regulating the breathing

[vamos]

has anyone managed to regulate the breath were you are looking at yourself breathing?without actually getting involved?in physical movements?

i think chan meditive is very similar to scholary doaist breathing when at a deeper level.

on a historical note can i ask what practises did the indian monk bring to china in A.D.58?did it include chan breathing tehniques?

[joeblast]

There's a certain amorphous detachment when you reach the point of "real regulating," i.e. regulating to the point where the mind is no longer focused on regulating. I've found that once the movements of breath are regulated well, its easier to focus your awareness on growing & shrinking the dantien with the breath - that's where embryonic breathing begins a whole new level of effectiveness. Thought it was easier at first to bring the level of sight just a bit lower so that the dantien is "roughly in your lower peripheral vision" and a mudra that was shown to me thumbs touching index & middle, brought together ring & pinky overlap and thumb/middle touch the qihai lightly you can focus the yi well on the dantien - make sure to continue the proper breathing and if you feel it falter at all, return your focus there, stabilize before returning full awareness back to the dantien. But of course you will need to put in the time with your awareness focused on harmonizing the components of the breath, otherwise there isnt the foundation for the other stuff. As to..."without getting involved in the physical movements" that's a way to do it - get your breaths long enough, energetic enough - and the concept of physical movement doesnt seem to apply in some sense after you reflect back on it.

If you can keep your air passageways loose to the point of inaction, 'roll' the diaphragm forward from the bottom rear as the abdomen expands, this balances the pressure - normally when the air passageways are engaged they will act to buffer the changes in pressure (think of having a very strong fan in your face, your air passageways will need to stiffen in order to accommodate the pressure differential.) The problem from a meditative standpoint is that you want to maximize energy efficiency, so if you dont need to put more energy in, dont! In meditation let go of them completely, the rolling motion of the diaphragm will smooth out the changes in pressure so you can relax even further, helping to open the heart center.