In my last post about concentration meditation, I talked about a basic breathing meditation, sometimes called the "rising, falling" exercise.
We call it this because usually when one starts meditation, we use the verbal reminder of "rising" when we feel the abdomen rising, and "falling" when we feel it falling.
This process is called labeling. It has a very distinct purpose and shouldn't be confused with chanting or some other ritual. When the mind is not well concentrated, labels act as an orientation for the mind. It is like we are caught in the middle of a storm and do not know which way to go, but we have a compass that points the way.
The words we use are not important, as long as they point us to the right object. We could use labels 'in' or 'out', or 'biff' and 'whiff', or whatever, as long as it points us to the main two phases of our breathing, inspiration and expiration.
The point of labeling is to help us focus our mind on the object at hand. In this case it's the breath. Our intention is to focus on the breath as it happens. If we start focusing on the label, we are not doing breath meditation. We are doing something else.
If we stay with the breath long enough, and as we start to train our minds to be used in this particular way, we start observing more than simple rising and falling.
We will start to notice in more detail the particularities of each breath. We will notice that some breaths may be shorter, some longer. Some are smooth, some start and stop. Some may be deep, some may be shallow. Some may start strongly and finish unexpectedly short, or vice versa. Eventually we realize that each breath is as unique from each other as snowflakes are. Then we are truly being mindful.
If we were to try and label all these things, our mind would be too busy to observe them. We would be missing the purpose of the exercise.
Our mind in an untrained state has a tendency to want to label or conceptualize everything that is experienced. It is that very tendency that takes us out of the experience itself.
Concentration meditation is the act of learning to use our mind in a completely different way. Labels are a tool to assist with this, a support. If at any point they become a hindrance, they should be dropped.
