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Mindfulness of Breathing (7 of 7) Exuberant Joy

August 30, 7:30 a.m. Mindfulness of Breathing: Exuberant Joy

Over the years that someone does mindfulness practice, there are many benefits that come from it, and there are many benefits that come from mindfulness of breathing. The Buddha said mindfulness of breathing brings great fruit and great benefit. It is quite rewarding and satisfying, over the years of doing mindfulness of breathing, to begin discovering all the ways in which it supports our lives. It becomes a mirror for ourselves, helping us to see ourselves more deeply. It helps us to become more focused and concentrated in what we are doing. Developing focus and concentration on breathing, or any kind of meditative concentration and focus, makes us available for daily life. It allows us to really stay focused on the tasks that we're doing and engage in a more effective and focused way. It is also very helpful for memorization, to learn things, and to remember things, as the mind becomes less filled with clutter, thoughts, and distractions. The mind becomes settled, allowing us to really focus on what is going on.

The Exquisiteness of Meditative Joy

The breathing is stress-reducing, as mindfulness as a whole can be. But as the practice goes deeper and fuller—depending on the metaphor you like—there comes a time when an exquisite exuberance starts to arise. Sometimes the word in English that is used, occasionally you see it, is rapture. I have seldom used that word, but today I am using the word exuberance. Some people use the word thrill to capture some of its qualities. The Pali word is pīti^[1], and I prefer to translate it as joy. This kind of meditative joy arises when concentrating on anything at all.

This joy is a little bit confusing for some people because many associate joy with something inherently delightful or enjoyable by itself. They wonder, how can breathing be so enjoyable? It brings in air and so forth, but part of what is exquisite about it is the exquisiteness of the mind that becomes organized, unified, and harmonized just by staying with the breathing, just riding the breath. It is quite likely that this kind of organized, harmonized, unified mind that really stays with the breath is a means by which chemicals in the brain get released, like serotonin or different things that produce a kind of joy and happiness. However, saying that feels reductionistic and perhaps mechanistic. When you do it, it feels much more like life has become full and complete, as if we're entering into a whole different world that is very rewarding and satisfying. In Zen, sometimes it's called self-fulfilling samādhi^[2], or self-enjoying samādhi—the absorption which enjoys itself.

It takes a while to get there, but one of the things that is really helpful to understand is that as mindfulness gets stronger, we start seeing our thinking, our attitudes, our beliefs, and our reactivity more clearly. We also start seeing what we hold onto, what we clutter ourselves with, and what we are attached to, even unwillingly or against our wishes. We see the way the mind latches on and holds onto things which are not really for our best, and we learn how to put those aside. We learn not to hold onto them or be preoccupied by them, developing a mind that starts feeling unpreoccupied. A mind that is open and available in a unified, full way can give full attention to something very simple.

In walking meditation, we are able to give full attention to the feet as they walk, with a relaxed, open, soft mind where there is lots of space to feel the exquisiteness of the feet coming down on the floor, bending, and starting to lift up again. People who don't meditate might think we're crazy to talk about this kind of joy, but I like the word exquisiteness. It's no different than the exquisiteness of something that people would recognize as being quite wonderful to watch and do, like the exquisiteness of watching a great gymnast. It is such a pleasure to watch. We can feel that kind of pleasure just with the steps as we walk. Not because the steps are as skilled as a gymnast, but because there is something about really being there for it, really being pulled into its world, and sensing and feeling it without the burden or clutter of negative thoughts, criticism, doubts, desires, impatience, and all this stuff.

It's not easy to quickly start feeling this meditative joy, but it is part of the territory of meditation. It is part of the range of possibilities that is there. It felt important for me to offer it to you as an overview of what mindfulness of breathing can be about. My hope is that if you know about this, when you're on the edge of the possibility of opening to this kind of meditative joy, you'll recognize, "Oh yes, this is good. Maybe this is the time to turn up the corners of my lips a little bit. This is a time to really slide on the experience of breathing, or stroke the breath like you're stroking a cat, or be stroked by reality, by the universe, like you're the cat." Just enter into it and get absorbed in the experience of breathing.

A Way Station to Liberation

Now, this is not a hedonistic tradition where the point is just to have lots of pleasure and joy. In the teachings of the Buddha, this kind of meditative joy arises when we start to let go of the forces of suffering in us—the forces of distraction, preoccupation, and the hindrances^[3]. It's a way station on the way to liberation. As we start getting liberated in small ways, such as being temporarily liberated from the hindrances because we're focused in the present moment, some feeling of satisfaction, joy, delight, happiness, or well-being begins to surface. That becomes a foundation to support us in becoming even more concentrated. Because it is interesting, nice, and feels satisfying, we say, "Yes, this is good." This movement of saying "yes" can be part of meditation; it is easier to step into it and say, "Yes, here, I'll stay with this. The mind wants to be with this, this feels good."

Then the mind has a chance, in this greater involvement and unification around practice, to actually get quieter and quieter, stiller and stiller. Some of the joy and exuberance fades away, and even some of the happiness and well-being fades away, but it isn't a loss because what follows is even more exquisite. Often, a wonderful feeling of peace, tranquility, and equanimity arises. Again, the point is not just to have peace, equanimity, and tranquility as the endpoint, so that you are supposed to be a tranquil person going around the world. That happens to be a wonderful staging ground, platform, or stage of practice that supports deep letting go—letting go of the deepest attachments we have. This liberation is the endpoint of mindfulness of breathing.

With liberation, I like to think that is not the endpoint either, just to be liberated people. The natural consequence of liberation is then to be available to serve the world. Not because it's a duty or something we should do, but just because, of course you would. If you have no attachments of your own anymore, you are available to respond to the cries of the world and care for it. When I was in Japan practicing, one of my Zen teachers said that everything you need to know about Buddhism^[4] can be discovered through meditation on breathing.

Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

As I have said earlier, meditation on breathing is not for everyone, but it is a pretty wonderful thing. Even if it's not for you, it still can have benefits for you. You might just dip into it from time to time and see what you can learn about yourself through occasional attention to breathing. Maybe even when you're standing in a store in a line, that's an interesting time to study it.

I hope this focus on mindfulness of breathing has been useful and engaging, and something that you could bring to your everyday life. For the topic of today, enjoyment, maybe you can avail yourself or attune yourself more to the small pleasures and joys of life. Let that massage you, work you, and support you as you go through your day and as you continue on this wonderful path of mindfulness practice.

May this day be a wonderful day of practice. Thank you.