Mindfulness of Breathing
In contemporary culture the ancient Buddhist technique of mindfulness of breathing has been mainstreamed in the past 20 years. Secularized versions of it are found in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). These practices are rooted in Buddhist teachings about Right Mindfulness or Sati. Right Mindfulness is the 7th principle of the Buddhist eight-fold path. This 8-fold path is seen as the way to awakening, or enlightenment. One of the most common ways Right Mindfulness is practiced is through mindfulness of breathing but it can also include mindfulness of the body, feelings, and mental qualities.
Developing the virtue of mindfulness can be helpful in a number of ways, especially to become aware of self, both body and mind. It also helps a person grow in their capacity to not be constantly side-tracked and sidelined by temptations and ruminations. However, some secular treatments of the simple practice of developing awareness by training the mind have, in a sense, removed it’s primary aim which is awakening. I am a Christian so for me awakening means something different than it does to a Buddhist but from a purely natural perspective there are parallels.
Path of Awakening
For instance, my Christian faith tells me that my ultimate aim in life is to glorify my Creator, to make of my life a burning incense for him, to allow his Kingdom come in me. But, in a real sense the purpose of my life is also to awaken. I desire to awaken to the gift of life, the gift of my being, that I may live in ever greater gratitude of my Creator. I want to awaken to the gift of Christ as Messiah and Lord. I want to awaken to the reality that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a dwelling place for God the Most High. I want to awaken to my neighbor, to my wife, to our son, to my parents. I want to awaken to creation. Mindfulness helps me to awaken.
Awake, awake!
Isaiah 52:1
Put on your strength, Zion;
Put on your glorious garments,
Jerusalem, holy city.
Mindfulness of God
Increasing the capacity to be still and the growth in self-awareness that happens in a practice like mindfulness of breathing could be considered growth oriented towards human flourishing. The primary focus is natural, rather than necessarily theological. Benefits are mental, emotional, and physical. If you are suspect about this it might help to review the peer-reviewed scientific literature available. But what mindfulness of breathing isn’t necessarily, in and of itself, mindfulness of God. This is because it takes created reality as it’s primary horizon.
Mindfulness of God is different than mindfulness of breathing in a couple of different ways. First, the object is different. In mindfulness of God the object that is focused upon is God, in mindfulness of breathing it is self (or another created reality) via the breath. They have different objects. Second, mindfulness of God happens in two ways: 1) via reason alone 2) via faith and reason. If the approach is the latter then it is dependent upon the theological virtues of faith, hope and love (grace being foundational).
I have found myself asking… what are we to choose then? If mindfulness of breathing is a healthy practice that contributes to human flourishing, should I focus on that? What about the God upon whom my salvation and sanctification depend and who I am to awaken to? Am I to do both, i.e. create a sort of hybrid of the two?
These are the types of questions that arise for contemporaries who are both 1) aware of the literature of benefits related to mindfulness 2) also practicing Christians. It, especially, is an issue for those who have some foundation in both natural meditation like mindfulness and Catholic interior prayer.
I think initially in the encounter between Buddist meditation techniques and Western culture people attempted to blend these things. There isn’t anything wrong with this necessarily. Not that I am encouraging an uncritical syncretism but it is normal to try to see how a new practice from another culture relates to a cultural and religious practice one is more familiar with.
Approaches
I think one way that this has influenced Christian prayer that is meant to be more meditative is that the prayer leader will start by having you focus on the breath. They start with observation of the self and then move towards God. I think this has been influenced by this recognition that focusing on the breath, on breathing, can have health benefits. Doing deep breathing or box breathing, for example, can lower heart rate and anxiety levels. But also, it may not always be the best way to begin Christian meditation or prayer, which has God as it’s object, rather than the self.
We are pretty good at focusing on self, perhaps not mindfully, but being self-focused and even self-obsessed is a feature of human falleness. Starting Christian meditation this way can make it seem like its about self instead of God. It often seems more helpful for me to begin Christian meditation more relationally.
