How To Meditate On The Breath

Part of this session,

Part of the time I'll be talking and explaining meditation and part of the time we'll do some meditation together.

I won't have you meditate for a long period of time.

You'll be short.

That's best from the beginning.

So my knowledge of meditation is limited to Buddhism and mainly Tibetan Buddhism.

Meditation isn't exclusive to Buddhism.

We do find ways of practicing meditation in other religions and other spiritual traditions like Hinduism and Christianity,

Judaism.

Probably every religion,

Every spiritual tradition has some form of something that is like meditation.

I'll be restricting my talk to Tibetan Buddhism mainly.

The word for meditation in Tibetan language is gom,

Which has the meaning of familiar.

The real meaning or purpose of practicing meditation in Buddhism is to make our mind familiar with something.

So what is that something?

It's positive states of mind,

Positive states of mind.

Because our mind unfortunately is more familiar with states of mind that are not so positive.

I mean everyone's different of course.

Everybody has their own mind and their own experiences.

For example,

Anger and feelings of aversion and dislike and irritation.

Most people's minds are quite familiar with those kinds of experiences.

Those are not positive.

They're unpleasant.

They're disturbing.

Our mind gets disturbed when that kind of thing is going on.

Also it can be disturbing for other people because if we get caught up in anger and irritation,

The way we act,

The way we talk,

The way we treat other people,

It can be hurtful and unpleasant for them as well.

They may also become irritated.

We may make a lot of other people irritated as well,

Just as we are.

That's just one example of a state of mind that's not positive.

The point I'm trying to make is that the natural state of our mind is that we are familiar with states of mind that are not so positive,

Not so pleasant and joyful.

The purpose of meditation in Buddhism is to make our minds familiar with more positive states of mind such as joy,

Loving kindness,

Compassion,

Generosity,

Wisdom,

Understanding things correctly.

We do have those qualities already in our mind.

Those are natural aspects of our mind.

They're already there,

But they tend to come and go.

Sometimes they're there and sometimes they're not.

The purpose of meditation is to make those positive states of mind more frequent.

They are present in our mind more often.

Eventually,

We can get to the point where our mind is always positive,

Always in a positive state and never disturbed by any unpleasant experience like irritation or anxiety.

It takes a lot of time and work to get there.

Don't expect it's going to happen in one weekend,

But it is possible.

We can also see improvement as we go along.

I can definitely say that when I think about my mind now compared with my mind when I was 16,

17,

18,

Even in my 20s.

Oh my god,

I'm so grateful to Buddhism for helping me to really bring about a big change in my mind.

There's a lot more work I need to do in my mind,

But at least I can see that it's possible.

It is possible to work on our mind and change our mind and make it more positive and less negative.

That's the real purpose of meditation in Buddhism.

It's changing our mind so that we have more positive,

Pleasant,

Beautiful states of mind and less negative,

Unpleasant,

Painful states of mind.

The way of doing that is just making our minds familiar with these positive states of mind.

In meditation,

We generate a positive state of mind and then we try to keep that experience as long as possible,

Even if it's just a few seconds in the beginning,

Then gradually a few minutes,

And then maybe 10 minutes,

And then 15 and 20.

So more and more,

The longer we can or the more frequently we can generate a positive state of mind and keep our mind positive,

Then the mind just naturally gets more familiar or habituated to those positive states of mind.

Eventually that becomes like our default mode.

Our default mode is to be happy and positive rather than unhappy and negative.

So that's the general explanation of what meditation is all about.

Some people have incorrect ideas about the purpose of meditation in Buddhism.

I'll just mention these.

It may not be the case for any of you,

But it does happen sometimes that people think meditation is to get these really fantastic experiences,

These really far-out experiences like going out of your body and traveling around the universe and having visions,

Attaining powers.

That's not the purpose of meditation in Buddhism,

Although those kind of experiences could happen.

They can happen,

But that's not the purpose.

That's more of like a side effect of meditation because there's a danger that if we do have fantastic experiences but we're still full of our ego and our self-centeredness and our attachment,

Then we might start bragging and boasting to other people about these fantastic experiences we have.

We might even write books about them or go on YouTube and talk about them and try to get lots of other people excited as well,

Maybe become famous and make a lot of money.

This can happen and that's actually going down the wrong road.

The real purpose of Buddhism is to become a nicer person,

More kind,

More compassionate,

More helpful for others,

More wise,

More humble,

Not more arrogant and proud,

And to genuinely help others as much as we can in our life,

Not to boost our own ego and our things like fame and gain and pride and so on.

Anyway,

Just good to mention that.

That's just an introduction.

We're going to do some meditation.

