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Inhaling, count three. Exhaling, count four.

Inhaling, count five. Exhaling, count six.

Continue this up to ten. Then start again: Inhaling, count one. Exhaling, count two. Inhaling, count three. Exhaling, count four. Let everything else go. Let it go as it goes, let it be as it is. Let go. Let be. Relax.

Keep counting. Watch the breath. Concentrate only on one thing: counting the inhalations and exhalations. Try to get to ten without losing the count. How far did you get this time?

When you lose it, start again: Inhaling, count one; exhaling, count two. It is so simple, yet staying with it is not so easy. When your attention wanders, simply notice this habitual tendency of your attention to forget what you are doing and be carried away by distractions—and bring it back to breath counting.

Don’t count out loud. Count with your mind, but say it to yourself. Note the number. Take notice of each breath. Label it with a number: one, with inhalation; two, with exhalation; and so on. Counting will help. Concentrate. Focus. Stay with the breath. Let everything else go. Calm the heart and mind, settle the energy, the breath, the body. Let the breath be more naturally quiet. As the mind gets quiet, the breath gets quiet, energy harmonizes and the heart decontracts, unfurls, and opens up.

Keep counting: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Very good.

Start again. Simple is beautiful. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Let everything else go as it goes, just like a river flowing by with you on the riverbank counting the waves—large clear repetitive waves of breath, easy to count.

Inhalation, one. Exhalation, two.

Focus one-pointedly, sharpening the attention by observing nothing else but the counting, the counted number. Paying intense attention, count the breath. Each breath counts.

Here there is nothing more to understand, to figure out, to achieve, to do or undo. Just counting. Just sitting. Just being. One through ten and back again. A complete circle. One through ten and back again. Excellent. Perfect.

Remember, we are building the concentration muscle, exercising our powers of concentration.

An editor who was working on this book tried this breath counting exercise, and reported back, with some surprise, that within five breaths, everything had really slowed down for her. That’s a good example of how quickly these exercises begin to have an effect. Slugger Hank Aaron said he could count the individual laces on a fast-pitched ball coming toward him because intense concentration slowed everything down and brought it into sharp focus.

The important thing to remember is that this is a training. We are honing and developing our capacity to concentrate. Think of it like muscle-building. Right concentration is serene concentration. We build our concentration until it is enough to allow us to penetrate further into the practice of wisdom and insight. In this case, it doesn’t mean how long you can control your mind without having a thought. That’s mere mind control, not Buddhist meditation. Concentration is being fully present with what is, whatever is. It means being right there, not scattered; able to keep your total attention on your task. When your concentration abilities are fully developed to their farthest reach, you can achieve super focus, a complete absorption, total oneness.

2. AWARENESS OF BREATHING

Awareness is an interesting thing. When we first learned how to drive a car, many of us were worried that we would never be able to simultaneously coordinate and be aware of all the many things that driving entails—watching the road in front, watching the rearview mirror, being conscious of the movement of traffic on the left and right. Eventually we learned how to do all those things at once. That’s because although your mind can have only one thought at a time, awareness can take in much more. Focusing your mind through concentrative exercise can really access and free up more and more of your intrinsic awareness. By placing your mind on breathing,