following the breath

[Gerard]

Great advice in this thread.

 

Something I found was that I'd been focusing too much on breathing into my lower abdomen, and not actually opening my chest and filling my lungs.

 

Just adjust the "rising and falling pattern" (which according to an living arahant based in Chiang Mai, it's the key point of the entire Vipassana meditation system) to whatever suits you best. The abdomen is a safe method which massages the internal organs evenly.

 

Focus on rising, then falling, rising, falling...a thought comes up, a noise, pain in the ankle, whatever impermanence brings upon your meditation session, notice it and back again to RISING and FALLING.

 

That's it. As Steve pointed out, the simpler, the better.

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by Gerard

[joeblast]

The reason the breath is used, as in Buddhist anapanasati, is because there is a connection between the breath and the movements in the mind (thought and thinking).

 

That's why I emphasize bringing the flow of air beneath the threshold of neural detection inside the airways, *that* is the key link - the "neural crosstalk" that resonates into higher brain centers and manifests as thoughtstream energy.  If I hadnta figgered how to shut it, I wouldnta known                             

 

I guess it just never did it for me to simply state the connection exists, I had to map it and find out why/how

 

The exhale you mentioned, supported by data referenced in zen & the brain.  Good book, I think I recall seeing that Austin had wrote a second. 

[AugustLeo]

...

 

refine the physical movements of the gut

 

cease the physical movements of the airways

 

transform the resonance of the olfactory nerve and the rest of the cranial nerves will follow

 

...

 

 

Dan - I'm not sure I understand what you mean by these three aspects of your breathing.  Would you please expand on (i.e., explain in some detail) what you mean, both from an anatomical and from an experiential point of view.

 

Thanks!

[Wu Ming Jen]

Mind and breath rest on each other if the breath becomes rough use the mind to smooth it out. If mind becomes distracted use the breath to stop wandering.

 

When mind is peaceful and breath is smooth immediately put down the tools and reach the shore of true breathing. 

[Daeluin]

Thank you for the tips.

 

I think I was trying to express, that my posture had created a structure that did not allow the chest to breathe. Even fully lowering my diaphragm, with the shoulders hunched over and Ren 15 area caved in, the upper parts of my chest did not get proper oxygenation, let alone qi flow. This tended to cause stagnation in the qi, especially when thinking too much.

 

Perhaps, given enough time with rising and falling and working the diaphragm this would have self-corrected. For me it was worth pointing out, as a few simple adjustments completely transformed my experience. Sometimes I feel that adjustments are forcing things, and simple is best. At other times the right adjustment is like fitting a key into a lock.

 

Recently I've been reading in Peter Shea's book Alchemy of the Extraordinary, which is a fantastic, detailed overview of how the various layers of the meridian systems work together, going to their origin at the eight extraordinary vessel layer. In particular there is great detail on the dai mai (belt vessel) and how it serves to consolidate and contain our energy, but also comes to store the traumatic experiences that we refuse to release, like stuff we store in a basement and forget about. Further, there are some upper trajectories of the dai mai that I hadn't know of previously, the da bao and bai mai: "The Da Bao wraps the MIddle Tan Tian from Sp 21 / GB 22 at the "forgotten muscles" of the lateral aspects of our chest and across the front and back to the solar plexus at Ren 15. Un-transcended issues are shunted away from the Heart via the Da Bao. The Post-Natal influences that have impacted our original nature can accumulate and enter the constitution both at Ren 15, the Luo Point of the Ren, and at Sp21 / GB 22, the Great Luo of the Spleen. The Bao Mai is a vertical trajectory from Ren 15 to the perineum at Ren1 and provides the mechanism whereby these un-transcended issues read the Belt Channel and affect our ability to support the anus / tailbone and extend more of our self into the world."

 

I recalled having an rather effective treatment that worked on GB22 previously and played with the sensations activating the above points. Immediately I felt my chest opening. Perhaps, as joeblast says, I was not really expanding a great deal more, but from my perception there was oxygen and qi reaching parts of me that had been stuck closed before. It felt as thought my  ribs had come to life, my lymph nodes were more active, and there was a greater structural alignment to my lower thoracic vertebrae that allowed a sense of stagnation being eliminated to this area with my breath / blood flow. Additionally I am able to think more freely without causing my qi to stiffen and stagnate, something that had become quite the problem.

