12 Loving as We Inter-Are | Emptiness

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Can we review "In - Out" again?

Objective: To refresh our understanding and experience of mindfully breathing.  

How Do We Get There?

• • Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing

Steps 1. and 2.   In - Out *1

Steps 3. and 4.    Whole Body - Calm *1

Greeting New People

 Hello and welcome.

Sangha Sharing

What joy, insights, wonderment, questions and moments would you like to share?

Dharma Talk

The following is an excerpt taken from "The Path of Emancipation" from pgs 25-26.

"The first exercise of mindful breathing that the Buddha proposed is "In/Out".  It means "Breathing In, I know I am breathing in.  Breathing out, I know I am breathing out."  In this teaching, we consider our breath as part of our body.  Our breathing is a physical formation.  It is the door through which we go home to our self and reconcile ourselves with our self.  The object of our mindfulness is our in-breath and our out-breathe, nothing else.  We identify our in-breath as our in-breath and our out-breathe as our out-breath.  It is easy.  Then, instead of reading to ourselves, "Breathing in, I know I am breathing in," we just use the word "in".  When breathing out, we say "out".  The words "in" and "out" are the instruments in order to maintain our mindfulness.   While breathing in, we are aware that we should nourish our in-breath.  "In" is no longer a word; it is the reality our in-breathe.  If we do this, all our thinking will stop."

Enjoy Your Breathing

" We don't suppress our thinking at all.  There is no effort to stop thinking.  If we really enjoy our in-breath one hundred percent, then thinking suddenly stops.  Sometimes we try to force ourselves to be mindful.  This is not good.  Mindfulness is very enjoyable.  When our practice is pleasant, concentration is easy.  It's like a Dharma talk.  If the Dharma talk is interesting, we are very awake, and if the Dharma talk is boring, we try and try but still we remain sleepy.  The key is to make it interesting.  The secret is to make it pleasant."

"We breathe so that our in-breath and out-breathe are pleasant, so that we are awake and mindful, and our concentration is strong.  If concentration is here, then insight will be born.  Mindfulness, concentration and insight give birth to one another.  Mindfulness carries the energy of concentration withing itself, and concentration carries the energy of insight with itself."

Be Comfortable

"During sitting meditation, you can sit and enjoy your in-breath and out-breath and nothing else.  Make your in-breath mindful and genuine.  This is already resting and healing.  Sometimes you may like to lie down and enjoy your in-breath and out-breath.  Please sit in such a way that your body can rest.  You can sit erect like this, and yet your muscles are completely relaxed.  Your head and spinal column form a straight line.  DO not slouch.  Sit erect and release all your muscles.  Sit in a lotus or half-lotus position with our without a cushion.  The cushion may be thick or thin.  You need to find a cushion that suits your physical condition.  Find a way to sitting that allows you to sit for at least twenty minutes without feeling tired or stiff."

Mindfully Sit

"As soon as you sit down, begin breathing and pay attention to your breath.  Then pay attention to your sitting position. Relax the muscles in your face -- there are about three hundred muscles in your face.  Every time you get angry, worried, or afraid, these muscles are tense.  People can see the tension in your face.  If you breathe in mindfully and become aware of your face, and breathe out mindfully and smile lightly, you relax the hundreds of muscles in your face.  Then you move down to your shoulders and also let go.  Do not try hard to practice.  If you struggle, you are using effort, and you cannot relax.  Very soon you will feel the tension in your shoulder muscles, and you may get a headache."

Don't try hard

"When you sit and watch television, you don't make any effort.  That is why you can sit there for a long time.  When you site in meditation, you struggle a lot, and that is why you cannot sit very long.  Please imitate the way you sit in the living room.  Effortlessness is the key to success.  Don't fight.  Don't try hard.  Just allow yourself to sit.  This relaxing way of sitting is also resting.  Allow your body to rest." ** 

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.

Let's be here again, with our breathing

14 mins with bells at 2 mins.

Breathing In, I know I am breathing in.  Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.

I enjoy breathing deeply.  -  I value the pleasantness of the outbreath.

Feel your body rise.  -  Feel your body gently fall.

Become aware of different parts of your body.  -  Breath the peace from your breath into them.

Calm your body and mind.  -  Release tension.

Breathing in, I see myself as still water.  -  Breathing out, I reflect things as they are.

Water/Reflecting

With your gentleness, look into the meaning this moment is for you.

Don't try hard.  Just be with a smile.

Collective observations and reflections

We share and listen.

**  Hạnh, N. (2000). Chapter 1: The Path of Emancipation (pp. 2). essay, Parallax Press.