I want to say thank you to the many people who sent me birthday greetings, which I received yesterday when I got back from being in Europe for 36 days. Thank you very much for your kind messages. Thank you. You know, going west, I don't get it. If I come in at a reasonable time and can stay awake until it's time to go to sleep, and if I just go through the night, I can usually go through the night. Going east, I have a much harder time. I had a really difficult time going east this time, coupled with many other difficulties. It was

[01:06]

a very hard trip. And either the words or the feeling of, this is really hard or this is really challenging, arose in my mind quite frequently on this trip. And then I had feelings of great joy, and then really hard, and really joyful, and really hard, off and on. It was amazing. Well, it started out by an airline that didn't bring me my bags, that left them in San Francisco for ten days. And then in those bags was robes that people made themselves, which I was bringing to Europe to give them. Irreplaceable works of love, you know. So

[02:13]

it wasn't like just something lost, it was something lost for somebody else. And then all my robes, and my medicines, and everything, you know. I didn't have this, but I was dressed like this, so all I had was this, these two pieces, and underwear. Which was fine for a while. And another real difficulty is people over there, maybe because they don't see me very often, they really appreciate me. And they want me to come back and stay longer. And I really feel torn, because I want to meet their request and I never want to go there again. I don't want to get on an airplane ever again. And the airplanes are, you know,

[03:17]

really uncomfortable for me. Anyway, it was difficult. And if you ever want to know other stories of difficulty besides the one I just told you, let me know. The meditation of this series, the meditation is breathing. That's the meditation. So we have an opportunity now to contemplate the meditation, to contemplate breathing. And it seems that this particular contemplation, this particular meditation, is one that of course you can do during these meetings, but this meditation is available all day long,

[04:26]

and even in the night, because you hopefully will be breathing until September. All the time you'll keep breathing. It changes, but this meditation of breathing, it will be available to all of us all week. So we can work on it between the classes too. We can work on it in various situations. We can work on it in various situations. When we first moved into the building that is now the building that we have in San Francisco, the San Francisco Zen Center building on Page and Laguna, when we first moved in there, that was the first time that really we had a lot of Zen students living together residentially.

[05:29]

Before that we had a center, we had Tassajara, but in the city we had a center where we had a meditation hall and Suzuki Roshi lived in that building. But the students didn't live in the building with them. But when we moved to Page Street, we had a lot of rooms and people moved in for the first time, and also there were jobs for people to do too. I remember there was a person working in the office and one of the people working in the office was trying to count his breaths. He wanted to meditate on his breathing while he was working in the office and he wanted to count his breaths while he was answering the telephone. He was asked to stop trying to do that. It was not working well with him answering the telephone. However, I would

[06:35]

suggest to you that it is actually quite workable to be meditating on your breathing even while you're talking on the telephone. It just may not be good to be counting it. If you just hear me say that, you may be able to see as we go on how you can actually meditate, you can contemplate your breathing while you're listening to somebody and even while you're talking. You can coordinate your breathing with your talking because usually it's quite easy actually to coordinate your speaking with your breathing. You don't have to, but it actually works quite well to speak on exhales and then take a break on inhales, and then speak on exhale, and speak

[07:51]

on exhale. When I was inhaling I didn't say take a break while inhaling. People can tolerate that, that you would actually be speaking on exhales. It actually works. I think great singers do that. They sing quite nicely on the exhale. Maybe they sing on the inhale, I don't know. Somebody just came. Laurie. Welcome, Laurie. Okay, so once again, I intend to enjoy the practice of this class during the week. And on this difficult trip to Europe, even though there

[08:52]

were difficulties, I also had the joy of contemplating my breathing quite a bit too. And that was not a hardship for me. That was a joy. So part of this class is for me to encourage you to contemplate breathing, which will be going on. I don't know if the contemplation will be going on, but the breathing will be going on. It's available for your mindful attention and for your enjoyment as you learn about it. And I intend to, between classes, be contemplating breathing, my own and others. But, you know, not skipping my own, starting with my own and then from there observe others. That's an aspiration I have. The first thing I have to suggest is to observe the breathing

