Counting Breath Meditation

 

Preparation Stage: 

Please click here to  see Preparation Stage in Meditation Stages

 

Actualizing Stage: 

In actualizing period, we will adjust our body, breath and mind accordingly whenever it is needed.  There is sequences for adjusting body, breath and mind.

During this period, our mind should focus on one object we pre-setted before our meditation. But our body, breathing and mind may not go as we want to. So we need to aware of this, and to adjust accordingly.

If our mind stays away from object, it is normal. Once we realize it, we just move back our mind to the object. Again and again. As the first of all, we are doing pretty good just because we can realize that our mind is move out of the object. We keep to practice this way, eventually, our mind will stay on that object longer and longer. We become more relaxed, more mindful and more focused. We are to-warding to the right direction.

In sitting position.

All nasal breath. Nose breath in, nose breath out.

The mere counting is not itself meditation, but the counting has become an essential aid to meditation. Only count when end of breath out. You can choose to count breath in if you feel it helps you more in calmness, focusing and relaxation.

Generally speaking, our breath could appear in 4 kinds. They are:

  1. Breathing with nasal sound=snort, sniff--not easy to focused, with sounding breath
  2. Breathing without nasal sound but is not smoothly. Breathing will stop in the middle,  you hold breath in middle for short period of time, then finish in breath or out breath. --clogged
  3. Breathing without nostril sound, is smoothly, but the amount of air passing nostril is too much. Coarser
  4. Breathing without nostril sound, is smoothly, no stop during breath in or breath out. not too much air passing nostril .

We adjust our body and breath until we attain breath like # 4. Then We start to count breath。We can choose one of the 3 ways to count breath.

 

#1 The Object of our mind is the physical sensations of your breath. All nasal breath. Nose breath in, nose breath out.

  1. Just observe our breath, breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 1.
  2. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 1.
  3. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 2.
  4. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 3.
  5. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 4.
  6. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 5.
  7. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 6.
  8. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 7.
  9. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 8.
  10. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 9.
  11. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 10

If you can count this way without intervened by any other thoughts, then you approve yourself to be succeeded in counting meditation.

If your mind wanders, just come back to experiencing the physical sensations of the breath, and begin counting again. For example, if your mind think something else after counting breath out #6, you need to go back and start from counting breath out # 1 , then # 2, and continue to count.

 

#2 You can practice counting breath by fixing your attention at the tip of your nose where you can feel the air passing through during breath. This method is also good when you feel dull or sleeping.  

The object of our mind is the air on the tip of our nose

At the tip or your nose, You notice breath in, you do not count.  You count when you notice all air leave your nose tip.

  1. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 1 when all air leave your nose tip.
  2. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 2 when all air leave your nose tip.
  3. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 3, when all air leave your nose tip.
  4. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 4, when all air leave your nose tip.
  5. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 5, when all air leave your nose tip.
  6. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 6, when all air leave your nose tip.
  7. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 7, when all air leave your nose tip.
  8. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 8, when all air leave your nose tip.
  9. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 9, when all air leave your nose tip.
  10. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 10, when all air leave your nose tip.

If you can count this way without intervened by any other thoughts, then you approve yourself to be succeeded in counting meditation.

If your mind wanders, just come back to experiencing the physical sensations of the breath, and begin counting again. For example, if your mind think something else after counting breath out #6, you need to go back and start from counting breath out # 1 , then # 2, and continue to count.

#3. You can practice counting breath by fixing your attention at the point which is 2.5 inches below. Chinese medicine call this point as Qi-Hai. The method is also good when you feel your mind is easy to wander out.

The object of our mind is the our belly. When we breath in, our belly expand. When we breath out, our belly goes inside. When we end breath out, we count 1.

  1. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 1 when belly goes inside until breath out end.
  2. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 2 when all air leave your nose tip.
  3. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 3, when all air leave your nose tip.
  4. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 4, when all air leave your nose tip.
  5. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 5, when all air leave your nose tip.
  6. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 6, when all air leave your nose tip.
  7. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 7, when all air leave your nose tip.
  8. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 8, when all air leave your nose tip.
  9. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 9, when all air leave your nose tip.
  10. Breath in, breath out, count this breath out as 10, when all air leave your nose tip.

If you can count this way without intervened by any other thoughts, continually.  then you approve yourself to be succeeded in counting meditation.

If your mind wanders, just come back to experiencing the physical sensations of the breath, and begin counting again. For exeample, if your mind think something else after counting breath out #6, you need to go back and start from counting breath out # 1 , then # 2, and continue to count.

Concluding Stage:

What Counting Meditation Can Do to Avoid Negative Feeling

First of all, by practicing this method, we limited our mind to few things: notice breath and count. This already calm our mind from normal state when we have many kinds of thoughts

Meditation helps us to change our mental habits. Carry this in mind during all the time. It will remind us how and why to do certain things for what.

Practicing counting meditation also will help us to cultivate a new way to process the information we encounter in our life. Please see the following:

  • Once we interact with breath
  • We will identify our experience
  • Then we compare this experience with our past experiences in our memory----we can eliminate because we do not comparing.
  • We will make judgement as good-------we can eliminate because we do not comparing.
  • We will feel negative-----we can eliminate because we do not comparing.