10 minutes
A breath can pass unnoticed while the mind writes a letter or rehearses a reply. Counting gives attention something definite to do. In this practice from The Meditative Way, the number belongs to the out-breath and ends with it. The next breath arrives in its own time.
The sequence is simple enough to remember: five minutes with numbers, followed by five with breath alone. Reaching ten is not a result to collect. Losing the count gives you the next clear place to begin.
Count, release, begin again
Use the supported seat described in the first sitting. Let the breath remain natural. Choose a place where its movement is perceptible, then give each exhalation one inward number. There is no need to speak aloud or stretch an exhalation to accommodate the word.
- Begin the ten-minute sitting with five minutes of counting.
- On the first out-breath, say one inwardly. On the next, say two. Continue through ten.
- At ten, start again at one. If you lose the number or notice that counting has continued while attention wandered, also return to one.
- After five minutes, let the numbers fall away. Remain with natural breathing for the final five.
- Complete that unnumbered period without needing to recover a particular feeling from the first half.
Keep precision workable
Attention at the nostrils or upper lip makes a small movement easier to notice. It can also encourage tension. If the forehead tightens or the face begins to ache, widen for several breaths to the cheeks, jaw, shoulders, and the rest of the seated body. Exact attention does not require a clenched face.
The broader version follows breathing through the body: ribs moving, abdomen changing, the back meeting the chair differently. Hands and legs remain available too. Stay with these ordinary movements rather than constructing an account of invisible currents.
When the numbers are removed, attention may become vague. Notice that plainly. The source permits counting again at the next sitting; it does not require a theory of why this evening differed from the last.
A brief return during the day
The same chapter offers a smaller form outside formal practice. Feel one complete exhalation without lengthening it, leave its brief following space unfilled, and allow the next breath to arrive. A breath at the sink after a difficult call can be enough for this smaller act. It is not an instruction to hold the breath.
For an established longer sitting, the book gives a twenty-minute sequence: five minutes of natural breathing, ten of counting, and five of broad body breath. Keep that as a later option; the ten-minute form already has a complete shape.
Read the source
Page numbers refer to the original-language PDF edition, not a translation of the book.
- The Meditative Way: PDF pp. 13–14; seated preparation pp. 11–12