About Zen — Breathing
Susokan Described in Detail
The Zen Master of old advocated the deep samadhi of zazen to realize the rebirth of consciousness that Buddha experienced at his enlightenment. Practicing susokan breathing brings samadhi, and the Zen Master described susokan breathing in detail:
Having relaxed all the tension in your body, focus on your lower abdomen, as if you were steadily blowing your breath from this place. Pulling your belly in, quietly exhale. Exhale for as long as possible, to the very end of the breath and until your belly becomes flat.
When you come to the very end of the breath, naturally, without thinking, the inhalation will follow, and your belly will fill up and expand in front of you. As your belly expands, the inhalation comes in naturally. There is no need to pull in an inhalation.
Very comfortably, focus on a complete exhalation. As your belly expands in front of you, inhale accordingly. When you let go of your exhalation, your abdomen naturally fills up again and with that action, you inhale.
Don’t pull in air. If you do it naturally, there should be almost no tension in your shoulders. and the air comes in easily. In a short time, sufficient air will easily be inhaled.
If you become too tense or too self-conscious, it becomes difficult. If you are tense in your diaphragm, your breath stops. Almost everyone stops his or her breath at the diaphragm and almost everyone tries to force his or her breath further from there. Getting rid of this forced power is one of the big problems for beginners learning susokan.
At the beginning of zazen, it helps to do this deep abdominal breathing up to ten times. To get rid of self-consciousness, go out to the breath’s final point as quietly as possible. In doing this, you work slowly on focusing and using your tanden (or hara, your belly about two inches below your navel).
As you breathe out, add the counting of one, two, three, up to ten. One count on each breath.
As you breathe out, count:
Ooooooooooooooone . . .
Twoooooooooooooo . . .
Threeeeeeeeeeeeee . . .
Keep going until the count of ten and then return to one again.
This is susokan.
If counting once for each out breath is too complicated to begin with, practice counting once on each exhalation and once on each inhalation — out, one; in, two; out, three; in, four; out, five…up to ten, and start again.
When your mind strays, remember and wake up to the count or start again at one.
