Taoist macrocosmic orbit breathing

 

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Taoist macrocosmic orbit breathing

Taoist macrocosmic orbiting

This is a great way to do step 3+4 of 16aps breath meditation. 

I get asked sometimes what I recommend for authentic EBT sutta breath meditation, and whether I've written articles or books on the topic. I really haven't written too much about it (yet), because I don't think I have anything to add over the excellent systems I've relied on for my own practice. I do plan on writing a big article or small book one of these days, because now I do have some important ideas that will be extremely helpful for beginners and really all levels of meditators, but the ideas are subtle, and not easy to explain in a way that would justify my expending lots of my time and energy to craft the book. The reason I think this, is because by far the best book I've read on the topic, Ajahn Lee's book, doesn't seem to be very popular and receive the adulation and attention it deserves. 

I highly recommend Ajahn Lee's "Keeping the breath in mind". That's the method I used the most, and got the best results for, of all the breath meditation systems I've tried out. Prior to 3rd jhana, I'd say stick with Ajahn Lee method #2, then if third jhana becomes your new 'normal', consider doing his method #1. Ven. Thanissaro's book on breath meditation is excellent as well, he's in Ajahn Lee's lineage.

Stay away from Visuddhimagga based breath meditation. It's not that their breath meditation doesn't work at all, it's that it doesn't have a proper gradual training and support network of practices to really let their meditation system thrive. For example, in hindu and some taoist lineages, you'll find similar breath meditation practices to Vism. that would also lead to a Vism. redefinition of "jhana" as a formless frozen trance, but I would recommend those systems over Vism. because they have preliminary and complementary practices and a proper understanding of softening the body with yoga, qigong, before attempting deeper samatha training exercises. If your subtle energy channels  aren't open, samatha isn't going to get far. The Taoists get it, the Buddha understood that, that's why he has passaddhi (pacification and relaxation of body) sambojjhanga as a preceding condition for samadhi, and that's why step 3 and 4 of breath meditation deal with developing a sensitivity to the entire physical body and feeling subtle breath energy throughout. You can't pacify what you can't sense/feel (vedana). 

This taoist macrocosmic method that I've added to lucid24.org, is extremely compatible with step 3 and 4 of the Buddha's 16 steps of breath meditation. I'll write some more comments on it later, but the best way I can recommend it, is to say if I could do it all over again, starting my meditation practice from decades ago, what would I do differently, the answer is, in addition to Ajahn Lee's method, I would also practice this taoist macrocosmic orbit breathing. 

Now the reason I experimented with, and didn't incorporate this macrocosmic breathing method into my daily practice when I learned it originally many years ago, is because taoist meditation instructions can be arcane, finicky in it's details, in effect putting up a barrier of entry because you worry if you're doing something wrong, and that makes the practice the opposite of jhana. You can't get jhana if you can't relax, and you can't relax if the instructions seem detailed and complicated. 

With decades of taiji quan practice under my belt, now in hindsight I realize it is totally worth it to get through that steep learning curve. If you do macrocosmic orbit breathing daily and correctly, it's going to help open up your energy channels faster. 

One tip I can offer, if you attempt to learn this method, prioritize passadhi deep relaxation above all else, and make some temporary modifications to the instructions, such as instead of doing what they ask for in a single inhale or exahale, take as many full inhale/exhale breath cycles as you need to stay relaxed and feel out the energy route without rushing. Rushing will lead to tension, the opposite of jhana. I gave up on this breath method way too soon, because of the learning curve. You won't be able to follow the instructions properly anyway until you have a decent second or third jhana. So knowing that, take as many breaths as you need to stay relaxed as you guide the breath through the 8 channels. 

There's a link to an excellent instructional video in that article, about 3 minutes long, super helpful. That reduces the learning curve somewhat.