[10:18]

and observe how the breathing interrelates with the fleshy and the skeleton and the muscles and the organs, etc. How the fleshy body, how the physical posture of body, how that interacts with the breathing. That's the first suggestion, the first meditation. I'm finding that contemplation, I find that contemplation, for me anyway, this is just for me, I find it more interesting than just contemplating the breathing. I find it more interesting to watch how the breath

[11:31]

interacts with the body than just look at the breath. So, I'm suggesting that as the first thing, is to watch how the posture holds, how the posture forms, supports the breathing process, and how the breathing process influences, affects and shapes the posture. To watch how your body shape changes on inhales and exhales, how the body changes shape at the beginning, middle and end of the inhale, and how it changes shape in the process of exhalation.

[12:40]

Notice the difference between the way your body is on inhales, the way it's shaped on inhales, and the way it's shaped on exhales. And again, observe how the shape of the body at the beginning of the inhale and the end of the inhale. And so I would suggest just do that for a while, right now. Watch the breath body and the posture body, watch them interact, watch them interrelate for a while. Okay.

[13:57]

Okay. Okay. Okay.

[15:26]

Could you see if you could find another chair someplace? Another chair? Yeah. Any observations you care to share? Any questions you have about this? Fred? Fred? I think it would have been better if you sat in a chair. Thank you. Because I think it would have been easier for you to do this. I'm suggesting that Fred sit in a chair because I think it would keep his back straighter. Also, I think most of the people sitting in chairs are not leaning back on the back of the chair.

[17:00]

If you wish to lean back on the chair, it's okay with me. But I find that leaning back on the chair, or also I practice it in chairs, I practice it in cars, and I also sometimes practice it lying down. Excuse me for mentioning, but there's this opera called Lucia di Lammermoor. And Lucia di Lammermoor, during the opera, dies and she spends quite a bit of time singing lying down. And it's amazing what these sopranos can do lying down. But, you know, I myself, if I put pressure on my back, my back's not as responsive. It's a little harder to see how it works with the breath when it's leaning on something.

[18:04]

So you might notice the difference between when there's pressure on it from the outside and when there's not pressure on it from the outside, but just pressure on it from the inside with the breath. Or you could have pressure on the inside with the breath and somebody could give you a massage from the back. There can be pressure from the outside, but I think I would suggest that you make it, if you're going to have pressure from the outside, that you do it intentionally rather than passively. So that both sides, inside and outside of the back, or inside and outside of the spine, you're working both directions. Yes? So in the context of Shakyamuni Buddha sitting upright and his early followers, in that Indian context there are many yogic practices of more active things than just sitting upright.

[19:12]

And it included traditional ways of breathing and working with the breath in a yogic context. As I've studied yoga and learned more about these things during well-also practices, I've found those really helpful in my sitting. But sometimes I wonder if I'm not supposed to be doing those when I'm sitting in the zen-do, if that's something extra that I should try not to be involved in. Did you hear his question? He's learned some other ways of working with the breath from some yoga traditions and he's wondering if they should be practiced during this so-called zen meditation. So I would suggest if you have questions about some practice, some breathing practice, you can bring it up. But I'm recommending to start with this. Just to observe, for starters, just to observe the way the breath and the posture work together.

[20:22]

And also observing that will also show you, I think you'll discover if you watch, that different postures will interact differently with the breath. So the breath interacts differently with an upright posture than it does with a not upright posture. And vice versa, a not upright posture interacts with the breath differently than an upright posture. But I think I'm kind of open to you discovering that rather than to strongly recommend one thing or another. Still, that brings to mind that during this class I might... I had done this before in yoga room classes, gone around the room and just checked posture and made suggestions. So I might do that during this class too, if that's all right with you. Just to make some suggestions to your posture while you're sitting.

