happy, contented.

May all beings be at ease in their breathing. May they have the safety to breathe easily. May they have peace so they breathe openly. May all beings have their breathing free, free breath. And may we live in such a way that supports others to be at ease in their breathing, at ease in themselves. May the many of us gathered together here this morning live our days contributing to the greater peace, well-being, and happiness of others. May all beings be well.

Dharmette: Breathing (2 of 5) Clear Recognition of Breathing

So I was introduced to a meditation on breathing^[1] probably almost 50 years ago. And if someone had told me 50 years ago, when I was still a teenager, that I'd still be practicing mindfulness of breathing 50 years later, and those 50 years would have spent a lot of time tuning into my breathing, I probably would not have welcomed the idea. But in fact, it's been a wonderful thing that these years in meditation, it just feels like it just keeps deepening and opening. There's a great appreciation for meditation, for being present, for attention, and to do it through the vehicle of breathing.

And I spend a lot of time paying attention to my breathing. In fact, my attention to breathing is kind of with me most of the time. If I'm doing things, talking, reading, being on the computer, it's almost like it has become second nature to also be with my breathing at the same time. It's like my breathing accompanies me with everything. And it doesn't interfere with my ability to do whatever I'm going to do, but it supports me, it guides me. I recognize right away, or not quickly enough sometimes, but sometimes right away, when I get tense, when I get tight, holding, concerned. When I'm pushing and trying too hard, it all gets translated into how my breathing operates and I lose the easeful relaxed breath.

Sometimes that's completely appropriate to have the breathing change. If I go for a run, or hike up the hill, or have some real fun with some friends playing or something, the breathing does change in ways, but it qualitatively feels wonderful if it's for a good purpose. But sometimes, you know, I'm trying too hard or I'm tense or trying to figure out my computer and I feel my whole chest kind of tighten up and it affects the breathing, it's held. And so to constantly be aware of it kind of guides or supports me in having a much more easeful, peaceful kind of life as I go through my days. And I love my breathing. This intimacy with it is almost like an intimacy with life, and it keeps me intimate and connected in a wonderful way.

So the theme for today is recognizing. Yesterday was relaxing. We can relax too much and become kind of just a, you know, collapse in some way. Most people, they relax deeply to have meditation be a place of releasing. Releasing the holding and tension is one of the great purposes of meditation, but it's not the only purpose. And if we overemphasize it in such a way that we kind of slump a lot or collapse or just get kind of dull, some of the sharpness of meditation comes from the factor of recognition.

And this is kind of the heart of what mindfulness is usually taught: that there's a recognizing quality to it. And different teachers will emphasize different aspects of this mindfulness of recognition. Because many people in the West tend to be thinkers, think a lot, get lost in their thought and up in the control tower, some teachers like to really emphasize the language of feeling, sensing, feeling your breathing, sensing your breathing, placing your attention in the middle of where the physicality of breathing is and just really sense and feel it.

But there are kind of three major forms of recognition that come into play with mindfulness practice. At different times, different ones of them are relevant. And knowing these three can be very helpful because sometimes we're trying one when the other one is actually more appropriate, more useful for the whole system, and sometimes one of them is more helpful to work through some kind of difficulty than others. So knowing these three can be very helpful.

One is this emphasis on feeling, sensing the direct physical sensation experience of breathing. And that's one of the means of getting concentrated, because you find some place where the breathing occurs in the body where there's a sensation and you kind of ride the sensation closely. Maybe you kind of imagine yourself sitting in the middle of the sensation and being carried by it or focused on it or just really kind of attuned, very closely attuned, so the mind doesn't wander off very easily. Just the sensing becomes the grounding, the stabilizing force, the steadying force for the mind to quiet down and get focused and stable and concentrated.

