See if you can bring the breath up through the perineum and fill the entire interior of the lower belly, then the midchest, and then the upper chest. Keep some of your attention on the perineum and some of your attention on the breath, filling up the whole body up to the collarbones. All three regions of the body should be drinking the water of life, the breath that is flowing upward from the perineum. Finally, let the breath flow all the way up to the back of the skull. Remember to keep a portion of your attention on the perineum, which is the entryway for the breath. This will give you a sense of being rooted and grounded as you bring the breath all the way up through the three regions of the body and up to the back of the skull. On the in-breath, bring the energy up, and on the out-breath, let the breath go out while being attentive to the five places we are working with (the perineum, the lower belly, the midchest, the upper chest, and the back of the skull).
Continue to breathe in through your perineum, bringing the breath all the way up to the back of the skull. Notice your mind and the quality of your breathing. Observe the larger environment or feeling of your mind and body in which this practice is occurring. Finally, let go of any technique whatsoever, and look at your mind and notice how it is. Sit in this manner for a few minutes to feel and assimilate the benefits of this practice.
CELLULAR BREATHING
A. Cellular Breathing, Lying Down
Take the basic lying down posture and do a short, ten-points practice.
Now we are going to slightly change your posture to do the cellular breathing exercise. Rather than putting your feet on the floor with your knees up, stretch out your legs, without the yoga strap, and put your meditation cushion or another pillow underneath your knees and lower legs. You can position this cushion as high as you like—whatever is most comfortable. You’re just draping your legs over the cushion, in most cases making your knees a little closer to the ground than in the basic lying down posture. Your feet may not touch the ground, which is fine, or you might be able to stretch them out farther, resting them on the floor. Basically, we want to be completely, totally relaxed, not having to hold the legs up at all, and we are going to need the greater leg extension to do the exercise. If the knees are bent too much, it is harder to do, so we are bending them less this way. They can be slightly bent, but not bent too much.
Take a minute and work with your posture, work with your placement on the floor, and make sure you are really comfortable. Through the other practices, you have developed the ability to focus your breath, which is a very powerful tool. In this exercise, you are going to use that ability in a different way. You are going to start breathing into specific parts of your body, working your way up from the toes all the way to the top of the head. Taking them bit by bit, the basic idea is whatever part you have breathed into is included in the next part, so by the end of the practice, you are breathing into the body as a whole. Again, you start with the big toe, breathing into it, bringing the breath in, and gradually work your way up. So, when you are breathing into your knees, you are still breathing into your big toe, your feet, and your legs. Everything you have worked with up to that point is included.
Now to remind you a bit of the view, as is discussed earlier in the book. When we bring our breath consciously into different parts of our body, there is the physical part, in this case pulling the breath in through the pores of the skin. But at a deeper level, there is the inner breath, by which we are bringing the life energy into that particular part of our body. This brings awareness with it, and invites the unfolding and the delivery of the karma in each part of our body. Karma simply means the next step in the unfolding process of our being, as encoded in us, in the body. It is part of who we are physically, even though we are not aware of it. We are inviting that unfolding process; the encoded next step of our human life is invited to display itself. That is what the breathing does in each part of the body. It creates a situation of openness and unfolding and encourages the process of unfolding, the unfolding of our life. The important point here is that this unfolding is already implicit in every cell of our body. We are a very specific organism on the planet, and in the very cells of our body is what we need to be, what we need to become, in order to fulfill our human destiny or our fate. We are working with our destiny when we do this breathing, in the most specific and concrete way we can ever imagine. But don’t be scared—this shouldn’t seem too heavy. Just relax and enjoy the process of opening up our sense perceptions in these areas. The body will take care of the rest.
So, begin by breathing into your big toe, just working on this for a little bit of time. What you are trying to do is to bring the breath in through the toe, through the pores, and begin to feel the sensations in the big toe. The two big toes are probably not going to feel the same. And, again, don’t be distressed. You are breathing in, and you might not be surprised to find some pain there. That’s fine. You can feel your toenail—it is sort of hard and dense—and then you can feel the flesh under your toenail. Feel the tip of your toe. You’re just breathing in and feeling the texture. Feel the interior of the big toe, the bones, and the joints that may well be sore. The big toe takes a huge amount of stress and very often is achey, yet we are often not aware of it because we are too busy thinking to really pay attention to this extremely important part of our body. Breathe into it. Bring life to it. You are bringing life, you are bringing feeling into your big toe.
So, this is very similar to the progression of the ten-points practice, but with two important differences. First, we are intensely breathing in through each part of our body, each pore, not focusing simply on attention and relaxation. This breathing greatly heightens the process. Second, as mentioned, as we move from one part of the body to the next, we keep breathing into the part we have already been breathing into. So the total area of the body being breathed into increases and accumulates in that way.