[21:23]

So, if you have... I think it might be okay if you ask some questions about some breathing practices you've experienced and found helpful. But maybe not a whole bunch in a row. Maybe just one a week or something. Do you want to bring up one now? Well, okay. So, early Buddhist followers in India sort of couldn't help knowing things about yoga and having practiced yoga. I think it seems from what I've heard that that was part of the culture and tradition. Can I say something there? Yes. The Buddha's first five disciples were master yogis. Right. Some of his other followers may not have been. But the first five were definitely... Their yogic powers were on a par with the Buddha's. They did know a lot about yoga.

[22:28]

So, I heard recently from some martial artists who were telling their traditional version of the story of Bodhidharma, who came to China and, according to their story, taught martial arts to the monks there. Their version of it was, he showed up and he saw all these people sitting and they were all unhealthy and atrophying and he taught them martial arts so their bodies could be strong. And that it was something that had not quite made it over in the early communications from India. I don't know if that version of the story has any more truth to it than any other version. But that story seems to talk about how working more actively with your body than simply sitting supports the breath and supports the energy within the body. And I see... I have to look hard and I try to find instructions for activity in the Zen tradition aside from maybe chin-yin.

[23:35]

And I don't see a lot of that, but I'm very curious about how the Zen tradition works with the breath in an active way, in an exercise kind of way. Well, the two ways that are most common are working with the breath in sitting posture, particularly sitting on a chair or on the floor, and working with the breath in walking meditation. There is not so much instruction about working with the breath, for example, during prostrations. I haven't heard much about that. But it is kind of natural to exhale when you're doing the bent-over part of the prostration and inhale when your body is being lengthened into standing posture. So that's kind of natural. But I haven't heard any further meditation on that other than just simply prostrations.

[24:41]

As you prostrate more and more, it kind of naturally works out. Whereas sitting upright, it's basically you're not really changing the shape. You're basically holding up the posture basically the same. And that's what I'm suggesting is that we try to develop a posture for our sitting, which is basically the upright posture. But the upright posture is constantly changing in relationship to the breathing. So we sit still in the Zen tradition and other traditions too. The Buddha sat upright over and over again in the scriptures. The Buddha sat down, crossed his legs, and sat upright and brought his mindfulness in front of him. Over and over it says sat upright, but that uprightness in the moment is completely still. However, in the next moment everything changes because the breath is different.

[25:46]

So the breath is different, so the upright posture is a different upright posture. In the next moment it's another different upright posture. So that's what I'm sort of emphasizing in this class is the breathing with the upright sitting posture, upright standing posture, and upright walking posture. The Zen tradition in India lived in a situation where there were lots of other ways of working with the breath and other postures. So the Buddhist tradition did not actually emphasize the other yogic postures, the myriad ones. So I was invited here many years ago to the yoga room to offer Zen meditation in the context of a practice where people are doing lots of postures and lots of breathing practices. But the Zen tradition doesn't actually... Even though people say that a certain Buddhist teacher started the martial arts tradition in China,

[26:55]

someone might even say he started the Tai Chi tradition and he started the Qigong tradition, but most people would say, no, those traditions were there before he came. That the Qigong and the Tai Chi were Taoist practices that were there from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Are people following this? So there's a tradition of working with breath and posture in India, and there's the Indian yoga traditions, and then in China there's the tradition of working with breath and posture in the Taoist yoga traditions. Qigong and Tai Chi and martial arts. So when the Buddhist tradition came into China, it was already in an environment where that stuff was being offered, and what the Buddhists had to offer was not really more yogic postures, except because I think the Taoists already had the sitting posture.

[27:59]

They were already sitting cross-legged and upright. So what the Buddhists brought is what? What did they bring into that environment where the culture already was working with the breath and posture a lot? Enlightenment. An enlightened way of dealing with what? With all the things that they were already doing. But Buddhism didn't really have to bring more yogic postures and more breathing exercises. What Buddhism brought was a way to contemplate whatever the people were doing. So if any of you do any kinds of movement with your breathing, all these meditations could be applied to the breathing that happens when you're moving and the breathing that happens in other postures besides the sitting posture.

