Mindful Of The Breath: A Gateway To The Present Moment

This meditation coming home to the breath,

Sensing the breath rising and falling of the chest,

Expanding,

Focusing on direct experience of the breath happening right here,

Intimate with all of the sensations of the breath.

Wherever you feel the breath most predominant,

You might feel the breath as it arises from the abdomen up through the body.

Maybe you focus most easily on the chest as it rises and falls,

Seeing the breath as it leaves your nostrils,

Breath on the upper lip,

Breathing in is being known,

Breathing out is being known.

It's all just establishing present moment awareness.

It's happening right now with the breath without you doing anything,

Looking for anything,

Expecting anything,

No matter how the breath is right now,

Whether it's easy or hard,

Long or short,

We are letting it be however it is.

Can we get interested in and savor this present moment helps to stay relaxed in the body,

Relaxed in the mind,

Just being here with whatever is happening,

Gentle inflow,

Outflow of the breath,

Quality of experience,

Mind is not absorbed in thought or searching for something,

Joy of putting down thoughts for a moment,

Experiencing the space that opens just one in breath,

Feeling how the drama of life departs for a moment,

You're just here now,

The in breath and the out breath,

The quality of each breath,

The sensation,

Texture,

The aliveness,

Present moment,

Inclusion,

The safety of being right here with just this breath,

This breath,

Mind will naturally drift off,

Be caught by some thought or some memory,

Joy of returning again and again,

Simplicity,

The beauty of what is right here,

Naturally occurring,

Inviting us into its rhythm,

Life giving pulse,

Breath as a gift to us,

To be enjoyed,

Joy of separating ourselves from the trance of thought,

Returning to what is right here,

Present moment,

Awareness,

Simplicity,

Breath,

And out breath,

Without any other care in this moment,

Freedom to give yourself entirely to the breath,

Comes and goes,

This is your life right now,

In time,

Ready you can,

So you could,

People,

For the talk,

Miracle of mindfulness,

And particularly mindfulness of the breath,

Is that it allows us to just stop,

Feel that quality,

Stillness,

Spaciousness when you just stop and you can jump off the swirling merry-go-round of thoughts that we all have,

Taking us around and around and around and just pause and take that first breath,

Feel just that breath,

And for me it is always a reminder that there is another option instead of going wherever the mind is trying to lead,

That you can just take this pause wherever you are and experience that next breath,

I think they say you have about 22,

000 breaths every day,

And so every one is an opportunity to pause,

Feeling like maybe it's the waves coming into shore,

And with every wave you have a chance to jump on.

We practice this in meditation in some ways to build up some muscle memory so that at other times,

At any time,

When things are hard,

We can remember to pause and know that with that next breath,

Or two or three or four,

That it can bring us back and shift our awareness into this present moment,

And it's very easy,

The hard part is trying to remember to do it,

Trying to remember that it's possible,

I think in some ways we can feel that it can't be this simple,

All this talk about mindfulness and meditation,

That it's got to be harder than this,

It can't be so simple as just watching the in-breath and watching the out-breath,

And I think part of it is that the mind has trouble accepting that it's being displaced for a moment,

That it really wants to of course be the star of the show and solve the problem,

Whatever the problem is,

Including the problem of our life and what we're doing,

Or who we are,

It's like a student who always has his hand raised,

You know,

Trying to get the teacher's attention,

To say what the answer to whatever question is,

Even before the question is asked,

Or always has an opinion about what's going on,

Whether the mind likes what's going on or doesn't like what's going on,

Or maybe it's not quite sure whether it likes or dislikes what's going on,

And so it has to have a debate inside of itself as to whether it likes or dislikes whatever is going on,

This is the work of the mind,

And we need it for certain things,

We don't need it for telling us about our life and who we are,

I don't know if you've ever seen this sometimes in a movie,

You can turn on the director's commentary to the movie,

And so the director will take you through the whole thing,

Scene by scene,

Explain why they did this and that,

And what was happening behind the scenes and so forth,

And sometimes I think of the mind like that,

It's like we have experience in our life that's happening moment to moment,

And the mind wants to provide us the commentary for everything that's happening,

And I think I only tried this once or twice,

Or movies that I really liked,

And I saw this option,

And you click on,

But after a few minutes it's so annoying,

Like you can't stand it,

You just want to tell us,

But could you please just shut up,

I would like to watch the movie,

It's a good movie,

I'd like to watch it,

And the same thing is true with the experience,

It's a very different quality,

Mindfulness is a very different quality of really what's happening moment to moment,

Rather than our opinions,

Our commentary,

Our likes or dislikes.

