Good morning.
So this exploration that we've been doing of mindfulness of breathing,
The first tetrad,
The first four steps,
Steps one through four are about the body.
But it's not the physical body in and of itself.
It's more the body that we experience,
Where the experience is much more influenced by what's going on in the mind.
There's a reciprocal relationship as the body settles down,
We get more focused,
And then the body relaxes.
That also has a relaxing effect on the mind.
And there are other benefits on the mind.
You know,
It reassures the mind when the body is relaxed,
It brings the mind a sense of safety and peacefulness,
A settledness.
It's easier to be more present.
And then we go into the second tetrad with steps 5,
6,
7,
And 8.
And with those steps,
We begin to enter into the world of the mind,
Which is not separate from the body.
So these two are very much interlinked.
We talked about the quality of joy and happiness.
They're kind of a bridge between they're a bridge,
You know,
The joy and happiness are felt in an embodied way.
But it's very much influenced.
Joy and happiness are influenced by the level of concentration,
The level of focus,
They become more active when we are relaxed,
When the mind is peaceful.
So there is this reciprocity,
This reciprocal relationship between the body and the mind.
And as more joy and contentment course through the body,
Again,
This reassures the mind more.
And you know,
It reassures the mind that it doesn't need to think and ruminate so much.
It can be quiet.
All those thoughts can be picked up later.
So today,
I think I'm going to look a little bit more deeply at the seventh step of the anapanasati.
I think it's an important sort of pausing point.
It says,
One trains oneself,
Breathing in,
One experiences the activity of the mind.
One trains oneself breathing out,
One experiences the activity of the mind.
So the activity of the mind are the mental formations,
The constructing activity of our body.
And one of the main activities of the mind for many of us is thinking.
So two useful ways to become aware of thinking,
Okay,
One is to observe it,
To know that it's happening.
And the other is to experience it,
To feel the experience of what it's like to be thinking.
So to observe it,
And to experience it,
Both are important.
To learn to recognize and know and observe thinking can be a stepping stone to feeling and experiencing it more fully.
As always with mindfulness of breathing,
There's a rhythm of the breath,
There's a rhythm to the breathing.
It can be in the background or in the foreground.
But we're getting centered on it and settling on it.
The breath protects us from getting caught in the world of thinking.
And to be resting or focusing on the breathing supports us getting more stable,
So that awareness can begin to open up.
It can be more inclusive,
Take in more of what's going on.
So with the stability and presence and attention to breathing,
It's possible to be aware of thinking without really being bothered by it,
Without getting sucked into it.
We don't want to make thinking a problem,
Like it's wrong to be thinking while you're meditating.
You know,
It's not a problem.
Being upset or agitated because we're thinking is a recipe for perpetuating the thinking.
The more agitated we are,
The more the mind tends to produce thoughts and ideas and stories.
So there's kind of an art to not being bothered or attached to thinking,
To not be experiencing aversion to thinking,
Just to see it and to see that thinking is happening.
And the classic image in Buddhism is having thoughts kind of drift by like clouds,
You know,
In an endless sky.
They're just clouds,
You know,
And if you put your hand through a cloud,
You don't get anything.
You know,
Maybe your hand gets a little moist,
But there's no solidity.
So thinking is actually less solid than a cloud.
It's said that thoughts are kind of like a virtual reality.
And when we invest in our thinking,
The engagement and the energy that we put into it,
It makes thinking more solid,
More real and important than almost anything else in our life.
We mostly get so wrapped up in our stories and our ideas and our thoughts that they really appear real.
So the interesting thing is the more energy we put into thinking,
The harder that we try to think our way through situations,
The more attached we are to our thinking,
The less we're actually effective.
You know,
The ability to stay focused and very relaxed when we do our practice,
This allows the thinking mind to be more productive and creative.
So it's kind of counterintuitive in our culture to just relax back and see,
You know,
Let everything rest so that productivity and creativity can just emerge naturally.
So it's a useful skill to learn in meditation not to be bothered by your thinking,
To have a certain amount of equanimity with it,
And be patient when the mind wanders off.
You know,
You just can't come back,
Start again,
Just with the simplicity of breathing in and breathing out.
So with this step,
And the Anapanasati,
There's some stability to stay with breathing more continuously.
And that ability,
It comes and goes.
But at some point,
As we settle enough,
We can start to become aware of thinking,
Like clouds in the endless sky.
We don't get caught up,
You know,
Into the cloud,
We just relax.
We're just aware,
Oh,
Here's thinking,
Thoughts are coming through.
And when we can do this,
There's a few interesting things to notice.
Notice if you're thinking more in words or in images.
You know,
For some people,
It's one way or the other.
And sometimes it's a combination of both words and images.
But how?
How are you thinking?
And if you're thinking in images,
It might be like a scene in front of your eyes that are closed,
Or it may be in a location.
You know,
You can maybe you can feel the thinking behind your eyes,
Or behind the forehead.
And if there's a lot of imagery,
There might also be in the body some contraction or tightness in different locations in the body.
So by noticing the location where thinking seems to be occurring,
It's possible to notice how much energy is being expended,
The emotions that might be connected to the energy.
You know,
There might be some big emotions connected to thinking.
And sometimes the emotions are actually the fuel for thinking,
Or the source of what we're thinking about.
But this is the way we feel into thinking.
So it's possible just to settle back and observe thinking without necessarily observing the content of our thoughts.
So then this gives you the access to the instruction to experience mental activity,
To experience what it's like in the body,
Or to kind of feel your way into thinking,
Feel it somatically,
Physically,
Even though what's happening is often mental,
There might be some sensations to it.
And seeing this and experiencing different parts of thinking,
That in and of itself allows thinking to quiet down,
Become more still.
And as thinking becomes quieter,
We may be able to stay more fully with the in breath and more fully with the out breath,
Focusing on the body breathing.
So perhaps we can then experience more ease and well being with just that simplicity of the presence of the breath.
So these are my reflections for today on the seventh step of mindfulness of breathing.
Thank you for your kind attention and open it up now for some thoughts from you or some experiences that you've had in this area.
