Tranquil Sitting

by Yin Shih Tzu

  The air entering or exiting the lungs depends mainly on the activity of the chest muscles and the diaphragm. This is the activity of breathing, which functions incessantly day and night (in actuality, there is an almost imperceptible pause in breathing and in the heartbeat), so that you can keep your inhalation and exhalation in balance. Breathing is governed entirely by the central nervous system.

  When we breathe in, the air is taken in through the nostrils and throat, to the trachea, the bronchia, and into the lungs. When we breathe out, the air in the alveoles follows the original route to exit. The lungs are divided into left and the right. The left lung has two lobes. The right lung has three lobes. Physiologists estimate that man’s lungs have a total of seventy-five billion alveoles, which, spread out, would cover an area of about seventy square meters. About fifty-five square meters are involved in the functions of breathing. Relatively speaking, this space is thirty times larger than the surface area of the human body. We cannot imagine that such a small chest could contain so much. This illustrates to us how elaborate the construction of the lung is.

  Though breathing may sometimes involve nitrogen and water vapor, these are not essential substances. Inhaling is primarily ingestion of oxygen. Exhaling is expulsion of carbon dioxide. This process is necessary to make the purple color of blood in the veins change to a red color before it flows into the arteries. Hence the circulation of the blood is totally dependent on the assistance of breathing. In continuous circulation, the blood makes a circuit through the entire body every twenty-four seconds, which results in thirty-six hundred circuits in a twenty-four-hour period. The breathing of a human being may reach twenty thousand repetitions in a day, an intake of approximately three hundred and eighty cubic meters of fresh air.

  If we estimate that the volume of blood in every person’s body is two and a half liters, then nine thousand kilograms of blood are purified daily. It is difficult to believe that people cannot sense this remarkable event.

  The combination of one inhalation and one exhalation is called a single breath. People’s lives depend on this breath. If you cannot catch your breath in time, you will suffocate and die. The practice of meditation addresses this problem, which is a fundamental requirement of life. All Buddhist and Taoist priests and health instructors emphasize the practice of breathing. The initial step is to teach breathing techniques, and even when you attain a high level this practice is continued.

  Regeneration

  Regeneration is a common characteristic of all living things, the signature of life’s activity, the demarcation between living and non-living beings. Regeneration is a basic physiological activity of a highly evolved being. The structure of the human body has attained a very high level of complexity. It requires nutrition and oxygen for its regeneration, a process which involves a sequence of very complicated functions.

  Waste byproducts from the regenerative process also undergo a very elaborate process before being eliminated from the body. Waste substances produced by the human being are solid, liquid, and gas. The solid and liquid wastes can be eliminated as stool, urine, and perspiration. Gas can be expelled through the lungs and the mouth or nose. Among these, the procedure of expelling gas is the most important for good health. Circulation and breathing, whose functions are assured by the central nervous system which regulates all bodily events, are also auxiliary activities of regeneration.

  The regenerative process has two parts. One is constructive regeneration, which includes our body’s development, replenishment, the restoration of energy, and nutrition. A growing child has not completed his development; his constructive growth is still in progress. An adult has reached his full development, so replenishment is his body’s main task. Another type of regeneration involves the process of breaking things down, whether it be of tissue, energy, or food. Any such process can produce energy and calories. After energy is produced, part of it can be used to maintain body temperature, and the excess parts are quickly released from the body. In other words, the procedure of regeneration includes two continuous and inseparable steps.

  The first of these steps is the compounding and the breaking down of tissue or food. The second step is the production, use, and release of energy. This regenerative procedure will ensure that our body’s old cells continuously break down, as new cells are continuously produced. Physiologists estimate that a man’s cells are in continuous transformation, a transformation which lasts for seven years, after which time his entire body has been changed into another body. We look in the mirror and find that our faces change between childhood and adolescence, then from adolescence to middle age, until old age, when we can see that our face is totally different. This proves that regeneration is continuously changing our body in an undetectable way, yet we cannot sense this happening. How stupid we really are!

  Meditation can make our central nervous system calm down, so that it can develop its potential, to let the blood’s circulation function better, to let the breathing system receive its adjustments, and to help the regenerative processes. The effectiveness of meditation practice on these processes is impressive.

  CHAPTER Three

  How to Meditate

  What Adjustments to Make Before and After Meditation

  Adjusting your diet

  The human body is like a machine. A machine requires fuel to operate just as the human body requires food. After being chewed in the mouth, food is blended with saliva, then digested by the liquids in the stomach and turned into a pasty substance which flows into the small intestine for use by the whole body. We know that food plays a very important part in life. However, if too much food is taken in, the stomach cannot fully digest and absorb it; on the contrary, the undigested waste will be expelled from the body. This will increase the stomach’s work. Our bodies will be overburdened, and we will become anxious. In this condition we cannot achieve peace in meditation.