I thought to first take you through a brief body scan to help relax just in case any of you are not feeling relaxed.

It's good to relax first before we do meditation.

We'll kind of do a body scan going through our body from the top down and just try to make sure our body's relaxed.

Then we'll do some meditation on the breath,

Which is a kind of basic practice of meditation in Buddhism,

Although it's actually something that you can continue using for a long,

Long time.

It's a very helpful practice,

Especially to calm down the mind and learn to focus,

Learn to concentrate the mind,

Which is important because usually our mind is very scattered,

Very kind of all over the place and not easy to stay focused and concentrated.

Meditation on the breath is a helpful method for training our mind to be more concentrated,

More focused.

Also,

One other introductory thing is the posture for meditation.

Generally in Buddhism,

Like in Asia,

Most people meditate sitting cross-legged,

Which you're welcome to do if you can,

If you wish.

But it's also fine to meditate sitting on a chair.

The most important thing when we are sitting and doing meditation is to try to sit up straight,

Try to keep the back straight,

Rather than slouching or sitting kind of lopsided.

So try to keep your back straight and you can have your hands just resting in your lap in a comfortable way.

The position of our head shouldn't be held up high or low,

But just kind of in a normal position and slightly downwards.

That's what's recommended.

And the mouth and jaw should be relaxed.

Ideally,

You should try to breathe through your nose rather than your mouth unless your nose is completely blocked up if you have a cold.

But unless your nose is blocked up,

Try to breathe through your nose.

So your mouth should be closed and just let your jaw and teeth be natural.

Don't crunch your teeth.

And it's also recommended to put the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth behind the upper teeth.

That's kind of a detail,

But it does help to not need to swallow so much because if you get into a really focused state of mind,

Any movement can be a distraction,

Including swallowing.

So it's nice not to have to swallow so much when you're meditating.

So putting the tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth can help to reduce the flow of saliva and then you don't have to swallow so much.

So it's good to try to do that.

And then the eyes,

You probably feel more comfortable closing your eyes because when we have our eyes open,

It's hard not to be distracted by things that we see.

But there's a slight danger if we do close our eyes that we might fall asleep.

We don't want to fall asleep when we're meditating.

We want to be able to stay awake and alert.

So if you think you might fall asleep,

A way to prevent that is keeping the eyes open just a little bit.

Just enough so there's some light coming in and that can help you to stay awake.

And if you have your eyes looking down onto whatever is in front of you,

Your lap or table or whatever,

Just have your eyes,

Your gaze directed downwards.

That way you won't be distracted by things that you see.

And really just try to disengage from visual objects as much as you can and instead go inside and focus more on what your mind is doing rather than things that you see or hear.

So those are some of the points of the posture that it's good to keep in mind.

So try to sit that way.

And now I'm going to mention different parts of the body starting with the top of the head.

So when I mention a part of the body,

Put your awareness there and notice whatever sensations you might feel at that place.

Just be aware of those sensations.

And if you notice any tension,

Tightness,

You can just let it go.

Let it disappear,

Evaporate.

You may not fully be able to do this.

Some points of tension might be very stubborn and won't go away.

And that's okay.

Don't be upset about that.

Just do the best you can to be relaxed and let go of as much tension as you can.

If there's still some tension remaining,

That's okay.

Just let it be.

So first,

Feel the top of your head.

Relax the top of your head.

Then move your awareness down into your forehead.

Let your forehead relax.

Be free of worry lines,

Wrinkles.

Just let it be smooth and relaxed.

Relax your eyes.

All the muscles around the eyes,

Behind the eyes,

Let them relax.

Then relax the rest of your face.

Relax your mouth and jaw.

Then feel the sides of your head,

The right and left sides.

If you notice any sensations there,

Relax any tension.

Then relax the back of your head.

Then go inside of your head.

If you notice any tension or tightness inside of your head,

See if you can let that go.

Let your head feel light and free of tension.

Then move your awareness down into your neck and throat.

Relax any tension you may have there.

Then move further down into your shoulders,

The upper part of the back,

Shoulder blades,

Shoulder muscles.

Use any tension or tightness.

See if you can let it go.

Let that area become more relaxed.

Then move down into the middle part of your back,

Relaxing any tension there.

Then the lower part of the back.

Try to have the whole of your back as relaxed and free of tension as possible.

Now shift your awareness to the front of your body,

Starting with the chest.

Let your chest relax.

Let your lungs and heart relax.

Move further down into the abdominal area,

Your stomach,

And the other internal organs.

See if you can let it go,

Let it disappear.

Also,

Just let your breathing be natural.

Don't force it or control it.

Just let your body breathe as it normally does.

For example,

When you're sleeping,

Your body keeps breathing.

