Step One - Finding the Breath and Body - Practice Theme
Paying Attention
Though we live with a body every moment of our lives, though we rely on it in all aspects of existence, we pay little attention to it, very often completely ignoring its signals. Even physically active people often miss subtle cues that could skillfully redirect actions. Instead of living in connection with the body, we are usually a few feet away, lost in thought, even believing we are our thoughts. It is, in fact, a major transition for contemporary human beings to come to know experience outside of thought. For this reason, the normal result of the way we now live, we have to reacquaint ourselves with the body and the breath and reclaim our capacity to know in other ways, in ways that include both mind and sense experience.
Paying attention to the body and the breath is a way to free ourselves from the tyranny of thought; free of the control the logical mind can hold over us. Mind, thought, conceptual thought and/or abstract thinking are valuable gifts. However, skillful attention to body and breath can open us up to information from other sources that would otherwise be inaccessible and even seem magical.
We learn first, to be aware of redundant, unskillful thought patterns and turn attention to direct contact with immediate physical experience. In doing so we become intimate with our own senses and discover what is true in this moment - not philosophically true, but experientially true.
An attitude of self-kindness is fundamental. We will learn first to relax attention. We give it something neutral to settle on so we can see clearly and free ourselves from domination of unskillful habits of mind. Many things can become this neutralizing object, including (naming only a few): sounds, objects, and visualizations. We will start and rely most fundamentally on the breath, eventually incorporating all experience.
Importance of Breath as a Meditation Object
The breath has several great advantages as neutralizing object. It is with us all the time. We can pay attention to it in all life circumstances without drawing any unwanted attention and without interrupting our ability to function. It is fundamental to our very existence from first breath to the last. Breath is constantly available, but like life, continuously in flux. Like life, it operates whether we pay attention to it or not. We can not stop or control the breath indefinitely, yet with our attention, we can influence and intentionally participate in the flow. As a powerful spiritual symbol in all religious traditions, breath can easily become a safe haven and a powerful connecting force. Maybe most importantly, the breath, because of its sensual nature, can bring us into intimate contact with our own physicality, the body and sense experience, the doorway to new ways of knowing.
 |