Keeping The Breath In Mind

This 30-minute guided meditation is loosely based on the Forest tradition teachings of Ajahn Lee Dhammdharo by the same name. It attempts to capture the way he taught mindfulness of breathing, which was strongly influenced by the yoga and body awareness practices he used.

Transcript

The guided meditation that we're about to do together is a style of practice that I have encountered in the past through Ajahn Lee Dhamadaro from the Thai Forest tradition,

But is also very much like the Yoga Nidra that is sometimes done in pretty common Western yoga classes.

There are seven basic steps,

And it is fairly easy and relaxing as a way to practice anapadasati,

The mindfulness of the breath,

And rupalupasana,

Mindfulness of the body.

It will require that the practitioner spends a little energy visualizing and actually feeling the sensations in different parts of the body.

So it's not so much a visualization practice as it is using visualization to try and get in touch with both the breath and the parts of the body that are being indicated.

So let's begin.

We can start out with three or seven long in and out breaths.

With each in breath we think here.

With each out breath we can think now.

We try to keep this meditation syllable for as long as the breath is long or for as short as the breath is short.

Breathing in here,

Breathing out now.

When we get to the end of our counted breaths,

We just continue to be as clearly aware of each in breath and each out breath.

We can slowly let go of marking the in breath and the out breath with the here and now.

Just dedicate some time,

Some energy and some attention to noticing the in breath and the out breath.

We can observe the breath as it goes in.

We can observe the breath as it goes out.

We're able to notice whether it's comfortable or not so comfortable.

If it's deep,

Profound or if it's contracted.

If there's some obstruction or if it's fluid.

Fast or slow,

Long or short.

We can notice if the breath is hot or cool.

If we're not comfortable,

If our breath doesn't feel comfortable to us,

See what we can do to transform or move or somehow settle into something that does feel comfortable.

For example,

If you feel like you're forcing your breath and it's forcing it to be long and long in and long out,

If that doesn't feel comfortable,

Try breathing short breaths,

Short in and short out.

And as soon as you find that your breath feels comfortable,

Let that comfortable feeling of breath sensation spread through different parts of your body.

For example,

Inhaling can feel the breath sensation at the base of the skull and let it flow all the way down the spine.

Let it continue all the way down to the soles of your feet,

To the end of your toes and out into the air.

Then inhale the breath sensation again from the base of the skull.

Let it spread down your spine,

Down your left leg,

Out to the ends of the toes and out into the air.

Let the breath from the base of the skull spread down over both of your shoulders,

Past your elbows and wrists,

To the tips of your fingers and out into the air.

Let the breath at the base of the throat spread down the front of the body,

Past the lungs,

The internal organs that we can feel in the abdominal region and way down through the bladder and the colon.

The part of the body that's sitting,

That has contact with the cushion or with the mat.

Then inhale the breath right at the middle of the chest and let that go all the way down through the front of the body,

The intestines.

Let the breath sensations spread so that they connect to everything and they flow together and you feel a general sense of well-being.

The feelings of the breath and the breathing in all of the micro movements,

The sense of expanding and contracting,

A sense of moving up and down,

In and out.

Breathe whatever way is comfortable for you.

At the same time,

Try and explore the sense of breathing in long and breathing out long.

Breathing in short and breathing out short.

Breathing in short and breathing out long.

Breathing in long and breathing out short.

Remember,

Breathe whatever way is most comfortable for you but explore breathing in long and out long or in short and out short or in short and out long,

In long and out short.

In these four ways,

You have a way of connecting to your physical condition.

Since the breath is always changing,

You always have a way that reflects the way your breathing is naturally or can be adapted to the way your breathing is in that particular moment.

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Now,

Become acquainted with what are the bases or the focal points for the mind.

They're resting points for the breath.

They're places where you can center your attention.

There are generally six or so that you can use.

The middle of the forehead,

Just above the center of the eyebrows.

