On Breathing 

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The posture, the physical posture, and the breath, those two.
Appearances can be a frame of reference for concentration and wisdom.
And
to develop this frame of reference for the sake of concentration and wisdom, to develop
this frame of wisdom, to establish this frame of wisdom, it's most auspicious if you're
also practicing generosity, ethical discipline, patience, and enthusiasm.
So, this meditation on breath is a concentration and wisdom type of meditation.
I haven't been planning on talking about these other four aspects of training. Training
in giving, training in ethical discipline, training in patience, and training in enthusiasm
and diligence. I haven't been thinking of talking about them, but I'm telling you that
these teachings on using breathing and posture as a meditation topic, they kind of need us
to be doing these other four practices, which I've talked to many of you about a lot. I
remind you that they're kind of like the basis for the ability to practice this, to be successful
in practicing this mindfulness of posture and breathing. So, I'm going to talk now about
posture and breathing a little bit, I think. I want to tell you that whenever I offer some
teaching here and practice here with you around some teaching, I'm always feeling it's really
appropriate if we can practice the teachings during the week. And I often encourage you
to do so, and I did last week. And I meant to encourage myself, too, to practice during
the week. And I'm happy to report that there was practice during the week of the breathing
of my body and my body breathing. I was practicing with that this week. And whenever I was mindful
of that practice, I always felt it was appropriate. And I can't tell you for sure that when I
wasn't mindful, that maybe some of the times I wasn't mindful that that was appropriate.
I don't know if it was, because I wasn't mindful.
One of the things I discovered or learned was that often when I remembered to observe
the breathing, as soon as I started to observe the breathing without meaning to, I noticed
my posture. And I often noticed that my posture was not upright. So, I looked to the breathing
and I noticed my posture wasn't upright. And it was hard for me to see whether I made my
posture upright or whether the awareness of the breathing made the posture upright.
But usually, as soon as I noticed the breathing and noticed my posture was not upright, I
became more upright. Sometimes I noticed my posture was not upright and then I noticed
the breathing and I became upright. This happened many times during the last week and I'm very
happy that it did. But I also want to tell you, I confess, I noticed I actually forgot
quite often. I missed a lot of opportunities and I was not hard on myself for forgetting.
Because every time I noticed I missed an opportunity, I remembered the opportunity.
And as I also mentioned last week, one of the situations where it may be difficult for us to
be aware of the interaction of posture and breathing, one of the situations
where it's rather difficult to learn how is when talking.
It's a little easier sometimes, but also maybe difficult to
watch the breathing interact with the posture when listening.
Many of the times when I recovered from not being aware of my posture and not being able to
not watching my breathing, many of the times I was walking and in particular walking like
upward or upstairs. I often remembered, I often wasn't
watching the breathing when I was walking upstairs.
And then when I remembered, I noticed that I was leaning forward when I was walking upstairs.
And then I realized I did not have to lean forward when I was walking upstairs. Also,
I also noticed walking uphill that when I remembered the breathing, I would notice
that I was leaning forward. I'm not saying you will always be this way. I'm just saying
that I noticed I was walking uphill and leaning forward.
And sometimes I watch other people walking uphill, leaning forward,
and I think, I sometimes think, oh, that person looks like an old person.
They're leaning forward when they're walking uphill. They also might be leaning forward when
they're walking on level ground, but they really lean forward when they're walking uphill.
And I noticed that I was leaning forward when I was walking uphill.
But when I remembered the breathing, I really felt encouraged to stand up straighter
and continue. So I'm suggesting that we can work on this during the week. We can notice,
you know, and a lot of times when you're walking upstairs and walking uphill,
you do not have to say anything. You're probably not talking to someone,
and you don't have to do any real complicated mental activity often. You have a real chance
here to recover your mindfulness when you're walking around. And again, I tell you,
I recovered many times during this last week, and I'm happy to tell you
so that you don't have to feel bad if you forgot during this week.
You don't have to feel bad. I'm telling you about a great opportunity,
a great opportunity to notice your breathing and recover your upright posture.
