Tricycle | Awake in the World

Hi Carole,

Different people may prefer different locations for breath focus.
Some people prefer to focus at the nostrils because it can develop a sharp, laser-like concentration. Also it can lead to interesting experiences known as nimitta. However, other people find focusing on the nostrils to be problematic, either because it seems too subtle and limiting or because it causes tension/headache, as you experienced.

Some people like to focus on the breath at the abdomen or chest. They find that approach more mellow and grounding, as you reported. On the other hand, some people find that if they focus on breath in those core body regions, they start interfering with the breath or begin to experience anxiety around their body’s physiology.

For the above reasons, many mindfulness teachers (including myself) give people the option to focus in whatever way seems comfortable and natural.

On the other hand, some teachers insist upon a “one-size-fits-all” approach. That’s usually because there’s something about their overall system that makes a certain form of breath practice more appropriate than others. For example, if the ultimate goal is to scan attention through the body detecting subtle phenomena, then initially focusing at the nostrils makes sense because it develops a laser-like, high-resolution flavor of concentration. This is the usual approach in the U Ba Khin tradition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba_Khin). On the other hand, if you’re interested in penetrating whatever salient sensory experience might come up (but defaulting to an easily detected and soothing sensation when nothing else is salient), then focusing at the abdomen makes sense, as is done in the Mahasi tradition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasi_Sayadaw).

Literally dozens of distinct ways of working with the breath have evolved within the historical sweep of the Three Vehicles. Find what works for you. But if a teacher asks you to do it in a certain way, you have the right to ask why. Any competent teacher should be both able to and happy to explain the underlying reasons. (This is a general principle applicable to any questions about techniques.)

All the best,
Shinzen

Hi Bujinin, glad it all worked out!

Hi Raja,
It is sometimes said that getting the right questions is at least as important as getting the right answers. So the good news is, you’ve asked a good question. The bad news is, I don’t think I’m capable of really answering it. By really answer, I mean give an answer that would satisfy a hard-nosed scientist. So the best that I can do is to offer you two things. The first is a conjecture that I cannot back up with specific and detailed evidence. The second is a claim for which I have experiential confidence (but which to many may seem enigmatic, if not utterly irrelevant).

First, the conjecture:

It is probably the case that consciousness arises sequentially, i.e., preceding each conscious experience, there are many layers of subliminal/subconscious/unconscious processing. At what point and under what conditions do we say that a percipient self is present?

Part of the problem lies in the enormous ambiguity of the word “self.” If by self we mean sakkayaditthi, the perception of “self as thing,” then self is dependent on intrinsic nebulosity and viscosity in the underlying neuronal circuits. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that there are more primitive levels of “self” that are not perceived as a thing. A beetle probably has some sense of self but I doubt that it involves any perception of substantive personhood or fundamental separateness.

So much for conjecture. Now for what I’m confidence of:

The Ultimate True Observer is Goneness. (For details, check out Chapter 8 Section 5 “Just Note Gone” pp. 95-99 of my manual http://www.shinzen.org/Retreat%20Reading/FiveWays.pdf or my article “The Power of Gone” in the current issue of Tricycle.)

Keep up the good work,
Shinzen

Hi Ranni,

Here’s what I can say about the arising of the past: As a sensory event, it always happens in the present. Moreover, it can only come up through one or a combination of mental image, mental talk, and emotional-type body sensation. (See Chapter 1 “The Way of Thoughts and Emotions” pp. 21-24 of my manual http://www.shinzen.org/Retreat%20Reading/FiveWays.pdf.)

If an arising of the past is greeted with deep mindfulness, it will be experienced Completely. It is then simply the razor’s edge of the absolute Now—paper thin and feather light. In other words, it no longer extends into time at all! That’s a moment of freedom. Freedom not only from the past, but from the future and the (relative) present. In other words, freedom from time itself. For most of us, this is going to take a lot of practice but it’s certainly worth investing the time. As T.S. Eliot says “only through time, time is conquered.” : )

(Check out p. 5 here: https://www2.bc.edu/john-g-boylan/files/fourquartets.pdf and TS Eliot himself reading it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xDpueV1U8k)

All the best,
Shinzen

Hi Bujinin,
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