Breathing Lessons

Ideas suggested to me by Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. 1945.

Focusing on the breath, on breathing, is one of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism and Yoga.Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. Buddhism is a philosophy and set of teachings which encompass a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. 

Something as necessary and simple as breathing can be a way to help you meditate, fall asleep, deal with a stressful situation, melt away anger or frustration, and much more.

Everyone breathes. A seemingly simple statement. But the ramifications of that statement suggest that through our breathing, especially if done with the correct intent (besides the need to breathe if we are to stay alive,) we can all touch a measure of peace, contentment, and understanding in our daily life without having to learn any new sophisticated skills. Just breathe!

The ancient Yogic technique of focusing on breathing converts the breath into mind-stuff. There is a mathematical relationship between a human's respiratory rate and the variation in states of consciousness, states of emotion.

In attempting some delicate or difficult physical feat or when keeping great focus; one automatically breathes very slowly. Quick or uneven breathing comes with fear, lust, anger.

When resting or sleeping one breathes more slowly than when engaging in physical work or exercising. When one is content and calm one breathes more slowly than when angry, agitated, upset. 

We can all speed up or slow down our breath when we concentrate on it. The difficulty is remembering to concentrate. especially when in the heat of a situation.

For example, when frightened or angry it will be more difficult to slow down your thoughts and/or emotions enough to think about breathing. If you are in a "fight or flight" situation, you will most likely have a difficult time remembering to work on your breathing. 

If you are asleep, resting, or quietly contented you are probably so relaxed that you will not need not remember to think about how your breathing contributes to these blissful feelings.

The difficulty is keeping aware of one's breath patterns and changing them when necessary. But if we think this through, and practice on purpose at various times during a day when neither overly stimulated or at rest, or when we are in an adverse situation trying to remember to think about our breathing (similar to remembering to count to 10 when angry  before reacting; we can get used to having more control over this seemingly automatic bodily function; to think about controlling our breathing when we most need to. We can do this over time without having to force our breathing.

When you are able to do just that; the fear, the anger, the emotional upset often comes under control and one can proceed to a calmer, more peaceful place and be better able to think things through, solve problems, interact with others. 

I found it amazing that since everyone is breathing all the time, we could all work towards meditating as we live and better experience our days and nights, and what a more pleasant life that would be.

Two breathing meditations are taught. 

Soham (so 'ham) is the Sanskrit for "I myself" or "It is I" or "She/He is I." When used for meditation, "Soham" acts as a natural mantra to control one's breathing pattern to help achieve deep breath and gain concentration.

• Sooooo... is the sound of exhalation, and is remembered in the mind along with exhalation.
• Hammmm... is the sound of inhalation, and is remembered in the mind along with inhalation.

The mantra is also inverted from So 'ham, to Ham Sa, also been interpreted as "I myself am the Swan, where the swan symbolizes the Atman, meaning "self, soul," a philosophical concept common to all schools of Hindu and Buddhism philosophy

• Hammmm... is the sound of exhalation, and is remembered in the mind along with exhalation.
 
• Saaaaaa... is the sound of inhalation, and is remembered in the mind along with inhalation.

Many a night, I have put myself to sleep quite quickly by using the SoHam or HamSa meditations. I am I. I am that which is. Translated to: I am all which I experience and I experience all which I am. 

By practicing an awareness of my breathing at various times during the day, on purpose and when not under duress, I have become better able to call on that technique when in need. I like to compare it to the game of football. The time to practice catching the ball is not when it is coming towards you during the heat of a game with the stands full of spectators! Practice does make perfect, or at least closer to perfect.

With thanks to Corinne Peterson for the two meditation mantras.

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.

Panchamaya Kosha Session Five

This session dealt with the level of joy or spirit, tapping into that which is greater than ourselves. This was done, again, by weaving breathing, stretching, chanting, and meditation through several cycles of activities.

For some reason all were difficult for me today. I am hoping that as I continue to loose weight and increase my exercising, my breathing will be able to be held longer and deeper.

We inhaled and exhaled, then added stretches to the inhaling and stretching, then added chanting to the inhaling and exhaling. My bass voice made a nice harmony to the soprano of most of the women in the class but I could not hold the chant.

In the relaxed sense of the activities, Corinne makes one feel comfortable at whatever level they are able to function, I found myself double breathing to her normal breaths. I focused on my breathing in and then out when Corinne breathed in and then I took another in and out on Corinne's out. I tried to add to the chant as much as possible.

During one of the meditations Corinne suggested we focus on joy through the vehicle of gratitude and how and where that felt in the body. I found it in my upper chest and head. They both felt light and buoyant.

During the Yoga Nidra mindful meditation rest, at the end of the session, when Corinne was guiding us towards the feelings of joy and gratitude, I found myself floating away from her guidance and found myself standing at the bottom of a wide stairway in a calm, lightly colored marble feeling stairwell with a glow of light at the top, the origin of which I could not see.

As long as I was there, I decided to climb the stairway to see what was at the top. It was so easy to climb and my steps were so light, that I almost felt like I was floating. But I wasn't. When I got to the top I found myself at the head of a huge room, again lightly colored with a marble like texture, and the room was bathed on a glow of light.

There were no windows or doors or any other decoration in the room but I did see that the room was filled with countless desks and sitting at those desks, on telephones, were who I decided were angels, spirit guides, and master teachers. They were all very busy and didn't notice me. I had the sense that some were talking to "clients" and others were doing "research."

The purpose of the facility was to help people solve their problems. I had the strong sense that there was never a failure in finding solutions and the entire room was filled with happiness, joy, and gratitude over the work of the participants and their clients.

At the end of the class, when Corinne added the additional possibility of ritual, she passed around a bowl of Rose Quartz crystals. We each took one, held it in our hand, and finished the meditation. As I looked at the rock, I realized that it was the color and texture of that stairwell, those stairs, and the walls of the hall upstairs.

See full Rose Quartz article Crystal Meanings @ CrystalsAndJewelry.com.

"Rose quartz is often called the "Love Stone. Emotionally, rose quartz is used to balance emotions and bring peace and calm. All these things carry energies of forgiveness, tolerance, and compassion to the fore, enabling us to see the good in both ourselves and others. It is used in crystal healing to heal and release emotional wounds and traumas. Divine unconditional love and enhancing our inner awareness of such also brings ease of overwhelming or unreasonable guilt, bringing healing from this which we impose on ourselves."

COPYRIGHT @2002-2014: All Rights Reserved by Robyn A Harton unless otherwise noted.