The posture, the physical posture, and the breath, those two. Appearances can be a frame of reference for concentration and wisdom. And to develop this frame of reference for the sake of concentration and wisdom, to develop this frame of wisdom, to establish this frame of wisdom, it's most auspicious if you're

[01:24]

also practicing generosity, ethical discipline, patience, and enthusiasm. So, this meditation on breath is a concentration and wisdom type of meditation. I haven't been planning on talking about these other four aspects of training. Training in giving, training in ethical discipline, training in patience, and training in enthusiasm and diligence. I haven't been thinking of talking about them, but I'm telling you that these teachings on using breathing and posture as a meditation topic, they kind of need us

[02:33]

to be doing these other four practices, which I've talked to many of you about a lot. I remind you that they're kind of like the basis for the ability to practice this, to be successful in practicing this mindfulness of posture and breathing. So, I'm going to talk now about posture and breathing a little bit, I think. I want to tell you that whenever I offer some teaching here and practice here with you around some teaching, I'm always feeling it's really appropriate if we can practice the teachings during the week. And I often encourage you to do so, and I did last week. And I meant to encourage myself, too, to practice during

[03:43]

the week. And I'm happy to report that there was practice during the week of the breathing of my body and my body breathing. I was practicing with that this week. And whenever I was mindful of that practice, I always felt it was appropriate. And I can't tell you for sure that when I wasn't mindful, that maybe some of the times I wasn't mindful that that was appropriate. I don't know if it was, because I wasn't mindful. One of the things I discovered or learned was that often when I remembered to observe

[04:50]

the breathing, as soon as I started to observe the breathing without meaning to, I noticed my posture. And I often noticed that my posture was not upright. So, I looked to the breathing and I noticed my posture wasn't upright. And it was hard for me to see whether I made my posture upright or whether the awareness of the breathing made the posture upright. But usually, as soon as I noticed the breathing and noticed my posture was not upright, I became more upright. Sometimes I noticed my posture was not upright and then I noticed the breathing and I became upright. This happened many times during the last week and I'm very happy that it did. But I also want to tell you, I confess, I noticed I actually forgot

[05:53]

quite often. I missed a lot of opportunities and I was not hard on myself for forgetting. Because every time I noticed I missed an opportunity, I remembered the opportunity. And as I also mentioned last week, one of the situations where it may be difficult for us to be aware of the interaction of posture and breathing, one of the situations where it's rather difficult to learn how is when talking. It's a little easier sometimes, but also maybe difficult to

[06:55]

watch the breathing interact with the posture when listening. Many of the times when I recovered from not being aware of my posture and not being able to not watching my breathing, many of the times I was walking and in particular walking like upward or upstairs. I often remembered, I often wasn't watching the breathing when I was walking upstairs. And then when I remembered, I noticed that I was leaning forward when I was walking upstairs.

[08:02]

And then I realized I did not have to lean forward when I was walking upstairs. Also, I also noticed walking uphill that when I remembered the breathing, I would notice that I was leaning forward. I'm not saying you will always be this way. I'm just saying that I noticed I was walking uphill and leaning forward. And sometimes I watch other people walking uphill, leaning forward, and I think, I sometimes think, oh, that person looks like an old person. They're leaning forward when they're walking uphill. They also might be leaning forward when they're walking on level ground, but they really lean forward when they're walking uphill. And I noticed that I was leaning forward when I was walking uphill. But when I remembered the breathing, I really felt encouraged to stand up straighter

[09:09]

and continue. So I'm suggesting that we can work on this during the week. We can notice, you know, and a lot of times when you're walking upstairs and walking uphill, you do not have to say anything. You're probably not talking to someone, and you don't have to do any real complicated mental activity often. You have a real chance here to recover your mindfulness when you're walking around. And again, I tell you, I recovered many times during this last week, and I'm happy to tell you so that you don't have to feel bad if you forgot during this week. You don't have to feel bad. I'm telling you about a great opportunity,

