The heart of meditation practice is the breathing meditation. You have already practised this for five minutes. Now we are going to start increasing the time spent.
Why breathing, you may ask. Several reasons. From a Christian point of view, it is a powerful reminder of our life in God because the first man Adam became a living being when God breathed into him the “breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).[1] We still call our breath the “breath of life”, and so, CPR is called “giving the breath of life”. Job went further and called it the “breath of God” (Job 27:3).[2] Our spirit is also called the “breath of God” (Isaiah 57:16;[3] Job 32:8).[4] And the Holy Spirit is called the same (Job 33:4).[5] All that lives on the earth is said to live out of God’s spirit and breath (Job 34:14-15).[6] Breath is said to be a gift of God (Isaiah 42:5).[7] And so, as Christians, when we meditate on our breathing, we are in fact meditating on more than air going in and out of our lungs. We are meditating on a gift that is part of God Himself and that infuses us with life. As well, for those struggling with dejection, discouragement, depression and other forms of emotion that feel like living death, it might be encouraging to know that when Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones so that they resurrected into living people, his prophesy was to “the breath” (Ezekiel 37:9),[8] the breath as a powerful healing force that can restore vitality. So all in all, our breath is a wonderful focus for meditation.
Secondly, for those who come to meditation for health reasons, it is useful to have the focus of your meditation be something you always have with you and can turn to in an instant if you need to. So, for example, if you feel the start of a panic attack, or if terrible news has just been dropped in your lap and you can feel that jolt of adrenaline that will start a stress reaction, you can turn immediately to your breath. In other words, you can take a time out, even just for a minute or two, from what is happening to be within that quiet place within you. That can be very helpful in getting yourself reoriented in a crisis.
Finally, for Christian meditators looking forward to contemplation, if you focus on your breath, you are of necessity focused inward. Your attention is turned from the outer world of doing to the inner world of being. As you practise, you will discover that you begin to drop deeper within yourself. And of course, deep within you is God’s home (John 14:23).[9] And your home. That place of intimate communion with Him.
So how is this meditation done? In breathing meditation, you take a position that will allow you to be comfortable for the full duration of the time allotted. You may sit in a chair or on the floor. You may sit in a chair with your legs propped up on another chair. You may down, with your legs flat or propped. Or you may lie on your side. Whatever works for you is fine. Just be sure that you have chosen your place and time of day wisely and that these and the position you have chosen are not so close to your time, place and position for sleep that your mind decides that’s what it’s supposed to do. You want to be relaxed but also alert. As well, your posture should feel dignified to you. And it is good if your head, neck and back can be aligned vertically so that your breath can flow most easily.
Now, bring your attention to your breathing. You may choose to focus on it at the level of the nose, the throat, the chest or the belly. It doesn’t matter. Feel it come in, and feel it go out. Don’t try to change your breath in any way. Many people think they have to slow it down and deepen it, but don’t. It may slow and deepen as you enter deeper levels of meditation, but don’t work at changing your breath. Remember, meditation is about being in the moment and letting everything be as it is, not about trying to accomplish something. Just let your breath happen, observing it and feeling all the sensations of breathing.
This is simple, but again, not easy. Breathing is something we do every day without even thinking about it, hour after hour, day after day, year after year. But it may not take long in meditation before some part of you will decide it’s had enough of that. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, in his book Full Catastrophe Living,[10] puts it this way:
It is at this point that the work of self-observation gets particularly interesting and fruitful. Normally every time the mind moves, the body follows. If the mind is restless, the body is restless. If the mind wants a drink, the body goes to the kitchen sink or the refrigerator. If the mind says, “This is boring,” then before you know it, the body is up and looking around for the next thing to do to keep the mind happy. It also works the other way around. If the body feels the slightest discomfort, it will shift to be more comfortable or it will call on the mind to find something else for it to do, and again, you will be standing up literally before you know it.
If you are genuinely committed to being more peaceful and relaxed, you might wonder why it is that your mind is so quick to be bored with being with itself and why your body is so restless and uncomfortable. You might wonder what is behind your impulses to fill each moment with something; what is behind your need to be entertained whenever you have an “empty” moment, to jump up and get going, to get back to doing and being busy? What drives the body and mind to reject being still?
