Stillness and the Breath

[Cybermonk]

Aloha to you Cybermonks,

So... lately I've been studying breathing. It's somehow always amazed me how
delicate my existence is, because if I don't get that next breath.... game over.

Also, when my monkey mind won't stop, I've found stopping the breath, stills
the mind. Sure, everybody knows that, but I didn't. Somehow while meditating
on the 4/4/4, up to the 32/32/32 , I missed the essence of the breathing.

So...personally, I've found "stillness"  when the breathing stops.  Inhale,hold,
stillness, exhale, hold, stillness.  I've since let go of counting and the stillness
has stuck. Stillness is now spreading to the rest of me too.

Such a simple thing. Now I can meditate wherever. No special posturing needed.
If I'm involved in a massive energy event, minds whirling, limbs flailing, visions,
sounds, all the sense inputs cranking in data, I just inhale, hold, all starts to
still, exhale, hold, stillness starts to show.

I must admit that getting to stillness when the body is suffering, takes some
doing. It seems to work wirh minor pains well. I can see "becoming still" has
many levels to work toward, not just my mind.

So it goes,
Kimo

[Jhanananda]

Congratulations, Kimo, on stilling your mind.  The next job is to see if you can keep it stilled.  Living in the present moment helps a lot of people to still their mind.  So, perhaps it will work for you as well.

[Luke Avedon]

Hi Kimo,

I was very interested to read your post.  I too have found that for some reason the pause between breaths is when the mind is most still (if you have a very talkative monkey mind as I do). 

There is a brief dialog in the book "The Heart of Yoga" by TKV  Deskachar where they talk about this (page 67).   

However, I have taken that pause too far.  At my local Yoga studio they are always trying to get people to forcefully control their breathing and I think it is generally a mistake.  I also think they don't have a clue meditation wise.

I have found that once I read the Buddha’s instructions I finally realized I should just let the breath do it's own thing and that is when the blissful feelings began to start, i.e.

“Breathing in long, he understands: ‘I breathe in long’’; breathing in short, he understands: ‘I breathe in short’; or breathing out short, he understands: ‘I breathe out short.’

etc... next paragraph:

“He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing rapture’; he trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing pleasure’; He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing pleasure.

[MN 118 Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi]  That is when the blissful feelings began to start for me.

Somehow the Visuddhimagga folks interpret this sutta as a system of mastering different forceful breathing techniques and not just letting the breath do whatever it wants--which is beyond me:

“If they practice anapana, they should train systematically.  The Buddha taught four stages--number one, long breath; number two, short breath; number three, the whole breath-body; and number four, subtle breath or cessation of the breath”

--Pa Auk Saydaw (The Experience of Samadhi By Richard Shankman, page 175.)

Of course the Buddha warned about holding your breath in SN 56:

Then it occurred to the Bodhisatta:- "What if I controlled respiration and concentrate on the breathless jhāna." With that thought he restrained the inbreathings and outbreathings of the mouth and nose. With the holding of respirations by the mouth and nose, there was a roar in the ears due to the rushing out of the air just like the bellows of a forge making a roaring noise. There was intense bodily suffering, but the Bodhisatta was relentless. He held the inbreathings and outbreathings, not only of the mouth and nose, but also of the ears. As a result, violent winds rushed up to the crown of the head, causing pains as if a strong man had split open the head with a mallet, as if a powerful man were tightening a rough leather strap round the head.

One other tip that helped me was from the book Focused and Fearless By Sheilia Catherine (Page 101, 164) She recommends repeating a count in your head head with each breath--but repeat the number rapidly in the mind so there is no pause between the sound of the numbers in your head, sort of like using the "Om" mantra to drown out thought i.e. one goes 1 - 1 -1 -1 -1 -1, 2-2-2-2-2-2-2,3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 then when the mind settles you can just go 1 (breath in, breath out, silence) 2 etc.

Of course these are just mind games until the fun stuff takes over.  But they helped me, I hope it is helpful to you.

However, as of yet my mind has only become fully silent on very rare occasion--so I could be completely wrong.

Best, Luke
,

[Cybermonk]

Aloha to you Luke,

Yeah...I too believe forcing the breath will lead a being into distraction. Same
with the OBE stuff. Probably the same with all Maya. Personally, I think it all
really is a dream and I guess I'll not fully know, or not know, when I'm dead.

In the meantime, I'm going to try stuff out, being careful not to put myself into
trouble. It's pretty clear when you get close to the dark side. Of course some
get trapped, but normally a person can feel it.

Stilling the mind is just a piece of the game. Ole Jeffrey is correct when he
challenges me to see if I can maintain the "stillness". I think he's driving at
what's called "Equanimity", which I take to be, "Mental calmness, composure,
and evenness of temper, esp. in a difficult situation."

Alot of the travelers I've run into, seem to want that ability to exist in heaven,
hell, or anywhere between.  I guess they just want to "be all you can be"
and have fun doing it. Sounds good to me.

I was crusing through the Tibetan book of the Dead the other day and all
the bardo paths seem to support the equanimity way of being. My first
Dzogchen teacher said I should get busy and get equanimity locked down,
cause when you die and your surrounded with the pure energies of existence,
you better have your point of awareness together, or the winds of energy
will sweep you anywhere, perhaps into things you would rather stay clear
of.  Yeah.... karma will try to twist you out, but it doesn't have to. I think that's
why someone try's to read the books of the bardo to a newly dead being,
trying to get them to keep their cool. So it goes....

Party on,
Kimo