Breath and Meditation E-Book

Stefan Bischof

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 100

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

This book is a collection of guided meditations for beginners and professionals and describes at the same time a development process in search of the true self. This process is carefully attuned to the process of development of human consciousness. It is about breath and body awareness, about ruthless self-honesty and loving self-acceptance, ultimately about letting oneself be guided and transformed by the depth, by the Self or by what we also call God.

Leseprobe

Stefan Bischof

Breath and Meditation

On the Path to the Temple

© 2022 Stefan Bischof

Coverdesign by: © changes design, Annette Reiche, Staufen

Illustrated by: © Otilia Planelles Ramos, Annecy; © Margret Kilchherr, Olten

Translated by: Maxim Stykow

Language of original edition: German

Typesetting & Layout: © Hauptsatz Susanne Lomer, Ehrenkirchen

ISBN Softcover: 978-3-347-64642-1

ISBN E-Book: 978-3-347-64643-8

Printing and distribution on behalf of the author:

tredition GmbH, Halenreie 40-44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. The author is responsible for the contents. Any exploitation is prohibited without his approval.

Publication and distribution are carried out on behalf of the author, to be reached at: tredition GmbH, department “Imprint service”, Halenreie 40–44, 22359 Hamburg, Germany.

Table of Contents

1. A Word in Advance

2. Motivation for Meditation

2.1 My own Way towards Meditation

2.2 Your Path

3. The Possibilities of Breath and Meditation

4. Object Meditation

4.1 Meditation Postures

4.2 “Crossing the Gate’s Threshold into the Temple District”

4.3 The Eyes

4.4 Being Here – the first Pillar of Meditation

4.5 The Flow of Movement – the Second Pillar of Meditation

4.6 The Flow of Breath – the Third Pillar of Meditation

4.7 Alignment between Movement and Breathing

4.8 The Flow of Consciousness/Training Mindfulness – The Fourth Pillar of Meditation

4.9 Developing Witness Consciousness – the Eye that Never Sleeps

4.10 Archetypal Forms of Movement – Creating Structure

4.11 Sighing in the Vertically Circling Body

4.12 Vertically Circling Body (Vertical Circular Breathing)

4.13 “Cyclic Breath” (after Lee Lozowick)

4.14 Horizontal Cyclic Breath

4.15 Horizontal Axis Breath (Me – You)

4.16 Vertical Axis Breath

4.17 Center and Periphery

4.18 To Come into Contact with Oneself – Self-Revelation

4.19 The Flow of Emotions

4.20 Recognizing Impulses and Reflexes to Become Free

5. Movement Meditation

5.1 Bouncing – Riding on your Impulses

5.2 Dynamic Bouncing

5.3 Walking Meditation

5.4 Kinhin

5.5 Small Steps (after Ilse Middendorf)

5.6 Fast Walking

5.7 Walking in a Circle

5.8 Walking in a Cross

5.9 To Turn Oneself

6. Transitioning to Objectless Meditation

6.1 Polarities

6.2 Touch and Go

6.3 Mind

6.4 Just This

6.5 Opaque Becomes Transparent, Transparent Becomes Opaque

6.6 Pause of Breath – Finding Silence in the Heart

6.7 Seeing Clearly – The Awareness of Awareness

6.8 To Be a Vessel for Change

6.9 Heart Breath

6.10 Becoming – Dissolving

7. Objectless Meditation

7.1 To Let Yourself Meditate

7.2 The Breath Who I Am

7.3 Emptiness – Nothing

8. Openness as Awareness – Being Open to Openness

9. Awareness Can Penetrate Anything and Thus Comes from the Void

10. Mercy From Above

11. Just Sit

12. Mantras

12.1 Repetition of a Name of God “Nama Japa”

13. Poem

14. The Four Pillars of Meditation (Map)

15. Acknowledgments

16. About the Author

17. Bibliography

1 A Word in Advance

This book is, for the most part, a practice through guided meditation. It is important that you learn to find your own pace. If one of the meditations does not feel right, feel free to skip it. Find a duration for each meditation that suits you. Return to a previous exercise if the current one overwhelms you. Exchange your experiences with someone you trust. This book is no replacement for a meditation teacher.

In strict, traditional styles of meditation, there is no space to communicate the experience. I know of people who became psychotic after years of meditation in India. During meditation, feelings of extreme alienation may arise. Instead of experiencing wakeful perception, the practitioner may be bogged down in a coma. Sometimes, he/ she is not even aware of the condition or finds no remedy to reestablish mindfulness. The brain segregates different life events and perceptions such as feelings, sensations, thoughts, and images, especially after traumatic experiences. The neuronal pathways between distinct cerebral areas are interrupted. Such experience has to be taken seriously and communicated (to the teacher). Even therapy should be considered.

Meditation predominantly serves evolution and change. It cannot replace therapy.

Stefan Bischof

2 Motivation for Meditation

2.1 My own Way towards Meditation

At the beginning of my twenties I wanted to learn how to better concentrate, how to be more calm and patient. I wanted to better handle my emotions, work more efficiently. In brief, I wanted to become a different, better, more valuable person.

The results thereof were drastic: for the first years, I was mostly fighting my pain during sitting meditation, my restlessness, my lack of concentration. In fact, I was fighting my whole body and spirit and most of all myself.

For me as a rather rigid guy, it went down like this:

 I immediately understood that breath meditation is all about observing the breath. The result of this understanding was that I was constraining and shortening my observed breath to the extent of apnea. Consequently, my tension increased.

 The observation of my breath was not neutral. I judged whatever was perceived habitually and ceaselessly.

