Introduction to Breath and Body Awareness

An introduction to connecting with the breath and the body in meditation given on a women's Buddhist meditation retreat.

Transcript

The body is,

So to say,

The stage between heaven and earth on which the psycho-cosmic drama is enacted.

For the knowing one,

It is the sacred stage of an unfathomably deep mystery play.

And it is for this reason that the knowledge,

Or what is more the conscious experience of this body,

Is of such paramount importance for the meditator and for everybody who wants to tread the path of meditation.

The body,

However,

Is rendered conscious through the spiritualization of pranya in its most accessible form,

In the process of breathing.

So the breath is a gateway into the body.

It's a way that we begin to connect with what is actually going on.

And for all Buddhists,

One of the main questions for us is what is actually going on,

As opposed to what we think is going on.

So we're getting interested in how things actually are,

Which is yet unknown to us.

So the breath is also a way in which we begin to touch into that which is currently inaccessible and unknown to us.

And we don't get to decide how that happens,

How quickly or slowly a lot might emerge,

Which is why faith is such an important quality.

So there's an aspect of surrender,

Surrendering to the breath.

So it's not that things don't exist,

So just taking things to the kind of ultimate level.

So we don't take the Buddha's teachings and just slap them on to everything,

Like,

Oh,

I'm impermanent,

So whatever,

It doesn't matter.

Things don't really exist,

So I don't need to care.

So it's not that things don't really exist.

It's that they are not as they seem.

They don't exist in the way that we think they do.

They are not as they appear.

So that's why I love this quote from Lama Govinda about the unfathomably deep mystery play,

Because our direct experience is incredibly mysterious,

And the whole of reality is like a magic show.

So we're under the illusion that things are real in a particular way,

And that we relate to them as real,

And that's why and how we suffer.

So we need to get interested in a process of beginning to understand and know things as they are,

Understand and know ourselves for what we actually are,

Who we actually are.

And in order to do that,

We need to go to the source.

We're like explorers,

Or you could think of us as if you're more scientifically minded,

Like scientists in a laboratory.

So we want to go to,

We want to try to isolate things and go to the root,

Radical,

Getting to the root of things.

So where might we go to know things as they are?

In our meditation?

Yeah,

And what might we get interested in in our meditation?

Body sensations?

Yeah,

That's right.

Our direct experience as it's appearing.

So we perceive the world and then experience it based on the way in which we perceive it.

So right now,

Most of what we have available to us is our direct experience as it's appearing to us just now.

So that's what we're getting interested in.

You could think of yourself like watching a magician on the stage and you're just watching really closely to see when that dove appears out of the hat or whatever.

Can you catch anything about that moment?

Is there something else to be seen,

To be intuitive,

To be understood?

And I also find it very interesting that we use the breath.

So the breath itself is an unconscious phenomenon.

It happens without us needing to think about it or make it happen.

So in a way,

You could think of the breath as a placeholder for all of the unconscious processes that go on.

So the more we can get familiar with and interested in and able to sit with the impermanence,

Emptiness,

Unpredictability of the breath so we can become more familiar with and interested in maybe all of those other things that are going on just under the surface that are not yet known to us.

So Lama Govinda refers to the breathing as the connecting link between conscious and subconscious,

Gross material and fine material,

Volitional and non-volitional functions,

And therefore the most perfect expression of the nature of all of life.

Isn't it amazing that we can turn our awareness towards something that's just going on all the time in the background?

It's what keeps us alive.

And everybody's doing it.

It's what keeps everybody alive.

So on a more practical level,

Why else might the breath be helpful?

Any guesses?

She's our emotional state.

Oh.

Say more about that.

Is it deep?

Is it shallow?

Is it quick?

Is it labeled?

It might show some sense of peace.

So there might be clues to how we are in the way the breath is appearing.

OK.

Other things?

Connects the body.

Connects the body.

Yes.

When I breathe sometimes,

I can feel it going down my legs.

So it's taking my stomach.

So it can bring you into parts of the body that maybe you weren't aware of.

Yes.

It can integrate your body.

It has a healing sort of pulling you all together.

Yes.

So it has an integrative function.

And it's got a healing function as well.

Yes.

Yeah.

It can help relieve tension.

Definitely.

Yeah.

OK.

It reminds me of spaciousness inside.

It's space inside my body.

Yes.

It helps to create space in the body,

Particularly on the in-breath.

Yes.

And we can even imagine breathing space in.

Other things that are helpful about breathing?

Other things that are helpful about the breath?

It's happening right here,

Right now.

Yeah.

It doesn't happen at any other time than now.

We can't bring our awareness to the breath we just had or the one we're about to have.

We can only bring it to the one we're having right now.

Yeah.

It's also rhythmically,

Isn't it?

There's a rhythm to it.

It's almost like a song.

A song of your life.

Oh,

That's nice.

So it's got a rhythm.

And what's important about rhythm?

I don't know,

But it's something.

There's something quite soothing about it,

Isn't there?

It's just something that if you can tune into it,

Rather it's not boring.

It's just that song.

