Mindfulness Of Breathing - Fading

So I'd like to start this morning with one of the first statements that was made when the Buddha died.

It said that the person reciting this,

This became later became a chant that was done as a as a rite of passage when someone was dying.

All things are impermanent.

They arise and they pass away.

To be in harmony with this truth brings great happiness.

All things are impermanent.

They arise and they pass away.

To be in harmony with this truth brings great happiness.

So all things arise and pass away.

And we don't have to be in constant like in a constant place of meditation practice to begin appreciating how much does pass away.

You know it's possible to tune into the spaciousness and the openness which the passing away allows.

If we don't cling to the next thing that comes up and we allow it to pass then in the space it leaves behind we can just open and relax and take it in.

Something else will arise but rather than being preoccupied or caught by it by analyzing it or reflecting on it we just allow the next thing to arise in the space in the openness in the field of awareness where it just comes and it goes.

And in the process of doing this we learn more and more about letting go.

We learn more and more about not holding on to anything.

The deepest and the most important insight in Insight Meditation is this inconstancy of experience of phenomena.

The changing nature of phenomena as it arises and as it passes here in the present moment.

And the essence of this 13th step of the mindfulness of breathing that we did on Tuesday is to settle back and observe it.

And then we come to the 14th step.

It says one trains breathing in observing fading away.

One trains breathing out observing fading away.

Or a different translation is one trains breathing in observing dispassion.

And this translation doesn't quite work for some people because the word passion has acquired many positive associations.

I think the original meaning was like the passion of the Christ where it meant suffering.

But there are also meanings in English where passion can have a negative connotation.

It's a source of suffering.

It's a clinging.

It's the crime of passion.

When someone has a passion for power or for sex that intensity can be really painful.

So I like to think of it and I think this has been helpful for me in understanding.

I like to think of it more like a drivenness.

You know we can be driven by lust by hatred by ill will by anger.

When there is a drivenness something has taken over and we're not really in control anymore.

That level of passion when something has taken over.

So one trains observing that the things that we cling to that we have passion for that we're driven by they start to lose their allure.

They start losing their enchantment.

We stop falling under their spell.

You know we begin to observe that we're less and less interested in clinging to these drivers.

We're less interested or driven by our passion.

It's the fading away of our addictive interest in certain things that don't serve us anymore.

There's this fading and in a way an inner psychological change begins to happen.

Some of that change is relaxing the searching.

Is relaxing trying to do or get something.

Relaxing the need to know and the search to know because all that is just too much.

It's like leaning forward when we can just lean back.

The image that comes to mind for me is like a wise elder who just sort of relaxes back amongst all kinds of activity.

There can be activity going on full speed and this being just sits and watches like it being in an easy chair you know.

So all of our attachments as we practice they start to feel like wind drag.

You know they interfere with the radiance of our hearts,

Of our minds,

The freedom of our lives.

We see that the clinging,

The attachments,

The things that we hold on to start losing their allure.

They start to diminish us.

There starts to be disinterest.

You know a fading away of jealousy,

Of conceit,

Of wanting,

Of grasping,

A fading away,

Of comparing,

A fading away of craving,

Of resentment,

Of hatred.

The list is long of things that we start to recognize that you know what this doesn't really serve me.

I'm not so interested in this anymore.

Or sort of like I've been resentful for 30 years and I think I'm kind of getting tired of it.

You know I see that it's not so interesting to hold on to this.

Or I've been chasing,

Kind of chasing after like the perfect body for decades.

And I'm not really interested in always presenting myself with this perfect human body.

You know we start losing interest in always wanting to make more money or have more status.

All these things that we've been chasing you know for decades.

There's this healthy,

Oh wait a minute,

This doesn't serve me.

This is not the best place to be.

This is not the most wonderful way to be.

Being preoccupied with these things you know.

We start to experience for ourselves I'm beginning to know something better.

I'm beginning to understand about freedom,

About ease.

And I want to just stress to you that the primary reference point for what I'm talking about is occurring in meditation.

Because outside of meditation you might argue you know,

Wait a minute I have passion for a vibrant sex life or staying healthy as I age.

I need some drive and some passion in these areas of my life.

And I don't want to really get into those discussions here.

I want to,

This is something to discover in meditation that we don't have to pursue the perfect physique or more money or more states or whatever it is that we're pursuing you know.

In meditation itself it can,

You can feel how much better it feels and easier it is just to let go and to not be involved with all of that.

And the way that we let go is by observing the inconstancy.

There's a fading away of interest in something in some of our attachments.

There's also a fading away of the attachments themselves and to start to see that it really creates a verifiable kind of faith in the practice to see that letting go is possible.

As we settle back just observing you know we can see that being involved in uncontrolled drivenness and caughtness and preoccupation it doesn't serve us.

There starts to be this real process of disinterest,

Losing interest in continuing to be driven by.

You know I've had this preoccupation for decades now but you know I'm just not interested in it anymore.

I know that I'm anxious but I don't have to be so driven by it.

I can ease up on my anxiety.

I can just observe it.

I don't need to be so involved or entangled with this anxiety that kind of runs through me.

And so this movement towards non driven,

The dropping away of compulsion,

The fading or dispassion is closely connected to freedom.

It's a kind of freedom.

It's kind of like the freedom of breathing in fresh air.

You know if you're out in nature and you're just taking a deep breath and it's like ah kind of vitality and healthiness.

So fading,

Fading,

Dispassion,

The release of drivenness.

Next time we'll move into the 15th step which is on cessation or as my teacher calls it the sacred absence.

I like that.

Thank you for your kind attention.

I'll open it up now for questions or comments.