Take a minute. No, like a WHOLE minute. First, you must know: there you are, you are there — sitting or standing or running or listening to someone or some computer voice read this to you. And what else do you need? A little air, perhaps? Yes, yes, breathing is good. But where to goes that air? Of course to the lungs, but which part?

Can we not send it down deeper, use the belly, breathe like you did when you were mere months old, with no preconceptions about raising your shoulders and puffing out your chest to breathe? Can we not just use our bellies? They are there for a reason, you know? Just try and imagine it: A large maternal hand over the navel, with its own gravity pulling, drawing air into the belly, helping it expand, helping it to bulge OUT like it should when nature is allowed a purview into the concrete-mentalist’s hard-cornered quarters — there is nothing else required. Three or four of these and you are done. But what are you worrying about? What are those thoughts sullying the tranquility that is rightfully yours?

It’s not that they don’t belong; we all have worries and pains. But don’t let these stop you from returning to the innocence, the peace you felt as a child resting, vulnerable, yet safe — the world is dangerous, yes, but in our suffering can we find the mercy of being vulnerable and breathe into it — no need to flaunt, puff up, spit bravado, or stomp around. Just sitting or walking or standing here — there — where you are — and engaging in some efficient oxygen exchange with the machinery passed down to you by your parents and whatever God you believe in. Just try to lean into it a bit.

As Rumi once said, “Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.” And whether yours if visceral or ethereal, your trapped and contained and locked-down trials and hardships may, if you chose to let them, flow out through that gentle mother’s caress, with that full and profound breath, in that pure-child perspective that knows no other way than to absorb what it finds around it, continually growing despite the growing pains that we all still face, even if we’ve long ago stopped getting any taller…

So there. Breathe once more and you’re done. Ok, one more for good measure… And don’t forget as you go off and away that your belly truly wants to be used! Best exercise it from time to time.

MORE ON BREATHING AND MEDITATION: Pranayama Medicine for Health (Reality Sandwich)

SEE ALSO: My PDF version of the article “Pranayama Medicine for Health”, by Eliza Bishop.

A new study from UC Davis is showing that meditation can, over-time, help to increase your telomerase, a vital rejuvenating enzyme that extends the life of cells and helps to repair damage. The key is in meditation’s ability to reduce stress levels. Stronger psychologically; stronger physiologically. Clifford Saron, a researcher who contributed to the study, had this to say:

“The take-home message from this work is not that meditation directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person’s health and longevity, rather, meditation may improve a person’s psychological well-being and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person’s sense of well-being may have a profound effect on the most fundamental aspects of their physiology.”

The participants in the experimental group underwent intensive training during a three-month retreat, and, compared to the control group, generally showed greater ability to avoid neuroticism/negative emotionality, in addition to feeling more in control of their lives and aware of themselves by the end of the study. I personally find this a very encouraging link between mind and body. I used to meditate more often and connected this with the Buddhist philosophical mindset that I had created for myself. While I no longer would link as much of my purpose in life to such Buddhist ideals as infinite compassion and the complete elimination of suffering, I still enjoy a contemplative kind of meditation every once in a while, where I merely try to watch my thoughts float on through my head.

The aim in a large part of the various meditation methods is to ‘observe without judgment’ and become aware of your own mind and how it works. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a sitting-down, lotus-position, focused-breathing type task, but some structure seems to be helpful if we look at the volunteers in the UC Davis study, who practiced in a group setting for two hours a day, and in solitude for an average of about six hours a day. This is an intensive dedication to structure which is surely unrealistic to any normal working person, unless of course you are a ‘paid meditator’. But I digress…

You may not have 8 hours a day to train your mind and sharpen your awareness, but as little as 10 minutes I find often helps me regain my emotional footing during turbulent times. Here are a few different techniques for you to try out… And may they fuel your telomerase production through improved mental health!