When you breathe,

There should be some movement of your abdomen in and out with each breath.

So just let that happen without interfering with it.

Then your awareness further down into your pelvic area,

Hips,

Buttocks,

Pelvis.

You won't let go of any tension in that area.

Now move into the right leg,

Your awareness down into the upper part of the right leg,

The thigh.

Relax any tension there.

Relax your right knee.

Then relax the right cow,

The lower part of the leg.

Relax your right ankle and foot and toes.

Let the whole of your right leg all the way down to the toes.

Be as relaxed as possible.

Now shift your awareness to the left leg,

Starting with the thigh.

Relax your thigh.

Then the left knee.

Then the lower part of the left leg.

Then relax the left ankle and foot all the way down to the toes.

Try to have the whole of the left leg all the way down to the toes as relaxed as possible.

Now we'll do the right arm and your awareness to the upper part of your right arm.

Relax any tension you may have there.

Do the same with the right elbow and lower part of the arm.

Right hand and fingers.

And finally the left arm and your awareness to the upper part of your left arm.

Relax any tension there.

Then the lower part of the left arm.

Finally your left hand and fingers.

So try to keep your bodies relaxed and free of tension as possible for the remaining time that we are meditating.

Now we'll switch our awareness to the breathing.

Again,

Just let your breathing flow naturally in and out.

Try not to control your breathing.

There's no need to do that.

And there's different ways you can be aware of your breathing.

One is at the abdomen,

The movement of the abdomen in and out of each breath.

Another place that people sometimes use is the nostrils,

The openings of the nostrils.

That's the place where the air is coming in and going out.

You may be able to feel the sensations as the air is passing in and out of the nostrils or on the upper lip.

So different people have different experiences.

So just try to find what works best for you,

Which place you can feel the breath most easily,

Naturally.

And then just let your awareness rest at that place and be aware of the sensations as you are breathing in and breathing out.

Try to stay attentive to the full cycle of inhalation and exhalation of each breath,

One breath after another.

While doing this,

Other thoughts might pop up in your mind,

Or you may hear sounds and your attention may get distracted.

But as soon as you notice that,

As soon as you notice your mind has gone away from the breath to anything else,

Gently bring it back to the breath.

And don't worry if you have to keep doing this again and again.

It's natural.

It's very hard to keep our mind focused on just one thing,

Like the breath.

So don't worry if it's challenging.

Your mind keeps running away.

Just gently,

Patiently bring it back to the breath.

You may find it helpful to count.

So one way of doing that is to say to yourself,

Breathing in,

Breathing out one,

Breathing in,

Breathing out two,

And so on.

If you're beginning with meditation,

Just count up to five and then go back to one.

So counting rounds of five.

If you've meditated before and you're more experienced,

You can count up to 10 and then go back to one.

So this is optional.

You don't have to count,

But it can be helpful to keep your mind focused on the breath.

So let's try that for maybe five minutes and then I'll bring it down.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Remember,

Just keep bringing your mind back to the breath whenever it wanders away.

Try to do this with kindness and patience towards yourself rather than being impatient and frustrated.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

One meditation teacher compared this kind of practice to training a puppy to sit.

Maybe some of you have had that experience.

You know how puppies are.

They're just so full of energy and they just want to play and they don't want to sit still.

They just want to look for things to play with and chew on and so on.

So they're just kind of all over the place and you want to train the puppy to sit.

So you say sit.

The puppy will sit maybe for one second and then it will jump up and want to play.

And again,

Sit.

So you have to keep bringing the puppy back and training it to understand that command.

Sit,

Sit,

Sit.

So it's a bit like that with our mind.

The natural state of our mind is like the little puppy,

Just so active,

So full of energy,

All over the place,

Looking for things to play with,

Things that are interesting and exciting.

So our minds are just not used to staying focused on one thing for more than a few seconds.

That's just the way it is.

And so we're trying to train our mind to stay focused on one thing,

The breath.

So it's like we're telling our mind,

Sit,

Stay with the breath,

And then it runs away,

Come back,

Sit,

Stay.

So I like that analogy because that's the way our mind is.

It is like a little puppy.

And also,

If you want to train a puppy,

You have to do it with kindness.

You don't start hitting the puppy over the head with a stick beating it.

That's not the way to train it.

You have to be kind and patient,

But firm at the same time.

So that's the attitude we need to have with ourself,

With our mind.

If we start beating ourselves up because our mind doesn't stay still,

That's not going to help.

The mind just doesn't know any better.

It just hasn't learned how to stay focused.

And we're trying to teach it that.

So the best way to do that is with kindness,

With patience,

With compassion.

Just keep doing it.

Eventually,

The mind will learn how to do that.