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Mindfulness of Breathing (15) Supported by Pleasure

So, continuing with the practice, talking about the practice of mindfulness of breathing, there's a variety of stepping stones that we're crossing and developing on this path. One of them is to really be present in our experience as it actually is, to have a higher quality clarity of presence of attention where the mind, tension, and thoughts are not wandering off away from the present, but we're really at rest, at ease, or established here.

To do that, what's helpful is developing concentration. To develop concentration, it's helpful to cultivate happiness. To develop happiness, it's helpful to cultivate tranquility. To cultivate tranquility, it's helpful to relax. But to relax not to become completely limp, but to become dignified and upright, and here, really present and relaxed. We ride the edge of that. Sometimes too relaxed, sometimes too alert, but we're operating there, finding where that balance is for us.

The Pleasure of Relaxation

One of the things to notice as we relax, as we calm the bodily formations—the fourth step of Anapanasati^[1]—is to notice the pleasure of that, or what's pleasing about that, or a sense of well-being that comes from that. Exactly what the right word is might be very personal, but there are good feelings that can come from being with the breathing, settling in the present moment, and letting there be a growing tranquility, ease, and relaxation.

One of the means or stepping stones to that pleasure is to allow yourself to feel the goodness, feel the positive feelings that come from being calm, from being tranquil, from relaxing. Feeling the good feelings can be just even in a singular moment of relaxing muscular tension, softening in the shoulders. Rather than having the mind race off to the next important thing to think about, now that you're relaxed, linger a little bit in that relaxation and feel the goodness of it. Feel the pleasure of it, or the good feeling, or the ease, or lightening, or whatever it might be.

Feel the positive feeling there as you settle in meditation and your mind is not so agitated and caught up in thoughts. Allow yourself to feel in the present moment the goodness of that, how that feels pleasant, the pleasure of it, the positive feelings, the satisfaction of it. Not so much that you're evaluating it as satisfactory, but the felt sense, the embodied feelings: Ah, that's good. Ah, this is so much better.

Expanding the Attention

Begin opening your nerves, your muscles, and your skin to really take in the feeling of well-being or positive feelings. The third step of Anapanasati, the third step of the first tetrad, is breathing in, experiencing the whole body; breathing out, experiencing the whole body.

One of the benefits of beginning to expand the attention to really feel globally the experience of breathing is that it gives you a larger capacity to feel pleasure, to feel the goodness, or feel the positive feeling that comes with getting settled, getting calm, getting tranquil, and relaxing further and further. Increasing our capacity to feel pleasure and well-being is one of the stepping stones, one of the things we're cultivating here in this practice.

So we're developing a greater focus and familiarity with the breathing, getting to know the breathing more, coming back from the wandering mind, coming back here, and then feeling more fully what's here—the global body—and then relaxing the bodily activity, settling it. And all along, it's helpful to keep letting go of the thoughts that take us away.

A Joyful Mindset

Because some sense of well-being is so important, some sense of healthy pleasure is so important for this process, you also want to be very careful, if you can, not to make it unpleasant. Do not have an unpleasant reaction to your mind wandering off, and do not jerk your mind back to the breathing in a hurry as an unpleasant duty. Do not feel like you're being reprimanded, or that you did something wrong and have to come back here and sit in the corner of the room and just look at your breathing.

Rather, look and see how you can come back to the present moment, come back to your breathing, and how you can stay there with a mindset—an orientation in the mind—that just enjoys the whole thing. Appreciate when you notice your mind wandering off: Oh, this is wise. This is good to know that I'm drifting off in thought and lost. It is a really good thing. How lucky I am, I've seen it.

If you have enough ability to criticize or reproach yourself for wandering off in thought, you have all the attention you need to be present. A certain kind of presence is there when you notice you're wandering off. So, rather than reproaching yourself, you can congratulate yourself: Oh, look, I woke up. Great, I noticed I was thinking. There is a little bit more of an uplifting feeling rather than a discouraging feeling, even if it happens ten thousand times in a sitting.

Welcoming the Mind Back

Then, welcome the mind back to the breathing. Float the mind back to the breathing. Invite the breathing back into the attention. Can you find a way to make that transition—from having been lost in thought to beginning again with breathing—enjoyable for you? A way where you're happy to do it and you feel lucky: Fortunately, I get to use my attention in a way that really welcomes back the breathing, or is welcomed by the breathing. Or you just move slowly and feel, I have some efficacy, some agency, and I can use that to gently, lovingly establish myself with the breathing.

The general idea of what I'm saying here is hopefully understandable. How to actually do it is really up to you to experiment with and find a way that's appropriate for you—a way that gives you a sense of enjoyment and well-being in the engagement of it.

The Middle Way of Pleasure

We're allowed in meditation to feel pleasure. We're allowed to enjoy. We're allowed to feel the joy and the happiness that can be there, the well-being. The art of that is to do so without clinging, and without spending a lot of time savoring it, really working it, holding onto it, or luxuriating in it. There is a matter-of-fact simplicity in which we want to relate to the pleasures and the well-being that comes with meditation.

But we also want to experience it. It's a tremendous support for staying in the present moment, because the mind is more likely to want to stay in the present moment if it's tuning into what's enjoyable. It doesn't want to be in the present very much if mostly what we're aware of is unpleasant. This middle way allows us to experience the well-being, but we don't cling to it, we don't pump it up, and we don't try to make too much out of it. Just enough—just enough so that it keeps us in the present moment, keeps us going. So: breathing, pleasure, well-being.

Reflections

As we get ready to end this little session together, I would like to suggest that most of us don't avail ourselves of the well-being and the pleasure that is really here. The small pleasures, a small sense of well-being—we don't take the time to notice or to appreciate them.

Maybe there's some way that you can take the time through the day to appreciate the small pleasures, the small satisfactions, the small senses of well-being and small delights. You'd start noticing there is much more available than you usually spend your time enjoying because you're caught up in projects, doing, thoughts, and all kinds of things.

Take time to feel that, so that you're beginning to feel more comfortable staying in the present moment with your experience. In doing so, maybe your life will become richer, not poorer. Maybe a poor life is one that spends too much time thinking about things.

Thank you for today. I hope you explore this area of pleasure, enjoyment, and well-being because this becomes a theme as we continue down the next steps of Anapanasati. Spending some time familiarizing yourself with your relationship to these things, your attitude towards them, and your avoidance of them—or whatever you do—will set the stage^[2] for the next steps of Anapanasati. Thank you very much.