Zazen Practice (Counting The Breath)

This introduction to Zen meditation includes counting the breath, a very mechanical way to stay focused on the breath and foster relaxation and awareness. Counting the breath is a useful skill that can be used anywhere.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Evan and today I'm going to be leading you in a Zen meditation.

So let's start by getting into a comfortable position.

For many of you,

Including me,

A cross-legged position can be painful,

So I recommend sitting in a chair or lying on your back on the ground.

And if you're comfortable using cushions,

That's fine too.

So let's make sure our spine is straight.

So when we sit down on our chair or on our cushions,

Let's just roll side to side a little bit.

Just rock side to side.

Let's notice if maybe there's a little bit more weight on one sit bone.

Let's try to balance that out a little bit,

Even that out,

Make sure we're in a comfortable sitting position.

You can lift your head up to the sky and then slowly relax it back down.

Just pulling your chin in a little bit,

Making sure that spine is straight.

You can either keep your eyes open,

Gazing at the ground,

Or you can close your eyes.

I usually like to keep my eyes open.

A lot of the Zen monks like to keep their eyes open.

Let's just put our attention on our breath.

Just focus on our breath,

Breathing in through our nose and out through our nose.

Is your breath slow?

Is your breath fast?

Is your breath shallow?

Is your breath deep?

Just noticing the own pace of your breath.

As we notice this natural rhythm of our breath,

Let's try to bring in our inhales into our navel.

It's that part of our body right above our stomach and right below our ribs.

As we breathe in,

Let's just try to breathe into that navel area a little bit.

Open that area up a bit.

We can be aware of our body.

Is there any tension in our body?

Is there any relaxation in our body?

A lot of times,

Maybe the stomach will be tense.

My shoulders are tense a lot.

What I do is I just put some awareness on that.

I say to myself and my mind,

Tension.

I go back to breathing.

Over time,

This acceptance of this tension will start to let that tension dissipate.

Start to make that tension dissipate.

A good way to increase our awareness of our breath is to count the length of our inhales and our exhales.

For this meditation,

We're going to be counting our inhales in our mind and counting our exhales.

Being naturally aware of how long your inhale is and how long your exhale is.

We're not going to make our inhale or exhale any longer than it is.

We're just going to be aware of how long it is right now.

Maybe two seconds for your inhale,

Two seconds for your exhale,

Maybe five seconds for your inhale,

Five seconds for your exhale.

However long they are,

Just being aware of that.

You can count it like one,

Two,

One,

Two.

Counting your inhales and your exhales in your mind.

This is still in our breath and the length of it.

Your inhale and your exhale might be different lengths,

That's okay.

Maybe the same length.

Counting your inhale and counting your exhale.

If you find your mind wandering,

Just put some focus on whatever that thought is.

Maybe you're thinking about something in the past,

Maybe in the future,

Maybe something in this moment that might not be your breath or your body.

If you find your mind wandering,

Just put some focus on whatever that thought is.

Acknowledge it and then bring our awareness back to our breath.

Then counting again,

The length of our inhale and the length of our exhale.

Okay,

Now we're going to try to,

As we exhale,

We're going to push our exhale out for one more second.

Say our exhale is five seconds,

And that's how long it is when we count it.

Might be three seconds.

Let's just try to extend it for one more second.

If your exhale is five seconds long right now,

Try to extend it for one more second and make it six seconds.

When we do this,

We're going to use a little bit of force,

A little bit of just pushing that one last second of air out on our exhale.

Taking this one second of,

It's going to help us to relax a little bit.

It's going to put a little bit of tension on our stomach,

Maybe on our chest.

That little bit of tension is going to allow our body to relax as we extend our exhale for that one more second.

It's kind of like homeopathic medicine.

When you put a little bit of pressure or you put a little bit of strain or a little bit of inflammation on the spot,

It actually begins to heal.

Still counting our inhale and counting our exhale and pushing our exhale out for one more second.

Let's bring it up.

.

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Still counting our inhales and our exhales and exhaling for one more second.

Now as we finish our exhale,

We're going to pause,

We're going to hold our breath for one second,

And then we're going to inhale again.

And so when we pause after our exhale for that one second,

It's going to allow our body when we inhale to inhale more naturally instead of forcing that inhale.

So we're still counting our breath in,

Out,

Extending our exhale for one more second,

And then we're going to hold our breath after our exhale for one second,

Just one second.

And then we're going to let our body,

Our stomach,

Our lungs bring in that air naturally on our inhale.

