breath meditation doubt

[confusedlayman]

in breath meditation, do u observe the breath by oberving space? or do u control breath in whatever way u want?

pls help me.. dont give me reference just need personal experience opinion...

[Sam Vara]

in breath meditation, do u observe the breath by oberving space? or do u control breath in whatever way u want?

pls help me.. dont give me reference just need personal experience opinion...

I don't think the Buddha specified this. It is down to whatever works as a technique for calming the mind. Do you have a teacher who can advise you on this? Personally, I control the length of the breath and how/where I observe it, as this is the tradition which I follow. Find a technique which appeals to and which works for you, and stick with it.

[Inedible]

It sounds like you are doing concentration practice. A narrow focus on an unchanging object is needed. Find the smallest point where you can feel your breath touching the tip of the nose or the upper lip. Stay with it the entire time. It is the idea of the breath at this point that you are developing. The actual breath has to change into a mental object. In vipassana your focus is on change over time, but you need concentration first and that means staying with how it remains the same. If you let your object keep changing the concentration can't develop correctly. Distractions will keep pulling you away from it, but noticing and returning should be rewarded rather than punished. You want your mind to tell you when you have stopped working on your object. Then it is a matter of balancing your energy level so that you are neither too tense not too relaxed. It is easy to be too relaxed without knowing it because it can feel good and it affects your ability to see what is happening. Over time your mind unwinds and more of it stays with the object. At first the breath is just touch sensations, but it becomes a mental object. It has to because concentration practice shifts your mind from the desire realm to the worlds of pure form.

[DooDoot]

for right concentration, the mind observes the breath by observing space or letting go (vossagga)

anapanasati sutta says:

a monk develops mindfulness as a factor for awakening dependent on seclusion, dependent on dispassion, dependent on cessation, maturing in letting go (vossagga)

MN 118

MN 62 says:

Ven. Doot saw Ven. ConfusedLayMan sitting at the foot of a tree, his legs folded crosswise, his body held erect & with mindfulness set to the fore. On seeing him, he said to him, "ConfusedLayMan, develop the meditation of mindfulness with in-&-out breathing. The meditation of mindfulness with in-&-out breathing, when developed & pursued, is of great fruit, of great benefit.

Then Ven. ConfusedLayMan, emerging from his seclusion in the late afternoon, went to the Blessed One and, having bowed down, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to him, "How, lord, is mindfulness with in-&-out breathing to be developed & pursued so as to be of great fruit, of great benefit?"

Develop the meditation in tune with space. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with space, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind. Just as space is not established anywhere, in the same way, when you are developing the meditation in tune with space, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind.

[Nobodyisspecial]

In breath meditation I really would not be super analytical and focus on whether the breath is space or the breath needs to be controlled. That is thinking too much! Just focus on the breath to stop thinking not to figure out if the breath should be thought of as space or not.

In my own practice you have to get beyond breath meditation because the breath stops! What do you focus on then when you stop breathing? Sure there is jhana but you have to be ready to let go of focusing on the breath eventually and that is at the point of jhana.

Work insight until the mind is still. Work breath meditation until there is great concentration. Find liberation from all bondage and enjoy the bliss of no bliss.