neil watson:
sit down, close my eyes, try and relax, and then just be aware of the breath going in and out, without trying to operate the breath or force the breathing in any way. I am generally aware of my chest rising and falling.
I see. You could try to follow the sequence of instructions given in the
anapanasati sutta.
" Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long'; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long.' Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.'
You could try observing the incoming and outgoing breath as well as discern at the very same time the length of the breath. Once you are able to do this relatively well without too much distraction, you could move onto the next instruction of becoming sensitive to the entire body at the same time as observing the incoming and outgoing breath. You are directing thought towards discerning whether the breath is long , longer than before, short, shorter than before, becoming sensitive to the whole body etc etc. Having this secondary object/objective will take up more of the brain's capacity so there will be less space to wander.
This relates to something Tarin has written about before. You engage the mind's proliferating tendency by giving it more things to pay attention to as opposed to just the breath:
"What I mean by 'the sense of seeing' is, literally, what it is to experience seeing directly; to perceive is to be engaged in a lively activity and is what is meant by paying attention. Yet, such attention is likely to tend toward proliferating stories and fabrications, from persistent reflection and mental commentary on one hand (when concentration is weak and/or scattered) to outright hallucination on the other (when concentration is powerful and/or focused). Those proliferations are to be avoided. How may these proliferations be avoided? By otherwise engaging the proliferating tendency. How may the proliferating tendency be otherwise engaged? By applying the mind further. To what further apply the mind? To the apprehension (of more) of what is happening. What more is happening (that is not yet engaged)? The apprehension of (the apprehension of) perception itself.
To apprehend perception directly is necessarily also to apprehend that apprehension is occurring, and to experience in such a manner is to experience cleanly and clearly, entirely engagedly and encompassedly, incuding the bodily sense of such experience. To see not just what the eye sees but what it is to see is therefore to see cleanly and clearly, entirely engagedly and encompassedly, including the bodily sense of such seeing. Seeing in this manner engages the energies which otherwise fuel the proliferating tendency, and so avoids such proliferation. Further, experiencing seeing as a bodily sense leads to deeper insight into what the body is, and what perceiving is." Tarin
Continuing on with the sequence of instruction, the Buddha gives more secondary objects/objectives along with the incoming and outgoing breath once one has mastered the previous instructions. This will deal with the mind's proliferating tendency (which leads to wandering) as well as develop and cultivate the very factors which will subdue the hindrances and give rise to the 1st jhana's factors.
" He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to rapture.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to rapture.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to pleasure.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to pleasure.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming mental fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming mental fabrication.'
" He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in satisfying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out satisfying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in steadying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out steadying the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in releasing the mind.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out releasing the mind.'