The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

w 49make it calmly aware of only the breath.After you can concentrate your mind like this for at least half anhour you should proceed to the next stage which is:1. Breathing in a long breath he knows, ÒI am breathing in a longbreathÓ, or breathing out a long breath he knows, ÒI am breathingout a long breathÓ.2. Breathing in a short breath he knows, ÒI am breathing in ashort breathÓ, breathing out a short breath he knows, ÒI am breathingout a short breathÓ.At this stage you have to develop awareness of whether the inand out breaths are long or short. Long or short here do not refer tolength in feet and inches, but length of time. It is the duration of time.You should decide for yourself what length of time you will calllong and what length of time you will call short. Be aware of theduration of time of each in and out breath. You will be aware thatsometimes the breath is long in time and sometimes short. Just knowingthis is all you have to do at this stage. You should not note, ÒIn,out, long. In, out, shortÓ, but just note ÒIn, outÓ, and be aware ofwhether the breaths are long or short. You should know this by justbeing aware of the length of time that the breath brushes and touchesthe upper lip or tip of the nostrils as it enters and leaves the body.For some meditators at this stage the nimitta (sign of concentration)may appear, but if you can do this calmly for about one hourand no nimitta appears then you should move on to the next stage:3. ÒExperiencing the whole breath body I will breathe inÓ, thushe trains himself and, ÒExperiencing the whole breath body I willbreathe outÓ, thus he trains himself.Here the Buddha is instructing you to be aware of the wholebreath continuously from the beginning to the end. You are training