• Impermanence Meditation: Think on happy and unhappy events/times in your life. Think back and notice how all these things change and nothing is permanent. As you recall an experience, say to yourself “This is also impermanent.” or “This too will pass.” This I have often tried as I am falling asleep, my head full of fantasies and worries for the coming day. It calms me down to think of the transient nature of everything like this. You may find it useful, too.
• Watching the Dust Cloud: The mind is constantly churning with thoughts. Trying to stop yourself from thinking anything is generally futile, like trying to clear the motes of dust floating in a sunbeam by throwing spears at individual specks; every time you throw a spear, the whole cloud just gets kicked up again. Wait and the dust settles. Here, the idea is to compassionately note to yourself, “Thinking, good buddy…” and choose a focus point — your breath going out, the look of the back inner side of your eyelids, the sounds you are hearing, whatever you want. Choose a focus point and notice yourself thinking. Let the quiet enter naturally and you should finish feeling quite refreshed — but I will warn you that I have spent up to 45 minutes working towards this clear-mind-feeling, although it was worth it in the end. The realization that you are having no thoughts fill your head is singular and also quite exciting.
• A Healing Light: Good for relaxing the body. In this exercise, the practitioner images a brilliant source of healing light wandering slowly and meticulously over every section of the body. As it does it’s healing work in your mind, you feel the sensation in your toes, then the bottoms, then the tops of your feet, and working slowly up the legs and torso, out onto the arms, and up the neck to the face and head, the light sets your body tingling… Even without an imaginary light source, “feeling” your toes, feet, legs, torso, arms and head one-by-one is a revitalizing mental massage.
• Tonglen Meditation: This one I get from Pema Chodron. It is meant to provide illumination in dark and hopeless times. You start with the assumption and, well, fact — that despite the level of your woes, there are those out in the world who are worse-off, those who live with great suffering: Hunger, disease, poverty, chronic stress, intense anger, resentment, jealousy, deep-seated negativity, and more. To awaken the Buddha inside of you — or perhaps Inner Light for those not so keen on Inner-Buddha — one must continue to develop empathetic skills. In Tonglen Meditation, one breathes in (symbolically) the black, poison smoke of suffering, lightening the burdens of fellow human beings, and then breathes out peace, love, wisdom, hope, and happiness, in a clear, cleansing breathe of light. Taking in suffering, breathing out release from suffering. The target may be an individual as well, a mourning mother, a drug-addicted father, a lonely child, a relative who is ill, anyone you choose. To cleanse others awakens the Inner-light, the Inner-Buddha, who can more easily see the transient, unjust, and cyclic side of things. This helps to develop compassion and empathy, and put things in one’s own life in perspective.

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there is nothing wrong according to the universe
the universe is – it just is.
no wrong can be filtered in or out;
the filtering is personal,
stemming from personal bias and the unfortunately habitual mind.
the root of perception, the root of reality as experienced
is in the mind.
and again, there is nothing wrong in the mind,
except that which is learned,
but which can be unlearned somehow.
how now?
unlearning is very unlike learning for the first time:
learning is busy, and energy-intensive,
unlearning is noticing what we have learned, crystallized,
and putting it up to the light to be examined
not to be picked apart, but to see how the light shines through it:
how opaque is the thing we have learned, which now we can objectively see?
unlearning is noticing:
the structures of the mind are nothing more than the waves of a slowly creeping, icy liquid ocean
impermanent, but seemingly ominous, seeming not to move.
and yet all these things that seem so solid, especially those that seem most solid, are corruptible, transient, creeping through time like the glass creeping down the cathedral pane, painfully slow, gravity constantly easing it downward…
unlearning is not a breaking of the glass, but a feel, for its subtle curvature, to grasp at where things are going, no more…
unlearning is calm and peaceful, reflection naturally healing, restoring energy, enlightening
like light shining through the pieces of this slowly shifting ocean made of glass,
the mind like an ocean made of glass.
the mind like an ocean made of glass.
the mind like an ocean made of glass.

a life of pure poetry is not so poetic,
not so romantic when romanticized completely.
turn up the master volume,
and soon you can’t hear anything but
static interference,
noise,
and un-poetry.
best pause the overeager program
and find yourself absurdly stuck.
it may not be poetic, but at least it will be true, so
pause the static and take in the empty

space — it will be good for you.

“Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together…”

— Meditations: Marcus Aurelius

mind is pond
clarified
bemuddled

multiple entry
populating the waters are the senses
info seeds and thought bubbles
they tinge freeze and boil
but the pond doesn’t move

mind is pond
it’s definition devoid
please don’t be the fish
watch them swim

observe
the stirring
without stirring

no interference
no end, and
no beginning

this is the beginning of it all
clarified and bemuddled