The Importance of Natural Respiration

　　- by S. N. Goenka

　　(The following has been translated and adapted from the fifth in a series of 44 Hindi discourses broadcast on Zee TV. It was originally published in the October 1998 issue of the Vipaśyana Patrikā.)

　　A meditator who comes to a meditation centre to learn Vipassana for ten days should clearly understand the ultimate goal of this meditation technique. Otherwise, one will get stuck at some midway station. One should clearly understand that the ultimate goal is to purify the mind, to free it completely from defilements. Dhamma is development of a pure mind. When the mind becomes pure and Dhamma becomes a part of life, one has learned the art of living. One becomes happy and helps to make others happy. This is the only aim of the practice of Dhamma. To purify the mind completely, to free it from all defilements, one will have to reach the depth of the mind where these defilements arise, multiply, and accumulate. One will have to stop their arising and multiplication at the depth and gradually eradicate the old stock of defilements so that the mind is completely purified.

　　Defilements arise within us, not outside. Pleasant or unpleasant situations occur outside, desirable or undesirable situations occur outside, but defilements arise within us, the resultant suffering, misery, grief arise within us. Therefore, to eradicate these defilements, one must journey within. Knowledge of the apparent truth at the surface level will not take one to the depth of the mind where the defilements arise. Beginning with very gross truths, one will have to understand progressively subtler truths of the body and mind until the subtlest truth is reached.

　　This must be done at the experiential level. The truth about this body and mind cannot be understood by reading books or listening to discourses. There is a vast difference between believing and knowing by direct experience. When understanding is based on actual experience, the entire secret of nature unfolds before us: how mental defilements arise as a result of the contact between mind and body and how they multiply. If one wishes to understand the essence of Dhamma, the essence of truth, one will have to journey within the body. Otherwise, one will give importance only to superficial matters for the whole life.

　　A great saint of India, Narsi Mehta said-

　　"Ṣarīra sodhe binā, o sāra nahin sāpḍe."

　　Without searching within the body, one cannot find the essence of truth.

　　The essence of truth will become clear only when the entire truth about this body and mind is experienced. Once one understands this, the way to liberation is opened. For this, one has to explore the truth within the body. This is what the saints did.

　　Another saint of India said - "Tīna hātha eka aḍadhāyī, aisā ambara cīhno mere bhai! Aisā ambar khojo mere bhai!" - Explore the sky, the space within the body, gain full knowledge about it.

　　If one practises this technique in its pristine purity, one will achieve this aim.

　　Those who preserved this technique in its pristine purity for the past 2500 years have found that anyone practising it benefited from it and developed purity of mind. Therefore, this technique should not be changed in any way-one should not try to add or remove anything from this technique. Then, it will continue to produce the same beneficial results. One must observe pure breath, natural breath, as it comes in, as it goes out. Just continue to observe and everything regarding the body and the mind will become clear at the experiential level.

　　What does the ordinary meditator actually know about his body

　　 He may have read some book on anatomy and have the delusion that he knows very well what the body is, inside and outside. But he has not…

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