[29:03]

Does that kind of address your question? Yeah, perfect. And then you can maybe ask the next part later. Yes, Sarah? I just wanted to sort of build on that first point. One of my questions is around focus. I have a hard time passing a breath. I'd like to. But I like, I like experiencing my breath. It's really a secret. I do observations. Some things feel good, some parts don't. Many things feel good and others... And sometimes when I find a meditation that I... So just now when we asked to hear the interaction, I noticed that some parts of my body were moving when I was breathing and other parts of my body that I thought might be weren't.

[30:05]

And that was, it was a kind of emotional... I couldn't go down from that observation. It resonated to a kind of emotional resonance. And I feel like that's part of my focus. I can't seem to do that. And the activity is so different. When I, you know, when I'm moving around my body in meditation and how you think about shock, whether I think about, you know, the darkness in the body, and observe my posture, and kind of moving around my attention, I kind of fall in a field of observing my breath, and I'm fairly still, but I'm not sure if that's the intention of what's happening. You're not sure of what? Cultivating focus.

[31:06]

You're not sure if you're cultivating... Focus. Focus, okay. That's a good question. Yeah, uh-huh. Well, the first thing she said was that she doesn't particularly feel that counting breathing is appropriate for her. I don't like it. You don't like to do it. So do you think that maybe it's good for you even though you don't like to do it? Yeah, I don't know either. I think one of the key factors... Well, just let me say that there is a... Sometimes there is a... a progression in terms of meditating on breathing. Sometimes it is suggested to count the breathing and then to move to follow the breathing. And then actually to move to what's called... just to be calm with the breathing.

[32:07]

And it says in this one particular text that for most people, if they would start to pay attention to their breathing, for most people paying attention to their breathing makes the... the mind that is paying attention makes it more... Did I say paying attention to the breathing? Makes it more... subtle and refined. The mind. Most people. And some people... And then to count the breathing, for most people, counting the breathing helps them pay attention to the breathing.

[33:12]

So for most people, turning the attention to the breath and counting it, the mind will become more smooth and refined. However, as the mind becomes more refined through the process of counting the breath, the activity of counting the breath will gradually become rougher than the quality of the mind. And at that time, it is recommended to give up counting and switch to following, which is more subtle. But being more subtle, sometimes people have a harder time following the breath than counting, because the counting is... it's a little... it's a little bit more concrete. Especially if you count from 1 to 10, rather than just count indefinitely. Because if you count from 1 to 10,

[34:16]

then at 10 you have to remember that you got to 10 and go back to 1. So that 1 to 10 is kind of a mnemonic to help you remember that you're counting the breath. If you count indefinitely, like 1, 2, 3, up to 10, and then just keep going, you could skip numbers and not know for quite a while. You could be at 27, 53, you know. Whereas if you go from 1 to 10, you only have 10 numbers. If you say 27, you know something's funny. So... I often use the example, if you take rough sandpaper onto a rough surface and you rub it, it can smooth it. Does that make sense? But unless the sandpaper wears out, as it gets smoother, after a while

[35:21]

the sandpaper will start scratching the surface. Does that make sense? When the mind is very rough, counting it smooths it. But as the mind becomes smooth and refined, the counting agitates it. So then you switch to following, which is more subtle, and you rub the mind with the following and it smooths the mind out, but at a certain point even the following will be rougher than the refined quality that comes from following. So then you give up following and then you just move into giving up thought, but still watching the breath. You give up the thought following the breath. The thought following the breath can refine the mind, but at a certain time it scratches it. So then you just observe without even saying observe. It is sometimes probably good