This is from Ajahn Sumedho,

A senior western monk.

The rhythm of our normal breathing is not interesting or compelling,

It's tranquilizing,

And most beings aren't used to tranquility.

I recall that I was on a retreat,

And I was having an experience I didn't quite recognize,

Or couldn't really kind of map exactly,

And this happened for a couple days,

And then I finally realized after a while that the experience I was having,

It was hard to pinpoint,

Was contentment.

It felt very foreign,

This experience of really not having to change anything in what was going on,

And it wasn't like a big emotional experience of happiness,

Or some bright light,

Or revelation,

It was just this sense that I was content with things,

Or a settledness with the way things are,

Which is really the heart of mindfulness.

And you don't have to go on retreat to get this,

You know,

I think that that's the miracle of mindfulness,

It's available in the next breath.

The mind is,

I think also,

Once you understand this,

How simple it is,

The mind can still be looking for something more,

Or feeling like,

I got the in-breath,

Check,

I got the out-breath,

Check,

And then,

Okay,

So what's next?

I got that,

That's pretty good,

You know,

That's pretty good.

So it's,

You know,

It's kind of like what they say,

Then there's probably more,

Like if I've got that,

Then I can go on to like,

You know,

Stage two,

Stage three,

Stage four,

The advanced class,

The super spiritual things,

You know,

The levitation,

Like whatever,

Whatever is you know,

Whatever is the,

You know,

The big prize at the end.

But the whole point is being able to step back from the neurotic thoughts,

Likes and dislikes,

And just experience how different the pause is,

What a different quality is.

And we're,

We're all just,

We've been given the nervous system of these great apes who had to survive out in a very hostile world,

Became hyper alert.

And then you add to that the 24 hour news cycle,

And cell phones and everything else.

And even more dramatic is the sense that you can actually calm the nervous system,

That there is like there is an exit door,

You know,

That you can actually enter.

Just a couple pointers to conclude might be helpful.

Mindfulness requires attention,

But it's a very light attention.

The Venerable Analya said it's like leaning up against a post.

If you lean up against the present moment,

You don't have to press,

You just have to lean slightly.

Some people find that they can be most mindful,

Focusing on just one breath,

Breath,

And so forth.

Others can count the breaths in breath one,

In breath,

Out breath one,

In breath two,

And so forth,

Till you get to four or five and then start the cycle again.

You might find as you're doing this that you naturally calm,

Become naturally calm,

And your mind stabilizes to the point you can let go of the breath.

And that's,

That's perfectly fine.

And then maybe after a while you find yourself distracted and you come back again to stabilize yourself.

And then last,

There are some people for whom the breath doesn't work that well.

It could be for a variety of reasons.

It could be for a medical condition or for whatever other cause.

You know,

You listen to all this talk about the breath and say like,

This doesn't do it for me,

Which is okay,

Because first we've got mindfulness of a bunch of other things we're going to work through.

Or it could be loving kindness practice,

Or it could be a lot of other practices.

So or it could be,

There's one teacher who established mindfulness by asking his students to lift their arm and then very consciously lower their arm.

So mindfulness is,

Is about more than the breath.

They say that there are 84,

000 doors to awakening.

So you've got a lot of choices.

But let's conclude by going back inside for just a moment,

And if you like,

You can close your eyes again,

Allowing the awareness to rest on the breath,

To lean up against it,

Seeing if it is complete in itself,

Lacking anything or missing anything.

Just rest in that completeness,

Ease,

No concern for anything else.

Breath right now.

Sensations of the inbreath,

Sensations of the outbreath.

Then coming gently back,

Just one or two deep,

Full cleansing breaths.