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Guided Meditation: Buddha's Mindfulness of Breathing

So, warm greetings from misty Redwood City. It's almost as if it was raining this morning biking down here. Invigorating and nice, and nice to be here with you all.

The topic for this week, or these next few days, is Right Mindfulness^[1]. For that purpose, I would like to offer for this meditation session the Buddha's most basic instruction, or the first instructions that he gives for mindfulness meditation. This instruction appears in different places in his teachings and probably could be seen as pretty central to how he taught meditation practice.

It involves mindfulness of breathing, and it incorporates within it mindfulness of the body, two very central practices of the Buddha. It also incorporates within it the practice of letting go, or an aspect of letting go, which is to relax. So, I'll guide you through it, and then in the talk afterwards, we can go into a little bit more detail.

In the classic instruction, the Buddha says to sit down under a tree or in an empty building, in a quiet place, and establish the body erect. So sit upright, and establish mindfulness to the forefront. Establish mindfulness at the center of all things for you: awareness.

Take a posture which is either upright literally or metaphorically for you. If it's helpful, you can close your eyes.

If you're listening to me, you are being aware. If you're attending to your posture, you're being aware. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, you're being aware. So you might now see if you can heighten your capacity for awareness. To be here, aware in this body. As you become aware of different parts of your body, appreciate awareness itself, attention itself.

You might become aware of your breathing. In doing so now, take a few long, slow, deep breaths, stretching your chest and torso as it expands, and relaxing the whole shoulders, chest, and belly as you exhale. Feel the deeper inhales as a way of connecting to yourself, to your body. Being aware as you do so, you are being aware; there is present-moment attention.

As you bring your attention to deeper breaths, and then let your breathing return to normal, begin being aware of your breathing. As you exhale, relax different parts of your body. Become aware of your face and your forehead. As you exhale, relax the face. Relaxing around the eyes, softening the gaze. In doing so, there's awareness of the face.

Then, bring attention to the shoulders. As you exhale, relax the shoulders. Soften, maybe creating a little space in the shoulder joint. Being aware of the shoulders.

And being aware of the belly. As you exhale, soften, and relax the belly.

And to be aware of yourself from the waist down, maybe down through your bottom and the tops of your legs. Feel any tension or holding that might be there. And then, as you exhale, relax and soften that area too.

All the while, awareness is operating to track this, to pay attention, to notice this, to know to relax.

And now, notice how you're breathing. See if you can notice it without any judgment, without any idea that it should be different. You simply become a student of your own breathing. I like to think that no two breaths are ever the same. Certainly, throughout the day and on different days, the breathing is experienced differently. So notice how it's being experienced now.

What parts of your body engage or move as you breathe? Where is breathing most prominent in your body? Which is most prominent for you, the experience of inhaling or exhaling? Notice this without any idea that it should be different. Are you breathing fast or slow? Are your breaths long or short? Are your breaths shallow or deep? Whatever way it is, it is okay.

For the Buddha's first instruction in mindfulness, simply discover. Notice how the breathing is, with the sense that breathing has permission to breathe itself. Whatever way it is, your job is to notice what that experience is like. In doing so, you are being aware. Awareness is what allows you to notice.

Then, for a few moments now, see if that awareness of yours can sustain its attention on the rhythm of breathing. Maybe almost as if breathing is a circle of inhales and exhales, and you're going to ride that circle. Or, like breathing is waves washing up and down off a sandy beach. Stay there, observing the body breathing.

Then, continuing with breathing as if it's the center of all things, and everything else arrives almost like it arises from breathing, or is connected to breathing. As you're with your breathing, with your peripheral vision, also become aware of any tensions in the body. Any places of holding, or straining, pushing or pulling away—any tension. Notice the tension as if tension has permission to be there, as if you've never taken the time to really get to know it. Breathing through it, breathing with it. Experiencing that tension without judging it or trying to make it go away.

In doing all this, you are relying on awareness, your ability to attend and know. Aware of breathing, aware of tension. As if awareness has lots of room and lots of permission for things to be as they are.

Now, having felt and experienced any tension, continue breathing in and breathing out. But also now, see if you can relax the tension, the physical tension in your body. Doing so not in a hurry or expecting to be successful, just a kind of movement of softening, easing up. Breathing in and breathing out, maybe on the exhale, relaxing tensions in your body.

So there are four steps here. First, just noticing the breathing, being aware of it, and establishing attention. Second, really noticing the details of breathing, being intimate with the experience of breathing. Third, as we're breathing, to be intimate with the body as a whole, to notice the tensions of the body. And fourth, to relax those tensions, or to relax the whole body, to soften and quiet the body.

There's no hurry to go through these steps. Whatever step is comfortable for you and nice for you, stay there. As long as it feels good to be there, establishing attention, focusing attention on breathing. Noticing more deeply the experience of breathing, and being aware of the body as a whole and its tension. And then relaxing the body. In each of these steps, awareness is supporting us. It's a companion for us as we do them.

As you continue in the last few minutes, can that awareness of breathing, the body, and the tensions be a caring awareness? As if you're caring for something important and precious, something you love. A caring awareness of breathing, a caring awareness of the body.

Reflections

And then, coming to an end of the sitting, see if you can now turn the awareness outward. Turn, having a caring awareness outwards towards other people and other beings. Breathing with, attending with others. Relaxing any tension of the body that arises in relationship to other people and other beings.

Reflecting a bit about what it is like to have an attention, an awareness that is infused with care and kindness. Not as work, not as something stressful or assertive, but as something that simultaneously cares for ourselves, so we are relaxed, open, and connected to an inner goodness.

And then having goodwill for all beings. Taking the time at the end of meditation to connect your meditation practice to living in this world for the welfare and happiness of all beings.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. And may all beings be free.