If you rest your tongue between your teeth and your palate in that line of soft tissue,

That can also be another resting point.

You can also experience sensations in the base of the throat.

You can experience the space of the throat or just the physical sensations that you feel in the throat.

Another place is the breastbone or the sternum.

Another very common area is the expansion and the contraction of the abdomen,

The navel,

The point just above it.

It's often suggested that if we are feeling particularly agitated or if we have frequent headaches to use most of the points that I've just mentioned that are below the throat or below the throat.

The other thing is we're not forcing our breath to fall into some kind of state of trance.

We're not trying to hypnotize ourselves.

We just want to find a very gentle balance between breathing freely and naturally and letting the mind be at ease with the breath,

Paying attention to the breath,

Keeping the breath in mind without letting our awareness of the breath slip away and without falling into other states of mind or fantasies or being too attracted to pleasant sensations or less than pleasant sensations.

Let's use this awareness of the breath and this awareness of the body to spread our sense of awareness,

A sense of consciously feeling what's going on throughout the entire body.

Breathing in we can feel the expansion and contraction,

Breathing out.

We can feel little movements and little pulsations,

Sense of flowing,

Sense of ease.

We can feel this all throughout the body as we breathe in and we breathe out or maybe we can feel it in specific areas of our body,

Ones that I've mentioned or ones that strike you,

That come to you naturally.

We just let this gentle sense of breathing,

This gentle sense of being aware of our breathing spread throughout our entire body.

As a last conscious effort,

We can try to unify all of these little breaths throughout the body that we feel,

These little sensations,

Letting them flow into one another,

Keeping the awareness as broad as possible,

Fully aware of the parts of the breath that you already know and being open to knowing parts of the breath that maybe you are still discovering.

The breath has many aspects,

Breath sensations,

Flowing sensations in the nerves,

Flowing around the nerves,

The pores,

Breath sensations which feel very pleasant,

Which feel very beneficial,

And others that maybe don't feel so comfortable,

But all mixed together in the very nature comes together.

We do this for the sake of improving the sense of energy that already exists in every part of our bodies.

We do this for the sake of clarifying the knowledge,

The intuition that we already have that already exists within us,

To continue to develop our sense of skill and release,

To tend towards ease,

Well-being.

These seven steps can be used whenever we want,

Even very briefly in everyday situations when we're not practicing formal breath meditation.

It is said that putting our breath in order,

Learning about our breath and knowing it deeply and intimately is like putting everything and everyone in your home in order.

Many incidentals of breath meditation are like people outside your home or visitors.

Once the people in your home are well-behaved,

Your visitors come in and they know exactly what to do.

If different things seem to appear that seem uncommon,

That seem strange,

We just keep the breath and the mind in good order and whatever comes will pass away.

We'll have a sense of the stability of the breath,

The security and safety of the breath.

You don't have to control anything,

You don't have to do anything.

Simple awareness be the foundation.

You're able to just experience things appearing and disappearing,

Coming and going through this mind trainings,

Through this breath training.

As practitioners we just stand in even keel,

Neutral,

But discerning,

Carefully considering things that appear and disappear.

So for the final five minutes of this practice,

Let's just continue to sit quietly,

Know the breath coming in,

Know the breath going out,

Know what pleasure arises,

Know what less than pleasurable sensations or aspects arise.

And as we continue,

It will become clearer and clearer to us that we're able to see what causes stress or afflictions or sense of neuroses,

What are the causes and conditions that sustain these conditions,

These sensations or this perception of stress.

We're also able to feel not feeling stressed,

Feeling at ease and feeling at peace.

And we're able to understand what are the causes and conditions that we can continue to sustain and cultivate in our lives to not be in states of stress or neuroses or afflictions.

Just keeping the breath in mind,

Knowing it's coming in and knowing it's going out,

Knowing it's characteristics,

Knowing ourselves.

Okay.

Gift God of counsellors.

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