Breath Training & Contemplation

Good day to you,

And thank you for joining me in beginning to train the breath,

So that we may control our mind,

Body,

And heart more fully and with more confidence.

The depth of the breath is actually quite large.

Many practiced meditators can sustain incredibly long and slow breaths that are upward of many minutes breathing in and many minutes breathing out.

Though we are not yet there,

Let us slow down and begin to explore the depth and width of our breath in the here and the now.

Get yourself into a chair or a comfortable position,

Sitting loosely,

Standing,

Or in the cross-legged pose that allows for you to be relaxed and at attention,

Yet not so relaxed as to fall asleep.

If you need to,

Grab a cushion or a knee pillow to support.

Close your eyes or have a soft gaze directed toward a single point and turn your introspective awareness to the breath.

Turn the mind towards the breath.

Feel the air as it enters your nostrils and goes down to expand your abdomen.

Pause at the top of the breath and release,

Feeling the air leave the abdomen and back out through the nostrils,

Pausing at the bottom of the breath for just a moment.

At first,

What we want to do is expel any stale air that is in our body.

One cannot begin training the breath or begin proper meditation without expelling any stale air.

So breathe in as deeply as you can,

Slowly filling up the lungs and slowly filling up the abdomen,

Not too quickly,

So that you don't miss any corner or part of the lungs or the abdomen.

Feeling it for just a moment and releasing slowly,

Slowly,

Back out until you can almost feel your spine through the belly.

And breathing in again slowly,

Noticing any sensations that arise in the breath,

Keeping the mind towards the breath and the sensation of the breath,

Keeping the attention with the feeling of breathing in and in and in and pausing and releasing and out and out and out.

Not being coarse,

Not being aggressive,

But simply filling the body to its greatest extent and releasing it to its greatest emptiness.

Practice this for another four or five breaths,

Filling the body with a freshness and expelling the staleness that may sit at the deepest portions of your respiratory system,

Trying to maintain awareness towards the simple action of the breath and trying to keep the attention towards the feeling of the air and the condition of breathing.

Check in with the body on the shoulder's tense.

As the back become bent,

The lips tightly close together and the teeth held together,

Relax the jaw,

Relax the shoulders,

Straighten the spine,

But not taut.

Relax the body and return awareness and attention to the breath.

Begin to count as you breathe in,

But not so deeply.

Lessen it,

Only go to about 75% of your capacity,

Breathing in to a point,

Pausing,

And breathing out to a point,

Pausing.

The less you try,

The better.

So try not trying.

Not control the breath rigidly,

But let it flow from awareness to awareness,

From breath to breath.

Let it have the natural rhythm that it already contains.

The less effort you put towards it,

The more easily it'll come.

While the breath settles,

Count out mentally how long you are breathing in and breathing out.

As you breathe in,

You may think 1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

And then pause,

And then back out again,

Counting 1,

2,

3,

4,

And 5.

Finding a number that is comfortable with the rhythm of your breath.

Finding a balance point for the body to sit on and breathe from,

And finding a focal point for the mind to sustain in gentle concentration.

Try and keep your mind on your counting,

And try to keep the awareness on the sensation of the air coming in and leaving your body,

Either by being aware of the feeling of the abdomen expanding,

Or by the feeling of the air entering and exiting the nostrils.

Do not separate these focuses,

But combine them.

As the mind counts,

The body reacts,

And as the mind counts,

The body reacts again,

Keeping focus and awareness on the breath.

Whenever sensations try to arise and break your attention to either the counting or the breath,

Notice them.

See them,

And return focus to the counting in the mind and the feeling of the body.

Know that they come from nowhere,

And that here and now the only thing that we are concerned with is the breath.

Knowing the breath,

And maintaining focus and attention towards the breath.

It takes a little practice,

But the attention can be trained to maintain focus for long periods of time toward a single object,

And one's awareness can be expanded to sensations beyond just those of the body,

But those will come later.

For now,

Simply continue to count the breath,

And feel the object of breathing,

Returning the mind to the focus of the breath when it has wandered,

And returning the awareness to the counting in the mind.

As you become more comfortable with whatever point you have chosen,

With whatever number you have picked,

You can expand that number upward,

But not too quickly.

In the breath,

You should practice breathing in and breathing out for a certain point,

At a certain rapidity or slowness 108 times before increasing or decreasing it.

If you do this,

And you practice it just for a few days,

The quality of your breath and of your attention to the breath will be expanded tinfold,

And you will begin to notice subtle awarenesses that arise.

But for now,

Let us just continue breathing gently and slowly.

For seven more minutes,

Just focus on the breath,

And try to keep the body and the mind toward the breath.

At the end of these seven minutes,

A chime will sound.

Wonderful!

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