The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom (13 page)

Exercise 4

MEDITATING ON THE IMPERMANENCE OF OUR OWN LIVES

After we are deeply certain about the all-pervasive nature of impermanence, then we can start to meditate on it and use it as a method for wind energy training. Before we begin contemplating impermanence, we will have already done a short session of yoga, perfected our posture, generated a positive motivation, and practiced the Nine-Cycle Breathing, as taught in chapter 4. Then, we can start with the following simple contemplation: “Because all phenomena are impermanent, I know that my own very life, my very own body that I cherish so much, is impermanent.” The Buddhist teachings describe the body as a guesthouse and the mind or consciousness as a guest. Taking this metaphor as a starting point, we can then combine our contemplation of impermanence with wind energy training by working with inhalation and exhalation as we reflect on our own personal impermanence.

Beginning with the exhalation, as we send the breath out, we should think to ourselves, “This very life is impermanent. I may
not have the opportunity to take my next breath.” As we think this, we should actually feel a lack of confidence about the continuation of the next moment of our lives. There is nothing to assure us that we will actually be alive another moment to take another breath. Call to mind all of the causes and conditions that could have led to death in this very moment: an aneurism, a heart attack, a stray bullet, a car accident, a kitchen fire, a building collapsing, or simply not waking from a dreamless sleep. We should one-pointedly focus on this feeling of certainty in the impermanence of life.

Next, as we inhale, we should think to ourselves, “It is because of good karma accumulated in the past”—or if you do not believe in the idea of karma—“Because of supportive conditions in the world around me, I have had the good fortune to take this breath. Who knows if those conditions are going to continue in the future; who knows if those good conditions will sustain my life even another moment?”

This contemplative meditation can easily be incorporated with wind energy training. The best way to use this technique is to reflect on impermanence while directly working with the breath—using each exhalation and inhalation as a point to refresh and deepen our knowledge and understanding of impermanence.

If we are not comfortable working with a contemplative practice in conjunction with breath work, we can change the practice slightly. We start out by reflecting on impermanence. At the moment that we really feel convinced of life’s impermanence—we really feel the groundlessness of this world, the environment, and our entire being—fear or doubt may arise. We may think, “What will I do! How will I exist in a world that is completely unpredictable and uncertain!” At that moment, we can come back to the breath. We can just notice and follow the inhalation and exhalation one-pointedly. While we do this, we should not let the mind become distracted by any fear, doubt, or strong feelings. Instead, we should keep focusing one-pointedly on the breath until all of these doubts and fears completely dissolve.

As we are working with wind energy training, we sometimes need to change the focus of our practice. If we work with the breath for a long time, the mind can become tired of this singular focus and become distracted. At the moment that we notice that we are no longer able to maintain concentration on the breath, we should go back to a contemplative reflection on impermanence. Another thing that might happen is that, as a result of focusing so much on the breath, the breath itself becomes unnatural. This happens simply because we are paying so much attention to it. We find that we are unable to breathe in a relaxed and ordinary way. Then, too, we should begin to reflect on impermanence in a more contemplative way.

Exercise 5

ALL OF LIFE IS LIKE A DREAM

The impermanent nature of phenomena is not difficult to understand; it is something that every single person knows. But to actually feel that all of existence and even our very life and the people that we love are impermanent is on a completely different scale. We can reflect on this using the metaphor that all of life is like a dream. As we go back to our contemplative practice, think, “Not only myself, my own physical body, but those I love, all people I am connected to, and the entire phenomenal world including oceans and mountains, all of it is just like a dream.”

Dreams are the perfect analogue to what we are talking about, because everybody knows dreams are not real. Nobody expects a dream to have come true when they wake up. And none of us would try to convince someone else that what we saw in a dream was reality. Our personal feeling of certainty in the impermanent nature of all phenomena should rise to the level of certainty we have that dreams are not reality.

As you contemplate impermanence, see in your mind’s eye,
that everything happening around you is just like a dream, even though it is ordinarily taken to be real. This is what it means to truly meditate on impermanence.

