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Talk: 19890406-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_8-33811 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:19:23 Display_question: I'm drawn to this whole-body practice, but I'm finding it really hard. I also found the tracking really hard. Keyword_search: whole-body, tracking, attentiveness, anchor, wisdom, impermanence, anchor, samadhi, shikantaza, Soto Zen, calm, pleasant/unpleasant, Vipassana Question_content: Questioner: I'm drawn to this whole-body practice, but I'm finding it really hard. I also found the tracking really hard. At the beginning, but this is hard, for a different reason. I find that it's easier for my mind to fly off because there's such a broad focus. So even though I'm drawn to it, I'm not sure at this point that it's as helpful, as the tracking is, because I've now gotten used to the tracking, and to manage it. But it seems like it's very prominent this whole-body thing. Larry: Actually, when we get into the wisdom part, it can become an extremely profound practice, which where everything comes in, impermanence, and so forth. It's just attentiveness, and the body is the anchor. At a certain point, even the breath, and the body, is just attention. And it is not something to be done, until the samadhi is very, very developed, and trustworthy. Something that you can just, like pushing a button, just have very strong samadhi. So, it's both helpful as laying the groundwork in this way, and later on it can, for those of you who are inclined to it, or drawn to it. Some versions of it are what are called shikantaza, in Soto Zen. Just sitting. I'll go into that a little bit more in a moment. Break_line: But you put your finger on one of the issues. Because right now, what is our main goal, in the first four contemplations, calm. Of course, we're developing some wisdom, as we go on. You can't help… but really our main goal now, is to help… is to develop calm, and really deep calm, a fineness of breath, that is uncommon. Break_line: For example, if we went up to people in the street, let's say randomly, and said, is your breath fine right now? Or is it coarse, or is it smooth, or is it pleasant, or unpleasant? Some people wouldn't be able to answer at all, but lots of people would. And they wouldn't have a distinction between coarse, and fine. But this is what I'd like to say. No matter how fine the natural breath is, that is a breath that has not been used, has not been part of training, of Vipassana training, relative to what you will eventually taste, it's all coarse, all of it. Even somebody who's, I don't know, a gymnast, or great something or other, who, you know, the breath is minimum blockages, because the level of fineness that we're going to be going to, is not possible without training. Break_line: And that dimension is extremely important because we're moving into the fourth, which has to do with stilling the body, stilling the breath, in order to, still the body. If there is this very close association, that's been suggested, all along, and I'm hoping that you see some of that. When you still the breath, you still the body. When you still the body, you still the mind. And so, what we're doing is gradually, patiently, building a foundation, for a very strong samadhi to grow out of that. And I think you'll get a little more of a sense of it, when we finish up tonight. Break_line: But I'll start off with myself. I've had this experience countless times in meditating, sometimes even in short sittings, that as my ability to stay with the breath improves, in a sitting or just overall over a period of time, as there's more continuity with the breathing, my posture improves. Sometimes I've had the feeling of automatically, as the concentration has gotten strong, by being with the breath, with more continuity, suddenly the body, it straightens up. Has anyone had anything like? Good. That's the relationship between the breath, and the body. If you had that, then you've learned one of the major lessons, of this first contemplation. You know it now. That's not the only thing that happens. End_time: 00:23:53
