Breath on a Knife edge

On minding, commenting and doing

Blood, Bile and Sweat

Can you feel the beat of your heart as it pumps blood into all corners of your body?

If not, move your index finger to the side of your neck. You should feel a pulse.

Now, ask yourself, “What is the rate of my pulse?”

Is it 70 beats per minute? 80? 60? Does it feel too fast, or too slow? Now, suppose you imagine that it is too fast. Can you slow it down? Or conversely, can you speed it up?

We can be aware of our heart beat. This is what I mean by minding. We can also make various mental comments about it (like “My heart is beating fast”). This is what I mean by commenting.

On the other hand, it is difficult to do anything to directly control our heart rate. We could run up several flights of stairs, thus, indirectly, increase it. Or do some deep meditation, thus, indirectly, decrease it. But we can’t set it at (say) exactly 57 beats per second — the way we could say the number “57”.

Can you feel your liver expelling bile into your gall-bladder?

It happens all the time, but have you very felt it? Probably not. Our bodies perform thousands of actions, like pumping bile, which we are not, and often cannot be, aware of. Many things happen, without us minding.

Can you touch the tip of your nose with your thumb?

You probably can. But this is different from feeling your heart beat, because in addition to minding (that your thumb and nose touched), and possibly commenting (say, “the tip of my nose is sweaty”), you are also doing. You appear to be willing your thumb to touch the tip of your nose.

To do or not to do

What about breathing?

When a doctor presses a stethoscope to our chest and commands us to “breathe”, we breathe. We breathe deep; we breathe in, and we breathe out. Hence, like touching the end of our nose with our thumb, we can do breathing. We can also comment about our breathing, like “my breathing is painful. I might have a chest infection”.

On the other hand, we can also breathe without doing. Just as our heart beats involuntarily, most of our breathing is also involuntary. We don’t have to will ourselves to breathe. If we had to, we would suffocate in our sleep, or when we were absent-mindedly thinking of something else.

Hence, we can both do breathing, but also not do breathing.

The Knife Edge

Now, is it possible to mind our breathing, while we are not doing it? Just like we mind our heart beat?

What about commenting? Can we mind our breathing without commenting about it? How?