meditation

Despite being a bit skeptical, I tried Walpola Rahula's advice this morning (and last night) and spent about ten minutes focusing my attention on my breath, which, if I understand correctly, is a form of meditation. This is from chapter seven, where, somewhat to my amazement, Rahula defines meditation, to start with.

Also, he defines its purpose, which is developing a healthy mind. I figure what this means is, if your mind is healthy, it will create for you a happy, peaceful, secure, abundant life for you.

So apparently the Buddha taught that this exercise, together with several others, will heal the mind.

I happen to have some Japanese incense, which is the type without a wooden core, so I broke a stick in two - I didn't feel up to doing a whole stick - and lit it to time my meditation. I sat cross legged, which I happen to be decent at, this morning, and in a chair last night, upright and relaxed, and focused my attention as best I could on my breath.

Lovely thoughts drifted through my consciousness. That's supposed to be a problem you deal with in meditation, but I didn't worry about it ... I just enjoyed them. Still, there was this possibility of returning my attention to my breath, which was interesting, that it was there. The smoke, as if having its own mind, wafted straight towards me, giving me great pleasure.

I could feel, not my breath, so distinctly, not so much my lung expanding and contracting, but the pressure they brought to bear on, I guess, my diaphragm. After a while I could feel my kidneys being squeezed, and I imagined that was pressing healthy juices out into my system. I could feel sort of my muscles being stretched in my chest and shoulders. That was my experience.

Very strangely, after that, I felt too much urgency around going out to do my errands to stop for another cigarette. It's not in any way that I'm planning to quit - I love smoking - but here I was passing it up, which basically never happens.