Zen, and the awareness of breathing
On breathing:
“When we practice zazen (sitting meditation) our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say ‘inner world’ or ‘outer world’, but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, ‘I breathe’, the ‘I’ is extra. There is no you to say ‘I’. What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no ‘I’, no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.”
Below there is a link with the popular audio book by Shunryu Suzuki: “Zen mind, beginner’s mind;” narrated by Peter Coyote.
Avyakt7 highly recommends this audio book. The insights behind the teachings are pretty deep and worthwhile to explore.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzWX9YEXQ-Y&list=PL5EF9213C6626267F]
Exploring the Depth of Living 