Practice 3

Practice 3: Energetic Breathing

Congratulations on making it to the third meditative practice in the awakening presence within process!

It may feel to you that we are moving along a bit mildly if you’re an experienced practitioner, but these practices, and their subsequent energy activation is essential for gaining access to the more advanced practices so be diligent with them.

It is essential that every step along the way, the fundamentals are well understood at each stage. This is to ensure that when we awaken intense inner energies we are well prepared and our instruments of perception are strong.

Before getting deeper into the details of the next practice, I would like to explore some concepts I learned from Zen Buddhism with you. These concepts may help you understand the nature of why we attempt to sit in meditation every day we can.

Zen literally means meditation, and zazen or seated meditation is the heart of the practice. Zen teaches, all beings already have the same enlightened nature as the Buddha but we obscure it by believing that we are separate, isolated beings. This makes us very needy and we spend our lives trying to get what we believe we lack, through acquiring possessions, power, or relationships. It is as though we are trying to fill a void inside, but however much we get, the void always seems to remain. From the Buddhist viewpoint this happens because we misunderstand our own nature.

To practice meditation is to learn how to see beyond one’s thoughts and feelings and realize this true nature. There is a deep sufficiency in all of us and we all have a great capacity to give with loving kindness. These virtues and all the fruits of enlightenment are already within us but they can only be manifested when we see through our mistaken perceptions and reclaim our True Nature. This is a matter of discovering what we already possess rather than seeking what we believe we lack. This approach is both affirming and challenging, requiring us to look intently at the reality of the present moment—excluding nothing, resisting nothing, and grasping at nothing. We need the willingness to see ourselves as we are. Rather than judging what we find, we can develop the capacity to neither indulge nor suppress emotions, thereby freeing ourselves from the forces that drive us to act unwisely. Compassion, both for ourselves and all beings, is at the heart of this process.

Through meditation we can discover the Truth directly for ourselves. It is to sit still with an open, alert and bright mind, neither suppressing nor indulging the thoughts and feelings that arise. In meditation, we learn how to accept ourselves and the world as it is. Profound transformation becomes possible once we know and are at peace with things ‘as they are’.

If we believe we are separate from everyone and everything else, then we act selfishly to get what we want. When we discover, through spiritual training, that within apparent diversity, nothing is really separate, then we already have all we need—for we are One with all things. Meditation enables us to know the real nature of our own being.

In addition to vitality, this takes time and a willingness to commit to practice to achieve.

The effects of meditation can be broad ranging, unexpected and may even be confusing and/or challenging, although ultimately, with supervision, very worthwhile. So dear practitioner, please do reach out to your teacher if you have any questions or challenges created by interacting with this meditative and teaching content.

As you continue to meditate regularly, your continuously growing perception can create strange new conditions that might sometimes feel bizarre, fearful, overwhelming, and other times beautiful, amazing, and inspiring. They might come and go, but it is important to remember not to attempt to cling to them at all. If the sensations get too intense or negative during your practice, stop and contact me.

Like a child growing up into adulthood, there is no way to know what it feels like just by talking about maturity, one has to experience that growth for themselves to know it—this is part of the mystery of the spiritual path.

At this part of the process it is important to begin to activate and become sensitive to the subtle energies within the body. We will use these powerful energies later in purifying and enhancing our energies and channels subtly.

For now, we will become more focused and move our awareness directly to the root center of the body itself.

This root center is located at the tip of the spine through to the perineum of the body. You can attempt to continually focus on this lower energy center during the breathing and phrasing practice that accompanies it.

Sometimes it helps to sit on your heel or place a soft object in this area under you until you create enough sensitivity to the center on its own. The root center will eventually feel like an opening from the root core of your body that flowers up into the lower belly in front of the spine.

In our last step, we learned how to create a rhythmic breathing pattern held deep within the body while we remain properly seated.

This practice will simply add to the same practice you have been performing over the last week or couple of weeks by locking our continuous focus to the root center itself and utilizing a certain sound on the exhalation.

This practice over time will help deepen your inward-pointed focus as well as having other important benefits.