[10:13]

a great opportunity to notice your breathing and recover your upright posture. And notice what happens when you start to notice your breathing again without even trying to stand up straight. See what noticing the breath does for your posture. When I'm sitting in meditation, I have found during this last week and also for the last month or so, I have found I do not forget so often the posture and the breathing when I'm sitting. And I also find when I'm sitting, if I'm aware of the breathing with the posture or the posture breathing, I told you, I'll say again, that I feel that the body is asked

[11:20]

by the breath to be such that it is very responsive to the breath. So I could be in a certain posture, and if my body isn't like responding to the breath, I feel like the breath is saying to the body, would you move into a posture where you'll be more responsive to the breath? And Marianne asked last time about, should you be sitting in a comfortable posture? And I would suggest, yeah, sit in a comfortable posture and then watch how the body is responding to the breath and see how you feel about a posture where the body is more sensitive, more responsive to the breath.

[12:32]

So I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but I'd like you to observe. If you're in a posture, is there a posture you could be also comfortable in where your body would be a little bit more responsive? Not to say I want you to be in a posture where you're moving a lot, but rather a posture where you are moved a lot, or not a lot, where you're moved more by the breathing, rather than being in a posture where the breathing is going on and the body is not resonating with it. And I'd like to move on now to, I also mentioned, it might be good to notice the difference in the way the breath feels when it goes in the nostrils and goes out the nostrils. And another thing I thought of is that I cannot tell myself, I'm not able to

[13:40]

recognize that the exhale has more carbon dioxide than the inhale, and vice versa. I can't tell that the inhale has more oxygen than the exhale. I can't tell that. I've heard that that's the case. Is that the case? Is there some theory about that? That exhaling is more oxygen, more carbon dioxide going out of our nose, and inhaling there's more carbon dioxide coming in, I mean more oxygen coming in? But I can't feel that. I noticed that I can't feel it. It feels different, but I can't tell that it's oxygen or carbon dioxide. Could you speak up please? Yes, you can ask a question about breathing through the nose. Yeah, but also now that you're saying that, I would say,

[15:20]

see what the body's wanting in terms of the breathing. Would the body like it to be more even? To do that too? Exploring it, and just starting with the breath and asking what the breath wants and whether the body responds to that. Again, I might have said what the breath wants, but my feeling when I was breathing, and I was kind of bent over, I was feeling like my body wanted to be more responsive to the breath,

[16:24]

and that when I stood up straighter, my body was more responsive. So I felt like my body wanted to accommodate the breath more sometimes than it was, and it seemed like I could adjust my posture so that my body felt more accommodating to the breath, and it seemed like I felt good about that more accommodating posture. It wasn't like I thought, well it's a little bit I thought, oh I should probably be standing up straight. I kind of a little bit thought that, but I also felt more like the breath was reminding me to stand up straight, or the way the breath felt was saying, why don't you make more room for me? I think first of all it was more alive, more alive, more engaged, more responsive,

[17:33]

more sensitive. That's the first thing. And then maybe ease after that. Or maybe I felt uncomfortable by the dead areas of my body that weren't kind of like doing anything with the breath, and so maybe that more of a dead feeling, and then a live feeling, and then maybe I felt at ease that I was taking good care of breath and posture. That's possible. But I'm asking you to look at that, and I'm asking me to look at it. And also when sitting, it is often recommended to breathe through the nose, and doing a slow walking meditation like we just did, that also I think is recommended to try to breathe through your nose, and also to breathe quietly through your nose.

