Goofaholix wrote:.
That's the problem right there. You've judged breathing to be somehow "spiritual" and worthy of attention whereas driving is not.
You're joking, right. Because you're hilarious. At what point in my post did I even mention the word 'spiritual". I honestly think this is a classic case of guilt transference. I think you're possibly so caught up in your practice of breath awareness and whether or not you should view it as spiritual or not spiritual that you simply assume anyone who mentions it has got to be having the same problem.
No. Absolutely not. If I said even anything, it was something about
not trying to enter a trance when I practice breathing awareness as I drive. It is precisely because I don't practice breath meditation for the purpose of "spirituality" that I practice breath meditation in my day to day life. If I said something or anything, it was about not
ever wanting to sit and breath, precisely because I want to completely avoid the very pretentiousness of thought you're so quick to place in the context of my writings. I'm not like that. I don't care about spirituality. I barely have an idea of what the word means.
If you are doing jhana practice then there's some truth in that. If you are doing insight practise however the aim is that everything you do has full present moment attention and an awareness of how the mind is unwilling.
Maybe there's
some truth to that. But there isn't
a lot of truth to that.
Pondera wrote:In fact, driving is really no different than brushing ones teeth or performing any of those actions recommended to be associated with the contemplation of breath. So, for instance if one walks, one makes a mental effort to do this -one foot after the other. And if one wishes to observe their breath while they walk, then they do just that. They observe their own breath as they exert their own mental efforts.
That's right, but the question is why do you feel the need to add something to what you're doing in your day to day activities?
Because by adding breath awareness to everything I do I take away a little amount of my own stupidity.
There are some circumstances where adding something can be helpful for grounding as I outlined before. However if you try and do it as an ongoing practise it may well be because you've judged breathing to be somehow "spiritual" and worthy of attention whereas other activities are not. This is a common mistake for meditators and I had this attitude for a long time.
Yeah. Well there's the problem right there. I called it. Little bit of classic Freudian projection going on. No worries. I do it to. Everyone does.
I practice it often without expectation and I do it for the mild benefits I find it gives to me in the sense of grounding, as you said. I might sound like a 17 year old boy in my writing, but I'm a 30 year old man and I've had my fun with the spiritual. I don't need any more of that. I need to start preparing for old age. That's why I focus on my breath, and if it happens naturally, becoming sensitive to the effects that breathing has on my body makes me feel better.
The reason it's a meaningful activity is that it's a baseline, it's a baseline that helps you to know when the mind has stopped giving full attention in the present moment, it's a baseline that helps you bring the mind back to full attention in the present moment, it's a baseline that helps you sustain this activity over a period of time and thus train the mind.
You know, there aren't any winners or losers in life. It sounds to me like you've interpreted your life as if there was a goal and unless you constantly seek for that goal, you're doing something wrong. Relax. We're not all Buddhas. We don't live in that time.
People say: Take a deep breath in and...relax (shuuuuuu), Take a deeep breath in.....and...relax (shuuuuuu).
You know? Watch that stress melt away from all over the place. Make your body feel
good. Relax. Let those muscles
relax. Have a beer. Watch a hockey game.
It's not about the breathing it's about the mind. Insight arises in the mind not in the breath.
Not my goal. Not interested in insight. To me it's about the breath. My broken body needs pain killers. The natural kind. I know where they are and I know how to release them. The only thing stopping me is consistency. There's a whole plethora of beautiful little endorphins stored up in certain places of the body that never get released because we're all too tense.
Let me embarrass my self for your sake. I can't piss in public urinals unless my feet are placed firmly on the ground, I take a huge breath in, hold it, hold it, hold it...and then, let it out...slowly...and then...ahhh. You know? It's the other men. I don't get it. Am I secretly attracted to them? Is it a left over thing from my childhood? I don't want men to see my wanker?
I know what it is. My lower back is bent at the fifth vertebrae from the bottom. There's too much tension in there for my unconscious mind to suspend the parasympathetic hold over my bladder. That's why I have to plant my feet firmly on the ground. This releases some tension on the spine. Then it's that deep breath in that makes it happen.
Otherwise, I'm standing with the guy next to me thinking "There's no sound! There's no sound! What kind of a man am I if I can't pee in public? I'm such a loser."
But I'm not. I just have an arched lower back (and I'm neurotically afraid that other men will look at my wanker). It took me a long time to realize how easy and natural it is to take a whiz when you plant your feet firmly on the ground, straighten out that lower part of your back, and take in a deep breath.
Breath is inextricably linked to the relaxation of the body.
In many respects it's about sharpening the mind like you'd sharpen a knife, nobody sharpens it for the sake of sharpening, you sharpen it because it's all the better for cutting with. Otherwise the breath effectively becomes another avoidance strategy.
See you've got to put the rest of the analogy in there or it doesn't make any sense. Okay, yes. Nobody sharpens a knife just for the sake of sharpening, although I must say I take a certain amount of pride in my personal ability to sharpen my favorite knives on the steel I own. If you don't have the right technique, if you don't understand the knife, if you aren't exerting pressure from the right parts of your body, if you don't get the exact angle - you're wasting your time and your knife and your steel. Experts take two strokes at the steel and there blade is sharp. Others swipe at the steel aimlessly just guessing that the knife is going to clean itself. So yes, once the sharpening is done you cut something up. Like an onion. What's better than slicing through an onion with a razor sharp blade? Nothing. Absolutely nothing compares to it.
So I sharpen my mind. And then...cut through ignorance? Please expand,
Respectfully,
Ponderá