Mindfulness of breathing

- [Man] Let's take the same quality of attention that we just brought to eating the raisin. The same moment to moment, non judging, non cerebro, direct tasting, of our experience. Whatever it is. Whether it was through the touching or the seeing or the hearing or the smelling, or the actual tasting and then the feeling of the swallowing and what came in the aftermath. And let's bring this same quality of mindfulness now to the feeling of the breath moving in and out of the body. I'm making the wild assumption that if you're listening to this program that you actually are breathing. And so it can become a central object of our attention. And we can let everything else, move into the wings so to speak and feature the breath, center stage in the field of awareness. We don't have to all of a sudden get involved in moving the air, in pushing it in or out. But to just let the body breathe itself. And we hold it in awareness. Feeling the sensations in the body associated with this gentle flowing of the breath in and the breath out. Almost as if you could taste the breath. Touch the breath. Not with your fingers, but with that whole felt sense, that capacity for knowing what is actually transpiring in the body. And then riding the waves of our own breathing moment, by moment by moment as we sit here or lie here. And you can do this either sitting or lying. If you're sitting, you might want to sit in a posture that embodies dignity, whatever that means to you. And if you're lying down, equally so that embodies wakefulness. 'Cause it's an occupational hazard of lying down meditation is of course to fall asleep, but the invitation is to fall awake, rather than to fall asleep. And you can set that as an intention for yourself. If you're lying down and to feel the breath, to be aware of, the full duration of the breath coming into the body, the full duration of the breath leaving the body moment by moment by moment. Noticing where you're drawn to feel the breath, where it's most vivid in the body, and letting your attention settle wherever that is. Perhaps it's at the nostrils. Or perhaps it's in the belly. Where we can feel the, the abdominal wall expanding out very gently and naturally on the in breaths and receding a little bit back towards the spine, on the out breaths. Or wherever else in the body you are feeling the breath most vividly and simply, as I said, riding on the waves. The felt waves of your own breathing moment by moment by moment, as if your life depended on it. Which of course it does. And just once again, remembering that it's not the breath that's important so much as, the awareness that's important. Of course, the breath is important, but the awareness is what we're cultivating here. You've been breathing for a long time. It's been going very nicely, I'm sure. But now we're moving into an entirely different relationship with the breath. Cultivating intimacy with the feeling of the breath moving in and out. Not thoughts about the breath, or how well you're doing with this. But just over and over again, resting in the awareness of breathing itself. The in breath, the out breath. This moment, this breath, this moment, this breath. Same, vivid, discerning, open, clear, quality of attention, brought to the breath that you brought to eating the raisin. Different object, same awareness. Allowing yourself to settle into those characteristics of awareness that feel like stillness. That feel like silence. And seeing if it's not actually possible to be comfortable in stillness and silence. Just riding on the waves of the breath, at the belly, at the nostrils, wherever. Moment by moment, by moment by moment as we sit here, or as we lie here, fully awake, fully in touch. Now, it won't take long resting in this kind of silence and stillness, to discover that the mind kind of has a life of its own. And just because you have a strong motivation to practice mindfulness at this moment or to follow along with my voice doesn't mean that you're actually going to keep your attention on the breath. This is a kind of huge discovery. Beginners are sometimes shocked by, "My God! It's not so easy to keep the mind on the breath." Just know that it's not just beginners that are shocked by this. This is part of the nature of mind that it has, it's a life of its own. And that it is just filled with all sorts of thoughts and feelings and ideas and preoccupations with the future and the past. And now with meditation and maybe having all these thoughts about your breath, all of a sudden, you never thought about your breath at all. Now, maybe, "Am I doing it right?" Or, "Am I breathing deeply enough?" Or over judging like, you know, "God, this is boring. When are we going to get to the good stuff?" Whatever it is, just noticing how easy it is for the mind to intrude into the space of awareness and carry your attention away so that the breath actually disappears from awareness. You've lost touch. And here there's one basic instruction that's really important. And that is when you notice that your mind is not on your breath anymore, in the body, well, you're already back. Because some part of your awareness has actually let it register that your mind wandered away. So noticing what's on your mind in that moment, and just let it be. And then, gently and lovingly and caringly and firmly reestablishing your primary focus once again, on the breath in the belly, or at the nostrils or wherever. You don't have to give yourself a hard time or turn yourself into a failure. This is just what the mind does. Is it wanders here, it wanders there. It's got ideas and opinions as we've seen about just about everything. And we want of course be good at this if we're doing it. So just keep in mind, you're breathing already perfectly. The question is, can you be in awareness? Can you be the knowing of breathing? And when the mind goes off someplace else, is distracted or preoccupied, just noting what's on your mind, bring it back, gently, lovingly. And if mind wanders 1000 times, just bring it back, a thousand times, after you've noted what's on your mind. It's actually a huge and radical act of love and loving kindness to spend some time in this way, in the domain of being and learning, really from moment to moment. How it is in the body and what's on your mind. And then staying with the awareness. Or, as we said, the awareness sing of breathing, featured center stage in the field of awareness and everything else in the wings when it intrudes or carries us off. Mind goes off, you bring it back. Mind goes off, bring it back. Mind goes off, bring it back. Even if you don't want to bring it back, you're enjoying where the mind is. Bringing it back, that's part of the discipline of it. Just this moment, just this breath. Just this moment, just this breath. And the knowing of the breath. (bell dings) (bell dings) (bell dings)