[18:36]

Okay. Another thing I'd like to say is that this frame of reference, I felt this frame of reference was, I hate to say this, but was more real than the frame I was in when I wasn't taking care of this frame. That when I came back from certain other realms of thought to the posture and breathing, I felt like I had come back to a more basic reality. That the place I had been

[19:57]

was pretty optional. And not to say that this posture breathing frame is mandatory, but just that it's more basic, and if I am well-established in it, I don't get lost in the other realms. Or put it just another way, is that the reason we can think of other realms, like the future, or somebody else's body, or something other than breath, the reason we can do that in a wholesome way is when we are well-grounded in this basic one. And my experience was every time I came back to the posture and breathing, almost every time I came back during the week,

[21:00]

all my troubles seemed so far away. They just sort of dropped away for the moment. And what I felt was, now can I go back to thinking of those things without losing the place where the troubles drop away? Because we do have to do something. We have a more complex life than posture and breathing. And sometimes when we're involved in the more complex life, we find ourselves, when we notice our posture, for example, we find ourselves bent over and half

[22:08]

alive. And or, we find ourselves anxious, overheated, distracted, and so on. And when we come back to our posture and breathing, sometimes all this just drops. Sometimes. And then I'm saying it is possible to go back to those same thoughts, but based on this grounded place. Because we do have to do those things sometimes. But it's something we have perhaps not learned as well as we could. Just a few minutes before class, someone was teaching me how to use an iPad.

[23:15]

And it is possible to be aware of your posture and breathing when you're learning about an iPad. And it is possible to lose your mindfulness of your posture and breathing while you're learning about how to operate technical devices. So, this is being proposed as a situation which has one of the functions I'm proposing it has, is that if you can be present with the posture and breathing, the breathing posture, part of the reason you can do that is because you're taking care of certain aspects of your life so that you can actually walk uphill

[24:23]

and pay attention to your posture and breathing because you're not so distressed about some cruel thing you just did a few minutes ago that won't let you pay attention to your posture. Because if I don't take care of my, for example, my speech and I speak unkindly to people, then the turbulence caused by that unkindness will make it very difficult for me to pay attention to my posture when I'm walking. Not impossible, but it's easier for me to dare to pay attention to my posture walking around this world when I do not feel tormented by my unskillful actions that I have done. Because in some ways people might say, how dare you walk around

[25:34]

paying attention to your posture that's so self-centered. Do I do this with a clear conscience? And if I've just done some really unskillful things, it's hard to pay attention to posture and breathing with a clear conscience. I probably should be doing some confession and repentance. But if I do confession and repentance, then maybe I can pay attention to posture and breathing. And I can pay attention to posture and breathing to make myself able to practice ethics more effectively. Because I'm practicing ethics with awareness of my posture.

[26:37]

I'm standing up straight while I'm trying to practice ethics. So practicing ethics helps me dare to stand up straight and standing up straight helps me practice ethics. If you can, if you have been living your life skillfully enough so that you can actually be aware of your posture and breathing during the week, I would say if you can be aware of your posture and breathing during the week, you have probably lived your life ethically enough that your life lets you do that. And now that you do that, you can do ethical practices more effectively. So I often use the story which the Buddha told about the acrobats. So there was once upon a time, the Buddha said, how dare he tell this? How dare he tell this story? Once upon a time, there was an acrobat

[27:49]

and his apprentice. And his apprentice was a female who was probably his daughter, and her name was Frying Pan. And the acrobatic feat they did was called, they were called bamboo pole acrobats. And it's not clear whether the acrobat put the bamboo pole on top of his head, or on his chin, or on his forehead. But anyway, apparently he had a bamboo pole and his apprentice would climb up on his shoulders and then go up on the pole. And they would perform this feat. And one day, the acrobats, according to the Buddha, the acrobats said to his apprentice, now you take care of me, and I'll take care of you. And then we'll be able to perform this feat successfully and collect the money people give us for the performance and have lunch.

[28:55]

And the apprentice said, excuse me, master, but I think you have it backwards. You take care of yourself, and I'll take care of myself, and we'll be able to perform the ceremony of acrobatics. Didn't say ceremony. And the Buddha said, the apprentice is right. First, take care of yourself. How do you take care of yourself? By being mindful of posture and breathing. By knowing whether you're standing up straight or leaning. By knowing whether you're walking upright or leaning. By knowing whether you're sitting upright or leaning. The Buddha didn't say you can't lean, he just said, the way to take care of yourself is, if you're leaning, know you're leaning. He didn't say that.

