A Meditation Practice Starts with the Breath

In the beginning of a meditation Practice

it will all seem so overwhelming.

Know that your ‘Practice’… is a Life Practice.

You’ll have your whole life to unpack it.

It’s best to just surrender to it, jump in …

And have no attachments to how it will unfold.

Just be consistent, and increase your Practice

as much as you can find time.

But,

At the same time, for each meditation, each lesson…

Set a strong intention for what to accomplish.

Again,

Before one is totally ‘Enlightened’…

One does not experientially know what to expect

and how that feels.

But,

You learn more with each sit.

~

As far as the breath…

I recall being confused… and when you over think it,

Wow, it makes it hard to just breath naturally.

Keep reminding yourself…

The body breaths…

I am just pure Awareness.

This statement will make more & more sense as you go along.

~

As far as the ‘breath’ goes…

It’s simply “an object of meditation”.

The goal being,  

to obtain a ‘one pointed mode of focused concentration’.

Something profound happens after one achieves this.

As the Practice matures,

 there will come a point in which the strong effort

 to keep one awareness strictly on the breath…

Transcends to the ‘effortless’ aspects of the Practice.

One naturally surrenders and lets go of the effort

and even the object of meditation as a form, such as the breath.

This begins the next phase of the Practice…

the ‘formless’ object of meditation…

One just abides in the sensations of surrendering, floating…

As if a cosmic raft is taking “you” away.

This is where one experientially feels a sort of ‘disembodiment

 from the false little ‘self’ we mistake to be our True Self.

But…

That’s where all this incessant breathing will take you 😉

For now,

The main point of following your breath

is to become so focused that all peripheral distractions

won’t take your awareness off your intended object of meditation.

Find ways, any ways, to be intrigued and interested in the breath…

Any way that naturally arises to you.

There is no right or wrong way.

As your Practice deepens,

you’ll learn about Prana, Qi, Chi, the ‘life force’

that flows along with the breath.

This is no more mystical than how the Chinese has mapped out

the ‘energetic paths’ for acupuncture.

You’ll learn to deepen your awareness on the breath so acutely,

that you’ll begin to sense this energetic flow.

You’ll be able to bring your awareness to focus on this

as it flows through and energies your chakras…

Again…

This is not magic or mystical…

It’s just training your awareness to be so focused

that you become aware of this ‘subtle energy’.

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The Start of 2020

Our business was doing great, but we still couldn’t afford to buy a house or a condo. Renting in Maui for another 30 years was not an option we wanted to take. Then, Bobbie Jo suggested we buy a sailboat that is comfortable to cruise and live in. By the end of January, we started looking for our new home.

After a long search, we found our dream boat in Mazatlan, Mexico. COVID-19 was not yet a concern when our boat hunt began, but masks were starting to appear at airports by the time we flew to Mazatlan. Originally, we had planned to get the boat ready as fast as possible to cover a full calendar for the busy wedding season. However, it was apparent our business was going to tank amid the pandemic, and the struggle went on until the end of the year.

Luckily, we scored an awesome condo for only $19 a day at Mazatlan. On the 10th day of our stay, we received the news that all harbors will be closed the next Monday morning. We thought we’d be stuck in Mexico longer, but another sailor advised us to leave before sunrise.

We felt the adrenalin of escaping the Mexican harbor master just before the sun rose that faithful day. The seas were rough as waves were building up in the tight channel that led us to the open ocean. We ended up anchored off an adorable little isle just a mile offshore. We enjoyed cruising to many spectacular anchorages and cute villages on our way to Puerto Vallarta, where we would depart for Maui on May 7. On May 30, 2020, we completed our 24-day passage from Mexico to Maui.