Breath Watching Meditation

Settle things slowly till you realize that you are in a complete simple be state of mind and body. Pay attention to the things happening within the present time such as other sensations like noise, feelings, thoughts, with the absence of movement.

After that, you can now focus on the breathing. Follow your breathing as you inhale and exhale the air flowing into your body. Observation is the key in this kind of meditation. Always be natural and remember not to force yourself in observing how you breathe. You must be aware of the air going inside your nose as it find its way down to your chest.

The mind will wander away from the breath — that’s fine, it doesn’t matter. That’s a part of the meditation! When you notice that you are no longer observing the breath, easily bring your attention back to it.

Let all of your experiences — thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations — come and go in the background of your awareness of the breath. Notice how all of your experiences — thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, awareness of sounds and smells — come automatically and effortlessly like the breath.

In time, you can become aware of the tendencies of your mind. You will see how it resists certain experiences and tries to hold onto others. The natural settling down of the mind allows you to notice these underlying tendencies and creates the possibility to let them go. If you experience a resistance to what is occurring, an

attempt to change what is happening, a tendency to hold on to some experience — let it go.

This is a variation on the Breath Awareness Meditation that you can try if you find you are able to watch the breath for periods of time. Start as above and when you are settled into the process of observing the breath, become aware of the point at which the breath turns the corner from the inhalation to the exhalation and from the exhalation to the inhalation. Notice what is there. It is not a thing — it is a gap between the breaths, nevertheless there can be awareness of it. It is a kind of still point.

Continue to bring your attention to that still point, bringing your attention back to the gaps in the breath whenever it has wandered away. As you continue practicing this meditation, you may find that the stillness is no longer experienced as discrete gaps between the breaths, but is a more continuous experience. This cultivates the awareness of the stillness that is present in the midst of activity, and can create a profound experience of peace.

If you are to go to a certain retreat that focus on meditation here are the following patterns of teachings.

FIRST ONE TO FOUR DAYS: Achieve some calm (Samadhi) with concentration on breathing. When the mind and body are calmed somewhat, you may start watching the sensations associated with breathing (like pressure, cold on the nose, etc.)

NEXT DAY: Watch breathing and add awareness of bodily sensations like cold, hot, burning, tingling, pressure, aching, etc. You do not think about them, you just observe.

NEXT DAY: Add awareness of sound. For instance, If a bird tweets, you just notice the tweet. Do not think about the sound, or judge the sound.

REMAINDER OF RETREAT: Add awareness of thoughts. You just notice: There's a thought. "Hey, look, a thought is occurring." Do not pursue it, or elaborate on it. Just notice that a thought appeared and passed away. Go back to noticing. If you notice that you have been lost in thought for a while, just notice that and go back to the practice.

In a slightly different type of Insight retreat, meditators start with awareness immediately and let the calm feeling of samadhi emanate from the concentration of focused attention. For instance, some teachers might teach starting with awareness of breath and then quickly open the awareness, noticing the other sense doors (bodily sensations, hearing, smell, taste, thoughts, and sounds) as perceptions arise and pass away. Sometimes the concept of "labeling" is taught as an aid. Here, when something arises, you notice it and label it in your mind gently. For instance, you notice a sound, say to yourself "hearing" and let the sound pass away without thinking about it. Or you may notice you are off on a thought or series of thoughts, and label "thinking" and let it pass away.

If you are not in a long retreat, you must decide what is best for you. This is one idea: You take your 30 or 45 minute sitting and start it with breathing concentration to get yourself calm and then open the awareness to just one sense door. For instance, you can concentrate on noticing the breath. Then if a sound appears, notice it and just go back to the breath. After some experience in meditation you may want to start with awareness of breath and then notice all the other sense doors as they arise and pass away, always returning to the breath as an anchor. You stay with the breath unless awareness of some other sense door appears. Consciously decide what is best for you and STICK WITH IT.

Different Insight teachers teach slightly different methods, possibly because they were taught in a certain lineage of Insight practice. They are all really teaching the same thing: Calm down and BE HERE, NOW, IN THIS MOMENT. Do not follow thoughts into the past with memories or into the future with fantasy.

One final caveat is that one should not constantly judge one's progress. Take it easy on yourself. The definition of a good sitting is that "you did it." The mind is always different and the practice unfolds over time with many ups and downs.