Can't Meditate? Is meditation hard?

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Gem

...Maybe no one here practices breath awareness, or doesn't want to start practicing it,
in which case there is no point to the thread, but I thought in a spiritual forum this practice would be quite common,
and I suggest it is a really sound method.

I practice breath awareness.
Not for the awareness or peacefulness of breathing, per se, but because it leads to what is behind the breath!!!
The power or the motor that lies behind it...and Who is breathing me.
I know, that sounds weird to most people...but that's my input. :)
I think it's great you started this thread, Gem.

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

The power or the motor that lies behind it...and Who is breathing me.

Methinks at that time we can be no longer watching our breath!

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

When we observe, does not the observed, in this case, both us, become self-conscious, losing it’s spontaneity?

In this case - the observed is the feeling caused by your breath. In that one does not control their breathing, and you don't make it feel the way it does, it's spontaneous.

There are thoughts, self-consciousness being self-referential thought. This is a little nuanced because there is a difference between being aware of what your mind is doing and being self-referenced as an identity delusion. In the meditation practice, it's highly likely that other thoughts including self-referential thoughts will happen. These aren't necessary for feeling the breath so they are not of concern. The meditation is awareness of this moment's reality, and that's all we need be concerned with.

There is a deliberate intention to feel breathing and examine the way it feels, but since we are not trying to control our breathing, there is no willful activity involved. The thought activities that do occur are unintentional.

Prayer or other intentionally generated thought should not be done in this meditation.

If dwelling in a vibrant void, that's what it's like or you. I know I say this on repeat, but this is not about any experience in particular. It is about experience 'as it is' as any individual experiences it.

The meditator will very likely have memories and other thoughts during their session, and if so, that's perfectly fine. No problemos. However, such thoughts aren't needed for the task.

Seeking nothing is a good point. Rather than looking for 'something else', examine 'this' more closely.

Will is nuanced because there is the will of trying to make something happen, and then there's ardent intent for the truth. In this meditation the former has no place, and the latter is entire.

Daily consistency is the way to establish continuity.

The typical meditation discourse is about 'holding attention', so you'd naturally assume that, but my narrative is about being highly interested in what's here. It's like you find an interesting stone, so you examine it through a magnifying glass and see something even more interesting, so you put it under a microscope.

In the process of meditation you will become aware of tendencies like grasping, find out its origins, and ultimately resolve it.

There will almost certainly be desire, but it has no use. Early on you can't help it - there's lots of 'I want' and 'don't want'. As you go further you'll see how such craving relates to discontent, and have no need for it.

I wouldn't worry about bind and confine. I'd just know that practicing everyday makes the most progress.

[Starman]

Gem, thank you for starting this thread. Breath awareness is very valuable and I don’t think lots of people realize the importance of breath awareness. Breath control can help with emotional control. When a person is scared or frightened they often hold their breath, or if they are in a panic they usually breathe very fast. Slowing your breathing down can also slow down our emotions and bring us into the moment.

In yoga the practice of pranayama is a main component for physical and mental wellness. I used to do pranyama to expand my lung capacity. Because most people just use the top part of their lungs to breathe; pranayama allows us to use our entire lung. The Hebrew word for breath is “Ruach,” this word also means spirit. Lots of religions and spiritual groups practice breath awareness and consider it to be our connection to life itself.

I have seen many times how too often people take their breath for granted, that is until they are on their last breath. I think people take breathing for granted because it is done automatically. If we had to consciously take each breath it would be a different story. When I first started learning how to meditate I was shown some of the techniques you have mentioned in this thread, and I practiced them religiously. They were of great benefit to me and still are.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

Methinks at that time we can be no longer watching our breath!

That's right. The breath is a bridge to something quite...'special'.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Starman

Breath control can help with emotional control.

This is a good point because emotional reactivity affects normal breathing... and the emotional healing process can bring up some difficulty. It's a bit deeper than using breath control or emotional control, but those nuances are beyond the purview of a forum thread. Suffice to say, 'Keep breathing normally'; though that statement is not the same, 'Control your breathing'.

Since pranayama involves intentionally controlling the breath, it is contradictory to this meditation.

In the old days people had a different stories about breathing and life. However, we don't need notions of energy, spirit, life-force, or molecular biology to be aware of what breathing feels like.

[Gem]

By the time the feeling of your breath leads you to very deep levels of consciousness, breathing is usually hardly moving and becomes barely perceptible even for a very sensitive mind. By this stage breath awareness would be a part of a wider, more refined meditation, but not superseded.

[Gem]

There is a reason that I stick to task and put literally everything else aside.

You only need to pay attention to feel yourself breathing. Nothing else is needed. Other things are not helpful, and are more likely to be distractions.

