1989-04_13 Anapanasati_ Full Awareness of Breath Series - Tape 9 Q&A 7

Talk: 19890413-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_9-33812 Start_time: 00:40:38 Display_question: What can I do when I’m worried and focusing on the breath adds stress? Keyword_search: stress, worry, breath, daily life, mental state, mind, driving, struggle, mindfulness, anapanasati, satipatthana, anchor, supermarket, irritability Question_content: Questioner: I find it's great to use my breath in my daily life if my mental state is already kind of okay, like I'm driving and everything. But if I really have a lot of worries on my mind and I don't have a chance to sit right then—I can't sit usually because I'm working. Then sometimes when I try to be with the breath, it feels like a little bit of a struggle. Like I'm in this situation and I have these worries and I'm being back with the breath. And I mean, sometimes I don't know if I should be struggling right now. Larry: No. Questioner: Be with my worries or I don’t know. Larry: No. Okay. It depends on what you're doing. If you're driving a car, I would say, first and foremost, drive the car. Solve your worry some other time, investigate some other time. And if it's a question of the breath, forget it. Just: steering wheel, left, right, green light, right, passing this lane—that's your primary, that's your correct action, overwhelmingly. And a lot of life is like that. In other words, there’s intelligence built into the situation. If we're open to it, we see what kind of attentiveness is really called for and when we don't, then acknowledge that. “Oh, I don't really know what correct action here would be.” Now, the breath is meant to be an aid to stay awake in what you're doing. It's not that the breath is an end in itself in this way. So that whatever, talking to someone, waiting for an interview, you know, whatever you can tell me about your day. Break_line: The whole point of anapanasati, when we bring the breath, we try to unite the breath with what we're doing is to help us develop mindfulness, help us stay awake in the moment. That's why we're using it. It's not to become involuted, just sort of being preoccupied with the breath while the world passes us by and becoming just terrible at the actions and the way we talk and listen to people. We're not becoming obsessed with the breath. We're learning how to use the breath in a sensitive way to help us live more fully. Now, if it doesn't help, it's okay. The main thing is the mindfulness. Anapanasati has the same goal as satipatthana. It's about that establishing mindfulness awareness so that it becomes a way of living so that awareness is us. It's us. Break_line: Now, there are times, I know, where it seems like, “Should I be with the breath? Should I examine where I'm suffering? Or should I be with the task?” That's what I hear. Yeah. You'll have to work that out, artfully. Just to use the most simple-minded example, which we've used a lot: You're irritated because there's a blockage on waiting in the line in the supermarket. What you can do is look directly at your irritability. Right? That's one thing you can do. And if you can, just pure attentiveness, just feeling the shoulders tense and the anger and annoyance or whatever. You could also, in this situation, you could turn to the breath because it's relatively uncomplicated. You're just waiting. And when the person finishes, then you have to talk to the cashier and manage money and so forth. But so you could just go to the breath or you could work with both. That is, you focus in on the irritability, but the breath is used—and this is one of the main ways I'm suggesting it—as kind of a very delicate anchor helping you to sustain your attentiveness to the moment. And you'll have to work it out. Break_line: I'm not suggesting that everyone has to do anapanasati all the time for the rest of their life, but you're not going to find out about its value unless you really try to use it. The rest is up to you. That's all I can say. The more you use it, the more available it is to you. The more available it is, obviously, then you can begin to bring it in in ways in which are being suggested here. End_time: 00:44:43