And notice what happens when you start to notice your breathing again without even
trying to stand up straight. See what noticing the breath does for your posture.
When I'm sitting in meditation,
I have found during this last week and also for the last month or so, I have found
I do not forget so often the posture and the breathing when I'm sitting.
And I also find when I'm sitting, if I'm aware of the breathing with the posture or the posture
breathing, I told you, I'll say again, that I feel that the body is asked
by the breath to be such that it is very responsive to the breath.
So I could be in a certain posture, and if my body isn't like responding to the breath,
I feel like the breath is saying to the body, would you move into a posture
where you'll be more responsive to the breath? And Marianne asked last time about,
should you be sitting in a comfortable posture? And I would suggest, yeah,
sit in a comfortable posture and then watch how the body is responding to the breath and
see how you feel about a posture where the body is more sensitive, more responsive to the breath.
So I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but I'd like you to observe.
If you're in a posture, is there a posture you could be also comfortable in
where your body would be a little bit more responsive?
Not to say I want you to be in a posture where you're moving a lot, but rather a posture where
you are moved a lot, or not a lot, where you're moved more by the breathing, rather than being
in a posture where the breathing is going on and the body is not resonating with it.
And I'd like to move on now to, I also mentioned, it might be good to notice
the difference in the way the breath feels when it goes in the nostrils and goes out the nostrils.
And another thing I thought of is that I cannot tell myself, I'm not able to
recognize that the exhale has more carbon dioxide than the inhale, and vice versa. I can't tell
that the inhale has more oxygen than the exhale. I can't tell that.
I've heard that that's the case. Is that the case? Is there some theory about that?
That exhaling is more oxygen, more carbon dioxide going out of our nose, and inhaling
there's more carbon dioxide coming in, I mean more oxygen coming in? But I can't feel that.
I noticed that I can't feel it. It feels different, but I can't tell that it's oxygen or
carbon dioxide.
Could you speak up please?
Yes, you can ask a question about breathing through the nose.
Yeah, but also now that you're saying that, I would say,
see what the body's wanting in terms of the breathing. Would the body like it to be more even?
To do that too?
Exploring it, and just starting with the breath and asking what the breath
wants and whether the body responds to that.
Again, I might have said what the breath wants, but my feeling when I was breathing,
and I was kind of bent over, I was feeling like my body wanted to be more responsive to the breath,
and that when I stood up straighter, my body was more responsive. So I felt like my body
wanted to accommodate the breath more sometimes than it was, and it seemed like
I could adjust my posture so that my body felt more accommodating to the breath,
and it seemed like I felt good about that more accommodating posture.
It wasn't like I thought, well it's a little bit I thought, oh I should probably be standing up
straight. I kind of a little bit thought that, but I also felt more like the breath was reminding me
to stand up straight, or the way the breath felt was saying, why don't you make more room for me?
I think first of all it was more alive, more alive, more engaged, more responsive,
more sensitive. That's the first thing. And then maybe ease after that.
Or maybe I felt uncomfortable by the dead areas of my body that weren't kind of like
doing anything with the breath, and so maybe that more of a dead feeling, and then a live feeling,
and then maybe I felt at ease that I was taking good care of breath and posture.
That's possible. But I'm asking you to look at that, and I'm asking me to look at it.
And also when sitting, it is often recommended to breathe through the nose,
and doing a slow walking meditation like we just did, that also I think is recommended to try to
breathe through your nose, and also to breathe quietly through your nose.
Okay. Another thing I'd like to say is that this frame of reference, I felt this frame of reference
was, I hate to say this, but was more real than the frame I was in when I wasn't taking care of
this frame. That when I came back from certain other realms of thought to the posture and
breathing, I felt like I had come back to a more basic reality. That the place I had been
was pretty optional. And not to say that this posture breathing frame is mandatory,
but just that it's more basic, and if I am well-established in it, I don't get lost
in the other realms. Or put it just another way, is that the reason we can think of other realms,
like the future, or somebody else's body, or something other than breath,
the reason we can do that in a wholesome way is when we are well-grounded in this basic one.
And my experience was every time I came back
to the posture and breathing, almost every time I came back during the week,
all my troubles seemed so far away. They just sort of dropped away for the moment.
