Lessons in Buddhist Practice

This lesson deals with a Breathing Practice that can be done when you are trying to fall asleep and you just lie there replaying the day or tomorrow or aches & pains or fears and frustrations, etc.

When we begin to train we see that we’ve been pretty ignorant about what we’re doing. First we see that we are rarely able to rest into the present moment.*

Second, we see that  we have fabricated all kinds of strategies to avoid staying present, particularly when we’re afraid that whatever’s happening will hurt.*

Third, we also see our strong belief that if only we could do everything right, we’d be able to find safe, comfortable, and secure place to spend the rest of our lives.*

There is no one right way. There is no safe, comfortable, and secure place to find. It already lives within each one of us. 

What we need to do is: 1) quiet the voices so we can hear ourselves and 2) accept that nothing is forever, what is forever is how we deal with each situation at the moment it is happening and then move on to the next moment.

By working on our Breathing Practice, we can begin to change the excuses, the fears, the back stories we tell ourselves as truth.

When you lie down to sleep for the night or to take a short nap, you can do this practice. But you must begin to do it. Eventually it will be available to you as a Practice whenever you need it. In the beginning it might be easier to do nothing and lie there unable to sleep or nap.

By focusing on our breath (and everybody breaths you know) we can begin to quite our inner voices, which are not necessarily the truth, just things we have over time, for some reason accepted as truth. (More on this in another lesson.)

To fall asleep at night, once finished with your getting ready to go to bed, have gotten into bed, and have turned off the lights; first focus on your breath. Do this four or five or six times, counting with each “in.”

As you focus on your breath begin a “body scan.” Start with the top of your head and as you breath deeply in and out, name each part of your body. Head, scalp, forehead, ears, ear lobes, nose, nostrils, cheeks, chin, mouth, tongue, roof of the mouth, sides of the mouth, bottom of the mouth, teeth, neck etc. To further focus divide up those areas you can into left and right: left nostril, right nostril.

Deep breath in: Head. Deep breath out: Head.

Deep breath in: Forehead. Deep breath out: Forehead.

Etc as you work your way down your body.

Once this seems easy enough for you, as you focus on each part, add taking a deep breath in through the nose and let it go out through the mouth. 

Once this seems easy enough for you, (maybe over a few days even,) as you name each part add being aware of how that part feels. Neutral feeling, numb feeling, painful feeling. Add no back story, just notice the feeling and move on to the next part.

You have now added several “layers” of quieting those voices: breathing in and out, naming the parts of your body from top to bottom, changing the breath ways (nose vs mouth.)

Finally, the wonderful thing about Buddhist Practice is that it is very forgiving. If your mind wanders just gently bring it back to the Practice, if your forget where you on in your Body Scan just start over, if you have difficulty breathing through your mouth or nose just choose the one that is comfortable for you, if you prefer begin with your toes and work your way up.

Even if you try this for a few minutes and give up, you are a few minutes closer to being able to call up the Breathing Practice to help you fall asleep. Also, many of the lessons learned here can be applied to other types of Practice at other times of the day to be used for other reasons like stress or pain reduction. (More on this in a different lesson.)

* Taken from: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. Pema Chödrön. P 35. 2002.