Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation

Bhante Gunaratana provides a basic guided meditation on the first night of a recent retreat at Bhavana Society.

Transcript

Cionism We sit in a relaxed,

Comfortable,

Straight posture And try not to think of anything that you had been doing before you came here.

Or don't think of anything that you might think of doing after the retreat.

Or even after this session,

Try to keep your mind totally in the present moment.

Present moment is not easy to find.

Therefore we find something that happens in the present moment.

That is our breathing.

We breathe every moment and we use it as our focus,

To focus our mind.

And mindfully,

Meaning paying total,

Undivided,

Pure,

Clean attention,

Breathe in and breathe out.

When we breathe,

Pay attention to breath.

We don't try to control breath.

We simply let the breath flow in and out,

Naturally,

And relaxing your body and mind.

Try to pay attention to that naturally moving breath in and out.

This is not breath control.

This is not breathing exercise.

This is using natural breath as a focus of our attention.

When you breathe in,

You may feel breath some places.

Each person should find where the breath touches by breathing only.

So try to pay attention to the place where you feel the breath going into the lungs and coming out.

That place may be tip of the nose,

Nostrils,

Upper lips,

Or between eyes,

Inside,

Or expanding and contracting your chest,

Or expanding and contracting your abdomen.

Wherever you feel the breath touching,

That is the place you may notice and pay attention to it.

And don't try to verbalize the breath.

Don't say,

In other words,

Inhaling as inhaling,

Exhaling,

Don't say,

I am exhaling,

Inhaling,

Don't say,

I am inhaling.

But let the breath flow in and out and simply pay attention to it.

If you try to verbalize,

Then you will make your progress very,

Very slowly,

And eventually you might not be able to get rid of verbalizing,

And that keeps,

Stays in your mind.

But from the very beginning,

Try not to verbalize,

But to pay attention to the sensation of breathing.

As you breathe in,

You feel lungs are filling with air.

When the lungs are full,

Inhaling cuts off,

And then exhaling begins.

When the lungs are filling,

Simply become aware of it.

Then you experience tension builds up by inhaling breath.

When the lungs are full,

You experience this tension more clearly.

Then you breathe out.

As you breathe out,

That tension is slowly released.

Notice that.

When there is no air in your lungs,

You may experience a small degree of anxiety for not having breath.

Then as you breathe in,

That anxiety fades away.

Lungs are filling with air.

When the lungs are full with air,

Again you experience tension.

As you breathe out,

That tension is released.

This is happening all the time.

One moment tension,

Next moment release of tension.

One moment anxiety,

Next moment relief of anxiety.

You experience the sensation of breath in this way.

And you should be fully aware of this.

When the breath is calm and relaxed,

Your body also would be calm and relaxed.

Notice in this calm,

Relaxed breath,

And the body breathe in and breathe out.

So you can see numerous things happening as you are breathing in and out.

And all of them repeat.

And the repetition also is very natural.

You don't deliberately repeat these things.

The breath also you do not deliberately change or manipulate.

And it simply flows in and out.

And simply become aware of this phenomenon of movement,

Phenomenon of change.

When the body is calm,

Relax,

Mind is calm and relax.

If you feel sleepy,

Don't give into sleepiness.

Try to stay awake,

Alert,

And mindful.

There you need certain degree of effort,

Mental effort,

To stay awake.

One thing in this practice you notice is that everything you experience is changing.

They keep moving,

They keep repeating,

Constantly they are active,

Functioning.

You make,

You feel the motion.

Everything is changing as they change.

We simply become aware of this change.

We cannot stop it.

We cannot manipulate them.

They happen naturally and we simply pay attention to them.

Whatever is most conspicuous,

Strongest,

Would be easier to notice.

Then when it becomes,

Then it fades away.

Another thing becomes clear.

So the mind shifts from one experience to another,

Depending on their intensity.

And that also is very natural because they all are happening all the time.

And we simply watch them,

Just like watching activities,

Games,

Movies without emotional reactions.

The only difference is that we experience them.

While experiencing,

We become aware of them.

We are not trying to make a report to somebody of our experience.

Therefore we do not try to verbalize or conceptualize our experiences.

We just become aware of them from our own personal understanding.

Yes sir.

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Reviews

Uncomplicated yet instructional hack that guides ones proverbial pursuit of balance of presence and of mindfulness.

Thanks for the instruction. Always feel calmer after hearing you teach 🙏

That was grounding thank you

Really enjoyed my presence with this breath work. Thanks 🙏

Such an awesome teacher… read his memoir. Fascinating.

Very calming. Your rhythm of speech was ideal. Please do a series on impermanence,suffering and the nonexistence of self. With metta, Roy

Simplified what has become for me complicated. Excellent presentation.

Guided me to peace ✌️

Lookout. Discover. Like compliments, 5 star ratings are not easily dished. In the case of this session, I am commanded; whole fully guided...Simple reactions, simple solutions, simply stated.

I LOVE him and his books!

Very helpful and relaxing. I tend to overthink breathing exercises, but felt better after listening to this🙏😊❤️.

I had a peaceful feeling afterwards.

Wow! That’s what a real meditation is at its very basic and fundamental level- with no strings attached! Thank you so much.

I absolutely LOVE ❤️ this meditation 🧘🏻‍♂️ 👍👍 of all the meditations that I’ve found on Insight Timer thus far, this one has helped me reach the MOST PROFOUND relaxation period!!! I highly recommend it for anyone looking for well, PROFOUND RELAXATION LOL 😂 Thank you for creating it 🙏

Very helpful guidance for peaceful meditation.

Very useful with clear guidance

Nicely presented. Pleased to hear the advice not to verbalise! Noting and labelling easily become a distraction.

Very natural.
Thank you

This mindfulness of breathing is a bit different from some others I have experienced on IT. Don't verbalize a description of the breath, like "I am breathing in. I am breathing out. " Do not control the breath. Just give attention to wherever we feel the breath, and the moment of tension just at beginning of inbreath and beginning of out breath. Discipline the mind to stay awake and alert.

was made aware of the heightened tension/anxiety i experience at the end of the in breath. something to work on. I've had asthma over 30 yrs.