Meditation

MEDITATION ON BREATH

1. Assume a comfortable sitting posture.

2. Close your eyes, keep your spine straight, and let your shoulders drop a bit.

3. Bring your attention to your belly, noticing it rise gently with each in-breath and fall with each out-breath. The rise and fall of your abdomen as you breathe will be the focus of this meditation.

4. Keep the focus on your breathing - the rise and fall of the belly - “being with” each in-breath for its full duration and with each out-breath for its full duration, as if riding the waves of your own breathing.

5. Every time you notice your attention has wandered, notice where your attention has gone, then gently bring it back to the rise and fall of the belly as you breathe.

6. If your mind wanders a hundred times, then your “job” is simply to bring it back, non-judgmentally, a hundred times. By non-judgmentally I mean you do not judge the fact that your mind has wandered - because that's what minds do! You simply bring your attention back to the rise and fall of your belly without judgment.

That's it! That's Meditative Breathing. Practice it for 15 minutes, once or twice a day, and see the benefits accrue over time. You can not do Meditative Breathing wrong if you do it.