The Authentic Life (6 page)

Start with awareness of the breath in and out of the nose, feeling the coolness on the in-breath and the subtle texture on the out-breath. Stay with these physical sensations for three breaths.

Now, while staying aware of the physical sensations of the breath in and out of the nose, add awareness of your hands resting in your lap. Feel the actual physical feelings in your hands, and stay with awareness of breath and hands for three breaths.

Finally, while staying aware of the breath and your hands, become aware of any sounds and try to maintain awareness of all three components for three full breaths. If you can't stay present
with all three simultaneously, it's okay to quickly flip back and forth between them.

Round Two

Take a couple of deeper breaths to clear the mind, then bring awareness again to the breath, this time focusing on the physical sensations in the chest. Feel the expansion and contraction of your upper body as the breath goes in and out, and stay with these sensations for three breaths.

Continue to be aware of the breath while adding awareness of your buttocks, sitting on the cushion or chair. Feel the sensations of touch and pressure, and stay with the breath and awareness of the buttocks for three breaths.

Last, while staying aware of the breath and your buttocks, add awareness of the quality of light in the room, and stay with all three of these as best you can for three full breaths.

Round Three

Again take a couple of deeper breaths, then bring awareness to the breath in the area of the belly. Feel the physical sensations in the belly area as you breathe in and out, and stay with these sensations for three breaths.

Now add awareness of the physical experience in the area of your shoulders. Feel any tension or feelings that reside there, and stay with these sensations along with the breath in the belly for three breaths.

Last, while staying with the breath and the shoulders, add the perception of the sense of space in the room, and stay with these three things for three full breaths.

You can change the individual components of the Three-by-Three as you wish; I usually use feeling the breath in one particular area of the body, such as the nose or the belly; one
physical sensation in the body; and one area outside the body, such as sounds or light. The important point is to really focus on whatever you choose and to try to harness the energy by refraining from letting thinking take over. At first it may be difficult to do the Three-by-Threes; but it's like exercising a muscle—the more we do it, the stronger our ability to sustain awareness becomes.

As you conclude the last round of the Three-by-Three, you move directly into the hara meditation.

Hara Meditation

On the in-breath bring awareness to the belly. The tongue should be resting on the upper palate. You can place your hands over the area right below the belly button.

The eyes can be open, but looking downward and unfocused, or closed.

The in-breath should be long and slow as you feel the belly fill up. The out-breath is also long and slow.

Visualize or sense the belly as a bed of hot coals, and with each in-breath the coals turn red-hot, as if a bellows is blowing on a fire.

On the out-breath, breathe consciously through the back of the throat and nose, making the very slight inaudible humming sound of
huuuum
.

Visualize or sense the coals staying red-hot on the outbreath.

If it is difficult to visualize the coals getting hot, it's fine to simply feel their warmth.

As the coals get hotter, feel the energy and strength consolidate in the hara.

Do this for several breaths.

If thoughts arise—turn away—there's no need to pay any attention to them.

If emotions arise—again, refrain from feeling or exploring them.

Remember: energy follows attention. If you put your attention in the belly, the energy will follow. But you don't have to push or strain.

Just feel the belly filling up. Feel the energy there. Keep the attention there.

Remember to make the sound of
huuuum
on the out-breath.

This is important—there should be no gap in awareness of the belly between the end of the out-breath and the beginning of the in-breath. Likewise, there should be no gap in awareness between the end of the in-breath and the beginning of the out-breath—just total, continuous absorption on the area of the hara.

Stay with awareness of the breath in and out of the belly. Feel the belly expanding. Feel the heat, the energy, the strength.

For an optional final step: on the out-breath visualize or sense the energy from the coals going to the whole middle area of the body, and perhaps even beyond. Do this for several breaths. Feel the body filling up with strength.

If you are interested, you can experiment with this, including doing it when you first begin a meditation and then moving into a more open awareness after ten to twenty minutes. You may find that the focused concentration of the hara practice is the natural foundation for a more open awareness practice. You can also do it for a few breaths at a time, anytime throughout the day.

I've found the hara practice to be one of the most effective tools for staying focused, and if you have never really developed a focused concentration practice, the hara meditation would be a good way to work on it. You might even find that spending
fifteen to twenty minutes not allowing the mind to spin results in a settling down in both body and mind, with the resultant state of genuine tranquillity.

One other suggestion for when the attention wanders, which it surely will: Come back to the very specifics of the technique, such as the lengthening and slowing of the breath, or visualizing the hot coals, or most importantly, to the sound of the breath on the exhale. I've found that this allows me to go right back into a focused awareness. Remember, you're not expected to do this well at first, so don't set up unrealistic expectations, which will just lead to disappointment and self-judgment. This technique requires effort and practice—“practice” in the traditional sense, such as practicing playing the piano. And as with any endeavor that requires effort and practice, strength exercised equals more strength; weakness indulged equals more weakness.

T
RANSFORMING
THE
E
NERGY
OF
A
NGER

There is another particular situation where working with the hara can be very useful, and that's when we have the strong energy of anger. When anger arises, it has two components: one, the sensations and energy in the body; and two, the thoughts that are often racing through the mind, such as “He's such a jerk,” or “I hate this,” or “This isn't fair.” What is required to transform the energy of anger from a strong negative force into something potentially beneficial is to first be able to refrain from letting the thoughts run rampant.

