The Flow Of Breath (With Music)

A breathing practice might encourage your attention to rest on any aspect of your breath. Depth, texture, taste, smell. Any sense can get involved. In this meditation, I encourage you to follow the flow of your breath, the rolling of each breath into the next, and to allow yourself to flow along with it. The practice includes a few readings from The Radiance Sutras translated by my teacher Lorin Roche. (music Chris Collins indiemusicbox)

Transcript

Welcome. A breathing practice might encourage your attention to rest on any aspect of your breath. Depth, Texture, Taste, Smell, Any sense can get involved. Today you might choose to follow the flow of your breath and allow yourself to flow along with it, Which might mean something different to each of you. Have you ever been moving, Rushing, And even though you found a moment of stillness, You still felt as if you were moving? Perhaps you feel that today. Perhaps you have just broken a thread of conversation, A train of thought, A chain of analysis, Perhaps a dance of movement. Have just sat down for this meditation and realized the change from action to stillness, A shift in flow state. Can you begin to settle, To shift from movement, Thought, Analysis, To some kind of stillness? What might happen if you took five long, Slow, Deep breaths? Five nice, Full breaths? Maybe you let them make noise. Allow the reverberations of what you were doing 10 minutes ago to fade as you breathe, Flowing slowly away. Go ahead, Breathe. I'll wait. Meditation is flow, Movement, A twisting path that might not end but might continue as long as we are willing to follow. There are many kinds of meditative flows, Many twisting paths, Some embodied, Incarnate. The flow of air through breath, The flow of blood from a pulsing heart. Some are the flash of electricity across a synapse from neuron to neuron, For that is what thoughts are. Others arise from our heart's beat, Currents of emotion, Waves of desire. Flow can turn stiffness into fluidity and replace heaviness and density with shimmering energy and lightness. It can transmute separation, Displacement, Fragmentation into an internal, Sacred and solitary stream. How do you need to flow today? Flow of movement, Swirling, Rolling, Rushing, Or perhaps a quiet glide, Maybe over the top of tall trees, Each breathing just as you are. The flow of your breath can take you where you need to go. If you're not sure where to start, Perhaps you might remember that you already have. Your five slow breaths can turn into ten, Then fifty, Then into as many as you need. Maybe your practice is simply to count your breaths. The way of experience begins with a breath, Such as the breath you are breathing now. Luminous reality may dawn in the momentary throb between any two breaths. Exhaling, Breath is released and flows out. There's a pulse as it turns to flow in. In that turn you are empty. Enter that emptiness as the source of all life. Inhaling, Breath flows in, Filling, Nourishing. Just as it turns to flow out, There's a flash of pure joy. Life is renewed. You might sit for a bit with your breath, Feeling the flow of air moving in and out, But also the rolling of one breath into the next, The primordial cycle of life. The way of experience, Our lives, Begins with a breath. Each inhale can kindle the fire of a new life, A new way of experience, A new twisting path to follow. Where will it lead you? What will you become in this new world of your making, This brave new world that holds such wonders? Breath is the path of realization, An apprehension of truth, Of what is important to you, A way to transmute terror into ecstasy, Fear into movement, Stasis into the fire of electricity that fuels your body. Listen to the ongoing prayer that is breath. Life shall dance in you, A dance of ever-changing delight. Your breath is your own. Its substance is given to you freely. Your breath is like the wind, Is the wind, A simple, Gentle flow of air, But with the power of wind, Of gales and hurricanes, Tornadoes and typhoons. Walk anywhere on the surface of earth and observe the power of wind to shape landscape, To cut the hardest stone, To wear it away. Your breath holds the same power over your inner landscape, The power to scour away whatever you need to be done with, To scrub and polish, Abrade and burnish, To bear away what you would rid yourself of, Borne away by your breath, Your wind, Your power. Breath flows in, Breath flows out, Traveling always a curving path. Breath flows spontaneously of its own will. Thus, All breathing beings continually give reverence. Be conscious of this unconscious prayer, Leading to the most holy place of pilgrimage. Enter this temple, This holy place, Where each breath is adoration of the infinite for the incarnate form. Each breath is adoration of the infinite for the incarnate form. Breath flows in, Breath flows out, Traveling always a curving path. Breath flows out, Traveling always a curving path. Allow yourself some more flow time, The flow of breath, The flow of life itself. Let your breath flow and see where it takes you, Where you are carried. See what thoughts may come. Your breath can carry you through forests of thought, Each trunk a memory, Each branch a possibility, Each inhale a new leaf slowly unfurling to the light, Your forest to inhabit, Your place among the green things. Your breath can carry you across the planes of desire, Ferry you across oceans of thought, Fly you through mountains of feelings and canyons of emotion. Whatever desire colors your inhale is splendid. Whatever emotion shapes the sound of your exhale is flawless. Whatever thoughts right in and out are impeccable, Accept what you have been given, What your own self has placed in your lungs. Breathe your landscape of emotion, Your panorama of thought, Your mural of desire. Life shall dance in you, A dance of ever-changing delight, Flowing, Dancing, Feeling, Leading to the most holy place of pilgrimage. Enter this temple, This holy place where each breath is adoration of the Infinite for the incarnate form. For the rest of our time together, Might you rejoice in the flow of your breath, In the simplest of tools you have been given to lead you on an inward journey, The flow of your breath. Might you rejoice in your incarnate form, The envy of the Infinite, Inside you a glimmer of light, A kernel of fire deep within animating your breath, Creating you and through you the world. Might you rejoice in your ability to feel all that your body has on offer, Your portals of sense, Your ability to move, Nicks and cuts, Emotions, Desires, Your ability to think, To reason, To sympathize, To love. Breathe as deeply as you need. Follow your breath as often as you need. Any time you need a different sort of flow, A new breath is waiting. Breathe. As we begin, Allow yourself to take five more intentional breaths. Forceful or gentle, Loud or soft, Breathe in the way that serves you best in this moment. Engorged with oxygen, Filled with energy, Allow yourself a slow and gentle return to our shared existence. Your constant companion of breath with you all the way. Take in the last inhale of our practice and slowly let it go. Welcome back.