  If too little food is consumed, we will suffer from malnutrition and physical weakness. This is not appropriate for meditation either. Therefore, we should regulate our food intake. People always like to eat a lot. This is very inappropriate. We should consume food only until we feel somewhat, but not entirely, satiated. There is an old saying that the body should constantly labor, and food should constantly be regulated. This saying I agree with entirely. We should also not require food with a rich flavor. Vegetables are actually more suitable for our body than meat. It is not good to meditate immediately after eating. We should wait about two hours. The most appropriate time for meditation is in the morning after waking, washing one’s face, drinking some water, and emptying the bowels.

  Adjusting your sleep

  After exerting yourself physically and mentally you need to rest in order to renew your energy. We can regard sleep as the longest period we have to really rest. An ordinary person should sleep for eight hours. Exceeding this will make our spirit lose clarity, which is inappropriate for meditation. With too little sleep, our body cannot recover its energy, and our mind stays in a trance-like state. This also is inappropriate for meditation.

  Therefore, sleeping should be fixed at a regular time in order to keep our spirit always clear. This creates the best condition for meditation. We can practice meditation sitting on a bed, before going to sleep in the evening, or wake up at midnight to sit in meditation. After meditation, if we feel the need, we can go back to sleep. In any case, time spent sleeping should neither be too much nor too little.

  Adjusting your body

  Adjusting your body implies adjusting your posture. We should adjust our bodies before, after, and during meditation. Our physical activities include walking, relaxing, sitting, and lying—four postures. The meditation practitioner should be aware of his behavior at all times. His physical behavior should be easy and calm; violent movement is inappropriate. When you behave violently, your energy flow becomes violent, too, and your mind cannot focus on meditation. Therefore, before meditation adjust the mind. This is another method of adjusting
the body.

  When you enter into meditation on a bed or on a specially made cushion, loosen your belt, and arrange your feet in the right position. Fold both your knees, put your left foot on the right thigh, level with the thigh, then put the right foot on the left thigh. In this posture, the soles face upward, the thighs seem to form a triangle, the two knees press tightly against the bed or cushion, and all the body’s muscles are like a fully stretched bow. This is the best posture for meditation, for the practitioner will not lean forward, backward, left or right. However, older persons might have trouble using this posture. They can use a half-folded (single fold) posture—putting only the left foot on the right thigh, no need to put the right foot on the left thigh. Some persons might even have problems with the single fold posture; these persons may sit simply with the legs crossed, one foot touching the opposite thigh. The two hands should be in the right position—both hands open, facing up, with the right hand in the left palm, near the abdomen, resting gently on the legs. Then twist the torso in both directions, left and right, to be certain the posture is well adjusted and stable. The spinal column should not be too stiffly erect, nor too bent. Keep the head erect, so that the nose and the navel are vertically aligned.

  At this point open your mouth and exhale the stale air from the chest, curling your tongue back extending towards the throat, with the under surface of the tongue in contact with the palate. Next, one should inhale clean air gently three to seven times through the nose. Then the mouth should be closed, with the tongue in the retroflex position, eyes closed and posture straight and motionless. If you feel the body leaning in any direction, adjust your body to correct this. This is how to adjust your body during meditation.

  After meditation (to be described later), open the mouth and breathe out at least ten more times in order to reduce the body temperature. Slowly twist the torso in both directions, lift, then shrug the shoulders, and rotate the head in a circular motion. Then slowly and gently unfold the crossed feet and legs. After this, rub the inner edges of the hands against each other, at the lower part of the thumbs, until they become warm. Before opening the eyes, use these warm parts of the hand to wipe the two eyelids. The back of the thumbs should be used again to rub the two sides of the nose simultaneously. After this, rub the two palms together until they become warm, then, with the two warm palms, rub the back of the ears and the head, chest and abdomen, arms, legs, and both sides of the feet. During meditation the blood circulates more actively, making the body perspire, so wait until the perspiration dries before beginning your regular schedule. This is how to adjust the body after meditation.

  Adjusting the breath

  Air enters and exits through the nostrils as inhalation and exhalation. One inhalation with one exhalation counts as a single breath. The most essential task for meditation is to adjust that breath. There are four different breathing techniques. The first of these is to breathe with the throat. Ordinary people do not realize that breathing is part of the art of maintaining good health; their breathing is short and shallow. They just let air enter and exit from the short portion of their throats. In this kind of breathing, the lobes of the lungs cannot fully expand and contract. Therefore they cannot fully inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. This prevents the circulation of blood in the lungs from reaching ideal levels.

  The second technique is chest breathing. This technique should be better than the first one, since air reaches the chest and the lobes of the lungs fill with air. When we exercise, we use this technique naturally. However, neither of these techniques qualify as breathing adjustments.

