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Method Name: Breathing
Meditation
Description:
Using the breath as a focus of meditation is a good choice for beginners,
especially for those who connote meditation as a religious practice foreign to
their own. The breath does not belong to Buddhism or Christianity
or anyone at all. It is common property that anyone can use as a
meditation focus. So it is a good focus no matter what your religious
background.
It is beneficial to the body, for when we
are dealing with the breath, we are dealing not only with the air coming in and
out of the lungs, but also with all the feelings of energy that course
throughout the body with each breath. If you can learn to become sensitive
to these feelings, and let them flow smoothly and unobstructed, you can help the
body function more easily, and give the mind a handle for dealing with pain.
Sit comfortably erect, in a balanced position. You don't have to be ramrod
straight like a soldier. Just try not to lean forward or back, to the left
or the right. Close your eyes and say to yourself, 'May I be truly happy and
free from suffering.' This may sound like a strange, even selfish, way to
start meditating, but there are good reasons for it. One, if you can't wish
for your own happiness, there is no way that you can honestly wish for the
happiness of others. Some people need to remind themselves constantly that
they deserve happiness -- we all deserve it, but if we don't believe it, we
will constantly find ways to punish ourselves, and we will end up punishing
others in subtle or blatant ways as well.
Two, it's important to reflect on what true
happiness is and where it can be found. A moment's reflection will show that
you can't find it in the past or the future. The past is gone and your
memory of it is undependable. The future is a blank uncertainty. So the only
place we can really find happiness is in the present. But even here you have
to know where to look. If you try to base your happiness on things that
change -- sights, sounds, sensations in general, people and things outside
-- you're setting yourself up for disappointment, like building your house
on a cliff where there have been repeated landslides in the past. So true
happiness has to be sought within. Meditation is thus like a treasure hunt: to find what has solid and unchanging worth in the mind, something that even
death cannot touch.
To find this treasure, we need tools. The
first tool is to do what we're doing right now: to develop good will for
ourselves. The second is to spread that good will to other living beings. Tell yourself: 'All living beings, no matter who they are, no matter what
they have done to me in the past -- may they all find true happiness too.'
If you don't cultivate this thought, and instead carry grudges into your
meditation, that's all you'll be able to see when you look inside.
Only when you have cleared the mind in this
way, and set outside matters aside, are you ready to focus on the breath.
Bring your attention to the sensation of breathing. Breathe in long and out
long for a couple of times, focusing on any spot in the body where the
breathing is easy to notice, and your mind feels comfortable focusing. This
could be at the nose, at the chest, at the abdomen, or any spot at all. Stay
with that spot, noticing how it feels as you breathe in and out. Don't force
the breath, or bear down too heavily with your focus. Let the breath flow
naturally, and simply keep track of how it feels. Savor it, as if it were an
exquisite sensation you wanted to prolong. If your mind wanders off, simply
bring it back. Don't get discouraged. If it wanders 100 times, bring it back
100 times. Show it that you mean business, and eventually it will listen to
you.
If you want, you can experiment with
different kinds of breathing. If long breathing feels comfortable, stick
with it. If it doesn't, change it to whatever rhythm feels soothing to the
body. You can try short breathing, fast breathing, slow breathing, deep
breathing, shallow breathing -- whatever feels most comfortable to you right
now.
Once you have the breath comfortable at
your chosen spot, move your attention to notice how the breathing feels in
other parts of the body. Start by focusing on the area just below your
navel. Breathe in and out, and notice how that area feels. If you don't feel
any motion there, just be aware of the fact that there's no motion. If you
do feel motion, notice the quality of the motion, to see if the breathing
feels uneven there, or if there's any tension or tightness. If there's
tension, think of relaxing it. If the breathing feels jagged or uneven,
think of smoothing it out. Now move your attention over to the right of
that spot -- to the lower right-hand corner of the abdomen -- and repeat the
same process .... Then over to the lower left-hand corner of the abdomen
....
Then up to the navel ... right ... left ... to the solar plexus ... right ...
left ... the middle of the chest ... right ... left ... to the base of the
throat ... right ... left ... to the middle of the head ... [take several
minutes for each spot] ...
continue this process through your entire body -- over the head, down the
back, out the arms and legs to the tips of your finger and toes.
Now return your focus to any one of
the spots we've already covered. Let your attention settle comfortably
there, and then let your conscious awareness spread to fill the entire body,
from the head down to the toes, so that you're like a spider sitting in the
middle of a web: It's sitting in one spot, but it's sensitive to the
entire web. Keep your awareness expanded like this -- you have to work at
this, for its tendency will be to shrink to a single spot -- and think of the
breath coming in and out your entire body, through every pore. Let your
awareness simply stay right there for a while -- there's no where else you have
to go, nothing else you have to think about .... And then gently come out
of meditation.
This meditation method for pain relief/
coping with pain was provided by an
Anonymous Meditator (web site unavailable).
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