Attending to the Breath

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Lesson 2
Attending to the Breath

    In our second lesson, we again bring mindful awareness, mindful attention, to the breath. To pay attention to, to attend to something is a fundamental human experience that can be practiced and refined. I am always telling my son that if he keeps his attention focused on his homework he will finish in half the time it would take him than it would if he keeps spacing out when a challenging problem arises.

But the mind does wander, does space out, does become distracted, especially when confronted with a new challenge, something unfamiliar, something that does not have pre-created neural pathways it can refer to. The 6th limb of Patanjali’s 8 limbed path of yoga is dharana, a nice Sanskrit word for the practice of bringing the mind back to the point of attention, again and again, again and again. Knowing ahead of time the mind becomes distracted, we have a goal, a plan, a mental suggestion to return the attention to our chosen focus. This takes discipline (tapas), will power, effort. This is the beginning of spiritual practice. Patanjali introduces the term abhyasa, the practice of stabilizing the mind as his first discipline in Chapter I on the Yoga Sutras.

What begins as a disciplined reminding to stay focused gradually becomes a continuous sustaining of attention. This state is the 7th limb of Astanga Yoga, dhayana, which is the Sanskrit origin of the word Zen in Japanese. Implied here is the continuing tapas, the effort to resist the habituated state of restlessness and sustain attention. It is a more advanced state than dharana as the discipline has become stronger than the conditioning, but the conditioning is still lurking in the background, waiting to resume its restless or dull behavior if the discipline breaks down. Eventually there is a shift in the nervous system, the disciplined attention becomes the normal state, the restlessness subsides and the attention is sustained effortlessly. This is the 8th of Patanjali’s limbs, samadhi, remaining the same (sama), unchanging, relaxed awareness. Tough grader that he is, Patanjali calls samadhi the beginning of yoga.

Various schools of spiritual practice use different focal points to cultivate concentration, another term for focal attention. Some yogis use a mantra, a short Sanskrit prayer repeated over and over in a practice known as japa. Some Zen Buddhists use a mind puzzle, known as a koan to hold the attention. Some Tibetan Buddhists build complex visual pictures in their mind, over months and years.

Almost universal in spiritual practices across cultures is the use of the breath as a crucial anchor for attention and it will be ours for the whole of our adventure together. The breath, (spirit…spiritus is the Latin word for breath…, prana, chi or ki) is the ongoing expression of our innate living energy, our fundamental aliveness, replicating the primary cosmic rhythm of expanding and condensing, yang and yin, we find in stars and galaxies, in our cells and organs. As we will experience directly, our breath is the source of all of our actions, all of our perceptions, and we will return to the breath again and again in all of our practices.

Feeling the Details of the Breathing Process

   On a gross level, the breath is the air moving in and out of the lungs.
 On the subtle level, breath is the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide from the cells, the blood currrent, and the lungs, as well as all of the energetic actions that arise from the cellular processes, including respiration, circulation, digestion, growth and development of new structures and the dissolving of unwanted structures. The causal breath is the cosmic life force itself, the animating presence of aliveness.

To begin, just notice the fact that you are breathing. Feel the rhythmic structure of the process. There are two opposite movements in every cycle of breath; inhalation brings air into the lungs, exhalation removes air from the lungs. We can imagine a pendulum oscilating back and forth, and, like in a pendulum, in the breathing cycles there are also pauses or moments when the movement comes to a natural state of rest. At the end of inhalation and before exhalation there is what is usually a very brief pause. At the end of exhalation and before inhalation is what is often a slightly longer pause. These pauses are also moments when the breath can be held or restricted and thus these are very important moments to be alert. Read the science section on the anatomy and kinesiology of respiration so you can begin to visualize the diaphragm, the ribs and intercostal muscles and the abdominal wall. This will help bring the sensations of these structures and their movements to your conscious awareness and help you track the flow of breath in deeper way.

Homework: For the next 24 hours, whenever you remember, check in on the breath and notice how often you hold your breath, how often those pauses become constrictions to the flow of your breath. Do not be shocked when the number seems large. Find out how to release the breath in a relaxed way when you find yourself holding on. What you will discover in time is that the restlessness of the mind and the restricting of the breath are directly related. If you look deeply, you might begin to notice where in the body the holding takes place. The diaphragm and ribs are the obvious areas to notice, but also consider your throat, your spinal column and your neck and shoulder muscles.

In your yoga practice, let your intention to feel the breathing be primary. All other instructions require the continuous flow of breath. If you hold or restrict the breath for any reason, the nervous system is receiving the wrong information about the pose. Too many students sacrifice the breath to ‘go deeper’ into postures. Within the practice of the yoga postures, new sensations, new positions, tightness in the muscles, and other factors will conspire to constrict the flow of the breath. Yoga requires the breath to flow. If you are holding your breath, it is not yoga! (Even the retentions of pranayama are not restricting the pranic flow. There is only a cessation of the outer form of the breath. The subtle breath continues to flow freely and easily, when pranayama is practiced safely and correctly).

When practicing the postures, remind yourself again and again, keep breathing, keep the breath flowing, do not hold the breath. As we go deeper in the practice we will discover many different ways to use the breath as the primary focus, but as a beginner, you may find yourself lost in the structural instructions: extend your leg, bend you knee, turn from the trunk, tuck the pelvis etc etc. Tight muscles, collapsing chest and constricted thinking all impede the free flow of breath.