[30:04]

He just said, if you're standing, know you're standing. If you're walking, know you're walking. If you're sitting, know you're sitting. And if you're reclining, know you're reclining. I'm expanding now. If you're leaning, know you're leaning. If you're going upstairs, know you're going upstairs. And also, if you're inhaling, know you're inhaling. And if you're exhaling, know you're exhaling. And if your exhale's long, know that it's long. And if it's short, know that it's short. He didn't say, the way to take care of yourself is to stand up or sit down or bend over. He said, the way to take care of yourself is to be mindful of whatever posture you're in. And he didn't say, all day long. He didn't say, all day long.

[31:06]

But he did say, now. He said, do it, be aware of how you're doing it now. And be aware of it ardently. Be ardent, be ardent about taking care of your awareness of what posture you're in. That's how to take care of yourself, is to be ardent and alert to the present posture you're in and to be ardent and alert to what your breathing is doing. He didn't say, breathe long. He didn't say, breathe short. He said, the way to take care of yourself is to be aware of how you're breathing. Are we ardent about this? In other words, we're not taking the best care of ourselves if we're

[32:07]

half-hearted about this. Do you feel, do I feel that this is a really important thing to be doing in our life to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others? If we skip over this and try to take care of others, the Buddhist says, we got it. I mean, the apprentice says, you got it backwards. If you want to help others, then take care of yourself like this. Do you believe that? And even if you do, you'll forget. Well, I said, you know, when I forget, maybe it's because I really don't believe it. If I really believed it, like, you know, totally, maybe I wouldn't forget. But in a way, I feel like I do not have any doubts that for me to be aware of my posture and for me to be aware of my breathing

[33:15]

helps me take care of my grandson when he wants me to help him make some clubs to juggle, which he did yesterday. And he was a good boy. He realized that if he wanted to go to the shop at Green Gulch and make these clubs, he should have me there, too, because he wasn't supposed to be in the shop without adult attendance or supervision. So we made these clubs for him, and he can juggle them. He learned how to juggle, and I made these clubs. And I helped him. Could I help him run the hand drill and the drill press and be aware of my posture and my breathing? Would that be helpful? Would I be a better helper if I was doing that? I think so. Could I forget to take care of those things and not be aware of my posture while I was trying

[34:21]

to help him safely work with these tools? Could I forget? Yes. Could I remember? Yes. Would I be a more beneficial helper if I remembered? I think so. The Buddha starts with this, with the posture and the breathing, as the first frame of reference for taking care of yourself so that you can take care of others. And I walk around the world, and I see people, and I wonder if they're mindfully bent over. And most people I do not ask. But some people say, would you please ask me if you're not sure if I'm being mindful? And I say, well, I will if I have seen the opportunity.

[35:24]

And I do. I say, are you doing that on purpose? One time I was eating a meal in a formal meal in a meditation hall, and someone was serving me, I don't remember, I think it was soup. And I looked at his feet, and I noticed that one foot was straight ahead and one was to the side. And I looked at his feet, and I noticed that one foot was to the side. And then the next time he served me, I noticed one foot was straight and the other one was turned to the side, the same one was turned to the side. And then I noticed that many times, I thought, how funny, that one's straight and one's to the side. I wonder, it doesn't seem random, it seems like, I wonder if he's intentionally putting one to the side. If they were alternated, I wouldn't have been so kind of like surprised or wondering.

[36:33]

So I asked him, do you intentionally turn your left foot out and keep your right foot straight? And I think he said, what's it to you? And I said, I was just wondering, I was surprised that you always do it that way. I wondered if you knew that. And the next time I saw him serve, they were both straight. And 15 years later, a friend of mine was talking to him, and he said, the thing I remember most about my time at Zen Center was that, when he asked me that. And he was not happy when I asked