Just continuing to count the inhales and the exhales.

Extending that exhale for one more second,

And pausing,

Holding our breath for one second at the end of the exhale.

And just allowing that inhale to come naturally.

If another thought comes into mind,

Just acknowledging it and bringing your awareness back to your breath,

Back to counting the breath.

So counting our inhales,

Counting our exhales,

Extending the exhale for one more second,

Holding our breath for one second,

And then counting our inhale,

Counting our exhale again.

Okay.

So now we can stop counting our inhales and exhales as this process of counting has probably relaxed our breathing a little bit.

So instead of counting each second of our inhale and exhale,

We're now going to count one as we inhale,

One as we exhale,

Then two for our next inhale,

And two for our next exhale.

So we're going to do this until we get to 10,

And start back over at one.

So this method is a lot simpler than the previous counting method we were doing.

So for this,

All we're doing is counting to remind ourselves that we're breathing.

So as we inhale,

Just counting in our mind one,

As we exhale,

Counting in our mind two,

Or one,

Next inhale,

Counting in our mind two,

Next exhale,

Counting in our mind two,

And three,

And four,

And so on.

Some people find it easier to repeat the number in their head.

So as they exhale,

One,

One,

One.

Or they like to say the number really long.

So as they inhale,

One,

Exhale,

One.

You're just saying this number in your mind.

So whatever method works for you,

Feel free to do that.

Just counting our inhale and our exhale each time we do it,

Until we get to 10,

And starting over at one.

And as we count our breath,

Remember to be aware of your breath.

How does your chest and stomach feel as they open up,

As they go back down?

How does your nostrils feel as the air moves through them?

How does your stomach feel as the air passes all the way down into there?

So as we continue to count our breaths,

Being aware of how our breath feels.

So as we continue to count our breaths,

Being aware of how our breath feels.

So as we continue to count our breaths,

Being aware of how our breath feels.

Continuing to count our breath,

Following our breath as we inhale,

How it feels,

As we exhale,

How it feels.

So these numbers that we use to count our breath are just a way of keeping our focus on our breath.

They're just little reminders that we're breathing.

So our main focus of the meditation here is really to focus on our breath and how it feels.

Just being aware of it.

Is it long?

Is it short?

If your mind starts to think about how long it's going to take,

Just being aware of what you're thinking about,

Bringing your attention back to your breath,

Back to the counting.

If you lost track of the counting,

You can start back over at one.

Or if you remember the number that you left off at when your mind began to wander,

You can start back over at that number.

Remember counting our breath until we get to 10 and starting back over at one.

Being aware of how our breath feels,

How our chest and stomach feel as we breathe.

Maybe how our body feels.

Continuing to count our breath.

Okay.

Now let's bring our attention to the present moment.

Everything including the breath.

So this is what a lot of satsen practitioners practice is counting the breath.

But also being aware of everything.

That is a very Zen idea.

So at the moment,

Let's just try to be aware of all the stimuli around us.

What we're thinking,

How our body feels,

If there are any sounds in the environment.

Is our breath slow?

Is our breath fast?

Maybe the emotions we're feeling.

If we're feeling sad or angry or happy.

So let's just take a minute here to be aware of everything around us,

Everything inside of us.

Our body,

Our mind,

The environment,

The ground we're sitting on.

Just take a minute here and just be aware of the world before we open our eyes and engage in it again.

This concludes our Zen meditation.

Thank you for meditating with me.

And I hope that this practice gave you a little bit of insight about how to use numbers and how to use counting to keep your focus on your breath.

Thank you.

Reviews

Wow. I’m a dentist and I did your practice at lunch and I was so completely chill, focused, and steady with my otherwise stressful surgery right after.

Absolutely wonderful. I will doubtlessly return to this many times

Thanks and so easy to do and yet so profound to becone more aware. This is a great technique. So grateful that you shared this

Good but you almost lost me with that comment about homeopathy.

Quiet and simple

Excellent, thank you. I learned so much from the practice and, especially, your gentle, informative guidance 🙏

Very useful and effective in centering and extending zazen

Very straight to the point with direct instructions on whats to be done, how and why. Will be coming back for sure! Thanks!

I enjoyed your meditation a lot. I will be doing it again for sure. Thank you! 🙏🏻💫

Excellent technique of relaxation. Namaste 🙏

Really helpful and clear. Thank you Evan.

Excellent instructions, nothing else distracting, space to focus. thanks