 

In the 8x vessels, the qiao vessles are related to our stance in the world. In particular the yin-qiao is related to self-esteem issues and runs along the inner heels, inner legs, up the front on either side of the ren mai to the insides of the eyes. It is related to how we see ourselves, how we validate ourselves, how we trust ourselves to stand up straight and strong in the world, in the present moment. It is also written of in the taoist classics as the vessel that must be opened first before we can really work on the ren, du and chong vessels. This is because it is where we hold the space for ourselves to be present to do the work.

 

Funny, as after making these adjustments, not only has my breathing improved, my posture been filled with more energy, but I've been having dreams about my childhood traumas, in a very healing way. I am able to recognize that, due to past life attachments, I entered this life with patterns that denied support of who I am. In my dreams I was able to recognize how these patterns led me to develop a fearful attitude when engaging with the world, so that I would hide away from myself and deny myself my power. There were various elements that represented the dominators in this lifetime, but now I am more clearly able to see past any grudges or attachments to these people, as they were simply filling a role. Instead I saw beyond to where I did not really need these things to hold me back any longer.  As long as I am able to flow with and serve the greater good of the dao in this lifetime I don't need to worry that I will repeat the mistakes I made in long distant past that caused me patterns of deeply set guilt.

 

These types of unfoldings are very interestingly (to me) related to some of the points in the yin qiao vessel. Particularly some of the following, which I feel are related to the unbinding of the chest I have been experiencing:

 

"Kidney 25, Shen Cang, Spirit Storehouse, Fire: Here we are discovering the essence of our self. The true nature that was buried. The crystal gemstone that has been buried and alchemically transformed through the pressures of the earth.

 

Kidney 26 Yu Zhong, Lively Center, Metal: Here we are regaining inspiration. Recovering from the loss of animation of being frozen in post-natal forgetfulness. The Po is regaining sensory awareness with the reverence and wisdom of how to relate to sensation, to fear and desire and sensuality without simply crystallizing into the resistance, the limiting into one perspective.

 

Kidney 27, Shu Fu, Conveying Palace, Master Point: All the Upper Transport Points unbind the chest and allow the Lungs to be strong enough to cultivate forgiveness, the rectification of the qi and the ability of the Kidneys to grasp that qi and bring it into the world.

 

Stomach 9 Ren Ying, Man's Welcome, "Welcome me Humanity": The clear articulation and expression of one's self, of one's identity. We are welcomed as we are by society due to our clear understanding of our self. We no longer meet the resistance of the collective because we have transcended the resistance within our self."

 

------

 

Of course, all of these things unfold naturally when we consistently and sincerely cultivate the following of our inward integrity. In a seeming paradox I've been expressing how too many details can become a draining of power, as we attempt to hold onto more than we can carry, in this thread. But I think that's the point - simplicity is always powerful. And when we are blocked from simplicity, if we are able to utilize a key to help us return to simplicity, perhaps that is worth something, to those who need it. And so this post goes out to those who hold shackles that are ready to be unlocked.

[joeblast]

Dan - I'm not sure I understand what you mean by these three aspects of your breathing.  Would you please expand on (i.e., explain in some detail) what you mean, both from an anatomical and from an experiential point of view.

 

Thanks!

refine the physical movements of the gut,

 

cease the physical movements of the airways

 

transform the resonance of the olfactory nerve and the rest of the cranial nerves will follow

 

This concerns timing of the involved structures - the main 4 are diaphragm, perineum, front of abdomen, and airways/sinuses.  A big concept throughout all of this is efficiency.  The first 3 have timings relative to one another, and the last one's timing is no timing

 

The front of abdomen (qihai) & perineum (huiyin) should always reach their point of maximum power concurrently.  That's of course not to say maximal power is used, just whatever the relative maximum is.  Some question what the precise focus should be in the perineum, and an examination of the anatomy bears out that it is the central and lateral tendons (empty spot in the middle is where the huiyin is) and not the levator ani, which comprises most of what the pelvic floor is - it can stay relaxed.  While male & female tendon anatomy differs a bit there, much of the logical makeup is the same in regard to structures mentioned.

 

A key point for the diaphragm is the pull down from the base of the diaphragm - it induces a smoother motion that has less of an impact upon the blood trunks, puts appropriate massaging pressure on the internal organs.  This I refer to as a logical "anchoring" of the diaphragm's movement that came out of my breath troubleshooting with a longevity breathing focus.  Back when I was just "expanding the abdomen" I did not have proper diaphragm movement, it was too lax - it led to a state of suspension for my diaphragm in the exhale>inhale transition - the different musculoskeletal tension front vs rear caused a single hiccup to form while I was trying to transition from exhale to inhale.  "Anchoring" or beginning the inhale by focusing on the diaphragm's inferior posterior attachment at the lumbar spine was what allowed me to move past the ~40-50 second breaths I had been stuck on at the time and allowed me to eventually get upwards of 1:20, 1:30 I dont know exactly how long at its longest.

