2021-02-22 Mindfulness of Breathing (38) Experiencing the Mind
IInsight Meditation CenterFeb 22, 2021 at 5:13 pm14min
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00:02Gil Fronsdal
We're beginning now with the ninth step of ānāpānasati, mindfulness of breathing in and mindfulness of breathing out. The ninth step builds on what was earlier. Some teachers who teach ānāpānasati, this practice of 16 steps, will insist that you should always begin with step one and systematically work your way through all the steps as far as you've gone. There's some advantages to that. Some people's minds really like having order and clear, definitive steps. The mind gets organized, focused, and concentrated, knowing what it's doing step-by-step.
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00:52Gil Fronsdal
Other people find that it ties them in knots to do that. They trip over themselves. It's too much trying, too much expectation. Some people find that it's good to be familiar with all the steps. Then as we sit and meditate, discover where we are, where the salient step is. Sometimes we can start on step five, step eight, or even step nine, any of these steps, because we sit down, and that's what's available. Sometimes we move up and down in the course of a meditation.
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01:34Gil Fronsdal
These steps can be done linearly for those who find it beneficial. They can be more a resource for those people who want to track themselves and understand the domain, the territory of what's happening in their meditation at any one time, what the emphasis is.
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01:54Gil Fronsdal
We get to the nineth step. One way of appreciating this is, one way or the other, it's helpful that the earlier steps have been been familiar, been developed to some degree. That's because the more we're grounded in our body, and the body is relaxed, the more we begin opening up in a holistic way to our experience. We begin working through some of the knots, entanglements, tightness, and tensions we have.
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02:27Gil Fronsdal
To go to the second tetrad, steps five to eight, is to begin feeling, sensing the emotional tone of the body. If you're quite relaxed and focused, there is contentment and well-being. With that, it's easier to begin trusting that it's okay to relax the mental activity. We don't have to be so actively involved in fixing, solving, remembering, planning, criticizing, whatever the mind is doing. The activity of the mind can begin to rest. This resting, releasing, making the mental activity calmer, continues the process of becoming more holistic, being more inclusive, more open to our experience. Based on that, the experience of the mind becomes easier to experience.
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03:22Gil Fronsdal
Step nine is: "Breathing in one experiences the mind. Breathing out one experiences the mind."
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