[37:43]

him, but it was the thing he remembered most. And I don't think it's because it was the most terrible thing that happened. It's just the thing he remembered most. He didn't say it was the best thing. He said, it's the thing that stands out. It's the life that we're present for, our life that stands out. And are you ardent about having that kind of a life? And so, here it is. This is a great chance. I also just thought I might mention a story I heard recently from one of our members. This person said, can I tell you a story? And I said, yes. And he said, I was on a bus, and in the

[38:49]

seats in front of me, there was a woman, and next to the woman was a man. I noticed the man had his hand in the pocket of the woman's coat next to him, and he was lifting her wallet out of her pocket. So I put my hand on his wrist and held it firmly, and put his hand back in the pocket. And held it firmly. And he let go of the wallet, and then I pulled his hand out and let go. And the woman said, thank you. And then the bus stopped, and the woman got up to go out, and the man started to follow her, but I stood in his way so he couldn't leave the bus. And the woman got

[40:00]

off. And then at the next stop, he got off, and I let him get off. And I'm telling you that story because I think you can perform such deeds while you're aware of your posture and breathing. I'm not saying you cannot perform such things and be unaware of your posture and breathing. I just think it's a little less likely that it'll go as smoothly as that. Because you can see there's awareness of posture there. Could you see the awareness of posture? The breathing wasn't mentioned, but the posture, there was definitely awareness that the hand was holding the wrist and holding firmly. There was mindfulness of posture. And that's a good way to take care of yourself, is to notice what you're doing with your hands.

[41:01]

Doesn't that seem like a good way to take care of your hands, is to notice them? And you know, what we're doing with our hands, we cannot even figure out how to do this stuff. If you actually had to figure out how to move your hands around, you would not be able to, but you can notice it. You can't figure out how to walk even. I mean, you can, but it would take all your energy to figure out how to walk. Once you learn, it just happens. But you can watch it. You can observe it. So, it is now, according to this clock, 8.51. I wonder how you'd like to respond to what I've said. Yes? Anything? Yes? Every time I get the mail or the letter from these yoga classes, I'm hoping that the topic

[42:04]

will be on communication. But it hasn't officially been yet. And it seems every time, somehow it's about communication. That story, I was picturing how to skillfully deal with my sister, or anybody who I have trouble dealing with skillfully. And it seems that posture and breathing are very helpful for that, in the same way that they were helpful for whoever told that story, to have grace and presence as they communicated wordlessly with this man on the bus. Did you say that you're hoping that the topic for a yoga room class would be communication, and it never is, but then it is? Well, it's not the topic, but it's the classes about that. It's never the listed topic, but that's what the classes are often about.

[43:05]

And this is about communication of posture and breathing, and attending to that communication supports other communications being skillful. And if we skip over awareness of posture and breathing, I would say it might undermine the skillfulness of, well, I don't want to say undermine, maybe say strong, but it doesn't use the full potential that we have. We can communicate with awareness of our posture, or without awareness of our posture. And with awareness of our posture, I think we're more realizing our full communication potential. Does anybody disagree with that? Ted? Ted and Marjorie?

[44:10]

Yes, I want to report a misunderstanding of my part from last week that got cleared up. I was discussing watching your breathing, especially when you were talking to somebody. My initial thought was, well, that was going to divide their attention in speaking to that person. And I found out this week that it was exactly the opposite. It was true. So, I want to thank you for that, and also report that I also missed a lot of it. I did too. I talked to people on a number of occasions without observing my breathing while I was talking, but I never regretted being aware of my breathing when I was talking. It never made me less caring for the person I was talking to to also be aware of my own breathing,

[45:12]

and her breathing, or his breathing also. Everybody knows the story of on the airplane, if you're assisting someone, put your own oxygen mask on first before you try to put theirs on. Yes? I have to admit the spirit of mischievousness against this question, but I hope it's true. Some mischievousness is over there? As you were telling the story, the bus story, I was anticipating a different ending. And when it didn't turn out to be the right ending, I thought, well, if it had been you and your wife, Lisa, sitting right there that your friend told you about, would you have always thought that you can't? It occurred to me that it probably would have played out the same way. That is, you would have been getting, going to get the credit card or whatever to make sure

[46:21]

that she's all alone, and there's no need between you to let her know that, because you know that the person that she is is lost. And when you found an end preventing you from doing it, you would have gone along with it, in enjoyment of someone doing something good on the bus. And then you and Lisa would have found each other for a long time. That was me. I wonder if the guys found out whether the two of you were a man and a woman on the train. I don't think, I didn't hear whether he found that out. But I think he was very happy to be intimate with both of them.

