Subtle breath

I'm going to share something that helped me. It feels trivial in hindsight, but hey, that's the power of hindsight. ‌

When I meditate and concentrate on the breath at the nose, in the beginning, it is often very bright, very detailed. And I think I'm doing good. Attention on the breath, I'm a good meditator. ‌ Then after a while, the breath gets less loud. It starts to get subtle, while I'm still very attentive. Everything seemed to go very well, I am entirely undistracted, but the breath seems to get weaker and weaker. ‌

I tried to change how I relate to the breath. I tried viewing it from different angles. I tried some games I can play with the breath. I tried comparing the in-breath with the out-breath. I tried finding the exact beginning and end of the in- and out-breath. I tried noticing the pauses between the breaths. I tried all kinds of tricks, and this sometimes made the breath a little more intense, a little more bright. ‌ But often, the breath stayed subtle and I got distracted.

Now, I got this fantastic tip from Rob Burbea while listening to his teachings:

When the breath gets subtle, this is an invitation for the attention to also get subtle. The subtle breath is not something bad; in fact, it is something good. This is what you want! —I'm paraphrasing Rob here. ‌

Let's unpack this. ‌

What does it mean for the attention to get subtle? You still want to be able to discern the same amount of detail as before, but the intensity is lower, and it will stay lower. Don't expect it to become loud again. When the attention gets more subtle, you will start noticing more detail, but this is all happening at a lower intensity/loudness/volume. This can be quite difficult to do, but it gives you a new dimension to grow in.

It changes the relationship with the subtle breath. Where before it was something negative, now it's not anymore. It's the opposite; the subtle breath is the good stuff.

This really opened the practice for me. Hopefully it will for you as well.