Q4-19890406-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_8-33811 Leandra Tej

Talk: 19890406-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_8-33811 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:29:08 Display_question: I personally had a hard time with tracking. It moves too fast. It’s like watching a pinball game. I didn't like the feeling. I had aversion to it. Keyword_search: pulsing, blood, tracking, breath, attention, sensitivity, calm, aversion, pinball game, river Question_content: Questioner: My body gets calmer when I pay attention to the breath a lot. But also, I tend to feel my blood flowing, my pulse, and all parts of my body. That's stronger often than when I’m following my breath. I mean, I can follow my breath if that's my choice. But I'm thinking more conscious of pulsing, and different weird parts of my body, that I never would have thought I would feel myself. Larry: Yes, it depends on what you've set for yourself, to practice. If you've set for yourself coursing through the body, then with the breath moving, tracking, if that's what you've set for yourself, then no matter how vivid these other things become, that's what you stay with. If you have a more comprehensive, total attention to the body. And the main reason that I felt, one of the main reasons I felt that was useful, is to enhance bodily sensitivity. To open the body up a little bit. You see, because we're learning about the breath independently, all of us. Break_line: If you keep doing this practice, you're going to know more about your breath. Already you know more than the average person. You have to. And if we learn more about the body, then as we become more sensitive to the breath, more sensitive to the body, then we'll be more able to see the interrelationship, between breath, body, body, breath. So, I understand what you're saying, and that's good. And the more comprehensive one, you can experience it all as one. And if the body is more prominent than the breath, that's fine. That's what's there. Questioner: I personally had a hard time with this tracking. It moves too fast. It’s like watching a pinball game. I didn't like the feeling. I had aversion to it. Larry: Okay, what you have to watch there, first of all, look at the aversion, as always, is to see if you aren't kind of directing the breath, or are you literally following the breath. Are you, kind of… is the breath really running the show? Or are your kind of slightly pushing it along a bit? And the whole spirit of that is to move with the breath. It's delicate. It's delicate. It takes a while. It's like walking along a riverbank. The river is just moving. It has nothing to do with you. And you're walking along it and you're attentive to it. And periodically you'll lose it. You'll start thinking. The river still keeps going, but you've lost your connection to it. Questioner: Well, I just found it a good trip to make pretty fast as compared… Larry: But did it ever slowdown in any sittings? Questioner: No. Sometimes the space in between are more. And the breath may be little, but it's still a quick in breath and out. It sounds like a big journey. Larry: Yeah. It may turn out that you're not drawn to this, at all. It's not fatal, it doesn't matter. The techniques are not as important, as the spirit underlying what we're trying to accomplish, which is how to help the mind, the heart settle down, how to become more calm, to collect itself. End_time: 00:32:36