[36:27]

to do things that we don't like. It could be the case. However, in this particular case of giving attention to the breath, my experience is that if people don't like the meditation, even if they should, they won't do it. Unless somebody could monitor them and give them demerits or something. Unless there is some biofeedback that... I just thought of this. I was in somebody's car recently in London and when the car gets too close to something it starts beeping. It's a Ford actually. And when it gets too close to another car as you're backing to park, it starts making a beeping sound and it makes a different beeping sound

[37:28]

when the front gets too close. So the person is going this way, beep, beep, beep, and this way, beep, beep, beep. I thought, well, it's a little bit like somebody might want that for meditation. If you're leaning, beep, beep, beep, if you're leaning that way, another beep, beep, beep. But it's also kind of noisy. So I'm actually starting off by suggesting to you to find some way to watch. And I personally think it's more enjoyable to watch how the body interacts with the breath than counting. But if your mind is really rough, you might find counting good. But I'm not saying counting. I'm not suggesting it this time. I'm starting by suggesting something that I think might be so interesting that you won't need to count, that you'll actually be there with your breath and your posture.

[38:30]

So I think it'd be good if we found some ways that you actually enjoy when you're doing them here and that you look forward to doing them again as soon as possible rather than, oh, I've got to count my breath again. And I practiced that way when I was in the first year or so of being a Zen center. I thought I was supposed to get myself to follow my breathing. And I didn't really like it. I mean, I didn't dislike it. I just didn't like it enough to do it. And some of my friends, too, they said they go one and that's the end of it. They never get to two. And then the space between one and not getting to two, who knows how long that was. But eventually they would remember, oh, yeah, one. And then that's the end of that for a while. And then, oh, yeah, one. And in my cases, as I said, I often got to very high numbers.

[39:33]

So I'm kind of starting with this first one to see if you actually enjoy this. Start out just simply. I'm going to build on this, but start out by simply watching. As Sarah said, I would say she discovered that the way the body shape changed in relationship with the breathing was different from what she thought it would be. When you just look at the relationship, you may get some surprises about it. And then when I bring in some other things, you may get some other surprises. I would also suggest now that you observe the difference in the way the breath feels when it moves out of your nose and the way it feels when it's coming into the nose. Observe the difference. Observe the difference. And then I would also add be receptive

[40:41]

to what those differences might suggest to you about how to breathe. So to be more clear, you might notice on the exhale the breath feels a certain way, which I won't tell you. And then you notice on the inhale it feels another way, which I won't tell you. And then you might notice that because of the way it feels on the inhale, it might be kind of suggesting to you that you breathe differently, one way or another. And then on the exhale, too, because of the way it feels, you might feel like, oh, I think maybe it would be good to breathe differently. Not because somebody told you, but because of the way it feels in your nose and what your nerves are telling you about the breath. And also check to see the difference in the way the breath feels

[41:44]

when it goes in and out of your nose and different temperatures. It might be good to try that right now for a little while. Just check out the way the breath feels as it goes in and out of your nose. See what you find out. Good. Inhale.

[43:25]

Inhale. Exhale. I got some surprises. I just want to ask Sarah, how was your focus during that? Did you feel focused?

[44:30]

And how did you improve your breathing as opposed to just observing what I'm doing and adjusting to the noise that I'm getting? And the emotional element is there. And I would think that she's already bringing up when you're watching the relationship between the breath and the posture, what's the relationship between that observation and the emotions? Because it seems like the emotions maybe in some sense complicate that simpler observation.