If you do this meditation, you'll be tempted to add something because you're not used to just being and watching. The urge to start counting, start controlling breathing, start imagining prana, and all that stuff... it's almost irresistible. Most meditation teachers say do these things, so you'll remember you read an article or heard somewhere that you should count. Another one said time breaths. Another said belly breathe - there is no end to the all the different things they say...

Of course, I will say that same thing as I always say. It's not necessary, it's not important, it has no purpose to the task, and contrary to what they say, it is not helpful. If you were already doing something like that, then it will happen from habit, which is no problem. Perfectly fine. Just don't do it intentionally. We want to strip this thing to the bare essential: feel your breathing. Period.

Understand, ego wants to take control and try to make something happen. That's why the urge to 'do something' is so strong. We really want to stop feeding the ego, and this is how it's done.

[4existence]

Gem, your recent posts in this thread resonate very much with me. Thank you. I hope to explore this further with you in a couple of ways:

1. I previously mentioned the following in this thread in the context of the breath:

However, if used rigidly, there could be suppressive effects. While it is part of the one "perfectly clear" task, the act of returning to the breath after mind distraction could be misunderstood for ignoring and pushing away thoughts and emotions that need to be expressed.

This is coming from personal experience. For many years I focused on a breath practice without knowing broader context. There was very little movement toward truth, and instead there was an endless cycle of becoming more aware that my mind was a mess, but not knowing how to clean up the mess, or that it could be cleaned up whether deliberately or as a result of process - or to what extent the mess didn't matter. At best it helped increase awareness, but at worst it was a long period of stagnation that was obviously necessary for me, but may not be necessary for everyone. It was only when I faced the mess, fully inviting it to come up in all its "glory" (including existential issues) that it was efficiently able to process through and allow awareness to come forth more prominently.

I bring this up because I think it is quite important to get the right instruction with a practice focusing on the breath. You have done a wonderful job articulating the essence of the instruction within this thread, and I think it would have made a difference had I heard it during that time period.

2. In a recent post you mentioned the following:

It serves to hone a dull and erratic mind into a quiet and extraordinarily sensitive one, and it allows pure awareness to pervade and become conscious at the subtlest levels of the life-form.

This is what I have seen to be the core purpose of meditation no matter how you get there, and it is what we become outside of meditation once fully realized. It occurred to me as I read your last few posts that almost everywhere you said "breath" could be replaced with "awareness" for me. For example, observing awareness itself (in place of breath), being very curious about awareness itself (in place of breath), examining or paying attention to the way awareness (in place of breath) feels, etc.

You also mentioned:

We want to strip this thing to the bare essential: feel your breathing. Period.

What is it that is "feeling" the breathing? Doesn't the breath arise in awareness? Isn't awareness primary to the breath? Could awareness be the bare essential?

Have you personally ever explored letting go of the breath practice to fully experience what you are without it?

I ask these questions out of curiosity about your perspective. I would also love to learn more about the training you mentioned that you have been through (including the name of it), if you would share.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by 4existence

I previously mentioned the following in this thread in the context of the breath.

Great. Your post is very thoughtful and challenging to answer, and I'm probably going to say things you already know.

I don't talk about my school because people aren't always nice and might call it names. I can say it's a good, safe place with proper protections and respect. It's not perfect and I could crriticise some things, but it's very high quality and you couldn't do much better.

I'm glad you brought up understanding the broad context. To understand, one has to take a step into the unknown to find out what is there. Then what people say might make sense.

The way you describe your experience of realising how messed up the mind is almost always what happens with this sort of meditation. It's because we are looking for the truth rather than going after a special kind of experience, and if it is true the mind is a mess, realising in yourself just how messy it is, is moving into the truth - and a seed of transformation.

In the past, the madness was always playing out subsurface, but every time it started coming to conscious awareness we didn't like it, so we go after a distraction of some kind. Most meditations will give you something like counting or timing breaths, a mantra or breathing light or what have you because it gives the mind 'something else to do'. That's an effective way of avoiding the madness of your mind, so it really brings the calm, but never really faces the music. If you want to know what's true, you'll have to accept it 'as it is'.

When you stop trying to 'do something', the things you do to avoid, repress, conceal etc. also stop. Hence things that are hidden start to peak out, things avoided start to catch up and things which are bound up inside start to come loose. Hence, a lot of things we don't like, AKA have avoided, will be experienced in meditation. In the past these aspects of oneself cause anxiety and unrest as we do what we can to avoid them, but in meditation, they are free to come to light in conscious awareness, and where they used to perturb you, now you're just aware, remaining unaffected, and let them be free to move in you - just as they are wont to do.

The only thing we do deliberately is remain attentive and still-minded no matter what.

For me, breath awareness is more like a staple, and there's more. I think awareness of awareness is a good way to go, but there's something to with becoming conscious at very subtle levels of life-form...