I wondered a bit about the role of the breath in meditation, what I've read, heard and experienced. I wanted to start to write this down to follow the many ways the breath can be used in meditation and to what purpose, and why the breath is so useful. I also want to learn what others think about this, and where learning about breath has led them.

If you read some books about meditation it actually seems impossible to find out what meditation is, but breathing is explained. IIRC it was a book from Jack Kornfield that made me think after reading dozens of pages whether the author had written about meditation at all. While many ways exist to meditate using the breath, it is not identical. However breath observation and meditation are used interchangeably. This is at best inaccurate, and often enough misleading.

A simple physical fact is that every cell in our body needs to be serviced with oxygen or it dies, not instantly but soon enough. Energetically we can feel this as the breath expanding and leading energy throughout our body. Breath is life is energy. And energy is awareness...

I've used the breath as tool to increase awareness. Blocked points react to breathing in several ways. Breath can be used to actively increase awareness in numb places, breathing awareness "into" them. I read the in breath is useful for this, as it transports energy into the body, and also is linked to the sympathetic system. This system is the fight-and-flight system, responsible for stress. The in breath energises, can raise (and narrow) awareness. The out breath, linked to the parasympathetic system relaxes, releases, destresses. I wonder how often heard the advice to prolong my out breath. But for the purpose of increasing awareness, "breathing into" a part of my body or a blockage is useful.

Also the continuous influx of energy through breath is like a wave hitting a shore when dealing with blockages. You can observe how breath infused by increased awareness "washes away" the blockage. First you feel it, hard as a cliff of rock sometimes, its contours, its outer shape. Then the breath helps suffuse it. Finally it is washed away, exhale by exhale.

Breath serves other purposes in becoming aware. When you concentrate on something, also observing the breath helps maintaining that awareness. I see it as a "lifeline". The rhythm of the breath helps minimising distracting thoughts, drifting off, nodding off, because the breath gives a rhythm to awareness. The breath prevents from getting lost, drifting off, losing focus, because with every breath you get reminded of your original goal. It can serve as a signal for making sure you are still aware of what you are doing. When you missed your breath you can be sure you were drifting and not paying attention. So having the breath in mind helps keeping focussed.

Breath is also one of the simplest things in bodily function we can be aware of. Really feeling the blood pump in your body, not only in constricted vessels, but generally, is considered a hard task, needing skill. Focussing on the rhythm of breath is accessible right from the beginning and for many people the only thing they are aware of. I know that I am usually not aware of my blood but its side effects. But the breath can be followed inside, it is a gateway to the energy of the body, of inner awareness, of finding the starting point to something people pay no attention to. When I don't know where to start, breath can be a reliable tool. What sensations arise with the breath. What does the breath tell me? Where does it lead me?

Breathing can be uncomfortable. Even when not sick in the breathing apparatus breath can lead us to uncomfortable sensations. Again: breath, energy, awareness are linked and in some ways virtually indiscernable. Getting aware of what is inside you reflects back on the breath. "Hitting" a blockage may make the breath tense, stutter, uneasy. One moment your breath is smooth as glas, the next moment there are ripples or even waves on the lake. The breath reflects the energy, it finds the windbreakers and shoals of your energy. And then gets uneven.

Turn this formula on the head and you will find the breath can become a tool. Smoothing an uneven breath - not forcefully, but with gentleness! - can smooth out the energy, too.

I think these are many reasons how the link breath-meditation in many cases works. We work with the underlying energy even if we don't call it energy, we deepen awareness even if we "just" observe breath, we clear blockages even if we don't know what blockages are or energy. I, however, thought I needed to understand these links and want to understand them more and more, and hope others can contribute parts to the puzzle as well.

Oliver