Breathing Meditation (ānāpāna sati)
This is the method of maintaining and developing the tranquility so far attained. This is not an exercise in concentration but one of relaxation of body and calming the mind. When the body is relaxed and the mind is calmed down, attention automatically goes to the breathing. We watch the breathing to find out the extent to which we are agitated or calm.
Breathing is like a biofeedback machine that gives us feedback as to our degree of tranquility. The aim should be to relax the breathing.
By relaxing the breathing, we relax the whole body and we calm the mind.
By learning to pay attention to breathing, we can calm the body as well as the mind.
Keep relaxing the breathing. Let go of your whole body as you breathe out, as if you are dropping a weight that you were carrying. Let the breath come in freely as if you are opening the gate or canal for water to rush in.
Remember you are not trying to concentrate on the breathing. You are focusing your attention on the whole body in general. Your attention should be on the experience of the body from within. Observe the sensations of discomfort and comfort that indicate tensions and relaxation in the body. The breathing is only an activity of the body. Continue attention to the breathing in relation to the body in this way till your body relaxes gradually and the mind calms down. When the mind is tranquil and purified, you begin to experience happiness. When the mind is happy, the body relaxes further and you feel more comfortable. With this experience of comfort comes perfect stillness of mind.
The mind that runs about in search of happiness stops running when there is happiness experienced within. Try to maintain this state of happiness, comfort and stillness as long as possible. At first you might experience this tranquil state of mind only for a moment and then it might disappear. With practice, it begins to stay longer and longer. When it remains sufficiently long, you are in the first “jhāna” or first level of tranquility.
This is the cultivation of inner calm that is necessary before one can practice insight meditation to gain the insight that frees one from all suffering forever. This insight is not seeing “lights,” or seeing pictures but becoming aware of the process of experiencing the Five Accumulations (pancakkhanda) and the Antecedental Concurrence of the components of experience (paticca–samuppāda), which leads to the depersonalization of experience. This when properly achieved leads to awakening from the dream of existence.