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The Book of Living Infinity

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Submit Date: 2007-02-14

Take yourself to a secluded place and sitting down with no external distractions bring your attention upon your natural flow of respiration. With each breath that comes in you are aware, “the breath is coming in”. With each breath that goes out you are aware, “the breath is going out”. One second, five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, for as long as you possibly can keep your attention focussed on the flow of breath. This meditation is known as anapana meditation, now make use of it to make your attention firm with one-pointed awareness of the breath as it comes in and goes out.

As you observe the natural flow of breath you will find a flow of experiences taking place whose interests lie in things other than anapana meditation. Thoughts, images, emotions, movements of your body, sensations, sensory impressions, these experiences will happen by themselves or in some conjunction with one another. In identifying with any of these experiences you will forget that you ever began to observe respiration. It is not enough just to observe your breathing but you must also observe the flow of experiences that in identifying with you will forget about your anapana meditation.

III

Be a silent witness that watches the flow of experiences pass by as you would watch a river flow by while sitting at its bank. Expand your attention to include all the areas of your experience simultaneously, so that whatever happens you are immediately aware of like a watcher that never sleeps. The moment some experience happens straight away you are aware that you are the witness and not these experiences, and no matter how appealing or tempting these thoughts, images, emotions, bodily movements, sensations or sensory impressions are, it is not in your nature to identify yourself with them.

Sometimes these experiences arise, persist for a short time, and then pass away. Sometimes these experiences arise, persist for a long time, and then pass away. How long a particular experience persists is not to be given any importance. Whether an experience persists for one second, one minute, or one hour, in the eyes of the witness the same process unfolds: something arises, persists for some time, and then passes away. What the experience is and how long it persists is of no issue, only the unceasing gaze of the witness that does not become identified with these experiences is of any importance.

Anapana meditation is to be used until the time comes when the witness that does not become identified with whatever experience happens is established for at least one minute continuously. If our aim was just to establish a witness that does not identify with the thoughts and emotions and sensations of our human life, then this meditation technique would suffice. But our aim is to totally transform our human life through the practice of insight meditation. For this reason once you are able to establish the witness through the observation of respiration for at least one minute continuously then there is no need to wait any longer but you can begin to practice insight meditation.

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