 

 But no mistake, I was only able to achieve that diaphragm's state of suspension once I implemented the idea to not use anywhere air touches to facilitate the movement of air.  For the movement of air in an elastic, membranous tube (that also contains some nooks & crannies, not to mention quasi-resonators in the sinuses,) the higher the rate of flow of air, the more the elastic membranous wall must firm in order to support the pressure.  Taking this to its logical opposite, any input at all necessitates neural & energetic input into the operation.  Another point is that any input at all winds up locally increasing the flow of air and is sure to be detected by the olfactory nerves.  It them became simply a matter of logic to not use anywhere air touches in order to facilitate the movement of air in the passageways - they just passively let the air by without affecting its flow at all.  This is especially important in the sinuses - they also contain the more prominent signal of the olfactory nerves, which is where the neural noise really starts (we're just reverse engineering our way there) it is this air flow that the olfactory nerves pick up which creates a 40 cycles/sec resonance into the midbrain.

 

So the "real meditation" that's so often referred to from some sources has this as its prerequisite - when that olfactory 40 cps neural resonance is ceased, the nerve doesnt "go dark" or anything, what it does is a sort of "transforming of its resonant mode."  As neural cascades go, this causes a cascade of relative inhibitory signals in the system - when all 12 cranial nerves are taken into account, they make up the 5 senses, so when each technique is employed simultaneously and all with the result of lowering and then transforming the collective resonant mode from a yang state to a yin state, then "real meditation" happens.  Or I guess we could say samhadi, or however one wishes to refer to such states.

 

e.g.

-staying still and having a quiet environment helps calm the vestibulocochlear,

-unfocused eyes down and past the tip of the nose, half lowered eyelids is the quietest for the push-pull config of the eye CNs,

-smooth diaphragm motion helps calm the vagus,

-slight chin dip aligns axis & orbit but also smooths XI accessory

-touching the tongue to the nasopalatine nerve behind the front teeth seems to connect a few branches of cranial nerves, my studies on this arent quite complete yet - different tongue positions connect up different branches of trigeminal, hypoglossal - but the net effect for me is that  I can feel it at yintang when I touch the front nasopalatine, at baihui as contact is made with the anterior palatine, and at the niwan where the middle palatine is concerned.  but that is just anecdotal anyway.

 

Once these 12 are transformed to their relative yin resonances, only then does one realize how much energy the yang phases use up.  Done for an hour or two every day - once that is habituated, one feels an energetic boost same as when completing the first month of a good workout routine - gung is built! and it becomes easier to enter the state of maximal efficiency.  The duration of breath, when it gets to very long lengths, becomes partly a function of gung built - this is where the earlier keypoint of huiyin & qihai timing comes into play, for those are quasi +/- nodes for the dantien.  The spark of yang arises from the deepest yin.

 

Involved in all of this is neuromuscular memory - the more this is practiced....the more aware this is practiced...it absolutely burns the energetic signature of this breath protocol onto the medulla, when that happens, that breath carries forth whether waking or sleeping, paying attention to it or not - but that doesnt mean one can eternally coast that bike, of course.  It just means one is able to enter that much more quickly in a meaningful way, the deeper the yin, the more powerful the spark of yang that arises from it.

 

So its here in that deepest stillness where energies are best integrated - when the nerves have made sufficient transition to a yin state.  From this point of excellent habituation, the focus shifts a bit to more of an awareness game, and rolling the inhales and exhales into one another.  When this is done smoothly and seamlessly enough....well, there were some times that I couldnt really tell whether I was inhaling or exhaling, just so long as I kept up the roll then it was all good.  (But of course, such musings are where you stop focusing on the practice hehehe.)

 

The way I see it, of course there's plenty to do beyond the breath, but there's also plenty to do with the breath that can make the other stuff that more....high resolution?  Purity of signal arises from elimination of noise, and while the elimination of noise can happen without the explicit focus on the purity of the signal  - I contend that the amplitudes will simply be higher by first having explicitly streamlined the signal to noise ratio. 

