Hey all,I meditate for some 3 years, mostly TMI an mahasi. When attending the sensations of the breath in the nose, I noticed that the sound of my breathing drives the perception of the sensations. When meditating with some white noise app to surpress the sound of breathing, the sensations become much more subtle, unexpected and therefore interesting. Should I use this white noise app?
Anybody any other advise on how to better isolate the sensations in the nose from the sound made by breathing?
Thanks!

Hey, is there any health condition? Are you able to do diaphragmatic/belly breathing? I use earplugs, so the noise of the breathing is there for the first few minutes, but then disappear as the mind settles down and the breath goes thinner. You have done TMI meditation for about 3 years, so I guess you should easily reach Access Concentration in the first 30 minutes of the sit. So I imagine that by then, your breath should be thinner, isn't it? Otherwise, check this recent thread: Playing with the breath : a breathread .

Hope this helps

As you breathe in and out, try to experience the direct experience of the breathing itself- including any sensations in your awareness that are connected to the breath in some way. In addition to the tactile sensations of expansion, contraction, energy flow, the sound of breath moving in and out of the nostrils, and any mental fabrications that seem to represent the breath. In this practice, we can feel free to keep our definition of “the breath” quite broad and non-exclusive. The larger our span of attention, the easier it tends to be for both maintaining awareness and to avoid dullness. Having a large, inclusive object with many aspects, serves to provide content and engagement for the mind.

According to these instructions it is fine to use the breath sounds included as the object. It just depends on the intention I think. 

Hey Pepe,

no health conditions and breathing gets thinner during a sit indeed. Thanks for the thread. I notice that just by posting the question and getting some constructive feedback I am more open to investigate the relation between the sound of breathing and the sensation of breathing during a sit. I can now more clearly see the aversion going on within me about this sound/sensation subject. So thanks!

Thank you Monica,

Isis possible for. You to share the url for this quote? I am interested to know more about it.

cheers

Mindfulness of Breathing

This is similar to how thannisarro bhikku and Rob Burbea teach breath meditation. 

Thank you