A brief explanation of breath meditation

Meditation is an exercise

Breath Meditation is extremely simple, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. In essence it is nothing more than an exercise:

Feel the physical sensations that come with breathing, with as much detail and as few interruptions as possible. Whenever you wander off and catch yourself, bring yourself back.

Done! That is it. You can do it sitting, standing or lying down, that doesn't matter. You can practice it for five seconds or an hour and it will bring you great benefits, maybe even awakening.

I call bullshit! How could this feeling of the breath bring any benefits at all? Sure, I can see a relaxation exercise in there. Maybe even some concentration exercise. But that is it.

"You just have to have faith."

Fuck no! I'm not having any faith in this. Before I make a big investment of my time, my willpower and my sanity, I am allowed to expect something sensible in return.

Great, we are on the same page!

It is not about the breath

When you try to feel the breath, you will soon find out that it is very difficult. Before you know it you're lost in thoughts, thinking about food. Maybe you get angry because you can't stay with the breath. Or fall asleep.

And within all these experiences you have to go back to the breath, because you're trying to feel the breath with as few interruptions as possible.

And here comes the clue of meditation. Being with the breath is only a very small part of meditation, it is not really important, it doesn't hold any special power. The important part is learning how to work with everything that comes up while you're trying to feel the breath.

• You will become bored, how do you overcome boredom?

• You will become lazy, how do you overcome laziness?

• You will fail over and over again, how do you overcome frustration?

• You might be anxious for a presentation you have to give in an hour, but you choose to meditate, how do you overcome anxiety?

And it goes on and on and on. This is what meditation is about. The exercise might be:

Feel the physical sensations that come with breathing, with as much detail and as few interruptions as possible. Whenever you wander off and catch yourself, bring yourself back.

But also:

Relate to everything that comes up in such a way that brings most wellbeing to you.

Opening the laboratory of the mind

In our daily lives we suffer from anger, jealousy, impatience and a crapload of other conditions. We have thoughts that run in circles, thinking the same stuff over and over again. And in daily life it is really hard to work with the mind.

In daily life you have responsibilities and time constraints. People push your buttons. Everything requires a response! Making it really difficult to study the mind and experiment.

That is what meditation is all about. You sit down with an exercise that is guaranteed to bring stuff up—just feel the breath. And then your investigation starts.

So, imagine you sit down and you become bored.

• What does it mean to be bored?

• Does it have sensations in the body?

• How does it shape my thoughts?

• How is it even possible for me to recognize boredom?

• Is it possible to continue this exercise of feeling the breath, while being every so slightly less bored?

And then you start experimenting:

• You try to feel the breath in different ways. Maybe very concentrated or very relaxed.

• You try curiosity.

• You try to keep the boredom in your attention at the same time as you keep the breath in your attention.

• You try to ignore the boredom.

• You fight the boredom by thinking: "go away, go away, go away"

• You welcome the boredom: "yes, it is okay to be here."

• You accept the boredom, but don't welcome it.

• You do moves in the mind that are very hard to translate to English.

You do this in perfect conditions. In silence, without any outside distractions. Sitting in meditation is just another day working at the laboratory of the mind. And before you know it, you will have your first results. You have developed a way to work with boredom.

We're lucky

We're lucky because we don't have to start from scratch. Yes, we still have to investigate our own minds. We still have to put in all to work to change our mind in such a way that is worthwhile, but we have directions. We don't have to try blindly.

There are many great teachings and many great teachers that can describe what they do and see in the mind. They will show you qualities of the mind that would have taken you many years to discover. They might teach you a trick to handle something, where you have tried only the opposite.

But it doesn't have to be a Buddhist or a teacher. It could be a friend or a book. The source is not important. Just experiment with it and keep that which works.

It is spiritual

We all have the opportunity to investigate and understand our minds in such a way that we can relate to everything with more well being.

This investigation is the personal exploration of your mind. You're the only person that has acces to it. You're the only person that can do the moves, that can explore and experiment, that can practice relating to everything differently.

Good luck!