 

Anyway - I hope this at least somewhat concretely demonstrates the link between random thoughtform energy and the breath.  It is entering that yin configuration every day that provides the basis of focused awareness with the additional benefit of not engaging the myriad logical processing loops in the midbrain's wiring (noise) - something which stimuli cranks into thoughtform energy.  At my best I was able to detect the arising bubble-potential of thoughtform energy as they  manifested, and eventually, to be able to prevent the bubble from percolating, as it were (the potential stayed at the center...at the niwan...and was absorbed by the turned around light) - but therein lies the connection to 'turning the light around'....its not part of the breath, but I will say that   a modicum of mastery with the technique made all of the signposts appear at quicker times - what used to happen at 55 seconds would happen at 35, 40 seconds, with the inclusion of it.  Before I had that, I would regularly find myself sitting inside my gut, in full lotus, about 4 inches tall - when my awareness was more in the dantien.  But those things would happen long after the yang intention accomplished its mission and I was coasting...but with my hands on the wheel   (The 'bubble' was almost like a stable dynamic resonance was established, and some aspect of the energy tried to escape, almost as if a single face of a dodecahedron were to separate itself and jut out...)

 

Either way, those things directly showed me the link between breath, awareness, and the manifestation of thoughtform energy with respect to the ongoing neural dynamic.  My writing goal is  to be direct and explicit, so that the reader makes no mistake about what this process is, that seems so elusive for so many.  I'm thankful for the myriad anatomy books pops had laying around when I was growing up

 

Hopefully that doesnt sound too rambling   Hope you are well, Michael!

Edited August 18, 2016 by joeblast

[Echo]

Joeblast, 

 

thanks for your clarifications. It's still kind of difficult for me to get some practical takeaways for how to retrain the breath to be that "calm" (for lack of a better term). Any specific resources you can point to?

Thanks again!

[joeblast]

Sure - one of dr Yang's best quotes from hist YMAA material - Verify the results for yourself   The retraining is in the doing.  The calm comes with conditioning. 

[AugustLeo]

refine the physical movements of the gut,

 

cease the physical movements of the airways

 

transform the resonance of the olfactory nerve and the rest of the cranial nerves will follow

 

This concerns timing of the involved structures - the main 4 are diaphragm, perineum, front of abdomen, and airways/sinuses.  A big concept throughout all of this is efficiency.  The first 3 have timings relative to one another, and the last one's timing is no timing

 

The front of abdomen (qihai) & perineum (huiyin) should always reach their point of maximum power concurrently.  That's of course not to say maximal power is used, just whatever the relative maximum is.  Some question what the precise focus should be in the perineum, and an examination of the anatomy bears out that it is the central and lateral tendons (empty spot in the middle is where the huiyin is) and not the levator ani, which comprises most of what the pelvic floor is - it can stay relaxed.  While male & female tendon anatomy differs a bit there, much of the logical makeup is the same in regard to structures mentioned.

 

A key point for the diaphragm is the pull down from the base of the diaphragm - it induces a smoother motion that has less of an impact upon the blood trunks, puts appropriate massaging pressure on the internal organs.  This I refer to as a logical "anchoring" of the diaphragm's movement that came out of my breath troubleshooting with a longevity breathing focus.  Back when I was just "expanding the abdomen" I did not have proper diaphragm movement, it was too lax - it led to a state of suspension for my diaphragm in the exhale>inhale transition - the different musculoskeletal tension front vs rear caused a single hiccup to form while I was trying to transition from exhale to inhale.  "Anchoring" or beginning the inhale by focusing on the diaphragm's inferior posterior attachment at the lumbar spine was what allowed me to move past the ~40-50 second breaths I had been stuck on at the time and allowed me to eventually get upwards of 1:20, 1:30 I dont know exactly how long at its longest.

 

 But no mistake, I was only able to achieve that diaphragm's state of suspension once I implemented the idea to not use anywhere air touches to facilitate the movement of air.  For the movement of air in an elastic, membranous tube (that also contains some nooks & crannies, not to mention quasi-resonators in the sinuses,) the higher the rate of flow of air, the more the elastic membranous wall must firm in order to support the pressure.  Taking this to its logical opposite, any input at all necessitates neural & energetic input into the operation.  Another point is that any input at all winds up locally increasing the flow of air and is sure to be detected by the olfactory nerves.  It them became simply a matter of logic to not use anywhere air touches in order to facilitate the movement of air in the passageways - they just passively let the air by without affecting its flow at all.  This is especially important in the sinuses - they also contain the more prominent signal of the olfactory nerves, which is where the neural noise really starts (we're just reverse engineering our way there) it is this air flow that the olfactory nerves pick up which creates a 40 cycles/sec resonance into the midbrain.