And what I felt was, now can I go back to thinking of those things
without losing the place where the troubles drop away?
Because we do have to do something. We have a more complex life than posture and breathing.
And sometimes when we're involved in the more complex life,
we find ourselves, when we notice our posture, for example, we find ourselves bent over and half
alive. And or, we find ourselves anxious, overheated, distracted, and so on. And when
we come back to our posture and breathing, sometimes all this just drops. Sometimes.
And then I'm saying it is possible to go back to those same thoughts,
but based on this grounded place. Because we do have to do those things sometimes.
But it's something we have perhaps not learned as well as we could.
Just a few minutes before class, someone was teaching me how to use an iPad.
And it is possible to be aware of your posture and breathing when you're learning about an iPad.
And it is possible to lose your mindfulness of your posture and breathing while you're
learning about how to operate technical devices.
So, this is being proposed as a situation which has one of the functions I'm proposing it has,
is that if you can be present with the posture and breathing, the breathing posture,
part of the reason you can do that is because you're taking care of certain aspects of your life
so that you can actually walk uphill
and pay attention to your posture and breathing because you're not so distressed
about some cruel thing you just did a few minutes ago that won't let you pay attention
to your posture. Because if I don't take care of my, for example, my speech and I speak unkindly
to people, then the turbulence caused by that unkindness will make it very difficult
for me to pay attention to my posture when I'm walking. Not impossible, but it's easier for me
to dare to pay attention to my posture walking around this world when I do not feel tormented
by my unskillful actions that I have done.
Because in some ways people might say, how dare you walk around
paying attention to your posture that's so self-centered.
Do I do this with a clear conscience?
And if I've just done some really unskillful things, it's hard to pay attention to posture
and breathing with a clear conscience. I probably should be doing some confession and repentance.
But if I do confession and repentance, then maybe I can pay attention to posture and breathing.
And I can pay attention to posture and breathing to make myself
able to practice ethics more effectively.
Because I'm practicing ethics with awareness of my posture.
I'm standing up straight while I'm trying to practice ethics. So practicing ethics helps
me dare to stand up straight and standing up straight helps me practice ethics.
If you can, if you have been living your life skillfully enough so that you can actually
be aware of your posture and breathing during the week, I would say if you can be aware of
your posture and breathing during the week, you have probably lived your life ethically enough
that your life lets you do that. And now that you do that, you can do ethical practices more
effectively. So I often use the story which the Buddha told about the acrobats.
So there was once upon a time, the Buddha said,
how dare he tell this? How dare he tell this story? Once upon a time, there was an acrobat
and his apprentice. And his apprentice was a female who was probably his daughter,
and her name was Frying Pan. And the acrobatic feat they did was called,
they were called bamboo pole acrobats. And it's not clear whether the acrobat put the bamboo
pole on top of his head, or on his chin, or on his forehead. But anyway,
apparently he had a bamboo pole and his apprentice would climb up on his shoulders
and then go up on the pole. And they would perform this feat. And one day,
the acrobats, according to the Buddha, the acrobats said to his apprentice,
now you take care of me, and I'll take care of you. And then we'll be able to perform this
feat successfully and collect the money people give us for the performance and have lunch.
And the apprentice said, excuse me, master, but I think you have it backwards.
You take care of yourself, and I'll take care of myself, and we'll be able to perform the
ceremony of acrobatics. Didn't say ceremony. And the Buddha said, the apprentice is right.
First, take care of yourself. How do you take care of yourself?
By being mindful of posture and breathing. By knowing whether you're standing up straight
or leaning. By knowing whether you're walking upright or leaning. By knowing whether you're
sitting upright or leaning. The Buddha didn't say you can't lean, he just said,
the way to take care of yourself is, if you're leaning, know you're leaning. He didn't say that.
He just said, if you're standing, know you're standing. If you're walking, know you're walking.
If you're sitting, know you're sitting. And if you're reclining, know you're reclining.