[47:23]

In a way, that is why he would have supported it, and you would have stopped him getting off the bus with Lisa. May it be so. Yes, tell me your name again. Susan. I was following what you were saying. You talked about the sidetracks. You said that you wanted to stay on something. Really, really focused on learning something new. I just can't keep seeing for myself, but I can see where you're taking it. I can't see the direction you're taking it. Okay. She's saying that if she's focusing on learning something, it's hard to imagine that you'd also be aware of your posture and breathing.

[48:28]

Is that what you're saying? This situation, this frame of reference, the posture, breathing frame of reference, is actually, it is a learning space. That's the idea. Once you set it up, and you're taking good care of it, you can bring other things in to learn in that space. Without losing that thing, it doesn't become two things. It's a basic frame, and if you practice with it, you don't lose it even when you bring other things in. Usually the next thing that's recommended to learn about are your feelings.

[49:33]

The next thing to learn about is quality of consciousness. The next thing you learn about is iPads. The fourth type of thing is where we bring in all kinds of mental factors to learn about. They're all learning frames. They're all conscious learning frames, leading ultimately to awake from the frame. It's just a frame. This breathing thing is just a frame. But if we skip over the frame, we won't be able to learn, because we're not attentive. But as you say, when you are learning, you do focus on something, and you didn't say in a frame, but you do focus in a certain frame. But if you don't have this basic frame, I'm saying you won't be as likely to have a deep,

[50:40]

penetrating understanding of the other things you're learning. Another way to put it is, you won't be able to be as helpful with whatever you're learning. Another way to say it is, that you can lose yourself in the concentration if you don't have a basis in posture and breathing. You can lose yourself in it. As I say, I noticed myself losing myself in certain kinds of learning I was doing, more or less concentrated. Losing myself meant I was starting to feel not right about my life. I came back and I felt fine. The worried part of the learning activity drops away. Then I can go back and try again. The same exercise, the same concentration,

[51:43]

but less worry, less getting lost in it. Similar or identical exercise. Here's another one. Again, this happened yesterday. My grandson wanted to play a game with me. The game is called Magic. It's the name of the game. It's a brand name. Magic is a brand name. He told me there's a store in San Francisco that just specializes in this game. That's what the store is. I said, how big is the store? He said, what's about as big as this house? He wanted to play this game, but I didn't know how to play the game, so he was going to teach me. As he was teaching me, I noticed that it was hard for me to focus on all this stuff.

[52:46]

I was trying to focus, and I actually noticed that I needed to come back to my posture and breathing in order to tolerate the intensity of this training program he was putting me through. In that case, I actually found that coming back to my posture and breathing helped me hang in there with this thing. There were various other things going on, namely that he had these decks of cards. He had a deck of 100 or 200 cards, and I had quite a few. I think I had 80. His deck he composed for himself, and he made this other deck for me. His deck had a lot more sorcerer's power in it than mine did. He set me up, and he killed me very deeply.

[53:48]

He didn't just kill me. He killed me way, way, way below dead. But I was able to continue to play with him, and it was hard for me. But I took care of myself so that I could have energy to be there with him and keep asking him questions rather than just sort of feel like I couldn't follow all this sleight of hand thing he was doing with me. So I was trying to concentrate, but I was also feeling like on the verge of being overwhelmed and giving up. And he was being quite patient with me, too. And I said to him, you're being quite patient with me. You're not losing your patience with all my questions. And he said, yeah. I said, are you like fattening the calf? And he said, it's more like I'm sharpening my axe.