Bring the breath all the way to where the big toe joins the foot, but no further. Just come up to that point. And then go to the toe next to the big toe and follow the same process. What you’ll notice as you breathe into the big toe and the second toe, because we are now including both, is a process of relaxation. The big toe is actually very tense. You can relax it. The second toe is also very tense. Relax. And as you relax the big toe and the second toe, you’ll notice that sometimes the energy of other parts of the leg will actually start to flow down, and that’s fine. Then bringing in the third toe, which may be a little harder to feel. Just keep breathing into it until you start to feel it. Then include the fourth toe, adding it to the others as you breathe in through all of them. Finally, add the baby toe. So, now you are breathing in all five toes, all five at once.
Feel how very sensitive the toes are, and how awake they are. There is so much intelligence there. Just feel that. Now, you can come up into the ball of the foot, on the inside. This is a joint that obviously receives a tremendous amount of stress, and may be very tense. Try to relax it. Feel the energy. Feel the tension. Feel the soreness. Next, breathe into the middle part of the foot, right behind the middle toe. You are bringing the breath in, in a very deliberate and focused way. Begin breathing into the outside of the foot. Remember, you are adding each part to all the previous parts we’ve been breathing into, so now we are including all five toes and the bottom of the foot. Next, breathe in right behind the toes, on the inside and the outside. You are really bringing the breath up into the interior of the foot, looking for tension, and relaxing. Next, you come up into the arch of the foot, moving up the bottom of the foot.
Notice that as you are working with the feet, your whole body is going to make some minor adjustments in its alignment. It’s very interesting—just keep an eye on that. You’ll especially notice it in your pelvis and your legs. As you go along, you will find that some microrealignment is going to want to happen there. Welcome it.
Next, breathe up into the heel, so that you are now in the bottom of the foot, breathing up though the bottom, the sole of the foot, into the foot. Through the
toes, the front arch, and heel, breathe up into the interior of the foot. Come up to the ankle bone on the inside of the foot. Breathe up through the arch into the ankle bone on the inside. And notice how that might very well effect the alignment of your hips, your psoas, your lower back. Then you’ll breathe up the outside of the foot into the ankle bones on the outside and the Achilles tendon.
Now you are breathing into the entire foot up through the toes, the heel, the middle arch, the front of the foot, and through all the skin, all the pores, on either side, up into the ankle. The foot, now as a whole, is a living, breathing, intelligent entity on both sides. Keep noticing the legs and hips as you do this and how they might want to readjust slightly as you move along.
Continue, breathing up into the calf muscle through the foot, on both legs. Next, breathe into the shin bone, then up through the muscle on the outside of the shin bone, the outside of the leg, also in through the pores.
Bring the breath, then, all the way from the toes, the entire foot, the lower leg, up into the knee joint. Also breath in through the pores of the skin in the knee, front and back. Stay focused. Be present, and just feel the nature of the knee joint, the muscles, the tendons, the vulnerability of the knee. The knee is energetically very open in a certain way. If you have pain, just breathe into the pain. Breathe in it and through it. Let it be.
Next, come up into the front of the thigh, the back of the thigh, the sides, come all the way up to the hips, so you are breathing through the entire foot, the entire lower leg on both sides, the knees, and then the front of the thigh, bringing the energy up into the hip joint. You are bringing the breath up from the places you have already worked on, and are also breathing in through all the pores of that particular area.
At this point, you are applying a lot of exertion, a lot of attention, but at the same time you are relaxing into deeper and deeper levels in your body. Your attention is rather taut or rapt, but your body is increasingly relaxed.
The more energy you can bring into this cellular breathing by bringing the breath in, the more these areas will wake up and become alive and vibrant and aware. Move deeply into the hamstrings and up to the buttocks. Add in the sitz bones. Now you are including both legs, beginning from the toes, all the way up. Now, breathe through the sitz bones and into the anal area, the perineum, the genitals, and then up to the pubic bone. Bring the breath all the way up from the toes to the pubic bone and into the hip joints on either side. Then move into the lower belly, and up to the navel, at the same time coming in from the outside, through the pores. Take your time; go step by step through these areas. Fully feel them and awaken them before moving on to the next.
Take a moment at this point to make sure that you are breathing in, sumultaneously, through everything we have covered so far. On the in-breath, the legs, the feet, and the pelvis become alive. They become bright. They open up. They are filled with life, awareness. On the out-breath, relax any tension. You are totally focusing your breath, bringing it into the lower part of your body, and you can really intensify the bringing in of the breath. You are bringing life, awareness, vitality, energy. Just feel that.
Continue on, bringing the breath up to and into the xyphoid process in the front, then up through and into the back. Come up to the collarbones. Come up the back to the shoulder blades. You are bringing the breath, the prana, into your entire body, through all the pores, all the way down to your toes. Add the thumbs, include them in this process; add the first finger, the middle finger, the fourth finger, and the baby finger. Come up into the palms, the back of the hands, the wrists. You’re still including the rest of the body. You’re folding in these last parts. Come up into the forearms, the entire lower arm, the elbows, the upper arm, and up into the shoulders. So now you are breathing though the entire body, up into the shoulders. Then, gradually, bring your breath a little higher each time, into the lower part of the neck, and the middle part of the neck. Then add the base of the skull; bring the breath into the back of the skull, the jaw, the lower teeth, the tongue, the lips, the upper teeth, your cheekbones, then the flesh of the face, the eyes, the ears, the forehead. Breathe into the scalp and finally the brain.
