RSS

Breathing through the Whole Body: The Buddha’s Instructions on Integrating Mind, Body and Breath

April 12, 2012

Book review

Johnson explains how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation.

by Will Johnson

Explaining how stillness in meditation refers not to a rigid and frozen body but to a quality of mind, Johnson examines the Buddha’s own words at the core of the Satipatthana Sutta: “As you breathe in, breathe in through the whole body; as you breathe out, breathe out through the whole body” — an instruction often overlooked in the majority of Buddhist schools.

Exploring the Buddha’s complete series of steps for deepening awareness of the breath, Johnson explains how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation by extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs and abdomen to the entire body — a practice that unifies the breath, body and mind into a single shared phenomenon.

Showing how the flow of breath is directly affected by chronic tensions in the body and mind, Johnson explains that when breath starts flowing through more of the body, it becomes a direct agent of healing, massaging and melting any areas of tension it touches and moves through — whether physical or emotional.

By breathing through the whole body, the body becomes more comfortable, the mind starts resolving its addiction to thinking, and meditative practice deepens much more rapidly, allowing the Buddha’s teachings to be directly glimpsed and revealed.

$12.95 — Inner Traditions, One Park St., Rochester, VT 05767.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 31, Number 2, April/May 2012.

Web Analytics