any bench is a meditation bench
Week Two
I was struck with how easily I moved through the second session. The process was familiar. Lying down, eyes closed, relaxed breathing, the resonant sound of the Tibetan bowl and we begin. Every five minutes, the sound faded away and a deeper bowl started. The process continued and then it was over.
I sat up, thanked my instructor and wondered if anything had happened.
The next morning, I prepared to meditate on this second level of connection. I followed what is becoming my meditation routine. I light the stove, place the stainless steel pan over the low flame, add the olive oil and the cracked pepper. As the pan heats and the pepper sizzles, I can smell the olive oil. In goes the sliced bagel, the cover is on and I am ready.
It has only taken a very few days for this routine to take shape, but I now link the smell of olive oil to the beginning of the meditation. There is no feeling of obligation, it’s just part of the morning.
The sitting position I use continues to be a challenge. My instructor has told me that I can choose a more relaxed position, but out of stubborness , I stay with the traditional posture. I expect that at some time it will feel right.
I have started to count my breaths. It gives me something to focus on while my legs are complaining. I inhale up and in while counting to five, pause, then down and out for the count of ten. I picked this rhythm because it felt about right.
On one of the days when the breathing was going fairly well, I had a memory from many years before. I had been working on a farm in the heat of the summer. After loading the hay into the barn, I went to the well for a drink. It had an old style hand pump. By pumping the lever, the water was lifted up through the pipe and came surging out the head. I remembered the weight of the water being raised out of the earth. In my breathing, I tried to feel that same weight. I tried to feel the pump handle lifting the air up into my lungs and then free from the pipe, letting it fall down to the ground. In for five, out for ten.
If this image is useful, I can’t tell, but it is satisfying and the memory is a good one.
Near the end of the week, I did notice something. It was not part of a meditation. In the middle of the day, while working, I realized that I had just taken a really nice breath. My mind was focused on work, but something alerted me to that breath. I took another one. It was easy and deep and complete.
I have taken millions of breaths. I have raced bicycles for thousands of miles, breathing in for one and out for two. I have been in the pool, swimming thousands of laps, breathing in for one and out for three. I can not remember any of those breaths. Now I have the memory of two breaths that, in the middle of the day caught my attention.
Why those two breaths? I really don’t know what to make of it.
This article was considered, prepared and written by a student of
Mind Body Performance Management