Now you are breathing through the entire body, through every pore of the entire body, into every portion of its interior, all its bones, muscles, and organs, into all the cells of the body. Just work on that for a few minutes. It isn’t easy, but if you stay with it, the energy, attention, and sense of intense vitality will become greater and greater.
As you are breathing through the entire body, notice if there are any places that perhaps seem a little dead or a little resistant to the breath, and you can emphasize those areas a bit. You are still breathing through the entire body, but you are ending up in that particular spot, trying to bring more life to it, more energy, more awareness, more feeling of being awake and sensitive and sentient.
Continue this for another minute or two. Try to make a lot of effort now, maximize your effort and exertion to the utmost, breathing in through every pore of your body, into every single cell of your body, surface and depth, simultaneously.
Then, when you think you can’t possibly do any more, you can just let go of the technique and lie quietly. Feel the energy circulating throughout your body. This is the inner breath, the prana, which is your vitality, flowing through your nadis, or energy pathways. Your body is now very, very awake, and you can feel an electricity flowing everywhere. Stay with this for several minutes, enjoying it and being completely in the flow. Stay with it until you feel really satisfied. After resting for a few more minutes, you can sit back up. As you do so, continue this sense of the full body, cellular breathing but gently now with a very light touch.
B. Cellular Breathing, Sitting Up
This practice can be done on its own, beginning in a sitting up posture, or as a continuation of the lying down cellular breathing. Basically, you just recapitulate, in your sitting up posture, what we just did lying down. If you just did the lying down practice, you can do the sitting up practice much more briefly, taking perhaps five to seven minutes for the whole thing. If you haven’t done the lying down practice first, and you begin in a sitting posture, you might take twenty to thirty or forty minutes for the whole thing. The timing really should depend on your own feeling. Stay with each area until you feel it has really opened up, come awake and alive, before moving on, through every pore of the body, bringing the breath into every cell.
Whether you are lying down or sitting up, here is the challenging part: There are going to be parts of your body that you don’t like and you don’t want to be aware of. Maybe you think you’re too fat, maybe you think you’re too thin, maybe you think you don’t have a good upper body. Maybe you are afraid of your heart or afraid of your stomach or afraid of your liver. Whatever it may be, bring the breath in through every pore of the body into every cell of the body, and pay particular attention to the parts of your body from which you might want to shy away.
Bring your breath in in a very loving way. It can be loving, nurturing, tender. If you have an injury or a disease, it is very appropriate to breathe into that, but continue to bring the breath through the whole body and then into that place, so that you are in a way setting up a situation in which the whole body is nourishing and bringing vitality and healing to that particular distressed part.
It is like having some children that you are peaceful around and others who always put you on edge and drive you crazy: at a certain point you have to pass beyond judgment, and your love has to be open and impartial toward all of them. This is what you’re doing. This is also an opportunity to correct your alignment in your sitting posture, because in this open state your body is going to notify you of what is going on, if something is slightly out of kilter, and you are welcome to respond to that.
As you continue to breathe in through every pore of the body, into every cell of the body, check your body and see where you are still holding on, where you are not completely relaxed. This is a lit
tle more challenging when you are sitting up, because the tendency to tense up is much greater than when you are lying down, but all the same, scan your body and find out where you are not completely relaxed: whether it is your shoulders, your back, or your legs, just work with that. As you do this breathing, see if you can make minor adjustments to bring your body into a greater feeling of ease.
Take an interest with what is going on with your body. It is so filled with life and movement and energy. Continue breathing. When you are sitting up, you can, if you like, emphasize your legs and your buttocks and your perineum. You can bring the energy up through your legs and perineum, up into your body, and let your upper body just sort of float over that very grounded situation. Let your shoulders really hang. Sit and let the energy flowing through your body provide all the uplift needed. You don’t have to do a single thing or make any effort in your sitting posture, except to be with the life force flowing through your body.
REGINALD A. RAY, PH.D. brings us close to forty years of study and intensive meditation practice within the Tibetan tradition as well as a special gift for applying it to the unique problems, inspirations, and spiritual imperatives of modern people. He teaches within the dharma and meditation lineages of the great siddha Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. On the faculty of Naropa University since its inception, he is the author of Indestructible Truth, Secret of the Vajra World, Buddhists Saints in India, In the Presence of Masters, other books, and two popular Sounds True audio programs, Buddhist Tantra and Meditating with the Body. For information on the “Meditating with the Body” retreat and Dr. Ray’s other meditation retreats, please visit www.dharmaocean.org.
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