Dharma talks by Zen Master Senshin
February 2012: Five Steps Forward or Backward? Breath and Zen Practice
Sometimes we need to take 5 steps backward to gain perspective on a situation. After we
loose all perspective, we become that which we were trying so desperately to see, hear,
taste, touch, smell and think about clearly. Then we realise we are the situation,
inseparable from it. For example, often we forget to breathe properly. We become tense,
frightened, vague, bored or angry and our breathing gets shallow and tight. During sitting
or chanting, we loose our concentration and follow our thinking. Our breath is affected by
each thought. If we think frustrating thoughts, our breathing becomes agitated and the
natural alignment of our awareness and the breath divides into 2 activities – I am
thinking, therefore, I am breathing. So, together, let’s take 5 steps backward and reconsider the breathing mechanism within the body. You already know how to breathe –
this is simply a reminder.
The first aspect of practice that we learn in Zen training is deep and full abdominal
breathing. Focusing on the breath. Aligning the mind with the breath and the breathing
body, the breathing cosmos. Our bodies are made up of approximately 70% fluid. These
fluids need to circulate freely to enable good health, and good sitting. As we learn deep,
abdominal breathing, the lymphatic system circulates our bodily fluids through our
internal waterways. Breathing in and out, water, blood, mucus and urine flow freely
through our organs, arteries and veins, draining out naturally. This circulation of bodily
fluids allows for the free-flowing rise and fall of the body’s streams, rivers and oceans. As
we know from observing nature, where there is no movement, there is stagnation. If you
are not breathing slowly and fully, there is also stagnation – stagnation in your sitting and
in your life.
Not only does deep breathing encourage circulation through the lymphatic system, it also
allows circulation energetically. Energy doesn’t circulate in one way – it occurs in multiple
dimensions simultaneously. For example, physically, the breath begins when the
diaphragm and other muscles below the lungs contract, creating a vacuum in the upper
part of the body. The weight of the atmosphere then forces air into our lungs. It is
interesting to note that while breathing in, the lungs take in approximately 500 milliliters.
However, during a deep breathe into the lower abdomen, this volume increases to 3-4
litres. That’s 3-4 litres of energy circulating through our bodies in one breath! As one’s
breathing deepens, one’s practice deepens too aided by the enormous capacity each of us
has for circulating energy through out the whole body. In sitting, our focus remains in our
energy centre in the lower abdomen. When our energy builds and becomes taut, this
enables us to cut through all the ideas of who we think we are, who we want to be and who
we don’t want to be spontaneously. This isn’t the deepest meaning of a full breath – each
of us needs to experience this for one’s self.
Awareness of the breath allows the core muscles to engage – those muscle groups that run
close to the spine – ensuring that the superficial muscles relax. While sitting, verticality is
accomplished with little or no effort. Balancing on our boney structure we are supported
by our fundamental existence.
During sitting, our body uses only as much energy as it needs to support itself sufficiently.
The rest of our energy can be used to deepen in our experience of our kong-an or great
question.
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At times, during our sitting, we experience discomfort or pain – particularly in the first
day or two of a retreat. The release of endorphins – our body’s natural response to the
experience of pain – is enhanced when the breath is full and deep. While breathing, these
painkillers help us cope with the stretching of the muscles and ligaments as we settle
deeper into our seated position, deeper into our life.
However, the foremost expression of deep, abdominal
breathing is clarity of mind. Each exhalation releases our
resistance and the desire to continually define one’s self as
some thing. When we are working so hard trying to figure
out who we are we miss the experience of it, right here and
now! Relax into the breath and experience the moment as
it is. Fear, pain and resistance are merely catalysts to
encourage us to go deeper in our practice. Let your
concern with things that you value as good or bad go. Let
all your concerns and values go. Let go and breathe.
Of course, ultimately, we have to let the breath go to really
see what is there; to taste the almond-meal in the cake we
are eating; to hear the mosquito buzzing in our ears; to feel
the pain of resistance in our judgmental thinking; and, to
smell the asphalt heating up in the sun. Our extraneous
thoughts are not transcendental. We only think they are.
We think we are being helpful but in fact, we are only in
the way. We think we are clear, but in fact, we are
confused and tiresome. We think we are getting
somewhere in our practice, but in fact, there is nothing to
get and nowhere to go.
Our thinking is limited to our thoughts. But, our original mind is unlimited, pure and
bright, as the shining stars in a desert’s moonless night. When we discover the one original
mind, we discover that it doesn’t belong to you or to me – that it cannot be encumbered by
thought, known by a name or begin or end with a breath.
Each breath has a validity of its own – it doesn’t need conceptual ideas to designate
whether it is a step forward, into sitting practice or backward, away from sitting practice.
In each breath, our deep, pure mind reverberates within the walls of our lungs, replenishes
our bloodstream with living cells and transcends our self-imposed limitations of time and
space. To breathe in this way is to breathe without any thought of gain or loss, forward or
backward, left or right. To breathe in this way is to live one’s life in harmony with all
beings. In the quiet moments in our lives we know this intimately, but we must experience
this pure and deep state of mind so that we can live our life fully and freely.
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