A method that I learned from reading St. Teresa of Avila suggests that we place ourselves in the presence of Almighty God by recalling his presence and gathering all of our faculties before Him. That means mind, heart, body, even feelings, the entirely of who and what we are in the Present Moment. At that point it can be helpful to ask God for the light to see onself – not through the vision of man – but from the perspective of who God is and in His presence. This can help us to see who we are in relationship to Him.
It illuminates our radical dependence upon Him and how utterly powerless and sinful we are. We see our sins in God’s light, not in a way that traps us into unhealthy obsession with self, but in a way that interiorly inspires repentance or metanoia. We desire transformation, not to a cultural idol, but to God’s Holy Will so that we may be free to be who He made us to be. We may be surprised to see not only that we aren’t following Him that closely but instead in a type of active rebellion against Him. Humility is the ground for true dialogue with Him, and humility is the truth we see about ourselves in God’s light. It isn’t something we conjure or feign, it is seen, experienced.
Distinguishing between practices
What I have often found is that it is helpful to distinguish mindfulness of breathing as a practice and mindfulness of God as a practice, one natural and focused on self, the other supernatural and focused on God. In the same way as in physical exercise it can be beneficial to isolate certain parts of the body or muscles in these two forms of mindfulness you have two radically distinct forms of being, one human (self), the other divine as the object of focus. To benefit from mindfulness of breathing and to maintain concentration, to be faithful to the practice, it is may be helpful to limit its scope to the self, to self-awareness. Hybridizing mindfulness of breathing, or contemporary practices like MBSR, with mindfulness of God, can be confusing because you are going back and forth between objects, unsure of which to focus on. My experience is that it can delay progress in either.
Perhaps, a person should commit to both: 1) practices that benefit and are focused on self as such (like mindfulness of breathing) and 2) practices oriented toward our relationship with God. This doesn’t mean that a practice like mindfulness of breathing can’t help us indirectly with growth in prayer, but it doesn’t necessarily. A person may or may not have a sense that their awareness of God’s presence increases from a practice like this. That isn’t what it does or what it’s aim is. Though it may act as a healthy foundational practice to practice of the presence of God because if we are constantly scattered we can’t focus on self or God well.
The primary aim of mindfulness of breathing is mindfulness as such. As mentioned, as it has been popularized it was derived from the Buddhist 8-fold path and can be understood in that context as having a soteriological aim. Rather than discard the soteriological aim of awakening I propose that Christians see it as a foundational practice to awakening more fully to being a creature in relationship to God. That can be the intention that is set beforehand. But it is properly understood as soteriological not in the ultimate sense but in the sense of having a healthy natural foundation for grace to build upon. This would reflect St. Thomas’s popular phrase that grace builds on nature. Nature does not need to be neglected in pursuit of God, though we are called to transcend this nature by grace.
Making the practices of mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of God distinct doesn’t mean that a person who is meditating, for instance, on the Scriptures, won’t at some times notice their breathing or even focus a bit on the breath or mind but this is secondary and always done in relationship to God. Mindfulness of God is relational, mindfulness of self is not (necessarily). A person does grow in self-awareness through their relationship with God but God is the primary object and ultimately He is the reason for meditation upon Him.
It could be helpful then, for someone confused about how to integrate the two is to not necessarily try to integrate them. Maybe don’t try to ride a skateboard while you are also riding a bike. It may seem like too simple of an analogy but there is truth to it. If you want the benefits of practices like mindfulness of breathing then become a practitioner, develop a simple practice. But be aware that there are both new age and Buddhistic influences upon how it is often taught that require discernment.
And if you want to grow in the Presence of God, then become a practitioner of that. It will require constant daily practice oriented toward God, ordinarily through the Word of God, and is dependent upon grace but requires your willingness to cooperate. This practice will allow developing this sense in all forms of prayer and devotion, and during the Sacred Liturgy. And don’t spend your time during this hour (or whatever time you set) just focusing on your breath if you have set out to grow in your relationship with God. That isn’t what this is.