Breathing and the One World of Zen
Lessons From Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Our daily experience is that of having two selves or worlds, an inner world, and an outer world. The inner world makes up our thoughts, feelings, and desires. This is where we hold our ideas about who we are, who we want to be, and how we think others see us.
The outer world consists of everything outside our heads, the environment we’re in and the people we’re with, things mostly out of our direct control. The purpose of Zen is to help see that these two worlds are not actually separate.
“We say ‘inner world’, or ‘outer world’, but actually there is just one whole world.” Shunryu Suzuki
Not two and not one
“This is the most important teaching: not two, and not one.” Shunryu Suzuki
A basic practice of meditation is to sit quietly and concentrate on the breath as it moves in and out of the body. The meditator is instructed to find a place where they feel the breath, either the rising and falling of the chest and stomach or the sensation at the end of the nostrils as the breath moves in and out. Following the breath gives our mind something to do so we don’t get carried away in thoughts.
Following the breath also gives us insight into how we perceive ourselves. As we breathe in, we’re bringing part of the outside world into our inner world. Air rushes into our lungs, inflating them, which then removes the oxygen, placing it into our bloodstream. As we breathe out, we’re taking what’s inside of us and pushing it out into the world. Carbon dioxide leaves our lungs, joining the outside world, where trees and other plants feed on it, so they, in turn, can create more oxygen for us to breathe.
Similarly, the outer world, of the environment and people, affects what happens to our inner world. We react to what other people say or do with our thoughts first, which directs our bodies in the outer world. We step outside into the sunshine, feel it’s warmth on our skin, take the light into our eyes, which releases chemicals in our brains, and we feel pleasant and happy about ourselves.
The inner world is how we make sense of the outer world, and the outer world affects what happens inside our heads. These are not two different worlds and they are not the same worlds either. They are interconnected, dependent and independent, “two sides of the same coin,” as Suzuki might say.
The swinging door
“What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.” Shunryu Suzuki
As we follow the breath in meditation, sometimes we mentally follow it by counting or by saying, “out breath” and “in breath”. We have this experience of I breathe in and I breathe out. Reflecting on this, we learn another insight into ourselves.
Try this yourself: close your eyes and concentrate on breathing in. Feel the breath enter your body. Follow it as it pauses for a moment, at the climax of the inhalation, then keep following it as it leaves the body. Do this a few times and really concentrate on feeling the breath all the way through from the beginning of the inhalation to the very end of the exhalation.
Now think about that experience.
Where were you?
Where was the ‘I’?
As I stated above, we have an idea that as we breathe in, we’re starting with something from the outside that’s coming in, and as we breathe out we’re starting with something from the inside, that’s going out. Typically, we see ourselves standing somewhere in between as if we’re this swinging door between two worlds. As you meditate on this, you may, for a brief moment, have the experience that the ‘I’ disappears altogether.
Suzuki explains it like this:
“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.”
The One World
The realization that we live our conscience experience dependant on, and completely independent of, the world around us gives us awesome freedom. Many of my troubles in life, often come when I’m living as if I were somehow cut off from the outside world. Somehow I think the outside world shouldn’t affect me and what I do doesn’t matter to it. Yet meditation teaches us this is not true at all.
We are dependant on everything around us, just as without us, the outside world would not be the same. We live in a multiverse made of other people’s inner worlds. Each of these worlds is connected with, and make up the outside world. Just as air flows through the world and we all breathe this air, so our thoughts also flow through the world.
As I read books and articles, the ideas other people wrote fill my mind. When I write, those thoughts and ideas mix with my own thoughts and experiences. When I write, the ideas in my head flow onto the screen where you read them. My words enter your mind, mix with your thoughts and experiences, forming new thoughts. When you write, the cycle continues.
“We are in the center of the world always, moment after moment. So we are completely dependent and independent. If you have this kind of experience, this kind of existence, you have absolute independence; you will not be bothered by anything. So when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated on your breathing.” Shunryu Suzuki
