Breath Body Question

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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mfad
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Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 2:23 pm

Breath Body Question

Post by mfad »

I have a question pertaining to the nature of the breath body and the sensations occurring throughout the body. I was hoping that someone might be able to clear up my confusion(s). I am gotten to a point in my meditation around the 1st Jhana where I had the perception that every time I breathed in my body was being fabricated. I could be mistaken on this perception though. This was mainly given to provide a background in my practice and where I am at.

The in-breath is a bodily fabricator, and the out-breath a bodily fabricator
The bodily fabrication is the physical state of the body as a result of the bodily fabricators

1) So does that mean that all bodily sensation that is not caused by touch is a result of the breath? Whether that occurs at the arm or the toe?
2) So when you move your awareness from head to toe during Vipassana your really just touching random points of the breath and labeling that their location is at the head or at the toe?
3) If your breath is short and the body becomes tense the sensations occurring throughout the body are unpleasant does that mean the unpleasant sensation perceived to be occurring on the arm is actually just part of the sensation of the breath? Or is it just making the muscles tense at that particular location?

Hopefully this is enough information for someone to better understand what I am attempting to ask.
User156079
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 4:17 am

Re: Breath Body Question

Post by User156079 »

I think what you are starting to notice is that Mind preceeds all experience.
Mind is the fabricator of breath, body, sensations, ideas, sustained attention, discursive thought and feelings.
mfad
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 2:23 pm

Re: Breath Body Question

Post by mfad »

If I were to refer to the "mind" as intention would that be a correct interpretation?

So your saying that it was my intention to breath that actually made the body arise? If so, then what is the difference between the breath body and the body?

Is this similar to the concept that the intention to think causes one to hear?
User156079
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 4:17 am

Re: Breath Body Question

Post by User156079 »

mfad wrote:If I were to refer to the "mind" as intention would that be a correct interpretation?
I think it is close but in the teaching Intention refers to a specific thing as in "kamma(action) is intention and intention is kamma". So it might become very confusing. Instead of Intention one can say Craving and Mental Volition, there is an underlying Craving for existence, becoming, i think that is a more acceptable statement.
mfad wrote:So your saying that it was my intention to breath that actually made the body arise? If so, then what is the difference between the breath body and the body?
Breath and the Body are two diffrent concepts. We experience a sequence of Sense Contacts and perceive it to be the breath or the body but these two are conceptions that arise in the mind.

Here from MN 18
"Dependent on intellect & ideas, intellect-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one feels, one perceives (labels in the mind). What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks about, one objectifies. Based on what a person objectifies, the perceptions & categories of objectification assail him/her with regard to past, present, & future ideas cognizable via the intellect.
mfad wrote: Like from what I have read is that the intention to think causes one to hear?
I dont understand this.

All this is not easily explained and frankly i am not sure my initial assumption about your experiences was correct. So i recomend you check out these two Suttas and see if it resonates with you.

Madhupindika Sutta: The Ball of Honey
Mahavedalla Sutta: The Greater Set of Questions-and-Answers
paul
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Location: Cambodia

Re: Breath Body Question

Post by paul »

“Breath body” is disputed by Thanissaro who says it means the physical body and you are advised to focus mainly on the physical body as indicated in the first foundation of mindfulness. If thoughts are noticed, the simple division between mentality-materiality should be made. Mindfulness of the body described in the first foundation includes contemplation of impermanence by focussing on the parts of the body, the four elements and the dead body and taking up that study is recommended for progress.
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