How to Breathe

lobster

I am a great believer in breathing. So far so good.

Buddhist breathing 'technology' includes:

• Tantric wind farming
• Chanting
• Observance of breath

Lately I have been breathing silently, in and out through the nose. Into the mind, out from The Still.
https://meditation-oasis.squarespace.com/how-to-meditate/general-guidelines

Where is your breath at?

paulyso

@lobster said:

I am a great believer in breathing. So far so good.

Buddhist breathing 'technology' includes:

• Tantric wind farming
• Chanting
• Observance of breath

Lately I have been breathing silently, in and out through the nose. Into the mind, out from The Still.
https://meditation-oasis.squarespace.com/how-to-meditate/general-guidelines

Where is your breath at?

this is so weird,being aware of breathing,makes my breathing labored annd heavy.but,in that case a deep inhale and exhale.now its somewhat back to shallow breathing.eventually i think,the breathing will be back to normal if i dont pay attention to it.the mind does register as physical stress.but of course cessation if the attention is elsewhere for me.but like you lobster i breath through the nose predominantly,deep inhale when stress.sharing this real time breath practice.

Jeroen

I think breathing is one of the most easily observable miracles of the human body. The body does so many things that we don’t notice in order to keep us alive... the beating of our heart, the movement of food around in the abdomen, the cleansing of the blood by the liver. Breathing just happens to be the thing where you can take conscious control, or not, and see the body’s automatic systems taking care of us.

I came across this the other day...

“A little while ago I was at a conference, and I was handed a prospectus of a large spiritual organisation. Looking through it there were so many wonderful sounding courses and retreats, it reminded me of a Scandinavian meal, a real smorgasbord. Then someone asked me if I could recommend something. I said, 'it is all wonderful but if you can for a year just bring your attention back to the breath, when ever you remember to do it, you will accomplish more than in a hundred courses.'”

• Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

Buddhadragon

Breathing is the most basic function of our bodies, given that our survival depends on it, yet we like to make it complicated and overthink it when it comes to breathing during meditation.

I like to use an app called "Prana Breath," which features different pranayama meditations, a couple of times a day.

Otherwise, I keep it simple: breathe in, breathe out, repeat.
As simple as explained in the Anapanasati and Satipatthana suttas:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wayof.html

lobster

Pranayama is mentioned as part of the Buddhas extreme ascetic, pre-awakening practice. He seemed to have indulged in holding the empty breath part too long ... and developed headaches.
Here is what we discussed earlier ...
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/22316/buddhist-pranayama-practices

Now I feel more able to gain from the yogic healing aspect, a form of ancient health care ...

Not sure what these bunch of corpses have been up to ... but caution is obviously needed

Snakeskin

All aerobic creatures need oxygen for cellular respiration, which uses the oxygen to break down foods for energy and produces carbon dioxide as a waste product. Breathing, or "external respiration", brings air into the lungs where gas exchange takes place in the alveoli through diffusion. The body's circulatory system transports these gasses to and from the cells, where "cellular respiration" takes place.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing

Cellular respiration is a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products.[1] The reactions involved in respiration are catabolic reactions, which break large molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy in the process, as weak so-called "high-energy" bonds are replaced by stronger bonds in the products. Respiration is one of the key ways a cell releases chemical energy to fuel cellular activity. Cellular respiration is considered an exothermic redox reaction which releases heat. The overall reaction occurs in a series of biochemical steps, most of which are redox reactions themselves. Although technically, cellular respiration is a combustion reaction, it clearly does not resemble one when it occurs in a living cell because of the slow release of energy from the series of reactions.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_respiration

@lobster said:
Where is your breath at?

Everywhere.

lobster

If we smoke or otherwise poison our being, the results are not beneficial. Did anybody not know?

The simplest, gentlest slowed breathing pattern is indicative of the mind at peace. Giving us useful and continual feedback ...
So for me the breath is a continual barometer of the present being.

Yoga nidra is probably my favoured pranayama, performed in the corpse asana pictured earlier.

Many monks, dharma centres offer yoga as a complementary practice ...
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism-and-yoga-where-the-paths-cross/

Here is a Tibetan version of the commonly practiced alternate nostril breathing
http://www.thewayofmeditation.com.au/blog/the-incredible-benefits-of-tibetan-pranayama-and-how-to-do-it/

@paulyso said:
this is so weird, being aware of breathing, makes my breathing labored and heavy but in that case a deep inhale and exhale. now its somewhat back to shallow breathing. eventually i think,the breathing will be back to normal if i dont pay attention to it. the mind does register as physical stress but of course cessation if the attention is elsewhere for me. but like you lobster i breath through the nose predominantly, deep inhale when stress. sharing this real time breath practice.

paulyso

during my theravadian days breath awareness was my go to meditation to relax the body .and i suspect close eye meditation i would focus on breath awareness.i guess im rusty moviing on to the cultivation of the paramitas.same results of even breath at my peak practice of breath awareness which lead to mind body calmness.now the paramitas has help glimps calm to tranquil,towards a greater evolving ease and flow.but lobster smoking cigarette--yeah!--is not healthy.and fair point my lungs is taking a beating .

paulyso

lobster,let me clarify,during my peak breath awareness practice my breath was even.there is saying,the body follows the mind annd the mind follows the body.so breath awareness is regulating the body.

lobster

@paulyso let us clarify further ...

lobster top tip:
Give your tobacco to the Buddha (demons need it) Use it as in-sense if need be ...
Do your breath awareness/pranayama without smoke.
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/5338/what-is-the-typical-buddhist-view-on-smoking-cigarettes

... and now back to the breath ...