--- ai_generation_date: '2026-09-27' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2021-01-08' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/12717/20210108-Gil_Fronsdal-IMC-mindfulness_of_breathing_5_receptive_awareness.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Gil Fronsdal speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: Mindfulness of Breathing (5) Receptive Awareness url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12717 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: UCYrTY2vgpM imprecise_upload_date: '2021-05-04' title: 'Dharmette: Mindfulness of Breathing (5) Receptive Awareness' upload_date: null uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYrTY2vgpM --- # Mindfulness of Breathing (5) Receptive Awareness - [Gil Fronsdal](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/1) _This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers._ ## [Mindfulness of Breathing (5) Receptive Awareness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/12717) Now in this fifth talk for mindfulness of breathing, we're going to go through the 16 progressive steps the Buddha laid out for deepening or fulfilling the possibilities of breath meditation. In laying out these 16 steps, the Buddha didn't give any indication that there are going to be problems in doing this. It's almost as if he was simply laying out the landmarks for how the practice progresses, how it deepens, and how it becomes fuller. But of course, there are going to be challenges to it. Working with those challenges is part of the practice of mindfulness of breathing. One of the first challenges for many of us is to just arrive in the present moment, to really be established here. The mind has a mind of its own. It wanders off so easily, drifts off, and gets preoccupied with things. Then we lose a kind of intimacy and groundedness in the present moment. Sometimes the mind is really strong and it pulls us off a lot. It just takes a lot of—what I call for myself—manual labor to come back to the breath. "Okay, I'm going to be in the present moment." Breathing has the benefit that it is always in the present moment. It's always this reoccurring rhythm of things that are happening, sensations in the body. So it's always available as a place to ground ourselves in the present moment, just as the whole body is. If you're with your breathing, you're in the present moment. Without having to think, analyze, and figure out where attention is supposed to be, the idea is to have a default that says, "Oh, I'll be in the present moment here with this." The same thing applies to where you pay attention to the breathing. It's helpful if you have a default place that's your home. I call it the home base. For me, it's often the belly, but sometimes it switches to the chest, and very occasionally it's the nostrils. It can be any of those places. Sometimes it feels like a bellows, like the whole body is the place. Unless I've switched, the default for me is the belly, just feeling the movements of the belly as I practice. Sometimes it feels like manual labor to do it. I just come back, come back, come back. The mind drifts off, and I don't have a lot of success in staying there, but I just come back, come back. Eventually, the energy of thinking and being distracted begins to quiet down and abate. Partly because I'm not feeding it anymore; I'm actually feeding being with the breathing. At some point, there's a switch. Sometimes I don't see when that switch happens. "Okay, now I'm established. Now I'm much more here and present, and I can stay here." That switch to really being present can be progressive in little quantum leaps where I'm somewhat present, then I'm a little bit more present, and even more present, until it really feels like we're well established here. The mind has very little tendency to wander off. Sometimes the mind begins to wander off, and you're right there. You're so alert and present, you notice the mind beginning to wander off. Just in noticing it, it's almost like there's a rubber band attached to your thoughts, and as they get too stretched, everything comes back into the present, comes back in here. We're working with this, trying to develop this capacity to be present. It takes a lot of repetition. There's a tremendous amount of repetition—coming back, starting over, starting over, starting over. One of the real keys to making this repetition really work and take off for us is if the way we begin again, start over again, is a pleasant way of doing it. If the mind wanders off, it's very easy to be upset with oneself or be aversive to it, and then jerk the mind back, pounce back on the breath. But there should be no pouncing and no jerking, nothing violent. It can all be relaxed. Clearly, definitively, we begin again. I like the expression "begin again" because the expression "come back to the breath" makes it seem almost like we have to move and do something. But to "begin again," it's like there's no movement, just, "Oh, here I am, and we'll start again." To begin again, to begin again. Do that in a pleasant or