People who do the nostrils will have their attention on their nostrils. Their breath gets very precise and acute and very sensitive. And it's amazing how acute the sensations can get and very compelling, very pleasant. Sometimes the feeling in the chest, little movement, it might be the whole chest, it might be as we get concentrated, just a little round spot maybe around the solar plexus or higher up somewhere in the midline and just a feeling just right there. Feeling it. And if it's in the belly, there are the classic places of the hara^[2]. This place is about two inches below the navel, maybe kind of like one inch into the body, and it's like the attention is right there feeling the sensations. And there you're feeling the movements, often the sensation movements, the flow back and forth.

So it can be very effective to get us out of our head sometimes that way. Other times, and for some people what's more helpful is what's really the heart of the recognition factor, which is to know what the sensations are, to know what the experience is while it's happening. So to recognize it's an inhale when we're breathing in, to recognize an exhale with the exhale. And the recognition is a little bit cognitive. It could be with a single word. We use mental notes sometimes, or almost as if there's a mental note, like we imagine we're saying the note, like inhaling or in, out. Or it might be that there's a movement, expansion, and we recognize that, we recognize that's expansion. Expansion is happening, that's known. Expansion is known. There is release as we exhale, knowing the release.

Or there might be a whole slew of sensations that come into play, maybe too fast to name them all, but there's kind of a silent recognition or an acknowledgment of what these sensations are. So in a sense, after an inhale, you might remember, in a sense, because you recognized it well if you were there, that there was a subtle release as the inhale began, and then there was a gentle push in part of the chest perhaps, and then an expansion is spreading. And then at the top of the inhale, there was some sense of tautness, like some resistance to breathing in anymore. And then maybe a pause, and then a release as the exhale began. And the recognition, if it's done too effortfully, like you're doing a checklist approach, it just makes the mind busy, it kind of uses a coarser active part of the mind.

The idea is to have it very simple and natural and easy. Almost like a wonderful expression is "the cognitive functioning of emptiness"^[3]. The mind left to its own, very relaxed and very present, it will know, knowing just happens on its own. It's not so much a willful effort. But initially, there might be a little bit of effort to know, but it's not so willful, it's just a way of helping to stay present. It's a tether. It's an anchor to the present. It's a way of having a little more clarity about what's going on. And as meditation deepens, the clarity becomes stronger and there's less of the filter or the cloudiness that happens when we're distracted a lot, caught up in our thoughts and our feelings.

There's more and more ease in just recognizing. Some people will go through this pattern of starting with feeling the breathing, and then as things settle down and get quiet and concentrated, it just feels natural then to brighten things up, to sharpen the clarity of the mind by having a gentle, soft recognition, knowing, cognitive knowing of what is actually happening here. And it turns out that in deeper meditation there's something very deepening about this cognitive knowing. Just very simple natural cognitive functioning of emptiness.

At some point, that cognitive functioning might seem like it's too much, and it shifts just to observing, very simple observing of the experience. It doesn't have the same kind of direct contact and intimacy of feeling, it doesn't necessarily have the same kind of clarity as recognition or cognitive knowing. But observing can be very spacious. It's meant to be kind of one of the deeper places we come to. We settle back and we're not entangled, not identified, not involved, trying to fix anything that's going on. We're just there peacefully, just watching it. It's almost like we get out of our own way when there's observing, but no observer, kind of thing.

And so these are three of the main forms of mindfulness, and different times different ones are relatively useful. I kind of talked about them as being deepening, but sometimes when the mind is very active, some people find it's better to just settle back and observe rather than feel. Sometimes the intimacy of feeling hooks us into being kind of caught and more engaged. And sometimes the cognitive knowing can be so beautiful. It's like in the knowing, the cognitive knowing is where this freedom is. It's almost like you say to yourself, Oh, it's just an inhale, it's just a tight breath, it's just a controlled breath. And that recognition is like, Oh, that's all it is, and let it be.

So the recognition factor... we begin with some relaxation so we're not tense in doing all this, and then we practice recognition in three forms. And you can experiment. There's feeling, sensing, then there's cognitive knowing, and then there is just observing, simple observation. And for people who are real beginners, I'd recommend just the feeling and sensing, and then stay with the sensations the best you can, and then as it shifts, you know, these other ones as well. And so thank you, and I look forward to continuing this topic of breathing tomorrow.