Mindfulness of Breathing: focus on detail
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 2 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores the mindfulness of breathing meditation practice. In this twelve minute meditation, I introduce the idea of focusing on the detail in the breath: as only way of really knowing that we are being aware; and to give ourselves a break from our day-to-day concerns. It follows on from ‘Mindfulness of Breathing.’ VIDEO LEAD THROUGH Following the details of the breath In ‘digging into’ and trying to understand the principle behind the Mindfulness of Breathing myself, I came across another way of doing the practice, and like all methods it has benefits and drawbacks. One thing that I noticed with people doing the four-stage practice was that I thought it was far too easy to sit say for twenty minutes going through the stages in a way where one was vaguely aware of the breath as ‘an overall thing’ while missing the specifics of the experience, and at the end of the meditation one’s mind was not that sharper than when one began. Some benefits would be gained, for instance one would probably become more ‘collected’ around the breath—the contents of one’s psyche more integrated, as well as calmed in general, but one’s mind would not necessarily be that much more brighter and alert than it was before, and brightness and alertness are qualities contributing to dhyana and to Awakening in general. While practising the Mindfulness of Breathing in this way can be effective, there is a danger that our awareness can lack specificity, and hence sharpness. The purpose of the Mindfulness of Breathing is to develop mindfulness and awareness. In a real sense the object of the meditation is not the breath but awareness itself. We need to know whether we know what is happening with the breath (‘knowing whether we know’ is called ‘Reflexive Self-Consciousness’). If we can say in any moment that we are experiencing particular sensations, then we know that (in that moment) we are being aware. If there is any doubt, and we cannot say we know, therefore we are unaware. The Sutta’s original instructions ask the monk to ‘know whether the breath is long or short.’ This indicates watching out for the details of the breath. If we are only generally aware that we are breathing, our awareness may be of an idea of the breath, rather than the breath itself. But if we know what the details of the breath are, we know we are present to our experience. A brief meditation following the details of the...
The Mindfulness of Breathing
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 4 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Buddhist Practice’ and it explores the mindfulness of breathing meditation practice, as taught within Triratna. It follows on from ‘Meditation Posture,’ which investigated key aspects around stimulation and relaxation. 2) The Mindfulness of Breathing Or they might practise the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation, in order to develop the quality of mindfulness itself, so that that quality can then be directed more generally into their lives, and specifically to the four foundations of mindfulness, thus developing those qualities necessary for Nirvana.[1] After instructing the monk to take up his posture, the Satipatthana Sutta gives the monk instructions on practicing the Mindfulness of Breathing. The text only says that the monk should be aware of whether his breath is long or short,[2] after which it seems to give a description of the Body Scan.[3] This instruction can and has been interpreted in different ways. The most obvious interpretation is that the monk isn’t aware only of the length of their breath, whether it is long or short, but tries as best they can to know as continuously as possible the exact details of their breathing, including tangible sensations as experienced and the movements of their shoulders and abdomen. The principle here is that if we want to develop mindfulness, we need something concrete and tangible to be aware of. The breath has an advantage over other ‘neutral’ objects we could use—such as observing the flickerings of a candle flame—in that it is intimately connected with the body and thus the emotions, whose tenor is are reflected in the quality of the breath. Across the globe, Buddhists in different traditions practise the Mindfulness of Breathing in slightly different ways. As with any spiritual practice it is important to have one specific method to follow, so that a sense of familiarity is built up and the practice does not need to be thought about and can instead be settled into.[4] However, it is also important to understand the principles behind each practice, and work from there. In Theravada Buddhism The Mindfulness of Breathing as practised in the Theravada tradition consists of watching the rising and falling of one’s abdomen; on Theravada retreats practice consists largely of alternating this practice with very slow walking meditation, in which the meditator mentally notes the exact movements of their body in each moment (for instance, when taking a step, saying to oneself; ‘lifting, moving, treading’ as each step is taken). In Triratna Buddhism In the Mindfulness of Breathing as practised in Triratna Buddhism, the...
