Breath Focus: Advanced Perspectives on a Basic Practice

I’m known as one of the few Buddhist teachers that does not start people out with breath focus. It’s not that I have anything against breath focus, though. In fact, last Saturday I gave a one-day retreat devoted exclusively to that topic. The workshop was at Gil Fronsdal’s Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

You can read about the program below and listen to it for free here:

Breath Focus Retreat Part 1
Breath Focus Retreat Parts 2-5 

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Breath Focus: Advanced Perspectives on a Basic Practice

Breath focus is sometimes considered an elementary starter practice. But with a proper understanding, it can lead all the way to Enlightenment. On the other hand, it can sometimes become a dead end; it calms but fails to bring deep insight and purification even after many years of practice. The purpose of this workshop is to compare and contrast different approaches to breath practice within Buddhism, unpack the mechanisms by which breath practice confers its benefits and describe how attending to the breath can be optimized and directed towards liberation.

Topics covered will include:

• A clear conceptual model for how breath works as a focus
• A chance to sample several distinct forms of breath focus
• A chance to discuss your experiences around breath with a senior teacher
• Suggestions on how to avoid dead ends
• How breath practice fits into the broader framework of mindfulness

Preparation instructions that registered students received:
Please read from my article “What is Mindfulness?” the following sections pp. 4-46 (and feel free to read more of the article if you’d like):

• Section I. Some Useful Distinctions
• Section II. Noting: A Representative Practice
• Section III. Towards A Definition of Mindful Awareness

Nachas and Mudita

In Yiddish it’s called nachas—the vicarious pleasure that one gets from the successes of people one feels connected to. As one’s sense of connectedness broadens, it evolves into what is called mudita in Pali –rejoicing in the (spiritual) successes of everyone and anyone.

I’m getting both nachas and mudita from some recent developments for one of my facilitators Maria Myoshin Gonzalez.

Check out her doings at Harvard Business School here, and see below regarding the release of her new Mindful Leadership app.

Argonauta Consulting Inc. February 7, 2014 Dear Shinzen, It gives me great pleasure to let you know that the Mindful Leadership App is now available.  It has been a while in the making as it is fairly large with 12 Categories and 73 Guided Meditations. It was a wonderful project and I had great fun doing the recording.  It is intended to complement Mindful Leadership: The 9 Ways to Self-Awareness Transforming Yourself and Inspiring Others and offer you guided meditations for the techniques described in the book and much, much more! My intention was to create Guided Meditations that over the years of coaching and teaching, people have found to be most beneficial.  They naturally fell into 12 Categories.  There is something for everyone, including Managing Stress; Managing Migraines; Flying with Ease; Micro-Meditations (which are done in 2-3 minutes throughout the day), as well as, Mindfulness in Action Strategies / Tips.  There is also a Mindful Music Category for Teens and anyone who enjoys music; Exercising Mindfully  and Mindful Golf for those who wish to improve and more fully enjoy their game.    As you may know, my aspiration is to spread Mindful Leadership, globally, so that as many people as possible are able to benefit from Mindfulness, personally and professionally.  The Mindful Leadership App is one key way of making this a reality.  Consequently, if you enjoy the App, I would greatly appreciate it if you would share it with anyone and everyone you think might benefit and be interested. I hope you experience as much pleasure in listening to the recordings as I experienced in creating them. Below are the links to Apple and Google Play where you will find the Mindful Leadership App.  The App is for Apple iPhones and iPads, as well as, Android smart phones and tablets. May you enjoy many Mindful moments. With best wishes, Maria.                                                Maria Gonzalez President Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting Inc. 2 St. Clair Avenue East, Suite 800 Toronto, Canada   M4T 2T5 (416) 643-7187 mgonzalez@argonautaconsulting.com  www.argonautaconsulting.com www.argonautaconsulting.com/blog/

Ars Gratia Vitae

Artist Har-Prakash Khalsa--one of my senior facilitators and creator of the Expand-Contract Youtube Channel--currently has a really cool art exhibition aptly entitled "Turn Towards, Turn Away" at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario through March 23, 2014.

You can see some of the pieces, his artist statement, and a video of the talk he gave at the opening night of the exhibition on his new art website here: 

http://art.harprakashkhalsa.com/new-work/turn-towards,-turn-away.php.