[54:51]

And his axe got very sharp. And then later, he didn't want to play with him and me anymore because it was too easy to beat me. So I think I appreciate your question, and that's what I'm proposing to you. This base gives us courage to to focus on difficulties and if we get stressed and we can't focus on learning certain things or we're trying to learn but we're tense and not relaxed and playful, which is the better mode to learn, we come back to this and this sets up the possibility to be relaxed and playful and concentrated. So it's not just concentrated, it's focused, undistracted, open,

[56:03]

relaxed, and playful. This sets up the possibility of not just learning this thing but having wisdom about it. And I'm just saying that skipping over this basic frame is not recommended by the Buddhas. They want us to do this basic thing and so we should be able to test it by taking hold of people's hands and things like that and seeing how our breathing changes. Sharon? In the first when you were sitting and you were saying the breath and the body if the sense was that the first observation was that my body

[57:07]

was holding this body was holding the breath and I was doing some effort with energy and then it shifted to this breath was supporting the body and there was some ease and as I kept observing it felt like the experience was the breath was breathing itself and the body was breathing itself. And I have the experience which again I sort of said again is that the breathing can make my posture upright.

[58:07]

The breathing can lift me upright. Now I think I'm supposed to be upright but I don't have to do it with my muscles. It's like my muscles can be encouraged by the breath almost like the breath will help my muscles move my body into a comfortable upright posture will lift me up. So my attention is on my posture there's maybe more effort than the breath there's more room for my breath and then there's ease where the breath is when I put my attention on my posture there's no breath when the attention is just relaxed

[59:09]

in the breath there's no energy in the muscles it's unsupported. I was also feeling like the body wants to be generous towards the breath and the breath is kind of reminding the body that the body wants to be generous to the breath the body wants to make space for the breath to have as much space as it needs at the moment but we have to learn this somehow how can we do that how can we have a posture that's really generous towards the breathing and I don't think we're going to find that posture unless we watch this dance or if we do find it, great but I think watching this interaction will help us find a generous posture a posture that really

[60:10]

embraces and supports the breath and also that allows the breath to embrace and support the body but we have to have this frame of reference to learn this, I think and we have to come back to it again and again to learn this yes how do you explain the daytime about the diagram and I never understood how to make sense of the diagram thank you for listening and watching I also wanted to point out that if you were walking on a hill if you leaned forward you were using gravity

[61:13]

to actually look so I'm wondering it seems that way to use gravity to help propel you forward I just think in mountain climbing when you're walking up a mountain most people do not think of leaning backwards right? most people don't think I should walk up like this but some people I don't know if it's most but some people think when they're walking up the mountain you should lean forward it seems safer but actually

[62:15]

if you lean forward you're more likely to slip actually upright is the most stable when you're going up the mountain but you feel scared when you're upright because it's similar it's just a little bit away from leaning backwards which really seems dangerous and you can lean forward you can lean forward slightly and you can get by with it but when things get really tough if you lean forward slightly you'll slip and tough by tough I mean when your footing is really unstable or I should say highly changeable then leaning forward is really dangerous but we're afraid to be upright we're afraid anyway when we're going up something steep to be upright and if it gets steep and unstable we even more want to lean forward

[63:15]

the other thing which I think maybe I heard in a yoga room class I'm not sure but it was something like if you watch older people you know older people I shouldn't say if you watch older people as you get older the ground looks farther and farther away you reach your full height when you're whatever age and as you get older the ground looks farther away so you bend forward so you'll be closer to it right we have to be aware of our posture and breathing and then we'll dare to stand upright as we get older and it looks more and more dangerous down there it's a long ways down let's get down there the posture and the breathing will help us be fearless if we take care of them

[64:18]

they'll help us dare to be fully alive and then we can do other things based on them like we can do acrobatic feats but if we try to do the acrobatic feats before we have our feet in the ground and our posture appropriate and our breathing appropriate and we're there for it it's not the optimal situation this is a very unusual class because this really is a class you can practice all week and you've got the stuff with you all week to work with so let's do it another week shall we

[65:11]

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