Check in on your breathing now.

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Remember, when you breathe in deeply through your nose you are also massaging your brain and stimulating it. If only we could simplify our lives, get away from meaningless pursuits, and find more time for ourselves !! - Jagannath. FROM DENNIS LEWIS (July 14, 2006)Back from Esalen: Check in On Your Breathing NowI just returned two weeks ago from my annual five-day "Free YourBreath, Free Your Life" retreat at Esalen Institute in Big Sur CA,where I also gave a 90-minute talk and mini-workshop to the entireEsalen community. I was greatly helped in these events by mywonderful teaching assistant Esther 'Joy' van der Werf, who isplanning to assist me again at Esalen in May 2007. You can learnmore about her at:http://www.VisionsO fJoy.orgDuring the

retreat, one of the burning questions that arose amongthe participants was the question of awakening to our real nature,of being present to who and what we really are.To understand the implications of this question it is imperative tosee that so many of us live our lives in a fast-forward mode,attempting to escape the pain, discomfort, uncertainty, or boredomof the present moment by dwelling on something in the future that webelieve will bring us meaning and make us happy. Of course, when weare honest with ourselves, we see that the future always arrives Now, which we are constantly trying to escape, and so much of ourlife is spent fast-forwarding and never really being where weactually are. In the midst of this process the question "Who am I?"sometimes awakens in us. It can come in moments of great shock orsuffering; it can also come in moments of true wonder and joy; or itcan arise as a result of the

conscious efforts we make in our livesto live more honestly. Sometimes it just seems to arise by itself,as a gift from the unknown.When the question does arise in a serious way, one way to supportits flowering is to check in on your breathing and allow yourawareness to move inward with your breath--to begin to experienceyourself as a breathing being. For the process of breathing is aliving metaphor for understanding how to expand our narrow sense ofourselves and be present not just to the miraculous energies of lifethat are both in and around us but also to the deep silence andspaciousness out of which these energies arise. By checking in onyour breathing you are actually getting in touch with a deeper, more-conscious dimension of your own being.Allowing your breath to take you deeper inside yourself, however,takes practice (I show many approaches to this in my recentbook "Free Your Breath, Free Your

Life). So check in on yourbreathing right now. Allow all the sensations of your breath, allthe internal and external movements related to how you are breathingnow, to enter your awareness. See if you can discover a quiet, non-judgmental place in yourself from which you can discern which partsof your body your breathing engages. Just be aware, without anyattempt to manipulate your breathing, of what your breath feels likeand how this awareness influences your sensation of yourself. How doyou feel right now? What, if any, new perceptions are arising?Without coming to any conclusions, what does this experience tellyou about who you are? And, perhaps even more important, who or whatis aware of all this? Who or what is able to see and listen to whatis actually happening?As you continue to explore yourself in this way, you may notice,though it will probably seem somewhat uncomfortable at thebeginning, that the

question "Who am I," a heart-felt question thatopens you to the unknown, releases, at least temporarily, theconstricting egoic prison of habitual thoughts, beliefs, feelings,perceptions, and sensations that you identify with and take to beyourself. And, if you remain quietly alert, simply following themany movements of your breath, you may notice the precise momentwhen identification with your ego consciousness- -your self-image--returns again, instantaneously shutting out any sense of theunknown. It usually comes in the form of mental or emotionaljudgments, such as "I've done this long enough,I think this issilly,I'm not learning anything new,I've got something veryimportant to do now," and so on. In the name of what you refer toas "I," all exploration ceases, and you begin the fast-forwardingprocess again. Catching a glimpse of this process of identification(or attachment) is a moment of real freedom. And

once you have seenyour own form of identification clearly, and allowed thesignificance of your inner slavery to your thoughts and emotions topenetrate into your consciousness, you will begin tonotice "identification" more and more often in your life. It isthis "noticing" that will help you awaken to your real nature--purewelcoming awareness. It is this awareness that will bring you intothe miracle of Now, where you can experience the full miraculousbreadth of the breath of life moving through you.Copyright 2006 by Dennis Lewis============ ========= ======= After all, they (the pro-vaccine lobbyists) say to themselves, you can't make an omelette withoutbreaking eggs. But the eggs being broken are small, helpless, and innocent babies, while the omelette is being enjoyed by the pediatricians and

vaccine manufacturers. - Harris L. Coulter, PhD

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