 Every negative judgment was a rejection of myself as I was in the moment, which hurt a lot. As a result, my pain grew stronger and only when I could no longer take it was I ready to concede old patterns and become more “merciful” and empathic towards myself.

 I gradually realized that the strict, world-renouncing path of the monk was not meant for me. I sought and found a path through “experiential breathing” with Ilse Middendorf in Berlin. This path uses mindfulness, focus, and dedication to make the body and breath the focus of all action.

 Only much later, after years of meditation and self-therapy, a Jungian Analysis, and after much time as a householder was I ready to entrust myself with a spiritual teacher.

From all these experiences arose a very personal approach to meditation that I will describe in this book, step by step, and whose experiences and insights will hopefully be beneficial to you as well.

2.2 Your Path

Even if you have come to mediation with a similar motivation – bettering oneself, becoming calmer, more efficient, more “spiritually advanced”, to suffer less from oneself, from others, from life itself – the point is not to achieve something.

Exactly where you are right now you already have everything you need. You are only the blink of an eye away from your own true wealth: the awakened heart of the “Bodhicitta”, the soft, tangible place inside of you that is wide open like the sky, warm, and brilliant.

You sit down on your pillow and trust.

The rest will come.Zen says: “` your straw sandals.”

3 The Possibilities of Breath and Meditation

 Learn to embrace a ruthless self-honesty and loving self-acceptance that sets you free.

 Get to know your breath as a tangible and sustaining inner structure and substance. The breath becomes a perceptible partner that you can avail yourself of as an inner compass in every situation to help you stay present no matter what happens. Strengthen your ability to be with things as they are. This opens up the possibility to “be as you are and who you are” (Bischof, Obrecht Parisi, Rieder, 2012).

 Experience your depth, your essence, and the Divine through the breath: silence, energy, flow, emptiness, fullness, spaciousness, connectedness, oneness, generosity, kindness, …

 Connect with your wounds and pain to melt, to become vulnerable, to experience compassion from your heart for yourself and others. Through the words of the Indian holy man, the “Godchild of Tiruvannamalai”, Yogi Ramsuratkumar (ca. 1975):

4 Object Meditation

Exercises which focus the attention on something internal such as the breath or external such as a picture lend themselves well for a gradual introduction to meditation practice. The following instructions are based on concepts of Buddhist meditation practice (Vipassana) as well as exercises from breath and body psychotherapy. They are all self-affirming.

4.1 Meditation Postures

At its root, meditation is rather an all-encompassing attitude towards life than a formal exercise.

“The very best and highest attainment in this life is to remain still and let God act and speak through you.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328)

Sitting Postures

Sitting on a stool (front view)

Sitting on a stool (lateral view)

Sitting on a chair or stool,if possible without armrests. Both sit bones are close to the front of the seating area so that the thighs are free to move. The upper and lower parts of the leg make approximately a 90 degree angle. Choose a thin, relatively firm cushion or even try without one so that the contact to the support is as clear as possible..

Sitting on a cushion (front view)

Sitting on a cushion (lateral view)

Sitting on a cushionwith folded legs. Feet and lower legs are on the floor. Choose a cushion high enough so that your pelvis is higher than your knees.

Sitting in half lotus (front view)

Sitting in half lotus (lateral view)

Sitting in half or full lotuswith or without cushion. During full lotus, the right foot rests on top of the left thigh and the left foot on top of the right thigh. The soles of the feet point upward. During half lotus, only one foot rests on top of the opposite thigh. The other one rests. These postures are for seasoned practitioners!

 I do not recommend sitting cross-legged where the feet are underneath the thighs: in this position the knees have no support from the ground.

With bench (front view)

With bench (lateral view)

With bench (rear view)

Sitting on a meditation bench.Both lower legs rest on the floor, the feet are below the bench.

Pillow between the legs (front view)

Pillow between the legs (lateral view)

Sitting with both lower legs resting on either side of a pillow.I recommend a pillow with a smaller diameter.

Thunderbolt (front view)

Thunderbolt (lateral view)

Sitting in Thunderbolt Pose.In this pose the practitioner sits on their heels. The feet can either be placed next to or on top of each other.

Hand Postures

Hands of the thighs

Hands folded

Hands on the thighs.As shown above in all of the pictures, the palms face downward toward the thighs. Make sure some space remains between your elbows and armpits.

Hands folded.With palms pointing upward, the right hand is placed inside the left. The thumbs are lightly or fully touching.

These are the two most important hand postures. There are more, depending on the school. If you are already used to one, stay with it.

 Sitting meditation is not a fight or holding of pain. A simple rule is this: as soon as the legs or arms fall asleep they are no longer participating in the process and require movement (cf. chapter 4.5).

Going inside

4.2 “Crossing the Gate’s Threshold into the Temple District”

Habitually, we constantly check our surroundings for signs of safety, of pleasure that we want to keep and not lose and signs of displeasure that we want to avoid or get rid of. We try to control the exterior so that we feel safe and steer clear of suffering. As a result, our attention naturally faces outward first.

Because of this, we see problems as outside of ourselves and we try to manipulate circumstances or people to become happy.

That is why many spiritual paths suggest as a first step to turn the attention from the outside to the inside. Thus, our self-perception and self-acceptance become the basis for mindfulness and growth.

4.3 The Eyes

 ClosedDuring the first phase of entering inside I recommend keeping your eyes closed. This will facilitate your staying collected internally. On the other hand, with eyes closed it is more likely that you will identify with your perceptions or that you drift off dreaming or dozing.

 Open