Counting the breath
Counting the breath is a very popular technique to stabilize the attention on the breath. It can help you stay with the breath and it can also be used as an indicator of your meditation progress.
At first glance you would think that there is not much to say on the subject:
just count your breath cycles;
if you get distracted, start back at one;
if you reach ten breaths, start back at one.
Easy? Yes! But there is more :)
When to count?
The natural place to start counting is at the beginning of the in-breath. Culadasa recommends an alternative:
Count between the end of the in-breath and the beginning of the out-breath.
Since it is unnatural—it will require some extra attention to do—helping you to stay with the breath. Just give it a try.
When to restart the count?
You restart the count when you're distracted, but there is a whole range of distractions. Inspired by Culadasa—I think of it in the following way:
Mind wandering: You have forgotten that you're meditating and there is a total loss of mindfulness. You can't be further distracted than this.
Gross distractions: There is mindfulness in your practice, but your attention is less than 70% of the time with the sensation of breathing.
Subtle distractions: There is mindfulness in your practice and your attention is more than 70% of the time with the sensation of breathing.
When you are distracted, you can notice your attention jumping back-and-forth between a distraction and the breath, even within a single breath cycle. As a beginning meditator you probably only notice mind wandering—noticing distractions is a real sign of progress in your meditation career, because it requires a good amount of mindfulness.
In practice, distractions aren't clustered in only two groups, but lie on a continuous scale. This scale spans between mind wandering and single-pointed attention—distractions are all the stuff in between.
It can be grouped any way you like, but a precise definition makes it possible to discuss your progress with other people.
Choosing a difficulty level
There are at least three different difficulty levels to do your counting with:
Restart on mind wandering, gross distractions are allowed;
Restart on gross distractions, subtle distractions are allowed;
Restart on subtle distractions only single-pointed attention is allowed.
If you've reached the last difficulty level, then you're a very advanced meditator.
I personally choose a difficulty level where it is doable to reach at least five consecutive breaths within a meditation session.
Final words
Counting is great! When you arrive at the breath it can be a useful tool to stabilize the attention on the breath. I don't recommend making it your main practice, because every time you count, you move your attention away from the breath—so, once the breath is relatively stable, let go of counting.
References
The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa.
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