Focus on your breathing?

I have a question about what it really means to "Focus on your breathing". I read it everywhere, for meditation, OBE's, AP's, LD's..... etc. I am always seeing "just focus on your breathing"... I just wanted to make sure that my interpretation of that is correct. Or to see if anyone else does it differently.

When I focus on my breathing, I have my eyes closed and think in my mind "Breathe in" on each inhale and "Breathe out" on each exhale. Is this how everyone does it?

I realize it is a bit of a...... basic question, but I just want to make sure I have the fundamentals straight.

When I focus on my breathing I tend to count each breath and just listen to the sound of my breathing.
This normally works for me and sometimes I even end up having to make myself breathe (if that makes sense), I become so aware of my breathing that it no longer feels natural and seems like an effort.

Exactly the way I would put it :P

Basically you have to find what works for you, personally I put effort into every 4th breath or so and just make myself aware of the other ones. It depends on what you are focusing on your breathing for too.

The way I was taught was to concentrate on the feeling of filling my lungs and then emptying them...the instructor talked about feeling the "chi" (in kung fu, everything seems to be described as or with chi), but for those who haven't grown up in china, it's easier to think of it as lungs and air. then, while concentrating on filling and emptying your lungs, count each breath to yourself. don't set a goal, or it'll never work. at some point you will suddenly realize that you weren't thinking about anything at all, and then you'll realize, shit, now i'm thinking about something again, etc. eventually the periods of time that you aren't thinking about anything will increase in duration. the key is to just keep going until your legs and ass start falling asleep or you can't stop thinking about how bored you are or how you'll never succeed in meditation....practice makes perfect.

OK, that brings up another question.

If you are sitting and attempting to meditate, how necesary is your seating posture? I tried it tonight after a workout and found that I could not sit on the ground and clear my mind at all. All I could think about was how I wanted to stabilize my back by putting my hands on my knees or how my lower back was aching....

So I layed down. But then I was almost drifting off to sleep. Tough process I tell ya.


Also, is it ok to have closed eyes when meditating?


(my original question was related to falling asleep for induction of LD's, though. Thanks for the replies so far)

I have heard some people say you are supposed to sit with your legs crossed in a certain way and with your fingers touching in a certain way so as to increase the circular flow of "chi"...however, my theory is that you are supposed to sit in an upright position to avoid falling asleep. There is no one correct way to do it--it's just to aid in your success of clearing your mind. Frequently in my kung fu training we had to meditate while standing in a really strenuous painful position...those that could meditate had very little difficulty..the rest of us were constantly shifting and breathing heavily.

Normally when meditating, it is a good idea to have your eyes closed, because it will limit external stimuli. That's ultimately the key. If you are trying to learn how to meditate in a room filled with a bunch of spinning flashing lights and whistling and popping sounds, it will be very difficult. If you are having trouble in the sitting position, but fall asleep while lying down, you may want to try sitting crosslegged with your back against something soft, like a pillow against a wall, or a couch or something. The goal is not be uncomfortable, but to find the easiest path to mental tranquility.

Wow, thanks for the detailed response. I will continue to try and work on it.

well, whe i concentrate on my breathing, I invision a nose or a mouth in my mind, when I ex hale, i invision seeing air come out of that nose or mouth, same when i in hale