Breath sensations

[Korpo]

It's been a long time since I truly ever followed the breath sensation. I used to observe the breath at the nostrils in the beginning, but this was no longer suitable for me at some point and I had to explore other options. The only breath-related meditation I had been doing was paying attention to the movements of my abdominal muscles.

Yesterday, however, I experimented with the breath sensations. I focussed on where I could actually feel my breath in my body. This changed over time, and instead of staying with a certain location, I stayed with the sensation, tried to reconnect to the sensation of the breath.

The effect was very relaxing, and led to trance phenomena extremely quickly. I fold my hands in a certain way with thumbs extended and touching at the tips, and after following my breath for a while I realised my thumbs had "vanished." I felt my hands, one on top of each other, but not the thumbs, nor was I sure they still touched. I couldn't determine, but I didn't want to explore that.

As I stayed with the sensation of the breath the effect extended over my body, like I could feel where I was looking for the breath, but the rest of the body was "not there" at times. I also passed through strange changes of consciousness that I cannot describe. I knew something had happened but I could not pinpoint what had changed.

The deeper I got the more disorienting it would become. Remembering the task at hand became harder, mental chatter would increase and focussing be more of an effort. Also the odd, eerie feelings accompanying the states I was passing through tended to be rather more distracting, even though overall I was not distracted.

[asalantu]

Dear Korpo...

¿About Kumbhaka breathing phase, what detailed insight has..?

My best regards,
Ángel

[Korpo]

Sorry, I don't know what that is.

Cheers,
Oliver

[Beekeeper]

When I lead my yoga classes in meditation and they are people who don't usually meditate (rather like me presently :( ) I often give them other little things on which to focus. For example, I'll ask them to discern the change in temperature of the air they breathe into their nostrils to the air they breathe out. I'll also get them to imagine that with every out breath they're body is getting heavier and heavier and later, with every in breath, their body is getting lighter. Then I invite my students to drop the visualisation or noticing of the additional sensation and just stay focussed on the breath itself. I seem to be getting great results with these kinds of additions to the single focus approach, judging by the blissed out faces and reluctance of people to actually stand up and leave when the lesson is formally completed. It doesn't feel too much to say that I can feel it working on the collective energy in the room.

I have also asked people to focus on their body, on the parts that feel present and the parts that feel as though they've disappeared. It doesn't surprise me that you've noticed this: it seems to be a very normal result of breath awareness meditation. I've also experienced that modulation through different states. It is, indeed, very interesting.