Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation by Rosenberg Larry

Author:Rosenberg, Larry [Rosenberg, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2012-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

FACING ATTACHMENT

The twelfth contemplation—the last one on the mind—follows quite naturally from the eleventh, as we have come to expect.

One trains oneself: “Liberating the mind, I breathe in. Liberating the mind, I breathe out.”

We’re right on the edge of the contemplations on wisdom—true vipassana—because, for the first time, the Buddha now asks us to focus on liberation, which is the basis of all his teaching. “Just as in the great ocean,” he said, “there is but one taste—the taste of salt—so in this Doctrine and Discipline there is but one taste—the taste of freedom.” In all the steps we’ve gone through, whether you’ve noticed it or not, there has always been some interest in liberating the mind, in letting go. In this contemplation—though still not quite the liberation that will appear at the end of the sutra—this letting go is featured.

One kind of liberation follows directly out of the eleventh contemplation: as the mind gets more and more concentrated, certain tendencies go into abeyance. We have spoken already of the wanting mind, which is very insistent and makes it difficult to get concentrated. There is also the angry mind, which might pick up on some slight from earlier in the day and replay it endlessly. There is the mind when it has low energy, when it is dull. There is the opposite of that, the mind when it is extremely restless, can’t stop running around. There is the mind full of worry and doubt, which can’t stop questioning everything: the teacher, the teaching, and—most significant—itself.

In all of these cases, the mind gets attached to these tendencies, which are extremely powerful and don’t want it to get free. They want attention right now and are formidable rivals to the breathing. One kind of liberation is just learning to stay with the breath more continuously. These mind states arise, but you catch them more quickly than you did in the past and are better able to slip out from under them. That is a kind of liberation—though momentary, because in that moment of identifying with a mind state, there is clinging, which produces suffering.

A certain fulfillment comes with that ability to stay with the breathing, a peace and joy. The power of these hindrances begins to diminish. Since you’re not with them as much, you’re not nourishing them. Before, when you were less aware, it was as if you were practicing being greedy or angry or doubtful. You were making these tendencies stronger. When you stop practicing them, they diminish.

Another powerful factor in their diminishment is the happiness you feel just from being with the breathing. When you really get to know that, it’s much easier to avoid being pulled in by the hindrances; they’re no match for the quiet fulfillment of conscious breathing. But that shift in allegiances changes the habits of a lifetime and doesn’t usually happen overnight. We have to see over and over again that attention to the breath brings joy; holding on to the hindrances brings suffering.

The

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