“Today we are going to learn the ‘ABC’s of Life,’” he said.
“ABC’s?” I asked.
“Yes, without these, we would die,” he stated in his all knowing tone.
“Okay, what are they?” I asked this knowing that it would be something pretty obvious once he explained it to me. He always started out simple and then got more complicated before we came back to simple again.
“Always Breathe Continuously,” he said with a sweeping gesture as if to make it more important.
“That’s it? That can’t be it. Don’t we just do it all the time anyway?” I thought he must have been joking.
“Wait a minute. Let’s do this first.” He touched my head, and we were in the middle of the expressway! Not in a car- just standing in the middle on the line. I started to scream out, and he stopped me. My heart was racing and I felt sweat rolling down my body. He told me to calm down; we were not going to get hurt. With the cars were whizzing past so closely, I knew we were doomed. He squeezed my head and in a flash, we were back at the library! I was covered in sweat, but I was safe.
“Whew! That was a close one! Why did you do that, are you crazy?”
“Why did you stop breathing when we were out on the expressway?” was all he asked.
“Stop breathing? I didn’t stop
breathing! That was crazy! You never know what those drivers will do when you’re in a car, but to be out in the middle of the road like that means that you are just a target!” I was all but shouting at him, and I was breathing hard.
“Why are you breathing so hard now?” he asked.
“Because I am upset! That’s why. That was the most reckless thing you have ever done with me!”
“You’re upset.”
“Damn right I’m upset! I don’t think this whole teacher/student thing is going to work out.” I felt like I was going to explode.
“Why aren’t you breathing now?” He put his hand on my head; again we floated in some huge body of water. I could not even tell which way was up.
He smiled at me. Now I really felt like I was going to explode. He took my hand and gave it a little jerk up and-flash-we were back in the library.
I gulped in a big breath of air and noticed where we were and that our clothes were already dry. “Oh,” I said. “This whole thing was about the breath, right?”
“So you might think the breath might be important?” he asked. “Of course you could not breathe when you were in the ocean, but why couldn’t you breathe when we were on the expressway?”
“I was afraid,” was all I said.
“So fear kept you from breathing?” he asked, smiling that annoying smile of his.
“Yes, fear! I was afraid that we were going to get creamed out there!” I was showing frustration again.
“But there was air to breathe. Why did you choose not to do so?” Again with that annoying smile.
“I had other things on my mind, okay?” I was shouting again.
“Other things were more important than the breath?” he asked. “What could be more important than the breath?”
He had me there, I thought. I could feel my body tense when I got upset or scared. But what could I do about it?
“Sit!” he said all of a sudden. “I will teach you how to breathe.”
He had me sit down with my back straight and my face looking forward. “Now start counting, at a moderate pace, one… two… three… four… one… two… three… four… and so on.”
I started counting and found by the second set of numbers, I was out of breath. He told me to slow down and breathe in on the one-two count and out on the three-four count. I did and it seemed very comfortable but controlled. I thought breathing was supposed to be natural.
“It is,” he said, reading my mind. “Just keep practicing.”
“Now visualize the breath coming up the back of your spine and down your front. This creates a complete circle and will help your flow of energy.”
I was doing as he instructed and I was feeling better. I felt more awake. My muscles were even beginning to relax; I could feel my shoulders beginning to drop. This was pretty neat stuff, but why count only to four; why not keep going? I thought.
“Because you need to keep your focus on the breath not on the counting.” He had read my mind again. “The count is only to help you maintain the rhythm. You will get to a point where the numbers will just drift away.”
“This sounds a lot like meditation,” I said.
“That’s exactly what it is. Meditation will train you to breathe correctly. You may even find other benefits as well…if you pay attention.”
“But I can’t meditate,” I protested. “I start out like the teachers say, but there is too much noise in my head, and besides, they say that it takes years to do it right. What’s the point?”
“The point is that it is really more simple than that,” he explained. “Many people make things out to be more difficult than necessary. Many ‘teachers’ want to hold onto the ‘secrets’ and make it out to be hard to do. Then there are those who believe that if it is not hard to do, it isn’t worth doing. We don’t see the essence of the practice. The noise in your head, for instance, is going to be coming in no matter what. If you try to keep the door closed to these thoughts, your focus will be on the door and not the meditation. The idea is to let it come in and then go right out. Just like watching a train at the crossing. You’ve zoned out watching the cars go by, so you know what it is like already. Anything that is important will be there when you get done with the meditation. Return to the count, and keep the breath.”
From --
It’s Really More Simple Than That!
A Story About Real Life
A Story About Real Life
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