[45:58]

Because it almost seems like a distraction from that over to the emotion. So I guess I'm starting out by saying try to focus on the posture and breathing together and let the emotions be there, but understand that we have not yet asked you to look at how the emotions are working with that. But she did anyway, even though I didn't ask her to. And one thing is she noticed that when various thoughts and emotions like the emotion to do things right... So I'm saying watch the difference between the breath as it goes in the nose and out the nose. So she was doing that maybe. Let's say she was. And I didn't ask her. Check to see if you're doing it right. I did, but I said it. You might find that the way it feels

[47:01]

when it's going in and out is asking you to adjust it rather than you think you should adjust it. So when you're breathing in and breathing out you might think, oh, I'm supposed to have long breaths. I'm supposed to have smooth breaths. I'm supposed to have quiet breaths. They often say, you know, the instruction in Soto Zen is breathe gently and quietly through your nose. So you think, oh, I'm supposed to be quiet. And actually when we sit in a group sometimes people do actually breathe so audibly that we actually ask them to breathe more quietly just because it's disturbing other people. But in this class I won't do that. So the difference between thinking I'm supposed to be breathing quietly which I didn't tell you and I'm supposed to be breathing smoothly which I didn't tell you

[48:02]

I was more like, go to the feeling in the nose and see if the feeling in the nose is suggesting something to you. For example, if you breathe a certain way your nose may be uncomfortable. It's not that if you breathe a certain way your nose is uncomfortable, you're breathing wrong. It's not that. You might think that and I'm not telling you to prohibit that thought but I didn't ask you to be judging your breathing. But the judging still may come up. But that wasn't what I said. I said, is the feeling, is the bodily posture asking you to do something with your breathing? Same with the upright posture. If you sit upright, the upright posture will ask something of your breathing and your breathing will ask something and contribute something to uprightness. Similarly, if you don't sit upright but you follow your breathing and you watch the way the breathing interacts with your posture

[49:02]

you may notice that the breathing wants you to sit up straighter. As you watch your breathing more and more you may notice the breathing wants you to sit up straighter. It wants more space to be to function inside. But it's not that I'm saying you're wrong when you're not sitting up straight. I'm trying to start by, and this is the Buddhist part. The Buddhist part is don't impose these principles from the outside in this case. We have the principles. Don't kill. Don't take something that's not given. Don't slander. Don't praise self at the expense of others. You can apply these precepts to this process. But actually you can also discover these precepts by watching what the breath and the posture are actually supporting each other to do. I mean, yes.

[50:43]

And it's a little different from seeing what your nostrils are asking for. But, you know, again one of the Zen teachers named Dogen says make your nostrils right. He said that once. Make your nostrils right or correct. But he didn't say breathe equally through two noses. Through the two sides. He said make them right. And I think it relates to be aware of what your breath and your nostrils are doing. And for some people it may always be the case unless they have surgery that more air will go through one side than the other. That may be the case. But then what is being asked of you if that's the case? Again, notice the difference between maybe they should be the same and what is the nose asking for?

[51:44]

What is the nose asking for? There's quite a few examples of the nose asking for something. There's quite a few breaths. It isn't just this time the nose wants this so I'm going to do it. It's like this time the nose wants this but this time the nose wants that. This time the nose wants a longer breath. This time the nose wants a shorter breath. Rather than I have this idea. I'm not actually asking you to look at the emotional surround and how contemplating the relationship between posture and breathing will have an effect on the emotional surround. I'm not suggesting you look at that but I will tell you it does. It does have an effect. How you're breathing and how you're posturing

[52:51]

they affect your emotional life. But right now I'm not telling you how. First of all I'm going to ask you to look and see. But I'm not actually asking you to do that right now. I'm starting by seeing if you can find a way an enjoyable way to watch your body posture and your breathing interact. See if you can find a way that you enjoy rather than a way you think you're supposed to do. And if you can find a way that you enjoy you probably will wind up being focused. Unless there's something else which is considerably more enjoyable. And sometimes there are things that are more enjoyable. So then what do you do? You go check out the things that are more enjoyable generally. Unless you think it's more enjoyable to coerce yourself into doing what you think you're supposed to be doing

