..续本文上一页 kind of rhythm feels good right now. Long breathing, short breathing, deep, shallow, fast, slow: there are all kinds of variations to the breath. You”ve got a whole hour to test them, to see what rhythm feels best right now, what texture to the breathing feels best right now. If you”re feeling tired, you”ll want a rhythm of breathing that gives you more energy. If you”re feeling tense, you”ll want a rhythm that helps you relax.

　　In the beginning you can focus on any part of the body that feels comfortable to stay focused on, feels easy to stay focused on, and where you can easily keep track of the breath. Try to create a nice relaxed feeling tone right there. Normally when we”re focusing on something we have a tendency to tense it up, which is not what we want right now. We want to be focused with a sense of relaxation, a sense of ease, a sense of openness. The energy in the body should be allowed to flow naturally in, flow naturally out. And then when you”ve got one spot in the body where you can maintain that feeling tone, you can allow that same feeling tone to spread to other parts of the body, so that as you breathe in there”s nothing in the body that gets tensed up, as you breathe out you”re not holding on to tension in any part of the body.

　　You can go through the body systematically. Start around the navel and just go up the front, section by section. Watch each section for a couple of minutes as you breathe in, breathe out, and notice what kind of rhythm feels good for that part of the body. If you feel any sense of tension or tightness there, allow it to relax. And then you move up to the next section, say, the solar plexus, and then the middle of the chest, the base of the throat, the head, down the back, out the legs. Starting again at the back of the neck, go down the shoulders and out the arms until you”ve covered the whole body. You can go through the body this way as many times as you like, and you”ll find that all kinds of benefits come.

　　The immediate benefit is a clear sense of wellbeing in the present moment. It just feels better to sit here when you”re sensitive to how the breathing is going and to how you can change it to make it feel even better. Each time you go through the body, you find that you get more and more sensitive to parts that you may have been holding in subconscious tension for a long period of time. You can finally allow that tension to relax and let go. You find it easier and easier to inhabit your body in the present. When the body in the present is more comfortable, the mind feels more inclined to stay here. So the benefits are not only physical. They”re also mental: a sense of ease, a sense of wellbeing. Your mind grows more and more still, at the same time it”s more alert and more aware. Our usual tendency when things get comfortable in the body is to fall asleep. But here we”re working at comfort mindfully, with as much alertness as we can muster. That creates a different quality to our awareness in the body. It feels both still and energized.

　　Then the next trick, once you”re able to do this, is to learn how to maintain it. All too often the mind says, “Well, been there, done that. What”s next

　　” But this is the sort of place that, if you really want to get to know it, you have to stay for a long period of time. You have to become familiar. You have to become friends with the body—the kind of friend who sticks with a friend no matter what happens, the kind of friend you”d like to trust. Try to be that kind of friend with the body. When you do that, you find that the breath in the body reciprocates. It becomes a good place to be, a nice place to stay, a place you can trust.

　　But there”s a separate skill in, one, learning how to get here and, two, learning how to stay. The thoughts will …

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