Another unique quality of a dream is that even though it has no real or lasting quality, as we are experiencing it, it seems completely real. It is only when we wake up that we realize that the experience that seemed completely real, that completely engulfed the senses, wasn’t true at all.

Thinking about the fact that our own lives are like a dream is not an easy thing to do. We grasp our lives as though they are real at each and every moment. We constantly grasp at phenomena and beings that are impermanent as being permanent and lasting and real. And this causes us great mental, physical, and emotional suffering. One of the strongest forms of suffering that we experience is a result of feelings of strong emotional attachment to our family and close friends. When change comes, we often become emotionally upset and unable to cope with the experience. However, our suffering is not limited to just emotional suffering. Sometimes the shock to the system even has physical symptoms, such as fatigue, headaches, or loss of appetite, which can lead to illness. Our grasp on phenomena and beings, which are actually impermanent, as permanent is so strong that it affects our emotional, mental, and physical health. If we could have known with certainty in the very beginning that those relationships and beings could not continue in the same manner, our suffering would not be nearly so intense.

The same is true not only of people but also of experiences we dislike or wish to avoid. When we have mental apprehension, anger, resentment, or dislike, this also brings suffering to body and mind. At times, when there is a situation coming that we particularly want to avoid, we may not only create intense mental and emotional suffering, we can also become physically ill as a result of our wish to avoid the experience.

These symptoms of mental, emotional, and physical imbalances are physiologically related to our inability to breathe properly, and are mentally and emotionally related to our grasping at
impermanent phenomena as permanent. Remember: our lives are like a TV drama. Sometimes things look good, sometimes they look bad. Sometimes they are happy and we wish things would go on forever, and then suddenly something happens—things fall apart. Life seems unbearable and painful. This is merely the impermanent nature of life. There is no controlling any of it. There is no controlling our physical body; there is no controlling the process of aging; there is no controlling the environment around us, the state of the world, the government, or the nature of politics. The only thing that we can control and master is our own spiritual path.

After reflecting on how all of life is impermanent, go back to the focus on the inhalation and the exhalation of the breath.

Exercise 6

THE NATURE OF LIFE IS LIKE A WATERFALL

Another contemplation that we can work with is the metaphor of water falling from a high cliff. Think to yourself, “My life, all of the conditions, environment, and people around me are like water falling from a high cliff. A waterfall only moves. It is never still. It cannot be caught or frozen in time.” Even though we may wish that time would stop for a moment, that we could freeze a frame of that waterfall and suspend the water in thin air, the moments of our lives are like that water falling. They can never be stopped. Whether it is a certain period of time when we feel mentally and emotionally happy and stable, when there seems to be harmony with our family and friends, or our life just seems to be particularly easy and full, none of it can remain. Like water falling, it will certainly change.

When suffering comes, such as experiencing the pain of an illness or being plagued by financial problems, also remember that this situation will pass. Just like that waterfall in constant motion,
the experience of trouble and suffering we are having right now will certainly change.

After reflecting on how life is like a waterfall in constant movement, go back to the focus on the inhalation and the exhalation of the breath.

Exercise 7

LIFE IS LIKE THE BLOWING WIND

The Tibetan masters of old gave many traditional ways to reflect on life’s impermanent nature. Another metaphor that can be particularly vivid is the metaphor that life is as impermanent as the blowing wind. Wind is always in motion. It can never be caught in time; it is the natural and elusive movement of air. We may think about our own life and wish that it was longer, but this is impossible. Just as what we mean when we think of “wind” implicitly contains the idea of movement, so what we mean by “life” actually contains the reality of death. Think to yourself, “Neither my life nor anything in my life can be prolonged. All of it will move and change just like the blowing wind.” Try to feel with certainty that although the physical body, as well as relationships, situations, and the environment appear to be stable and motionless, they will certainly transform, decay, and change.

After reflecting on how life is like the wind, go back to focusing on the inhalation and the exhalation of the breath.