[53:53]

and you don't let yourself do what's more enjoyable and try that for a while. And I think you'll find you'll quit that way. Because that isn't why you're practicing this practice. You're practicing this practice to develop a happiness and an ease and a freedom. And we're not going to force ourselves into happiness, freedom and ease. It doesn't work. But you can force yourself into unhappiness and dis-ease and bondage. It is possible. But you really can't even do that. But you do have the resources which can do it. Just let them go. Let your past karma which knows how to coerce yourself just say, go ahead guys, torture me. And they know how to do it. And you can't control how they'll do it. But they'll be successful if you just let them go. I'm talking about a new way

[54:55]

and I'm starting by just making this suggestion of watching how the breath and the posture interrelate, interact and I'm trying not to tell you how it will be. Because I don't want you to just do it the way I told you how it will be. I'm not even telling you how it should be. But if I tell you how it would be then you probably think well it should be the way it would be. I don't know how it would be. The important thing is that you are looking and observing. That's the most important thing I say. Betsy? It's incredible that I just now realize that when I sit I'm often sitting straight and I'm holding that. It's not purposeful. It's just a very long pause

[55:59]

that I'm going to breathe. And then my body went there. Yeah. You just found that. And if the wave stops in mid-air magically it just doesn't move then that's what you're observing. And this wave can stop for 5 seconds or even more. Some people could be inhaling and they just hold it for a minute. That doesn't happen very often but some people do, as you know. There are yogic practices of inhaling and holding it. Are they called Bandhus? Deirdre? What are they called when you actually hold it?

[56:59]

Huh? No, but what's it called in Sanskrit? Huh? I thought it was called Bandhu. Huh? But you don't do it for the breath? Yeah. But there are yogic practices of holding the breath. Of exhaling and not inhaling. And inhaling and holding it, not exhaling. Some people do that. And if you're watching and you notice that somebody is doing that for now I'm saying just notice it. And then see how that is. And notice the relationship between when you inhale and when you exhale and hold it, if you do, in the body. But I'm not telling you to do that. And if you discover it I'm not saying at this point stop it. I have confidence that

[58:06]

if you don't breathe long enough you'll just pass out and start breathing. So I'm not really worried about you inhaling and never exhaling again. What's the point of meditation on breathing? I'm offering it, the purpose of it is enlightenment. Huh? If you understand the breath you'll be free of delusion. Because we have a deluded understanding of everything including the breath. Could you study coffee and get enlightened? Oh, coughing. Most people cannot cough over and over all day long.

[59:09]

Most people cannot skip all day long. But everybody breathes all day long. And you could also study hating people. But you can't hate people all day long. But you have your body all day long. So you have your body and you have your breath all day long. Now if you study them and you understand what they are that'll be sufficient. For example, Avalokiteshvara saw that all five aggregates are empty. And that relieved all suffering. That was the last class. Understand the ultimate character of phenomenal conventional things like body. Then you'll understand the thing of emotions and so on and that will relieve all suffering.

[60:12]

That will be enlightenment. But how do you do that? How do you fully engage, for example, form and tactile sensation and sound? That's what we're trying to do here. So class spring was body summer... When was the body class? Last fall? Last fall was body, spring was perfection of wisdom and now we're doing breath. So if we coughed all the time in fact if that was what was mostly going on and we occasionally breathed like once a day we'd watch how the body related to coughing. And in fact when you're coughing we do often notice

[61:13]

how that affects the body. Like it can break the ribs, right? And cause all kinds of other damage. So we actually do usually when we're coughing watch the relationship. But it's not something that's going on all the time. But it might be possible that you're watching the relationship between your posture and your breathing and then you cough and at the moment of coughing you understand the nature of reality at that moment. But it wasn't because you were having a long study of your coughing. It's because you had a long study of your posture and your breathing. You learned how they work together with the emotions. In other words you see the dependent co-arising of things and then you coughed and understood it. You could also watch the heartbeat

[62:15]

but it's usually not recommended so often because it seems to be more confusing to people to watch their heartbeat. And the relationship between the heartbeat and the posture is not so clear. Can you see that? It's not like your heart beats and then your body changes shape. The way the breath moves and the way it works with the body is much more obvious. There is a change in the heartbeat when the heart is expressing the blood than when it's taking the blood in. There is a thing but it's harder to see. It doesn't seem to be recommended although some people do it and have found some interesting things there. But it's not for most people. There is movement.