The practice is to repeatedly turn away from the thoughts, because each time we entertain them, it is like throwing a log on a fire, fueling the negative energy. To help us turn away from the thoughts, we bring the attention again and again to the breath in the belly. We stay focused like a laser on the hara, and
come back to it each time we get pulled back into thinking, blaming, or self-justifying.

Then, to actually transform the negative energy of anger, we feel the sensations and particularly the energy of anger as it flows through the body, and on the in-breath we breathe
as if
we were breathing that energy directly into the hara. If you can do this for several breaths, remembering to make the
huuuum
sound on the out-breath, you will begin to feel a definite change in your body energy—the strong feeling of negativity being transformed into a definitive sense of strength and resolve, which can then be channeled in a positive direction. This process is hard to describe, but it's definitely worth experimenting with.

T
RANSFORMING
S
EXUAL
E
NERGY

Equally hard to describe is how we can transform our sexual energy into a sense of inner strength. This is particularly valuable when we are caught in strong sexual fantasies or desires. Just like working with the negative energy of anger, we have to first be able to turn away from indulging the specific thoughts and images. This is where bringing a focused attention to the hara can be helpful.

As we settle into the hara—and this may well be a back-and-forth struggle, as the small mind wants to indulge the fantasies and desires—we then bring awareness to the specific experience of the sexual energy itself as it flows through the body. And on the in-breath we breath
as if
we were breathing that energy directly into the hara; then on the out-breath we allow the experience to consolidate with the
huuuum
sound. Sometimes all it takes is several very focused breaths—as we breathe the energy into the belly area—before the energy subsides and begins to transform into a definitive feeling of strength in the hara. We
can in turn use that strength to be more fully present, or we can channel it into productive activity.

As with the transformation of the negative energy of anger, transforming our sexual energy is worth the experiment. When we indulge either of these, we're leaking away valuable energy—energy that we could use to further awareness and spiritual growth. Note: this isn't saying that sex is bad—it's the fantasies that aren't helpful. Conversely, when we harness and transform the energy through bringing it into the hara, it becomes possible to channel that energy in a positive direction.

In working with the hara it is good to keep in mind that all practices have built-in detours—that is, ways in which we can misuse the practice and move away from our intended direction. The hara practice tends to produce states of inner stillness and calm (as we get out of the spinning mind), and this can be quite seductive. We can forget that the practice is a limited one, in that we are purposely shutting much of life out. This can possibly lead to “spiritual bypass,” where we end up ignoring the things inside that we don't want to face—the exact things that keep us from experiencing freedom, such as our unhealthy patterns and deepest fears. That said, it's also true that hara practice doesn't have to lead to the detour of spiritual bypass. It can instead be a valuable tool in developing both concentration and a kind of inner strength that is invaluable in itself. Hara practice allows us to know ourselves, to know our body—and to understand what is required to transform the energy in the body into something that serves us on the path to living authentically.

PART TWO

Awakening the Mind

6

What about Happiness?

D
oes living the authentic life mean that we'll be happy? This is a valid question, because many people believe that the purpose of human life is to be happy. For centuries teachers have offered prescriptions for happiness, and in the last few decades there have been increasing promises of quick fixes—guarantees to take away our anxiety and depression and replace them with a cheerful outlook. But evidence suggests that in recent years our levels of anxiety have actually increased, and what we thought we knew about how to be happy is now open to question; so perhaps we should ask first, what do we mean by happiness?

A while back a student told me he really didn't care about being enlightened or anything deeply spiritual—he said he just wanted to be happy. He asked me if, after my years of meditating, I felt I was truly happy. I told him that yes, I could say I was happy, but perhaps my understanding of what it meant to be happy was different from how he might understand it. Again, the question is, what does it mean to be happy?

P
ERSONAL
H
APPINESS

The dictionary describes happiness as a state characterized by delight or contentment—the emotional feeling that life is good. It is almost always associated with getting the good stuff, such as pleasure, or getting the things we want, such as satisfying relationships, financial security, or good health. When people talk about happiness, they are usually referring to this version of everyday personal happiness. It's important to realize that all of these aspects of happiness are based, in part, on our external life circumstances. But externals can always change—we can lose our job, or our wealth, or our relationships, or our health. Eventually we have to accept that relying on externals is not a very sound foundation for true contentment.

It may take us many years and many disappointments to realize the fact that we can't rely on externals for happiness. But if externals are not the source of happiness, where else can we turn? How about spiritual practice—can it actually make us happier? There's a study in which participants were asked to listen to a piece of classical music. Half were told to try to feel happy while listening to the music; the other half were told to just listen. Interestingly, the participants who were trying to be happy reported being much less so than those who were just listening. Why? Because in
trying
to be happy they were caught in their heads, in their small minds, whereas simply being present with the music allowed the other participants to experience the genuine happiness of just being here, not trying to feel different. It's becoming increasingly clear that people who practice meditation and who try to live in a way that is more present and more awake, generally experience increasing happiness in life.

Yet, in spiritual practice, happiness is not the goal. If we
make happiness the goal, it will most likely elude us, as it did with the people trying to feel happy while listening to music. Happiness is not so much a good feeling that we can capture as it is a by-product of how we live and how we see life. This leads back to the question, what do we actually mean by happiness? It's important to understand that personal happiness is based on a myth, which tells us that we'll be happy if we get what we want—the right mate, the right job, the right body, and so on. These things may be enjoyable in the very short term, but happiness based on externals will rarely survive life's inevitable blows.