I'm expanding now. If you're leaning, know you're leaning. If you're going upstairs,
know you're going upstairs. And also, if you're inhaling, know you're inhaling. And if you're
exhaling, know you're exhaling. And if your exhale's long, know that it's long. And if it's
short, know that it's short. He didn't say, the way to take care of yourself is to stand up
or sit down or bend over. He said, the way to take care of yourself is to be mindful
of whatever posture you're in. And he didn't say, all day long. He didn't say, all day long.
But he did say, now. He said, do it, be aware of how you're doing it now. And be aware of it
ardently. Be ardent, be ardent about taking care of your awareness of what posture you're in.
That's how to take care of yourself, is to be ardent and alert to the present posture you're in
and to be ardent and alert to what your breathing is doing. He didn't say, breathe long. He didn't
say, breathe short. He said, the way to take care of yourself is to be aware of how you're breathing.
Are we ardent about this? In other words, we're not taking the best care of ourselves if we're
half-hearted about this. Do you feel, do I feel that this is a really important thing to be doing
in our life to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others?
If we skip over this and try to take care of others, the Buddhist says, we got it. I mean,
the apprentice says, you got it backwards. If you want to help others, then take care of yourself
like this. Do you believe that? And even if you do, you'll forget.
Well, I said, you know, when I forget, maybe it's because I really don't believe it. If I
really believed it, like, you know, totally, maybe I wouldn't forget.
But in a way, I feel like I do not have any doubts
that for me to be aware of my posture and for me to be aware of my breathing
helps me take care of my grandson
when he wants me to help him make some clubs to juggle, which he did yesterday.
And he was a good boy. He realized that if he wanted to go to the shop at Green Gulch and make
these clubs, he should have me there, too, because he wasn't supposed to be in the shop without
adult attendance or supervision. So we made these clubs for him, and he can juggle them.
He learned how to juggle, and I made these clubs. And I helped him.
Could I help him run the hand drill and the drill press and be aware of my posture and my breathing?
Would that be helpful? Would I be a better helper if I was doing that? I think so.
Could I forget to take care of those things and not be aware of my posture while I was trying
to help him safely work with these tools? Could I forget? Yes. Could I remember? Yes.
Would I be a more beneficial helper if I remembered? I think so.
The Buddha starts with this, with the posture and the breathing, as the first
frame of reference for taking care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
And I walk around the world, and I see people, and I wonder if they're mindfully bent over.
And most people I do not ask.
But some people say, would you please ask me if you're not sure if I'm being mindful?
And I say, well, I will if I have seen the opportunity.
And I do. I say, are you doing that on purpose?
One time I was eating a meal in a formal meal in a meditation hall, and someone was serving me,
I don't remember, I think it was soup. And I looked at his feet, and I noticed that one foot
was straight ahead and one was to the side. And I looked at his feet, and I noticed that one foot
was to the side. And then the next time he served me, I noticed one foot was straight and the other
one was turned to the side, the same one was turned to the side. And then I noticed that many
times, I thought, how funny, that one's straight and one's to the side. I wonder, it doesn't seem
random, it seems like, I wonder if he's intentionally putting one to the side.
If they were alternated, I wouldn't have been so kind of like surprised or wondering.
So I asked him, do you intentionally turn your left foot out and keep your right foot straight?
And I think he said, what's it to you?
And I said, I was just wondering, I was surprised that you always do it that way.
I wondered if you knew that. And the next time I saw him serve, they were both straight.
And 15 years later, a friend of mine was talking to him, and he said, the thing I remember most
about my time at Zen Center was that, when he asked me that. And he was not happy when I asked
him, but it was the thing he remembered most. And I don't think it's because it was the most
terrible thing that happened. It's just the thing he remembered most. He didn't say it was the best
thing. He said, it's the thing that stands out. It's the life that we're present for, our life
that stands out. And are you ardent about having that kind of a life? And so, here it is. This is
a great chance. I also just thought I might mention a story I heard recently from one of our members.
This person said, can I tell you a story? And I said, yes. And he said, I was on a bus, and in the
seats in front of me, there was a woman, and next to the woman was a man. I noticed the man had his
hand in the pocket of the woman's coat next to him, and he was lifting her wallet out of her
pocket. So I put my hand on his wrist and held it firmly, and put his hand back in the pocket.
