..续本文上一页f the chest and let it go all the way down to your intestines.

　　Let all these breath sensations spread so that they connect and flow together, and you”ll feel a greatly improved sense of well-being.

　　4. Learn four ways of adjusting the breath:

　　a. in long and out long,

　　b. in long and out short,

　　c. in short and out long,

　　d. in short and out short.

　　Breathe whichever way is most comfortable for you. Or, better yet, learn to breathe comfortably all four ways, because your physical condition and your breath are always changing.

　　5. Become acquainted with the bases or focal points for the mind -- the resting spots of the breath -- and center your awareness on whichever one seems most comfortable. A few of these bases are:

　　a. the tip of the nose,

　　b. the middle of the head,

　　c. the palate,

　　d. the base of the throat,

　　e. the breastbone (the tip of the sternum),

　　f. the navel (or a point just above it).

　　If you suffer from frequent headaches or nervous problems, don”t focus on any spot above the base of the throat. And don”t try to force the breath or put yourself into a trance. Breathe freely and naturally. Let the mind be at ease with the breath -- but not to the point where it slips away.

　　6. Spread your awareness -- your sense of conscious feeling -- throughout the entire body.

　　7. Unite the breath sensations throughout the body, letting them flow together comfortably, keeping your awareness as broad as possible. Once you”re fully aware of the aspects of the breath you already know in your body, you”ll come to know all sorts of other aspects as well. The breath, by its nature, has many facets: breath sensations flowing in the nerves, those flowing around and about the nerves, those spreading from the nerves to every pore. Beneficial breath sensations and harmful ones are mixed together by their very nature.

　　To summarize: (a) for the sake of improving the energy already existing in every part of your body, so that you can contend with such things as disease and pain; and (b) for the sake of clarifying the knowledge already within you, so that it can become a basis for the skills leading to release and purity of heart -- you should always bear these seven steps in mind, because they are absolutely basic to every aspect of breath meditation. When you”ve mastered them, you will have cut a main road. As for the side roads -- the incidentals of breath meditation -- there are plenty of them, but they aren”t really important. You”ll be perfectly safe if you stick to these seven steps and practice them as much as possible.

　　Once you”ve learned to put your breath in order, it”s as if you have everyone in your home in order. The incidentals of breath meditation are like people outside your home -- in other words, guests. Once the people in your home are well-behaved, your guests will have to fall in line.

　　The "guests" here are the signs (nimitta) and vagrant breaths that will tend to pass within the range of the breath you are dealing with: the various signs that arise from the breath and may appear as images -- bright lights, people, animals, yourself, others; or as sounds -- the voices of people, some you recognize and others you don”t. In some cases the signs appear as smells -- either fragrant or else foul like a corpse. Sometimes the in-breath can make you feel so full throughout the body that you have no sense of hunger or thirst. Sometimes the breath can send warm, hot, cold, or tingling sensations through the body. Sometimes it can cause things that never occurred to you before to spring suddenly to mind.

　　All of these things are classed as guests. Before you go receiving guests, you should put your breath and mind into good order, making them stable and secure. In receiving these guests, you first have to bring them under yo…

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