Nan Shepherd, a 20th-century Scottish author, explored mountains intimately as well as seeking their peaks. This can be a model for our exploration of meditation. We'll set out on our own journey with the first stage of samatha breathing mindfulness: the longest of breathing.

Introduction

Blurb. Sarah welcomes you to the course with an analogy to the Scottish writer, Nan Shepherd, who explored mountains intimately as well as seeking their peaks. This can be a model for our exploration of meditation. We'll set out on this journey with a brief samatha breathing mindfulness practice that introduces the first stage of this practice: the longest of breathing.

Welcome to this exploration

Welcome to the course on samatha (calm) and jhana (meditative absorption). While I was preparing for this, I remembered a Scottish writer that I've always enjoyed reading called Nan Shepherd. She just used to like roaming the mountains. She didn't have any sense that you had to get to the top of the mountain. In Scotland they talk about "bagging Munros"—trying to climb all the big high peaks around Scotland—and it's quite a big achievement. She did sometimes do that. She did sometimes climb peaks. But what she really liked was just enjoying the mountain. She would quite often just go for a walk on a mountain, particularly along a ridge, to explore it and enjoy it because it was what refreshed her at the time. Sometimes she'd go by a spring and just feel that was what she'd needed, and she'd explore the terrain and walk around there. Sometimes she'd go through a wooded area, and then maybe, if she felt like it, she'd climb to the top.

I've always loved her book—it's Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain—because it seems to me that that is in many ways the right attitude towards calm meditation. Certainly there are some days, or some situations, perhaps on retreats, where, yes, go for a peak; it's a good time to do it. But other times it's just refreshing to enjoy the terrain and the fresh air, if you like, of taking time to appreciate where you are, your surroundings, the trees, and to feel restored by that.

The five jhana factors

So in this first session we're going to look at some aspects of how the mind can be restored by these five jhana factors.

We're going to look at examples in daily life where we can see those factors operating, and also how sometimes it's a good time to go for a peak and to sit in seclusion in meditation and cultivate these factors with a single meditation object.

Meditation: entering the terrain

So to give a taste of the terrain, if you like, or to help us feel comfortable in feeling that we have these factors and can find them ourselves, I'll just start with a short meditation. Sit in a way where you feel comfortable without straining. Just remember that you're enjoying the terrain—you're not trying to get anything or to achieve anything, though that may happen in time—but to enjoy what's there at the moment.

The practice we'll do to start off is just a very simple way of watching the breath, and it's based on the first instruction in the Buddha's discourse on breathing mindfulness.

So this is something we're just going to explore for ourselves, and I'll guide the meditation through.

Grounding and relaxing

Shut the eyes, and if you're sitting on the ground, that's very good—sit in a half lotus on the cushion. Or if you're in a chair, make sure your feet are on the ground. Just get a sense of the presence of your body; it's in contact with the ground. You can perhaps just brush down it lightly, starting at the top of the head, noticing any tensions in the back of the head, or in the face or the jaw. See if the shoulders feel relaxed; be aware of the shoulder blades; be aware of the front of the body and the chest. Have a feeling of the hands being relaxed, the right hand resting on the left hand and the right thumb resting on the first finger of the left hand, so your hands are like a boat really—the thumbs just touching and relaxed on that first finger of the right hand.

Becoming aware of the breath

And now become aware of the breath. There's a 20th-century Sri Lankan teacher who says, "Your breath is your best friend." So just be aware of your breath as a friendly presence. See what it's doing when it goes into the body. Feel it going throughout the central part of the body even more, pervading more. 

Cultivate a friendly attitude towards your breath.

So if you view the breath with friendliness, try to feel that the breath is actually coming in with friendliness and that it's finding all the places in your body that may be feeling tense or knotted or tight. Let the breath go where it wants in the body and let it do its job. Then explore it as it leaves. And then another breath comes in.

Introducing the longest of counting

Now, do the longest breath you can comfortably manage. It's not strained. Just guide the breath—don't try and over-control it. See it as something you're working with rather than against, and just guide it so that it is the longest breath you can comfortably take. 

You might slightly expand the chest on the in-breath, open the diaphragm. While you're doing that, just feel the presence of your whole body, contact with the ground—just a sense that your whole body is present there now. Do this very long breath. Apply the mind to it. Where is it going? And now explore it a little bit—just explore its passage. If there's any knot or tension, just let it go through that. You might find you develop a good feeling about the breath. Just explore the terrain and enjoy it.

If hindrances arise

If all sorts of hindrances are coming up, or it doesn't seem enjoyable, just adjust your posture and find again the longest breath you can comfortably take. Explore ways of letting that breath come in and having a good feeling towards it, trusting it.

If joy arises

And then if you do feel some sort of joy in the breath, just let that move around a bit in the body. See if there's any area where you can find some happiness, and let that move around with the breath. Then breathe it out again. And while you do this very long breath now, feel the presence of your whole body. 

Don't worry if there are distractions—just come back to that awareness, perhaps softening the awareness of the breath. Just feel that the breath is bringing in wellbeing, lovingkindness, to the whole body, and then breathe that out with the out-breath.

And finish the practice.

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I hope just doing that short exercise showed how we can have a kind of light and exploratory attitude to the breath. And I very much hope that in this course, the five jhana factors will feel like areas that are interesting to explore, just as one can explore one's breath. They show us ways of finding out about things and about finding peace.

Study your way

• All of the written content of this unit is contained in a workbook, which you can download here for reference and reflection.
• A single audio file containing all of the talks from this unit is also available below.
• You can download individual audio files, such as the meditation, on the Downloads page.