Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Boring Breath ...
Deshy
Veteran
If you are doing breath meditation please help me overcome this. When I sit in meditation I start with present moment consciousness. I stop thinking of the past, future, stop thoughts of various fantasies, stop inner speech and only be aware of the sounds in the vicinity and basically be at the “moment”.
Then I slowly drift my focus onto the breath and sustain awareness on it for some time. My problem is, this becomes extremely boring after about 10 minutes. I watch the breath going in and coming out for a few minutes and then the whole thing becomes rather distasteful and I find myself imagining about the future or thinking about past or engaging in a fantasy world.
<O:p
How do you overcome this hindrance? Am I doing the breath meditation correctly? :sadc:
Then I slowly drift my focus onto the breath and sustain awareness on it for some time. My problem is, this becomes extremely boring after about 10 minutes. I watch the breath going in and coming out for a few minutes and then the whole thing becomes rather distasteful and I find myself imagining about the future or thinking about past or engaging in a fantasy world.
<O:p
How do you overcome this hindrance? Am I doing the breath meditation correctly? :sadc:
0
Comments
Do you mean to say I will get used to keeping the focus on the breath for longer periods gradually?
Perhaps I may suggest that you make a few simple changes, although They are only my own experience?
This is how I do things. I do not claim any 'orthodoxy' or exclusivity. It is just how my practice has developed over the years.
I usually begin with a form of lectio divina: I choose a short text to read and reflect on for a short while (5-10 minutes but can be longer). This will often suggest the form that meditation is to take but let's assume that it is 'just sitting'.
Holding the tone and taste of the text in mind, on the back burner as it were, I perform a number of prostrations. These help to loosen the body and to focus the mind towards the quiet. This is my 'warm up'.
When I sit, I spend a few moments clearing my nostrils, alternately. I then do a 'body scan', moving my attention along my body, starting and ending at my nose. This is simply an exercise in sharpening my attention so that, when I bring it back toi my nose, I can watch the breath come and go.
The Silence comes later rather than at the start - if I'm lucky.
I'm sure that there are some much more practised meditators here who can give you better instruction. this is imply how I do things. I would add that focus on breath is not the only technique that I use to enter the Silence.
You are judging it and criticising it as a boring aspect of your meditation that you have to deal with or overcome.
You think that once you do this, it will all fall into place....
Pay attention to your breathing, but also pay attention to your attitude to your breathing.
it may help you appreciate your breathing more, if you think on these two things:
One:
The Human being can go without food for around 2 weeks.
The Human being can go without water for around 4 days.
The Human being can go without air for around 4 minutes.
of the three sustenances, your ability to breathe is what keeps you alive.
Two:
Every single breath you take, is one less in your lifetime.
Every breath you take draws you nearer to your final exhalation.
Treasure your breath.
It's all you have, at least for the next *four* minutes.
I try this method of treasuring my breath by thinking up a story of how my breath helps the vegetation that grows in my garden etc. It gives value to my breath but that story also runs out of fuel after a few days of using it. I guess my mind is so restless, too restless sometimes.
Thanks for the advice. There are some parts here I dont understand much. What do you mean by "perform a number of prostrations"? what type of texts do you read before the meditation starts?
You can try to draw your attention or feeling to the mood of boredom. In fact, it is quite a difficult mood to be aware of because it is subtle but quite powerfully grey & unnerving.
But if you can do this and patiently endure this, one day, one sitting, the mood of boredom will clear away like grey clouds clear from the bright sky.
This is when meditation on breath comes alive & watching the breath becomes like watching a fluid dancer.
Buddha said: "Patient endurance burns up defilements supremely. All Buddha say Nibbana is the supreme."
Best wishes for your practice
DDhatu
What [single-pointed] meditation should be is clear, fresh, decisive ascertainment of the specific meditation object, then bringing the focus back again and again to that clarity and freshness with equal resolve. The resolve comes from a strong intention driven by knowledge etc, the decisiveness comes from actually taking the time to search for the object and then clearly discriminating it as much as possible.