And held it firmly. And he let go of the wallet, and then I pulled his hand out and let go. And
the woman said, thank you. And then the bus stopped, and the woman got up to go out, and the
man started to follow her, but I stood in his way so he couldn't leave the bus. And the woman got
off. And then at the next stop, he got off, and I let him get off. And I'm telling you that story
because I think you can perform such deeds while you're aware of your posture and breathing. I'm
not saying you cannot perform such things and be unaware of your posture and breathing. I just
think it's a little less likely that it'll go as smoothly as that. Because you can see there's
awareness of posture there. Could you see the awareness of posture? The breathing wasn't
mentioned, but the posture, there was definitely awareness that the hand was holding the wrist and
holding firmly. There was mindfulness of posture. And that's a good way to take care of yourself,
is to notice what you're doing with your hands.
Doesn't that seem like a good way to take care of your hands, is to notice them?
And you know, what we're doing with our hands, we cannot even figure out how to do this stuff.
If you actually had to figure out how to move your hands around, you would not be able to,
but you can notice it. You can't figure out how to walk even.
I mean, you can, but it would take all your energy to figure out how to walk.
Once you learn, it just happens. But you can watch it. You can observe it.
So, it is now, according to this clock, 8.51. I wonder how you'd like to respond to what I've
said. Yes? Anything? Yes?
Every time I get the mail or the letter from these yoga classes, I'm hoping that the topic
will be on communication. But it hasn't officially been yet. And it seems every time, somehow
it's about communication. That story, I was picturing how to skillfully deal with my sister,
or anybody who I have trouble dealing with skillfully. And it seems that posture and breathing
are very helpful for that, in the same way that they were helpful for whoever told that story,
to have grace and presence as they communicated wordlessly with this man on the bus.
Did you say that you're hoping that the topic for a yoga room class would be communication,
and it never is, but then it is?
Well, it's not the topic, but it's the classes about that.
It's never the listed topic, but that's what the classes are often about.
And this is about communication of posture and breathing, and attending to that communication
supports other communications being skillful. And if we skip over awareness of posture and
breathing, I would say it might undermine the skillfulness of, well, I don't want to
say undermine, maybe say strong, but it doesn't use the full potential that we have. We can
communicate with awareness of our posture, or without awareness of our posture. And with
awareness of our posture, I think we're more realizing our full communication potential.
Does anybody disagree with that?
Ted? Ted and Marjorie?
Yes, I want to report a misunderstanding of my part from last week that got cleared up.
I was discussing watching your breathing, especially when you were talking to somebody.
My initial thought was, well, that was going to divide their attention in speaking to that person.
And I found out this week that it was exactly the opposite. It was true.
So, I want to thank you for that, and also report that I also missed a lot of it.
I did too. I talked to people on a number of occasions without observing my breathing while
I was talking, but I never regretted being aware of my breathing when I was talking.
It never made me less caring for the person I was talking to to also be aware of my own breathing,
and her breathing, or his breathing also. Everybody knows the story of on the airplane,
if you're assisting someone, put your own oxygen mask on first before you try to put theirs on.
Yes?
I have to admit the spirit of mischievousness against this question, but I hope it's true.
Some mischievousness is over there?
As you were telling the story, the bus story, I was anticipating a different ending.
And when it didn't turn out to be the right ending, I thought, well, if it had been you
and your wife, Lisa, sitting right there that your friend told you about,
would you have always thought that you can't? It occurred to me that it probably would have played out the same way.
That is, you would have been getting, going to get the credit card or whatever to make sure
that she's all alone, and there's no need between you to let her know that,
because you know that the person that she is is lost.
And when you found an end preventing you from doing it, you would have gone along with it,
in enjoyment of someone doing something good on the bus.
And then you and Lisa would have found each other for a long time.
That was me.
I wonder if the guys found out whether the two of you were a man and a woman on the train.
I don't think, I didn't hear whether he found that out.
But I think he was very happy to be intimate with both of them.