relaxed way, a way that you enjoy doing it. Over time, you start to enjoy it more than you enjoy wandering off into thought. So it's like a pleasant thing, a delightful thing to come back and be here. That also takes some practice and some experimenting. "How do I show up here?" Then once you're with the breathing—there's a time and season for every way of being in meditation. There's not just one way. The idea that we're supposed to have a laser focus, hold on tight, and strain to be with the breath, to be in the present moment, is usually counterproductive. More often than not, it's maybe more useful to be receptive, to be open, allowing, to receive the breath. But then not to do it too casually. We don't want to be relaxed and complacent, or relaxed and too lackadaisical. The art of it is to be both relaxed, at ease, receptive, _and_ have a sense of commitment to it. To be present. Really relaxed, but really feeling like, "This is what I want to do. I'm established here." The language of the Buddha is to have awareness established. Established so it can be receptive, and receptive so it can be established. This is all to say that _how_ we're aware is part of the practice of mindfulness of breathing. It's not just about being with the breath; it's how we're with the breath. This interface between awareness and breathing is something we're cultivating, developing, and working with. The place where we can adjust the most is _how_ we're aware. We're monitoring the nature of attention, the nature of how we're doing the meditation. So the _how_ we do it is pleasant, enjoyable, and useful; it's a _how_ that means we're in it for the long term. If how we're meditating is somehow unpleasant, harsh, judgmental, self-critical, or straining, it probably is not going to be very satisfying in the long term. So, we settle in here to the breathing. Of course, there are going to be a lot of things that are challenging. It could be strong emotions, strong sensations in the body and pain, strong bouts of thinking going on, or loud noises around us. When the meditation practice—when mindfulness—is really founded and based in breathing, that's the foundation for it. One of the things we can do is acknowledge these other things that are happening, but breathe with them or breathe through them. We're certainly attending to them, knowing they're there, and developing the practice with mindfulness there. But rather than being focused only on that, we're also aware of the breathing, breathing through it or breathing with it. For example, there might be strong knee pain. If you just bring your attention to the pain itself—which is one of the instructions of mindfulness—and just hold your attention there, be with the pain for however long it's compelling, it's easy because the pain is a little bit constant, a little bit just there in a strong way. But it's a little bit hard for the mind to not get caught, strain, or tighten itself around it, or to slip off too easily. If you can feel the pain in the knee and then breathe through it or breathe with it, the breathing kind of massages the mind. It's like gently stroking it—staying there, feeling it, being with it. There's something about breathing with pain or breathing through it that sometimes relaxes the micro-muscles around it, or maybe it encourages blood flow in the area. But often it seems to change our relationship to it, and tends to make it feel a little more manageable and easier to breathe with. For those practicing mindfulness of breathing, it's also a way of developing more continuity with the breath, making it a habit to be with the breath. The breath is always here. So when there are difficulties, emotional difficulties, breathe with them, breathe through them. Whatever is going on. We're trying to develop this capacity to be regularly in touch with the breathing, so it is kind of a habit. It's more like second nature. As you go about your day, one option you have is to begin tuning into your breathing in daily life. Make it more of a habit throughout the day to check in with your breath, to be with your breathing. There are all kinds of small ways in daily life where it's easy to do. If you're driving and you come to a traffic light, be with your breathing a little bit, check in. If you're standing in line in a store, check in to your breathing rather than reading the magazines that might be there. If you have some time to wait, check in with your breathing. Also, notice how your breathing shifts and changes. Notice how it's being held, how it's contracted or tight, how free it is, and how loose it is. There are multiple benefits to mindfulness of breathing, and the more you do it, the more those benefits will come your way. Establishing mindfulness here and now, and then becoming aware of the sensations of breathing, the experience of breathing as it comes and goes—this is the beginning of the 16 steps of Anapanasati[^1]. Thank you, and I look forward to continuing this on Monday. --- [^1]: **Anapanasati:** A Pali word meaning "mindfulness of breathing," a core meditation practice in Buddhism.