As the wholesome mental factors of concentration, mindfulness etc improve the freshness and clarity increase. At a point there is enough concentration where the object is never again lost in its entirety (for perhaps at least 5-10min). The only way of cultivating that much concentration is by overcoming the 2 hindrances of agitation/excitement (chasing after thoughts, sounds etc) and dullness (forgetting the object, spacing out etc). At that point you have sustained concentration accompanied by pretty significant clarity and freshness. Reaching this is not particularly difficult but it is very meaningful when it happens for the first time. It needs daily effort for 20-30min per day (of actual effort in meditation, not including preparation etc) for something like 2 months. Keeping morality nicely is a necessary requirement, as well as some other factors.
The 'nine stages of meditation' is all you need for developing perfect single-pointed concentration, or find what works best for you.
Nine Stages of Training the Mind
COURSE 3: Applied Meditation
Bearing in mind that you are receiving far more mainstream advice from the posters above, here are a couple of answers:
Prostrations:
This is a useful video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI4xHU44P3o&feature=related
Apart from the metaphorical value of the mudra and the movements, I find that prostrations help to loosen the joints, and align body and mind.
Readings:
My readings tend to be pretty eclectic (not to say catholic LOL) but here we go. These are a few of the texts that I use, three or four lines from one or other of them:
The Dhammapada
The Psalms
You Are The Eyes of the World by Longchenpa
The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures
Hymn of the Universe by Teilhard de Chardin
Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich
The Gospel of Thomas
in addition, I often use poetry, amongst which
Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
Sally Purcell
Omar Khayyam
and many others.
As you can see, I do not limit myself to Buddhist or any specific strand of texts. The point is to help focus, to set a 'tone' to my mind, to lift my spirits and, often, to examine and adjust my intention.
I'm substantially confused :crazy:
If the object is ascertained nicely at the start severe boredom cannot set in and dullness will behave more normally, which means causing the meditator to space out or actually forget the object.
Yes/no? Just read the nine stages link, it will explain initial placement and everything else you would like to know.
Wow, I just woke up and this is the second thread I read this morning. Your response here all most made me shoot shoot my chai tea out my nose!
Just logged in for the day. I actually took a printout of the link you gave me last night and I was refering to it in the bus today. It seems so helpful although i only got a chance to read the first few paras. Thanks a lot for sharing it.
According to that, it is quite ok at first to have the mind float off to thoughts when meditating as long as we place it back on the breath. with practice I hope this will improve
Kind of true... Got to make peace with the boredom
Boredom is part of the five hindrances. The Buddha said the nutriment of the five hindrances is the three kinds of unskilful action.
If our mind is always absorbing into sense objects, especially things like entertainment, alcohol, drugs, constant socialising, etc, which keep the mind stimulated, then boredom will happen.
Boredom is like a hangover.
More simple, natural & subtle forms of pleasure, such nature walking, exercise, ocean swimming, helping people, etc, can help support us make a transition towards a more spiritual way of life.
Kind regards
This article was great, I kind of got lost after the first three stages, but hopefully they will make sense one day!
Yeah I found the article really helpful as a beginner. It helped me correct some things I did wrong so far.
However, this article does not explain the stages of breath meditation up to the last point. It ends somewhere in the middle without clearly mentioning about the nimitta and Jahanas. Is there a part two to it?
Not all presentations rely on mentioning the signs. However, if you've been taught them then you can combine them into the progression along the stages (I do). For example at the 4th stage 'close placement' because the breath is always closely at hand a much crisper and stronger sign appears, which can itself function to quickly place you back into close placement in a future meditation session (as long as the sign is clearly remembered - it fades over time and must be regained).
Also in general the 9th stage can itself be jhana or just before jhana. Slightly different presentations. You can combine what you know about the jhana factors with this 9th stage in this presentation.
Also there are more articles that look pretty cool:
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=161
Plus other presentations of progression which can be combined to give a clearer picture, enjoy:
The Jhanas In Theravada Buddhist Meditation