  The third breathing technique uses the abdomen. This technique allows you to send the breath all the way to the abdomen. When the practitioner uses this technique to inhale, the air is drawn into and fills his lungs. His lungs are expanded and the diaphragm presses down. At this point, the chest is empty and relaxed, and the stomach expands. When the practitioner exhales, the abdomen contracts and the diaphragm raises up against the lungs, so that the stale air in the lungs is fully expelled from the body. This method may be considered a breathing adjustment. Breathing should not take too much effort. Make the breathing slow and prolonged, both as it enters and exits the body. The air should reach the abdomen in a very natural way, noiselessly, so that you cannot hear the breath as it enters or exits the body. This can be considered an advanced breathing adjustment.

  The fourth method is to breathe with the whole body. After several years of meditation, the practitioner achieves breathing which he cannot perceive in any way. Reaching this high level of skill, the practitioner appears to others to be in a state of non-breathing, because the rhythm and the volume of his breathing are so reduced. Though advanced practitioners obviously still have their lungs, they seem to ignore their use. Air seems to go in and out though the pores of their skin. A person who can attain such a level has reached the highest extreme of attainment in breathing adjustment.

  Pay careful attention to the breath going in and out through the nostrils. Do not inhale sharply, for this is shallow breathing. Learn to extend the breath from the throat to the chest and to the abdomen. This is the breathing adjustment to use before meditation. During meditation, if the breath is not adjusted, your mind will be unstable. Therefore, adjust the breath to a slow and gentle pace, balancing the duration of the inhalations and exhalations to make them equal. Regulate the breath by counting, either counting the number of exhalations or the number of inhalations. Count first from one to ten, and repeat this count. If your concentration fails during the first ten breaths counted, then start again at one. Continue this practice for quite some time, for it helps develop your skills, and adjusts the breathing correctly. This is part of the method for breathing adjustment during meditation. Breathing adjustment influences the circulatory system, making the blood flow more actively and warming the body. Therefore, after meditation, open the mouth and release the breath to lower the body temperature and re-establish normal body temperature. At this point, you may resume your activities. This applies to the method for breathing adjustment after meditation.

  Adjusting the mind

  Right from birth, people seem to enjoy the mind’s random thinking. As each random thought dies another arises to take its place. We can describe it this way: “Just as the will gallops like a horse, so the mind acts like a monkey.” We can see that the mind is very difficult to adjust. The final result of meditation depends totally on how well you adjust random thoughts. Of the four postures, sitting, lying, walking, and relaxing, we should occasionally check our walking and relaxing. All verbal and physical behavior should be monitored. We should always put our mind inside our bodies; do not let it gallop at random. With prolonged training, it will be easier to adjust the mind. This is how to adjust the mind before meditation.

  During meditation, there are two types of problem. The first is that the mind may lose concentration, and not be able to complete the meditation process. The second is that the mind becomes drowsy, and easily drifts towards sleep. The beginning practitioner may easily encounter the problem of losing concentration. After a long period of practice, he will be able to diminish the frequency of random thoughts. Then he risks the problem of getting drowsy. These two are the most frequent problems faced in meditation.

  The way to cure the problem of losing concentration is to relinquish all anxieties and look at the physical body as something external to yourself, without thinking about your existence. Focus your mind on the lower abdomen, and gradually you can experience profound tranquility. The way to cure the problem of drowsiness is to focus your mind on the tip of the nose. Then you can raise your spirit. In my experience, it is easy to become drowsy during evening meditation after working hard during the day. In morning meditation you would not have this problem.

  I am recommending some techniques to choose from. The first of these is accurately counting from one to ten. After extensive practice, your mind will follow the breath. With this technique alone, the two probl
ems of losing concentration and of drowsiness may be cured. This is how to adjust the mind during meditation. After meditation, pay attention and do not indulge in random thinking. This is how to adjust the mind after meditation.

  I have now described the three ways to adjust the body, breath, and mind. All three should be used simultaneously. I made three separate sections for discussion so that each could be presented clearly, but don’t separate these procedures.

  CHAPTER Four

  The Principle of Zhi Kuan

  During meditation, arrange the torso and four limbs as well as possible, and adjust the breath. The mind is the most difficult to tame. The human mind always likes to chase after external things. Although you would like to recall your errant mind back to the body, this is not an easy task to accomplish, so we must learn and practice the principles of Zhi Kuan, which will allow us to meet this goal. After practicing the three adjustments, learn the principles of Zhi Kuan. Even if you have never heard of the way of adjustment, you can still study the principles of Zhi Kuan.

  Zhi means “rest.” We have to stop our random thinking. Random thinking is like a monkey which knows no moment of stillness or peace. If this is so, what steps can we take to stop it? If we want the monkey to stop its activity, we have to tie it to a wooden stake, so that he can no longer jump at random. The first step towards practicing Zhi is called Xi Yuan Zhi (determination through tying up attractions). The mind’s random activity must be occupied with a specific subject, either concept or object. This attractive subject is called Yuan (the fatal connection, the attractive). The mind thinks randomly first of a, then of b, then of c and d. This is called Pan Yuan (being hooked by the attractive). We tie our minds to some spot, as we might tie up a monkey, so that our mind will not be attracted by anything else, a process we call “achieving rest by tying up the attractive.”