Awakening The Breath

A play on the Buddha's traditional awakening of the breath teaching. A great practice for anyone at any point on the path to touch back into the basic nature of practice.

Transcript

The way to develop and practice with the breath continuously. Practice with this method of full awareness of breathing so that the practice will be rewarding and offer great benefit. This benefit is freely given and is directly in front of you. All you must do is reach out and grasp it and understand that you don't even need to grasp. It is right at your feet and already within you. The full awareness of breathing is developed and if developed and practiced continuously day to day will be rewarding and bring great advantages. It will lead to success in practice with mindfulness, In practice with awareness, In practice with focus and meditation and many of the things that will come in our study together. Even to go so far as to awaken or liberate you. But for now we will begin with the breath. The way to train the breath is easy though it will take some time as with anything worth doing. Find a quiet place of retreat and of comfort, A place of awareness and concentration. Sit stably holding your body straight but not taut. Relaxing the body, Checking in to the body, To the heart, To the mind and practicing by listening and maintaining awareness and focus on the breath. Breathing in, I know I am breathing in and breathing out, I know I am breathing out. Directing the attention and the concentration toward these sensations and experience. Try to maintain a focus and awareness with either the eyes closed or in a soft gaze. Listen closely and allow the body, Mind, Heart and consciousness to follow along in this practice, Maintaining your attention, Your concentration and your focus toward the breath and the breathing. Breathing in, A long breath, I know I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out, A long breath, I know I am breathing out a long breath. Breathing in, A short breath, I know I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out, A short breath, I know I am breathing out a short breath. Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body. Breathing out, I am aware of my whole body. Breathing in, I calm my whole body. Breathing out, I calm my whole body. Breathing in, I calm my whole body. Breathing out, I calm my whole body. Breathing in, I feel happy. Breathing out, I feel happy. Breathing in, I am aware of my mind. Breathing out, I am aware of my mind. Breathing in, I am aware of thoughts. Breathing out, I am aware of thoughts. Breathing in, I am aware of mental formations. Breathing out, I am aware of mental formations. Breathing in, I calm my mind. Breathing out, I calm my mind. Breathing in, I calm my thoughts. Breathing out, I calm my thoughts. Breathing in, I am aware of my mind. Breathing out, I am aware of my mind. Breathing in, I make my mind happy. Breathing out, I make my mind happy. Breathing in, I concentrate on my mind. Breathing out, I concentrate my mind. Breathing in, I pull back and see my mind. Breathing out, I pull back and see my mind. Breathing in, I notice my mind is not me. Breathing out, I notice my mind is not me. Breathing in, I am aware of my body. Breathing out, I am aware of my body. Breathing in, I pull back and see my body. Breathing out, I pull back and see my body. Breathing in, I know my body not to be me. Breathing out, I know my body not to be me. Breathing in, I liberate my mind. Breathing out, I liberate my mind. Breathing in, I observe the impermanent nature of all things. Breathing out, I observe the impermanent nature of all things. Breathing in, I observe disappearance and change. Breathing out, I observe disappearance and change. Breathing in, I observe. Breathing out, I observe. Breathing in, Let go. Breathing out, Let go. The full awareness of breathing, If developed and practiced continuously according to these instructions, Will be rewarding and of great benefit and training in this course. In the full study of the body, Mind, Heart, And consciousness, It is good to begin with a training in the breath. We will practice with it one more round, Maintaining our breath and turning the mind toward the teachings. Breathing in, A long breath. I know I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out, A long breath. I know I am breathing out a long breath. Breathing in, A short breath. I know I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out, A short breath. I know I am breathing out a short breath. Breathing in, I am aware of my body. Breathing out, I am aware of my body. Breathing in, I calm my whole body. Breathing out, I calm my whole body. Breathing in, I notice my whole body. Breathing out, I notice my whole body. Breathing in, I let the body settle down. Breathing out, I let the body settle down. Breathing in, I am aware of my mind. Breathing out, I am aware of the mind. Breathing in, I am aware of thoughts. Breathing out, I am aware of thoughts. Breathing in, I am aware of mental formations. Breathing out, I am aware of mental formations. Breathing in, I calm the mind. Breathing out, I calm the mind. Breathing in, I settle the thoughts. Breathing out, I settle the thoughts. Breathing in, I settle the mental formations. Breathing out, I settle the mental formations. Breathing in, I am aware of the mind. Breathing out, I am aware of the mind. Breathing in, I pull back and see the mind. Breathing out, I pull back and see the mind. Breathing in, I notice the mind is not me. Breathing out, I notice the mind is not me. Breathing in, I notice the body. Breathing out, I notice the body. Breathing in, I pull back and see the body. Breathing out, I pull back and see the body. Breathing in, I notice the body is not me. Breathing out, I notice the body is not me. Breathing in, I concentrate on the mind. Breathing out, I concentrate the mind. Breathing in, I concentrate the body. Breathing out, I concentrate on the body. Breathing in, I liberate the mind. Breathing out, I liberate the mind. Breathing in, I observe impermanence. Breathing out, I observe impermanence. Breathing in, I observe the disappearance of all things. Breathing out, I observe the disappearance of all things. Breathing in, I observe the eye. Breathing out, I observe the eye. Breathing in, Let go. Breathing out, Let go. Practice this with great understanding, Turning the mind toward reflection and maintaining the attention towards the breath, Bringing it back to the breath whenever the mind or body wanders. If you do this and practice it, In time you will know just how much help it will be in this course and just how powerful the attention can be.

Reviews

Excellent

Love!

Thank you so much for making a guided meditation from this teaching! It is wonderful and so helpful!

It’s easy to say that one must practice in focussing on the breath but maintaining that single focus awareness is very challenging. This meditation does put it in perspective and helps to learn how to maintain concentration.

Excellent practice, thank you! Look forward to more practice