{"id":63,"date":"2010-07-24T07:13:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T07:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html"},"modified":"2010-07-24T07:13:02","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T07:13:02","slug":"mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha&#8217;s Path to Awakening (Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span>Another<br \/>\ndistraction that might arise is feelings of impatience, restlessness, or<br \/>\nboredom. Typically, this happens when the mind projects itself into the future<br \/>\nor tries to make this practice into something other than this simple looking at<br \/>\nthe breath. You can acknowledge these feelings, without buying into their<br \/>\nstories. They are concepts and hold no necessary power other than the power we invest in them. In response to impatience, restlessness, and boredom, and to take their power away, you can give<br \/>\nyourself permission to be with the breath, and return to the present without<br \/>\nneeding to make this moment anything more than it actually it is. You can investigate whatever arises during practice with interest and gentle curiosity.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BS07004.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/BS07004.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"500\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span>Come<br \/>\nback to this moment as it unfolds. You are learning about your mind and how it<br \/>\nworks, the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and images that emerge, and how<br \/>\nthere is a tendency to move away from the present moment. In response, try to<br \/>\ngive yourself permission not to get frustrated or discouraged. Frustration or berating yourself for not being concentrated is just another story to come back from. Keep coming back<br \/>\nto the feelings of the breath. That&#8217;s the practice. And if you can do this in a matter of fact way, you&#8217;ll be moving into mindfulness. The goal here is to practice, to sit with yourself rather than produce a certain &#8220;outcome.&#8221; It&#8217;s the process that&#8217;s important and not the destination. There is no destination; it&#8217;s a journey to become intimate with your lived experience in this moment and then the next.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span>Remember<br \/>\nthat awareness of breathing can happen at any time, not just when you sit down<br \/>\nto meditate. Throughout the day, many times a day, you can try to remember<br \/>\nyourself in this way. You can touch the breath, bringing awareness to a few<br \/>\ncycles of the breath as you are hurrying through the day or coping with<br \/>\nsomething stressful. You can bring yourself into the now by giving your<br \/>\nattention to the breath. Try a 3-minute breathing space exercise by doing a mini-practice session. Come back to the formal practice described above on a regular basis as a<br \/>\nway to strengthen your awareness and your ability to remember to be mindful<br \/>\nthroughout the rest of your experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\">When Siddhartha Gautama sat under the pipal tree working towards awakening he was doing breathing meditation. He kept bringing his attention back to his body and the experience of now. He vowed not to get up until he was fully awakened and became&nbsp;<i>buddho<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/breathbybreath.jpg\" width=\"148\" height=\"215\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: 'Courier New';font-size: 15px\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\">(&#8220;awake&#8221;). This process is explained in the Satipatthana Sutta or the &#8220;Discourse on the Awakening of Mindfulness&#8221; A beautiufl explanation of this sutta can be found in Larry Rosenberg&#8217;s Shambhala Classic: <\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\"><i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shambhala.com\/html\/catalog\/items\/isbn\/978-1-59030-136-4.cfm\">Breath By Breath: The Liberating Process of Insight Meditation.&nbsp;<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/form>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:.5in\"><span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\">For more information and audio sample, visit my website&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, hirakakupro-w3, osaka, 'ms pgothic', sans-serif;font-size: 13px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/exquisitemind.com\/Learn.html\">Exquisite Mind.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another distraction that might arise is feelings of impatience, restlessness, or boredom. Typically, this happens when the mind projects itself into the future or tries to make this practice into something other than this simple looking at the breath. You can acknowledge these feelings, without buying into their stories. They are concepts and hold no&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-shelf","category-buddha-101","category-mindfulnesss"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha&#039;s Path to Awakening (Part Three) - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha&#039;s Path to Awakening (Part Three) - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another distraction that might arise is feelings of impatience, restlessness, or boredom. Typically, this happens when the mind projects itself into the future or tries to make this practice into something other than this simple looking at the breath. You can acknowledge these feelings, without buying into their stories. They are concepts and hold no&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-24T07:13:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/BS07004.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha's Path to Awakening (Part Three) - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha's Path to Awakening (Part Three) - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"Another distraction that might arise is feelings of impatience, restlessness, or boredom. Typically, this happens when the mind projects itself into the future or tries to make this practice into something other than this simple looking at the breath. You can acknowledge these feelings, without buying into their stories. They are concepts and hold no&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html","og_site_name":"Mindfulness Matters","article_published_time":"2010-07-24T07:13:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/BS07004.jpg"}],"author":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html","name":"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha's Path to Awakening (Part Three) - Mindfulness Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/BS07004.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-24T07:13:02+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-24T07:13:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/BS07004.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/BS07004.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/07\/mindfulness-of-breath-the-buddhas-path-to-awakening-part-three.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mindfulness of Breath: The Buddha&#8217;s Path to Awakening (Part Three)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/","name":"Mindfulness Matters","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Arnie Kozak","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8","name":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Arnie Kozak"},"description":"Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology, Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England's leading expert in the field. Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}