Meditation Observations: Remembered Dreams and Watching the Breath

I practise meditation in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. This, to use a really bad analogy, is sort of like the Catholicism of Buddhism. It's the oldest surviving school of early Indian Buddhism and, consequently, the most conservative of all Buddhist schools in existence today. The differences between all these different schools are great and fascinating, but that's not what this post is about.


The reason I mention this all is because in my tradition of practise, there are basically two standard types of meditation: samatha and vipassana. These translate (roughly) as "calming" and "clear-seeing" and they have two different though complimentary aims. Samatha, as one might guess, is all about calming the mind and learning to focus undistractedly upon the object of attention (typically the sensations of breathing around the nostrils or in the abdomen). This is very helpful for vipassana, which is the attempt to see, precisely and in real-time, the arising, abiding, and passing away of everything that presents itself to us. Of course, these two types of meditation overlap each other seeing as it is impossible to focus clearly on an object without noticing it changing and vice versa.


But for now, I have been focusing on samatha meditation. Since November, I've been (trying) to do an hour every day, but even if I cannot get an hour in I never miss a day entirely. Fifteen minutes is better than none. It can be really rough at first but after a while you get used to it and actually start to look forward to your daily sit. It's calming and you feel more clear when you do it. It's a lot like brushing your teeth except for your brain.


Anyway, as of late I've been noticing two interesting things about my meditation and how its going:


Firstly, I've noticed that when I meditate soon after I wake up, I recall dreams that I suspect I would not have otherwise. I often don't recall my dreams so this is cool.


Secondly, I've noticed I'm actually paying attention to the sensations of the breath. This might sound weird, 'cause the basic instruction for meditation is "sit down and watch the sensations of the breath at the nostrils." But it's true. As of late I am becoming more and more aware of the fact that although I was trying to follow those instructions before, I wasn't really. While I thought that what I was doing was watching the breath what I was really up to was thinking about watching the breath. But not in words so much. It's hard to explain but it seems like before the physical sensations were mixed up with some purely mental something but now I'm perceiving each independently. I don't know how to describe it better. Anyway, I am very happy about this realization, 'cause I figure it means I'm making some sort of progress. Yaaaaaayhe!