In a way, that is why he would have supported it,
and you would have stopped him getting off the bus with Lisa.
May it be so.
Yes, tell me your name again.
Susan.
I was following what you were saying.
You talked about the sidetracks.
You said that you wanted to stay on something.
Really, really focused on learning something new.
I just can't keep seeing for myself, but I can see where you're taking it.
I can't see the direction you're taking it.
Okay.
She's saying that if she's focusing on learning something,
it's hard to imagine that you'd also be aware of your posture and breathing.
Is that what you're saying?
This situation, this frame of reference,
the posture, breathing frame of reference,
is actually, it is a learning space.
That's the idea.
Once you set it up, and you're taking good care of it,
you can bring other things in to learn in that space.
Without losing that thing, it doesn't become two things.
It's a basic frame, and if you practice with it,
you don't lose it even when you bring other things in.
Usually the next thing that's recommended to learn about are your feelings.
The next thing to learn about is quality of consciousness.
The next thing you learn about is iPads.
The fourth type of thing is where we bring in all kinds of mental factors to learn about.
They're all learning frames.
They're all conscious learning frames,
leading ultimately to awake from the frame.
It's just a frame.
This breathing thing is just a frame.
But if we skip over the frame,
we won't be able to learn,
because we're not attentive.
But as you say, when you are learning,
you do focus on something,
and you didn't say in a frame,
but you do focus in a certain frame.
But if you don't have this basic frame,
I'm saying you won't be as likely to have a deep,
penetrating understanding of the other things you're learning.
Another way to put it is,
you won't be able to be as helpful with whatever you're learning.
Another way to say it is,
that you can lose yourself in the concentration
if you don't have a basis in posture and breathing.
You can lose yourself in it.
As I say, I noticed myself losing myself
in certain kinds of learning I was doing,
more or less concentrated.
Losing myself meant I was starting to feel not right about my life.
I came back and I felt fine.
The worried part of the learning activity drops away.
Then I can go back and try again.
The same exercise, the same concentration,
but less worry, less getting lost in it.
Similar or identical exercise.
Here's another one.
Again, this happened yesterday.
My grandson wanted to play a game with me.
The game is called Magic.
It's the name of the game.
It's a brand name.
Magic is a brand name.
He told me there's a store in San Francisco
that just specializes in this game.
That's what the store is.
I said, how big is the store?
He said, what's about as big as this house?
He wanted to play this game,
but I didn't know how to play the game,
so he was going to teach me.
As he was teaching me,
I noticed that it was hard for me
to focus on all this stuff.
I was trying to focus,
and I actually noticed that I needed
to come back to my posture and breathing
in order to tolerate the intensity
of this training program he was putting me through.
In that case,
I actually found that coming back
to my posture and breathing
helped me hang in there with this thing.
There were various other things going on,
namely that he had these decks of cards.
He had a deck of 100 or 200 cards,
and I had quite a few.
I think I had 80.
His deck he composed for himself,
and he made this other deck for me.
His deck had a lot more sorcerer's power
in it than mine did.
He set me up, and he killed me very deeply.
He didn't just kill me.
He killed me way, way, way below dead.
But I was able to continue to play with him,
and it was hard for me.
But I took care of myself
so that I could have energy
to be there with him
and keep asking him questions
rather than just sort of feel like
I couldn't follow all this
sleight of hand thing he was doing with me.
So I was trying to concentrate,
but I was also feeling like
on the verge of being overwhelmed
and giving up.
And he was being quite patient with me, too.
And I said to him,
you're being quite patient with me.
You're not losing your patience
with all my questions.
And he said, yeah.
I said, are you like fattening the calf?
And he said, it's more like
I'm sharpening my axe.
And his axe got very sharp.
And then later,
he didn't want to play with him
and me anymore
because it was too easy
to beat me.
So I think I appreciate
your question,
and that's what I'm proposing
to you.
This base
gives us courage
to
to focus
on difficulties
and if we get stressed
and we can't focus
on learning certain things
or we're trying to learn
but we're tense
and not relaxed
and playful,
which is the better mode to learn,
we come back to this
and this sets up the possibility
to be relaxed and playful
and concentrated.