Intention, Motivation, Acceptance, Reinforcement
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores further ways in which the Four Foundations of Mindfulness condition each other: such as through the processes of intention, motivation, acceptance and reinforcement. It also explores how the Foundations combine: for instance as sources of tension, relaxation, and so on. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: views. ix Secondary conditional relations These twelve ‘processes’ illustrate the primary processes in play between the four foundations. For completion, it is important also to extend the Conditionality model to include all the ‘secondary’ processes that exist between the foundations and the primary processes associated with them. Here are some examples; INTENTION Intention is the process by which emotion is conditioned by the presence of views. Views—–Intention—–>Emotion Our emotion—in the sense of our wanting—can be quite vague; we vaguely want to amass pleasurable experiences and to avoid painful ones. The clearer our view is about what will bring us happiness, the more we can form an intention. For instance, we might be clear that it will be beneficial to us to meditate at 7am every morning and might set an intention to do just that. This intention will condition our emotion to do so. However, although on the surface we might think we have set a clear intention, other views lurk beneath the surface, such as the unarticulated view that ‘comfort is the way forward.’ This view sets up a countervailing intention that leads us to want to stay in bed. If that intention is the stronger, then we stay in bed. Intention that leads to happiness An Enlightened person who holds Right View[1] possesses Skilful Intention because their views always lead to emotions which bring about happiness, for instance loving kindness. However, short of Enlightenment a person will exhibit unskilful emotions, which is evidence that they do not possess Right View and that their intentions consequently are not always skilful. Such people need to make a conscious effort to make skilful intentions and stick to them, if the world is to be as happy a place as it might be, and they do so by examining their views, conscious and unconscious. Intention that leads to suffering Obviously, an intention that leads to suffering is one that arises from a wrong view about what pursuits will lead to happiness. Although we might make an intention to do something skilful, like quit smoking or meditate regularly, we often fail, due to our subconscious intentions to do something...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: views
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 6 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which views condition the other Foundations of Mindfulness. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: mind. viii Mindfulness of views conditioning happiness / Awakening Views When we are trying to transform our views to be sources of happiness, we need to bear in mind that when the condition of views is in place—as it always is, it affects body, feeling and mental states, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of perspective, mood and thought. The Satipatthana Sutta teaches the monk to develop mindfulness of his views with regard to: The five hindrances By becoming clear about which mental states lead directly to suffering, or hinder it being overcome, and are therefore unconducive to Awakening, he is motivated to root them out. The fluid nature of his person By becoming clear that his personality is fluid, being made up of five impermanent qualities, called heaps (skandhas)—namely form, feeling, apperception, volition and consciousness, he is motivated to let go of all notions of an unchanging self. Fetters that arise to spiritual development in relation to sense experience By becoming clear that the source of happiness for himself and others does not lie in sense experience (including mental imaginings) but rather in cultivating skilful mental states in meditation, leading to pleasant spiritual feeling. The seven factors of Awakening By becoming clear about the spiritual qualities that do lead to Awakening–namely mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, ethical robustness, joy, tranquility, meditative concentration and equanimity. The four Noble Truths By becoming clear (developing insight into) how suffering is overcome, he realizes the four Noble Truths. In practising mindfulness of views, the monk ensures that the views he holds about everything pertinent are in line with reality and conducive to wisdom, to Awakening, to Nirvana. The above categories form a kind of ‘inverse hierarchy’ in terms of views. Before he can do anything, the monk needs to be clear he is in a mental state which is going to hinder his progress before he even starts. Secondly, he needs to understand that he can change. Thirdly, he needs to know to look for that change not in the ’outer world’ of the senses but in the ‘inner world’ of skilful mental states. Fourth, he needs to clarify which positive qualities he needs to develop if he is to attain Awakening. And finally, he needs to underpin his practice with wisdom, by understanding the nature of reality (in...
Mindfulness and Conditionality: mind
Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book… © Mahabodhi Burton 16 minute read This excerpt is from the chapter ‘The Undiscovered Foundations’ and it explores the way in which Mind conditions the other Foundations of Mindfulness, including the poorly understood concept of worldly and spiritual feeling: which can be roughly correlated with conscience or lack of it. This excerpt follows on directly from Mindfulness and Conditionality: feeling. vii Mindfulness of mind conditioning happiness / Awakening Mind When we are trying to transform our mind to be sources of happiness, we need to bear in mind that it will always affect the other foundations. When the condition of mind is in place—as it always is, it will always affect body, feeling and views, contributing towards Awakening or suffering in the future, through the processes of manifestation, ethical feeling and reflection. Body and feeling come in the category of experience; we are presented with them as experience in each moment, and as such in that moment there is nothing we can do about them, but experience them. Mind and views, on the other hand, are not experience as such, because we can choose to develop one mental state (or view) instead of another, as we do when we meditate (or reflect). Mind and views are responses to experience. We saw in the previous section how an appropriate response to ethical feeling depended on correctly identifying worldly and spiritual feeling. This could only be achieved once we had correctly identified the skilful and unskilful mental states that fostered them. Once a worldly feeling has been identified the mental state which opposes its progenitor needs to be developed; the pain of seeing our enemy is caused by the mental state of aversion, hence the mental state of loving kindness needs to be developed to counteract it, and thus alleviate the pain. Likewise, if we identify a worldly feeling of bliss as originating in a mental state of unawareness, we need to cultivate mindfulness until our unawareness becomes painful to us. By being aware of the effect of our body, feelings and views have on our mental states (as a source of happiness and well-being for ourselves and others) we aim maintain these in the best state we can. These are the conditions for happiness and suffering concerning mind. MANIFESTATION Firstly, there is manifestation. Mind and Body are interconnected, and so our mental and emotional states will manifest[1] tangibly within the body, and the world (through the operation of karma). Mental and emotional states —–Manifest—–> Body / World An angry state of mind will be apprehended as tension in...
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