Breath (why important)
Because attention is geared by underlying evolved systems that “prefer” movement. Being-startled is the greatest gift of biology. In fact, being startled was the inauguration of the “I” in the noosphere.
The startle response is a reaction to change. Like the “Don’t move! He can’t see us if we don’t move”-scene from Jurassic Park, attention is much easier when its locus delivers constant novelty. Novelty is provided most economically through periodic motion. A blinking dot. A spinning top. Coming in, going out. A stationary object can only be continually apprehended by master yogis.
Breath is a first-rate attention attractor because it moves. That’s why it is traditionally recommended. But there is another reason, explained by Goenka, that makes it even more interesting and valuable—its quality is correlated with sympathetic nervous response (mental state). As Goenka explains it:
|
Breath also indicates mental state |
And very soon, you will start understanding that the breath also helps you, to explore the mental field.
And easily it will look [like] the breath is a physical function—coming in, going out. But very soon you start realizing it has got so much to do with the mind. And it has got so much to do with the mental impurities, the defilements, the negativities. As you practice, you will start realizing that when your mind starts rolling in any negativity—anger, hatred, ill will, animosity, passion, fear, anything—the respiration, the breath, loses its normality. It is no more normal. It becomes slightly hard. It becomes slightly fast. And when that particular negativity has passed away, you find the breath has again become normal.
Your breath is strongly related to your mind also, and the mental negativities also. It will become clearer and clearer. And you are here to go to the source of your problem, your day-to-day problem—that means the origin of your negativities. This breath will help you at the mental level to go to the depth of your problem where the negativity arises. It will help you to explore the reality about your mind also.
(Click here to see this quote in context.)