Make sure the breath is an integral part of your own self-talk during your practice. Don’t worry that this can be challenging in the beginning. It will become effortless in time, but the discipline is crucial.

In the next practice theme, “Grounding”, we will discover a way to expand our sense of breath, connecting the diaphragm, through the legs and feet into the earth.

 

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Beginning: Related Links
1. Developing Mindful Awareness
2. Attending to the Breath
3. Orienting to Grounding and Lightness

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Recent Posts

The Ten Oxherding Pictures

A Holiday Gift from the Buddhist World to all of us.

The ten Oxherding Pictures from Zen Buddhism represent the stages and path to awakening, integration and enlightenment, with the Ox representing our True Nature and the Oxherder each of us, the embodied being. It is important to note that the stages are not linear but spiralic and multi-dimensional, as we usually can get glimpses of more advanced levels before we have truly completed and integrated the any or all of the previous ones.

Also, we may often be working with several stages at the same time. More subtle awakenings in one level may trigger unconscious and unresolved traumas stored in the earlier levels that then need to be revisited, transformed and integrated. Then, the energy held in trauma is resolved and free to use for deeper growth.

There are many variations on the ten pictures representing the stages, and these are usually accompanied by poetic verses and/or commentary describing the journey. The paintings seen below are traditionally attributed to 天章周文 Tenshō Shūbun (1414-1463), of the Muromachi period in the late fifteenth century and are found at the Shōkokuji temple in Kyoto, Japan.

These stages can be seen as three sets of three transformations, with the final stage standing alone. The first three are the beginners journey, the second three those of the intermediate student, and the final three the most subtle and refined. The tenth transcends all and resolves as the awakened Buddha in the world helping others. Looking more deeply and ironically, we find that ultimately it is the Ox who is training and leading the Oxherder

1: Seeking the Ox
We know something is missing in our lives, but don’t know what it might be, or where to look. Our souls ache, our spirit feels fragile. The spiritual journey begins, but our minds are full of confusion and delusion. Our search is random and we cannot find the Ox anywhere. This is Dante at the beginning of The Divine Comedy.

2: Seeing Tracks of the Ox
Through study and guidance we begin to get glimpses. Maybe we discover yoga or meditation, or find spiritual teachers or writings that inspire us. But although we see the tracks, the Ox is still unseen, unknown. The tracks give us some confidence and we continue seeking, driven by the awakening cosmic impulse to discover/uncover the fullness and truth of our Being. The Ox is calling us.

3: First Glimpsing the Ox
There is the Ox. Wow! So magnificent! How did we ever not see! But the Ox remains elusive, disappearing into the forest. How could that be? Our minds are still confused, our seeking still undisciplined. The Ox teases us. She is everywhere and then nowhere to be found. Our mental habits and beliefs still dominate in spite of the revelation and we struggle to find ground. We are still beginners on the journey.

4: Catching the Ox
We finally catch the ox and grasp the rope to hold her, but she is wild and free, used to cavorting in the fields. We must hold the rope firmly and steadily. The rope of course is our evolving meditation practice and this is where it gets more serious. We are no longer beginners. We are in the realm of un-abiding awakening and must be ‘all in’ with our practice to stabilize the ground. Habits and conditioning have many tentacles extending into the unconscious, so our discipline must become stronger. The Ox keeps us on our toes.

5: Taming the Ox
As our practice becomes stronger, we can hold the rope more loosely as the Ox is relaxing somewhat. It is actually the mind that is relaxing as we begin to realize that the Ox is always steady and it is our minds that are wild and untamed. By relaxing our efforts, our practices can now include resting in the infinite and we become more comfortable in stillness and mystery. Habits still arise as the unconscious has many layers and levels of confusion and trauma, but we recognize the reality that our thoughts arise and fall from the depths of silence and that our delusion is self created.

6: Riding the Ox Back Home
The seeking and struggle come to an end and we can let go of the rope as Ox and herder are one, moving effortlessly together though the world. Buddha Nature is awake and free and we feel spontaneous joy and happiness. The Oxherder plays his flute for the birds and children of the village. This joy and delight can be a surprise as the practice has seemed quite serious at times. Unseen unconscious traumas may still exist so vigilance is still required.

7: Ox Forgotten, Self Alone
The Ox is now gone and the Oxherder sits at home alone. This is ‘Self as ‘I am’ without the need to ‘be something. This is Kaivalya of the Yoga Sutras, Purusha distinct from Prakriti. Up until now, there has remained a subtle sense of duality, of practice and life, of spiritual and not spiritual. This now dissolves. There is no longer ‘something to do’. Everything is meditation and nothing is special. Things are ‘just as they are’.

8: Ox and Self Both Forgotten
Total Emptiness. No concepts, ideas or beliefs, no sense of separateness. Even the “I am” is gone. All gone. Not even the scent of ‘holiness’ or special-ness remains. Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate.

9: Return to the Source
From the realization of Emptiness emerges the realization that the amazing flow of life always continues on in its own perfection. Seasons come and go. Cherry trees bloom in the spring. Birds sing and the rivers flow. Stars are born and others explode into cosmic dust. Emptiness is Fullness, Fullness is Emptiness. Bodhi svaha!

10: Returning to the Marketplace with Helping Hands
The enlightened being joyfully joins the world to aid all beings on their journey. Freedom, wisdom and compassion are the roots of action. Enlightenment is not passive but celebratory and engaged.

Here are some other perspectives:
From Tricycle Magazine
https://terebess.hu/english/Kuoan1.html
https://terebess.hu/english/oxherd0.html

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