So it's not just concentrated,
it's focused,
undistracted, open,
relaxed,
and playful.
This sets up the possibility
of not just learning this thing
but having wisdom about it.
And I'm just saying that
skipping over this basic frame
is not recommended
by the Buddhas.
They want us to do this basic thing
and so we should be able
to test it
by taking hold of people's hands
and things like that
and seeing how our breathing changes.
Sharon?
In the first
when you were sitting
and you were saying
the breath
and the body
if the sense
was that
the first observation
was that
my body
was holding
this body was holding
the breath
and I was doing some
effort
with energy
and then it shifted to
this breath
was supporting
the body
and there was some ease
and as I kept observing
it felt like
the experience was
the breath was breathing
itself
and the body
was breathing
itself.
And I have the experience
which again I sort of
said again
is that
the breathing
can make my posture upright.
The breathing
can lift me upright.
Now I think I'm supposed to be upright
but I don't have
to do it with my muscles.
It's like my muscles
can be encouraged
by the breath
almost like the breath
will help my muscles
move my body
into a comfortable upright posture
will lift me up.
So my attention
is on my posture
there's
maybe more effort
than the breath
there's more room
for my breath
and then there's ease
where the breath is
when I put
my attention on my posture
there's no breath
when the attention
is just relaxed
in the breath
there's no energy
in the muscles
it's
unsupported.
I was also feeling like
the body wants
to be generous towards the breath
and the breath is kind of
reminding the body
that the body wants to be generous
to the breath
the body wants to make space
for the breath
to have as much space
as it needs at the moment
but we have to learn this
somehow
how can we do that
how can we have a posture
that's really generous
towards the breathing
and I don't think we're going to find that posture
unless we watch this dance
or if we do find it, great
but I think watching this interaction
will help us find
a generous posture
a posture that
really
embraces and supports
the breath
and also that allows the breath
to embrace and support the body
but we have to have
this frame of reference
to learn this, I think
and we have to come back to it
again and again to learn this
yes
how do you explain
the daytime
about the diagram
and I never understood how to make sense
of the diagram
thank you for listening
and watching
I also wanted to point out
that if you were walking on a hill
if you leaned forward
you were using gravity
to actually look
so I'm wondering
it seems that way
to use gravity to help
propel you forward
I just think
in mountain climbing
when you're walking
up a mountain
most people do not
think of leaning backwards
right?
most people don't think
I should walk up like this
but some people
I don't know if it's most
but some people think
when they're walking up the mountain
you should lean forward
it seems safer
but actually
if you lean forward
you're more likely to slip
actually upright is the most stable
when you're going up the mountain
but you feel scared when you're upright
because it's similar
it's just a little bit away
from leaning backwards
which really seems dangerous
and you can lean forward
you can lean forward
slightly
and you can get by with it
but when things get really tough
if you lean forward slightly
you'll slip
and tough by tough
I mean when your footing
is really unstable
or I should say
highly changeable
then leaning forward
is really dangerous
but we're afraid
to be upright
we're afraid anyway
when we're going up something steep
to be upright
and if it gets
steep and unstable
we even more want to lean forward
the other thing which I think
maybe I heard in a yoga room class
I'm not sure
but it was something like
if you watch older people
you know older people
I shouldn't say if you watch older people
as you get older
the ground looks farther and farther away
you reach your full height
when you're whatever age
and as you get older
the ground looks farther away
so you bend forward
so you'll be closer to it
right
we have to be aware
of our posture
and breathing
and then we'll dare to stand upright
as we get older
and it looks more and more dangerous
down there
it's a long ways down
let's get down there
the posture and the breathing
will help us be fearless
if we take care of them
they'll help us dare
to be fully alive
and then we can do other things
based on them
like we can do acrobatic feats
but if we try to do the acrobatic feats
before we have our feet in the ground
and our posture
appropriate
and our breathing appropriate
and we're there for it
it's not the optimal situation
this is a very unusual class
because this really is a class
you can practice all week
and you've got the stuff
with you all week
to work with
so let's do it another week
shall we