28,800 breaths a day!

When I use my breath as a focus point as if I were paying attention to the pointy end of a pin I access an ocean of .... is it peace? Love? Calmness? or stillness?

I have the experience of all of this & yet I suspect it is nothingness. For in this ocean of nothingness are all of these qualities.

 The breath is part of the respiratory system - oxygen rich air in, carbon dioxide rich moist air out.

The respiratory process’ job is to bring a constant supply of oxygen to each & every living cell so they can carry on their metabolism & then remove the portions of the waste!

The average person takes 28,800 breaths a day.

The breath is made up of 4 steps: in, pause, out, pause....repeated 28,800 times a day

The pause or gap after the breath in & after the breath out are as important as the expansion of the lungs & the deflation of the lungs.

The pauses or gaps are like the spaces between words, music notes, thoughts, dance movements or emotions. The pauses, gaps or spaces are equally magnificent as they make up the whole.

Holding awareness of the breath as if ‘paying attention to the pointy end of a pin’
 

As the Tao Te Ching states in chapter 11

titled Emptiness: (translation & interpretation by David Burke 2004)

 “Thirty spokes unite in the hub of the wheel.

Between the spokes, where there is nothing
Its usefulness can be found.

Fire clay and make a vessel.

Where there is no clay,
The usefulness of clay pots is found”...