[63:33]

There is a movement of these superficial arteries. The skin is going up and down. Is what alright? What are you asking about? Should you stop it? Yeah. Are you asking if I would recommend you observe your heartbeats? That means that you are sensing your heart beating.

[64:34]

And how this heart is moving. It feels like actual movement. So I'm saying is that alright? If you only notice that? Are you asking me if it's alright? Yes, it is alright. You are supported to be aware of your heart beating. And that would be another class where we'll meditate on the heart. This class is about breathing and there's a relationship between breathing and heartbeat. But I'm starting by saying look at the relationship between breathing and posture. I'm not saying look at the relationship between breathing and heart rate. But if you noticed your heart rate you are completely supported to notice your heart rate.

[65:40]

And if you notice a bird chirping in the trees you are completely supported to notice the bird chirping in the trees. But I'm not asking you to meditate on the relationship between the bird chirping in the trees and your posture. That's a more advanced class. And I'm not asking you to observe the relationship between your posture and the bird chirping in the trees. I'm talking about something else. I'm talking about the breath and the posture. Those two are the first thing I'm suggesting for you to look at. And I would like to know if you really enjoy observing this dance. Yes, Marianne? Would you say that again louder?

[66:42]

If you have a comfortable posture because it's really hard for me to sit still if I want to. And that's why I can talk while I'm sitting. Do you have a comfortable posture? Yes. So if you have a comfortable posture that's a bit of a slouch I would suggest at this point that you sit in a comfortable posture even if it's slouched. And then I'm suggesting to you that you observe what happens between your breathing and the comfortable posture. Watch how that works. And see if it's enjoyable to watch how your breathing works

[67:48]

with the comfortable posture. See what the breathing and the comfortable posture want to do with each other. Or what they are doing. And I'm suggesting that it would be beneficial if you watch this. And then next week I will talk about not just watching how the comfortable posture works with the breathing but how the comfortable posture works differently with different lengths of breath. Starting by saying just watch. See if it's interesting to watch the breath and the posture do their thing together. And including the nose. And if it's not comfortable if it's painful for you to watch how the breath moves through your nose

[68:50]

I would say don't do it. If it's not comfortable to observe the breath going in and out of your nose. Yes? I love the idea that you mentioned in the very beginning about avoiding the breath when we speak. And that's a huge aha moment when you say things that are painful. Yeah. I enjoy that it is quite easy for me to watch my body and breath doing their thing together when I'm listening to somebody talk to me. That they do not mind that I'm doing that. As a matter of fact they seem to enjoy the way I am when I'm doing that. That helps me actually listen to them better. Even if they were saying something that wasn't interesting

[69:56]

it's still an interesting situation. Something interesting is happening while you're listening. It helps you. Then when I talk if I try to speak on my exhales it really seems to be a good idea. Which means I have to watch my breath in order to do that. I don't have to. Some people might just naturally do that. But for me I have to be a little mindful to observe whether I'm inhaling or exhaling. Just a little. But sometimes it's hard to be mindful although mindfulness is easy when you do it sometimes it's hard to remember to be mindful. Which is one of the meanings of mindful is remember. But that's another thing you could do this week.

[71:02]

You could see if it's possible to coordinate your breathing with your speaking. And speak as you exhale. And then inhale and speak some more. It works quite well if you're bestowing verbal blessings. It may not work so well if you're trying to win an argument. It works quite well if you're laughing. So please do me a favor

[72:08]

and see if you find it enjoyable to watch your posture and your breathing interact. And then let me know next week if you found it enjoyable. And if you do find it enjoyable see if the enjoyableness of it encourages you to do it more. Thank you very much.

[72:42]

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