Week 1 check in -- Antonia

Success! 1/2 hour twice this week. My goal this week is to continue the 1/2 hour segments. This is much more different than the meditation I am used to with my yoga classes -- maybe 3 to 5 minutes at a stretch.

I'm using a book downloaded (for free!) from www.buddhanet.net: Mindfulness of Breathing & Four Elements Meditation, by Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw. At this stage in learning how to meditate, I'm trying to focus my awareness on the breath as it enters and leaves the body at my nostrils. That's it. Don't think about if you are breathing deeply or shallowly! Don't think about the lungs! A helpful tip:

As you pay attention to the concept of the breath in this way, and if you have practiced this meditaion in a previous life and have develped some paramis, you will easily be able to concentrate on the in-and out breath.

I must not have practiced this meditation in a previous life, because it was very difficult to not think about, oh, everything but the in-and-out breath. Grocery lists, work tasks, did I pill the cat in the morning? So I followed the advice to count my breaths. The Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw has some advice:

You should count up to at least five, and not count up to more than ten. But we encourage you to count to eight, because it reminds you of the Noble Eightfold Path, which you are trying to develop. So you should count, as you like, up to any number between five and ten, and should determine in your mind that during that time you will not let your mind drift or go somewhere else.

OK. Eight it is. The Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw will let me go on to the second stage once I can concentrate on the in-and-out of my breath for 1/2 hour.