 

So the "real meditation" that's so often referred to from some sources has this as its prerequisite - when that olfactory 40 cps neural resonance is ceased, the nerve doesnt "go dark" or anything, what it does is a sort of "transforming of its resonant mode."  As neural cascades go, this causes a cascade of relative inhibitory signals in the system - when all 12 cranial nerves are taken into account, they make up the 5 senses, so when each technique is employed simultaneously and all with the result of lowering and then transforming the collective resonant mode from a yang state to a yin state, then "real meditation" happens.  Or I guess we could say samhadi, or however one wishes to refer to such states.

 

e.g.

-staying still and having a quiet environment helps calm the vestibulocochlear,

-unfocused eyes down and past the tip of the nose, half lowered eyelids is the quietest for the push-pull config of the eye CNs,

-smooth diaphragm motion helps calm the vagus,

-slight chin dip aligns axis & orbit but also smooths XI accessory

-touching the tongue to the nasopalatine nerve behind the front teeth seems to connect a few branches of cranial nerves, my studies on this arent quite complete yet - different tongue positions connect up different branches of trigeminal, hypoglossal - but the net effect for me is that  I can feel it at yintang when I touch the front nasopalatine, at baihui as contact is made with the anterior palatine, and at the niwan where the middle palatine is concerned.  but that is just anecdotal anyway.

 

Once these 12 are transformed to their relative yin resonances, only then does one realize how much energy the yang phases use up.  Done for an hour or two every day - once that is habituated, one feels an energetic boost same as when completing the first month of a good workout routine - gung is built! and it becomes easier to enter the state of maximal efficiency.  The duration of breath, when it gets to very long lengths, becomes partly a function of gung built - this is where the earlier keypoint of huiyin & qihai timing comes into play, for those are quasi +/- nodes for the dantien.  The spark of yang arises from the deepest yin.

 

Involved in all of this is neuromuscular memory - the more this is practiced....the more aware this is practiced...it absolutely burns the energetic signature of this breath protocol onto the medulla, when that happens, that breath carries forth whether waking or sleeping, paying attention to it or not - but that doesnt mean one can eternally coast that bike, of course.  It just means one is able to enter that much more quickly in a meaningful way, the deeper the yin, the more powerful the spark of yang that arises from it.

 

So its here in that deepest stillness where energies are best integrated - when the nerves have made sufficient transition to a yin state.  From this point of excellent habituation, the focus shifts a bit to more of an awareness game, and rolling the inhales and exhales into one another.  When this is done smoothly and seamlessly enough....well, there were some times that I couldnt really tell whether I was inhaling or exhaling, just so long as I kept up the roll then it was all good.  (But of course, such musings are where you stop focusing on the practice hehehe.)

 

The way I see it, of course there's plenty to do beyond the breath, but there's also plenty to do with the breath that can make the other stuff that more....high resolution?  Purity of signal arises from elimination of noise, and while the elimination of noise can happen without the explicit focus on the purity of the signal  - I contend that the amplitudes will simply be higher by first having explicitly streamlined the signal to noise ratio. 

 

Anyway - I hope this at least somewhat concretely demonstrates the link between random thoughtform energy and the breath.  It is entering that yin configuration every day that provides the basis of focused awareness with the additional benefit of not engaging the myriad logical processing loops in the midbrain's wiring (noise) - something which stimuli cranks into thoughtform energy.  At my best I was able to detect the arising bubble-potential of thoughtform energy as they  manifested, and eventually, to be able to prevent the bubble from percolating, as it were (the potential stayed at the center...at the niwan...and was absorbed by the turned around light) - but therein lies the connection to 'turning the light around'....its not part of the breath, but I will say that   a modicum of mastery with the technique made all of the signposts appear at quicker times - what used to happen at 55 seconds would happen at 35, 40 seconds, with the inclusion of it.  Before I had that, I would regularly find myself sitting inside my gut, in full lotus, about 4 inches tall - when my awareness was more in the dantien.  But those things would happen long after the yang intention accomplished its mission and I was coasting...but with my hands on the wheel   (The 'bubble' was almost like a stable dynamic resonance was established, and some aspect of the energy tried to escape, almost as if a single face of a dodecahedron were to separate itself and jut out...)

 

Either way, those things directly showed me the link between breath, awareness, and the manifestation of thoughtform energy with respect to the ongoing neural dynamic.  My writing goal is  to be direct and explicit, so that the reader makes no mistake about what this process is, that seems so elusive for so many.  I'm thankful for the myriad anatomy books pops had laying around when I was growing up

 

Hopefully that doesnt sound too rambling   Hope you are well, Michael!

Dan, your explanation makes it crystal clear.  Thank you.  We are well and hope you are doing well also.  Thanks so much for sharing.