That's why I said it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

And even if it feels chaotic,

At least it's got that kind of structure to it that we can hang our awareness on.

We know it's coming in and going out.

Yeah.

Something interesting about the space between the in-breath and the out-breath and that kind of urge to carry on to the next.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

So it's not just form,

But it's also got emptiness.

Yeah.

And both things are happening.

So we can bring our awareness and get curious about what's happening in both the movement and the stillness.

And there are times when I stop breathing,

Especially if I'm concentrating on something.

I forget,

My body just stops breathing.

Yeah.

And then what happens?

Why?

Then I discover.

Yeah.

So it'd be really interesting for you to explore who chooses to start breathing again.

Yes.

Or does it just happen?

Yeah?

I don't know,

Because if I catch it,

I choose to start again.

But it might have happened before.

Yeah.

Or you could just,

That's a really interesting place to notice,

Isn't it?

Just play around with that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When you catch it,

You could choose not to breathe and see what happens.

Yes.

Although I really don't want you to die on this retreat.

If you choose not to breathe and you're not breathing,

Please choose to breathe.

OK,

Anything else that's helpful about the breath?

It also reminds us that we are interdependent with our environment,

That we're not sort of a unit.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that we share what we depend on with everyone else.

Yeah.

So it's a really,

Really great way to just,

Especially if we're not feeling connected,

To just remember connection and dependence,

Actually,

Dependence on the environment and the fact that others,

All of us,

Are having this experience.

It's a great baseline,

Isn't it,

For humanity?

It's like anyone who's not breathing isn't part of the human race at this moment in time.

Maybe they were in the past,

But not right now.

Anything else?

It's along with someone else earlier about the emotions.

It's like a barometer.

You check into it and you know where you're at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's got that really practical function of giving us information about how we're doing.

Yeah.

I think we've said similar things.

We haven't said that word,

But it's an anchor,

Isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's an anchor.

It's an anchor in the present moment.

Yes.

So it's something we can keep coming back to,

Like that thread in that poem last night,

A thread that we can just keep picking up.

So it's got that,

It's almost like the embodiment of sati,

Because we can keep remembering to come back,

A breath body.

In a way,

It's our closest friend,

Because it's with us from the moment we're born to the moment we die.

It's the only one thing that's with us,

If you think about it.

Mm-hmm.

Though it's constant,

It's also changing.

So even in the length of a short bit of meditation,

It changes.

So you can be watching it,

But almost by the time you've watched it,

It's changed already.

Yes,

That's right.

So it becomes,

I'm really glad you said that,

Because this is an aspect that's quite important for us as meditators,

To be able to understand and begin to learn to work creatively with.

So it's both,

It's got the soothing aspects.

It's got the grounding in the body,

The waking us up to the body.

It's got that consistency of something to come back to,

Which are all aspects of samatha practice,

So calming,

Integrating,

Leading to concentration,

And hopefully more energy becoming available to us.

But it's also got a vipassana element to it.

It begins to open us up into the world of insight,

Into the nature of everything.

So it,

In and of itself,

Is impermanent and empty of any true nature.

And how we relate to it may or may not lead to dukkha.

So in a way,

It's also a placeholder for everything else.

And we can begin to see those truths in the simple act of breathing.

So raise your hand if you've,

At one point in time in your practice,

Thought that the breath was boring.

OK.

So now I want everyone to hold their breath.

Is it still boring?

See how long you can hold your breath for before things start to get really interesting.

Anyone still holding their breath?

Anyone still holding their breath?

OK.

Is the breath still boring?

Raise your hand if you think the breath is boring just now in this moment.

It's quite essential,

Isn't it?

Yeah.

And some people,

When they start meditating,

And they're told to bring their awareness to their breath,

They can't have a direct relationship with it.

And they may not know their breathing for a very,

Very long time.

No,

In a direct way.

Yeah.

So it is a theoretical idea.

Breathing is actually a theoretical concept until we begin to familiarize ourselves with it through the practice.

So we do need to use our imagination,

Actually.

The imagination is absolutely critical in mindfulness and breathing practice,

Because we do need to be able to imagine what it might be like to no longer have an idea,

But actually be with a direct experience,

Which is very,

Very different than the idea.

And you could play around with that.

So you could imagine what an apple tastes like.

And then during the break,

You could go and eat an apple and then compare the difference between the imagined experience and the actual experience.

So most of us will spend,

Especially people who aren't practitioners,

Will spend their whole lives imagining that they're breathing.

You could even say imagining that they're alive,

But not actually living their life.

So we're not interested in that.

We're interested in being awake,

Which starts with breathing.

It's not always easy to tell the difference.

No.

So that's another area where you could do an inquiry into your own experience in the mindfulness of breathing.

Am I with the breath,

Or am I with an idea of the breath right now?

You could just ask yourself that question over and over again.

Where's the actual experience of breathing right now?

OK,

So that's enough talking.

Let's do some practice.

So we're going to do a body scan,

But focused on tuning into the breath more closely.

And you can do this sitting,

Or you can do it laying down.

So choose a posture that feels intuitively like it'll help you get in touch with the breathing.

You can also do good proponent movement,