being aware of your breath

i have been monitoring the different levels of meditation possible for me to explore and, joyously, something new came up this morning, from insight received from a book i am reading.

it is about being aware of the breath. when one inhales a deep breath, one is aware of taking a deep breath... when one exhales a deep breath, one is again aware of exhaling a deep breath.

then we conceive breathing as a phenomenon of the body; we keep on conceiving breathing as a phenomenon of the body. we find our entire body breathing...

then we conceive breathing as a phenomenon of the mind; we keep on conceiving breathing as a phenomenon of the mind. we find our entire mind breathing...

then we conceive breathing as a phenomenon of our sensuality; we keep on conceiving breathing as a phenomenon of our sensuality. we find ourselves breathing with all five senses of our being...

breathing is a phenomenon that takes place "here and now," the awareness of which fixes us totally to the place and the moment.

the here-now feeling...
with the breathing conceived and realised as a phenomenon of the body, mind and sensuality...
and with the awareness that breathing is the truth of what is here and now,
we breathe on and touch another level of meditation.

*****

caption

the next turn...
they come and go; they come and go:
a compound wall in thiruvananthapuram being erased of the memories of last year's panchayat elections to receive the dreams of the latest of the dreams of the years to come.
april 13 is the date of the Assembly elections in kerala.

(this is a caption for a picture my friend ratheesh took for our paper today. i thought of putting it here since i like the ring of the thing.)