So begin by finding a comfortable but alert position.
Chin level to the floor.
Spine stacked.
And allow your attention to focus on the breath.
And you bring your attention to the breath with a sense of wonder more than a sense of concentration.
When you bring wonder and curiosity to something,
The concentration part takes care of itself usually.
So you're just curious what's happening with that process that's going on all the time that I normally don't pay attention to.
Is it shallow?
Is it deep?
Do I feel like I'm getting enough air?
With no intention to change it,
Just a curiosity.
And your curiosity is so great that each part of the breath,
Each tiny moment of it draws your attention.
And even if you get distracted by a sound in the room or a thought,
It's your curiosity that brings you back.
And even if by modern standards,
Paying attention to the breath is not so stimulating,
Not so exciting,
If you're really paying attention,
It's actually experienceable that nothing is boring.
So if ever in your meditation,
You notice your mind becoming restless or bored,
It's a good frame to have to know that actually the idea of boredom only exists as a thought in the mind.
And what's actually true is if one pays attention,
There's so much going on that boredom is an impossibility.
Because when your breath moves,
Your belly moves,
Your chest moves,
You may even feel it in the,
What's called the pelvic floor,
You may feel the weight in your feet if you're standing or where you contact your chair,
That weight may shift somewhat.
You may feel your head move.
And then on the inside,
Do you actually experience on an energetic level or even a physiological level what the breath is doing?
The inhale is a taking in of oxygen,
Of life.
It's a receiving,
A receiving of experience.
And what does it feel like to be filled in that way?
And then in a completely natural way,
Our body just knows when it's had enough.
And there's a tiny pause.
And then an exhale.
And that is a release of carbon dioxide that we don't need.
And other things.
It's also a kind of letting go on an energetic level.
A moment of surrender and emptying out.
That's what allows for the inhale,
There'd be room for the inhale.
And then there's a process of letting go.
And receiving.
And letting go.
And receiving.
And this is a kind of rhythm,
A kind of pulse that is actually with us all the time.
In any moment of your life,
You're letting go or receiving.
At the level of breath,
Even though most of the time we don't notice it.
But also at the level of information,
We take in information.
We allow ourselves to forget information that's not important.
We take in stimuli.
And we let go of that stimuli so that we can receive the next.
We receive a conversation with one person.
And then let that go.
To receive the conversation with the next person.
We receive money.
And then spend it.
We consume food.
And then eliminate it.
Everything in our lives follows this way.
The beautiful thing about connecting with the breath is that it connects us with that dynamic.
And how it's actually part of us.
It's actually more accurate to say we're part of it.
So in this way when you connect to your breath,
You're connecting with everything.
An expression of the dynamic that underlies all things.
Which is never not there.
And this is important to realize because when we feel off center or somehow out of our groove.
Not feeling like ourselves.
It's easy to feel like that rhythm,
That flow of life is somehow out of reach.
And while that feeling is true.
In reality this is an illusion.
And the very frame of that rhythm,
Life,
Some people call it God.
That flow.
It's not only right here.
But you are it.
You cannot not be it.
You can only be temporarily confused.
And even that is part of it.
So as often as you can.
As often as you forget.
Just remember a little bit more than you forget and you'll be fine.
