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As people get into the habit of observing their breath during meditation practice, it is easy for them to lose sight of the purpose of breath awareness.  In fact, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that observing the breath is the purpose of meditation!  It is not.  It is merely a means to an end…

As I’ve explained in my previous posts on meditation, the practice of meditation has many and far-reaching benefits.  Ultimately, however, its purpose is to help us achieve greater states of happiness and peace, something that we all want.

So why is breath observation given so much attention and importance?  Let’s look at some of the reasons:

• It gives us a readily available point of focus.  No matter where you are or what you are doing, you can always tune into your breath
• No other materials or preparation are required for us to practice observing our breath
• It provides us with a readily available object of focus that traverses the entire landscape of gross to subtle phenomena.  For instance, when you first begin, you may focus on the in-breath and the out-breath.  Then you might extend your observation to notice through which nostril the breath enters and through which it leaves.  Next, you might notice the speed of entry and exist of air and the force of entry and exit.  As you continue, you will begin to notice even more subtle qualities of the breath by observing the length of the in-breath and that of the out-breath and the ‘gap’ or pause between each out-breath and the next in-breath.  You may also notice the sensations you experience at the rims of your nostrils as air enters and leaves.  In this way, the breath provides you with a range of observable qualities, from ‘gross’ to ’subtle’ .

So how is all this beneficial?

Well, for one thing, the sharper and finer your observation, the clearer and brighter is the quality of mindspace that you occupy as more and more of your conditioned thoughts, feelings and other preoccupations  ’settle’ like mud in a glass of muddy water.

This quality of mind approximates the quality of your natural, unconditioned mind of unsurpassable power, clarity, creativity, freedom, peace and joy!  Wouldn’t you want to be living from such a mind rather than one that is clouded and disturbed by innumerable, habitual, enslaving thoughts, feelings, beliefs etc?

But there is more!

As you practise observing your breath in a gentle, compassionate and non-judgmental way, you are setting your mind free from its ingrained habits of judging, responding harshly to undesirable situations or avoiding them altogether!  Can you imagine the freedom and joy that this kind of non-judging, compassionnate attitude affords us?

And there is still more!

Your experience in observing your breath is a microcosm of your experience of the world at large!  Everything that happens during your practice reflects what happens outside your practice.

If you find yourself getting tense or agitated and wanting to stop the practice or if you keep judging your breath, wanting to change it instead of simply observing and accepting it, or if you become impatient with the practice, resisting it or resenting it, you can be certain that you are also displaying similar attitudes, responses and ways of thinking and feeling in life more generally.

In an indirect way, observing your breathing is the perfect way of observing your mind at work!  Such observation provides you with hard data about yourself, your conditioned self, and armed with such data, you are in a position to make new and different choices, freely from your clear mind state!  What a truly powerful thing that is!

So, don’t mistake the finger pointing at the moon (observing the breath) for the moon (self-awareness, freedom from conditioned existence).  It is a means to an end – a simple, easy-to-use means to a profound and liberating end!

Blessings

Lucy Lopez

Awakening to Happiness!

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