In practicing meditation we don’t try to answer such questions. Rather, we just observe the impulse to get up or the thoughts that come into the mind. And instead of jumping up and doing whatever the mind decides is next on the agenda, we gently but firmly bring our attention back to the . . . breathing and just continue to watch the breath, moment by moment. We may ponder why the mind is like this for a moment or two, but basically we are practicing accepting each moment as it is without reacting to how it is. So we keep . . . following our breathing.
Is there a solution to all this restlessness? Yes. Every time you notice a tendency to move away from the focus of the breath, then, having noticed that, simply bring your attention back to your breathing. This is training in not being so reactive to every stray impulse you have.
This is a very useful discipline that can pay off in handling life’s difficult moments. Rather than being driven by automatic reactions, you can find a place of calm in your breathing, then, when you have calmed, handle any difficulties with greater focus and intelligent thought.
This is also an exercise in non-judging in that you are refusing to value one moment or activity above any other. This is invaluable in practising the presence of God because He is in all our moments and activities but, to notice Him there, it helps to be fully present in those moments and activities no matter how “mundane” they may be.
Finally, this practice develops patience. Your mind may wander off 100 times in a meditation and each time, you respectfully bring it back to the focus, not getting frustrated at it, not judging its misbehaviour, not wishing your mind were different than it is.
You’re also practising patience concerning the passage of time in which you are doing nothing, and you are learning from this that our moments don’t have to be filled with activity in order to be rich and valuable. You will need this in order to stay the course in pursuing contemplation because others may see what you are doing as a waste of time spent “doing nothing”. Also, it comes as a surprise to many that waiting on God in contemplation often feels like nothing more than waiting on God in contemplation. It takes much patience to accept that contemplation can be so devoid of anything noticeable - no great visions, no being laid out on the floor under the power of the Spirit, no other supernatural manifestations. Remember Elijah? God wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in the gentle whisper (1 Kings 11-12). Mostly contemplation is a very gentle experience. And for some, it takes patience to be able to settle into that and to let God be God, trusting that He is being good to us and touching our lives deeply in some of our most unremarkable (at least in our conscious experience) moments.
This practice of patience also teaches us that sometimes we just need to step back and let things unfold as they will. A butterfly emerging from its cocoon cannot be helped. If we help it by cutting open its cocoon so that it doesn’t have to struggle so hard, it will not survive. It needs the struggle to strengthen its wings. Similarly, we are not called to fix or heal everything and everyone. Sometimes we just need to let things unfold without our interference. We, of course, need the wisdom to know when to help and when not, but first of all, some of us need to learn that we don’t have to be everyone’s Saviour.
What do you do if you become physically uncomfortable while meditating? The obvious thing to do is to shift a little to change position a bit. That’s just fine. But, before you do that, try this. Take a moment or two to stay with the discomfort. Look at it as if you’ve never seen it before, and pay attention to what it is like (without judging, remember, as in “Man, this really hurts” or “This is awful” or “This has got to go”). Breathe in and out of the pain. Then let it go. Let the pain go? Yes, let it go. It may not literally go. On the other hand, it may. But you’re letting go of your attachment to it. Then return to focusing on your breathing. You may notice that this way of approaching physical discomfort during meditation is the same approach you take to your wandering thoughts. It is a particularly valuable exercise for people with chronic physical or emotional pain and will help later in doing the body scan meditation.
exercises
Day 7
We’re going to increase the daily meditation time to 10 minutes. So, following the instructions in this reading, and using the guided 10-minute breathing meditation if you wish, or on your own if you prefer, find a quite place and a comfortable position, and spend 10 minutes in breathing meditation.
Day 8
Repeat the exercise for Day 7.
Day 9
Repeat the exercise for Day 7, except try to focus on your breath and your body as a whole. This means that you will not just be aware of your lungs breathing, but of your whole body breathing. If this is too difficult, though, just go back to focusing only on your breath.
[1] . . . the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
[2] . . . as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils . . .
[3] I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me-- the breath of man that I have created.
[4] But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
[5] The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
[6] If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.
[7] This is what God the LORD says-- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it . . .
[8] Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’“
[9] Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
[10] (New York, New York: Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2005), at p. 64.