Being pleasure is a being level sensation. The most readily accessible being level sensation is the pleasure of breathing; it's there with every breath you take. You begin the practice of being pleasure by finding in yourself and becoming very familiar with the pleasure of breathing. Once you're familiar with that sensation, you can more easily identify other being level sensations, including being pleasure. The process of working your way in from the pleasure of breathing to being pleasure is based on my own experience, so I know it works.
Any time you can, listen to being and not just my words. Follow hunches or intuitions you have about how to make this practice work for you. Hunches and intuitions can be being trying to communicate with your ordinary conscious self. Pay attention to what you're drawn to, to what seems right.
The practice of being pleasure requires your full commitment. The pleasure of breathing exercise is based on the assumption that you're committed and working seriously on development, the process of inhabiting being more fully. I assume you already know that's what you want out of life; if you have any doubts about that, this is not for you. You no doubt have other already established practices that you do on a regular basis; it's not necessary to discontinue anything you're doing. However, the pleasure of breathing exercise will affect your other practices. Other practices that are moving you in the direction of being will be enriched and deepened; you'll find yourself more drawn to them than ever, and they'll be more effective than they were before. Other practices that aren't moving you in the direction of being will begin to seem silly or annoying; you'll find you don't have the patience to do useless things. Any practice that's not moving you in the direction of being is useless. Before you begin this practice, or even seriously consider it, I encourage you to read Exile, to put the practice of being pleasure in context.
The practice of being pleasure consists of overlapping stages of work:
Every breath you take gives you pleasure. You became oblivious to this pleasure years ago; the pleasure of breathing exercise is simply the rediscovery of one of life's sweetest simplest pleasures, the pleasure of breathing in and out.
Start by identifying at least 4 times during the day when you can do this exercise for 3 - 10 minutes. These don't have to be clock times; it's better if they're reliable transitions that already happen every day or most days: when you first wake up or first get in bed, before or after you begin cooking or eating, before you leave the house or when you first get home - that kind of thing, based on your schedule and regular activities in your life. Identify more than 4, so if you have to miss one you'll have another to fall back on. If you're interested in entering this practice, commit to doing the exercise at least 4 times a day no matter what; nothing can stop you if you're committed. Four is the minimum; feel free to do the practice more frequently.
You can use meditation or yoga postures if you like, you can sit in a comfortable chair, you can lie on the floor, whatever. Just find a position you can maintain comfortably and stay awake in long enough to do the exercise, in a place where you're not likely to be disturbed. For these 3 - 10 minutes, you do nothing but enjoy the pleasure of breathing.
Look for a little wash of pleasure coming with each breath. You may feel this wash of pleasure more readily on the outbreath, and you'll probably experience it somewhere in the vicinity of your lungs: chest, shoulders, upper back, back of the neck and head. Later on, you may feel it anywhere or everywhere, but if you're just getting reacquainted with the pleasure of breathing, start by looking where the action is.
This is important: don't try to do anything with your breathing. No breathing exercises, no trying to breathe more slowly, deeply, or evenly. Your body knows how to breathe very well; you're already an expert. You may have picked up ideas about how you should breathe from yoga or meditation instruction or the like; forget all that. Your mind does not know how to breathe, and any kind of interference with natural breathing will keep you from experiencing the pleasure of breathing. Settle into your own relaxed, natural breathing, your own innate rhythm. Natural breathing is somewhat uneven and relatively shallow. Some breaths are slightly longer than others, and exhalation usually lasts longer than inhalation; some inhalations are a bit abrupt, like a tiny gasp. Don't try to regularize anything. Whatever happens, keep heading back toward natural, relaxed breathing, and watching for a wash of pleasure associated with it.
As soon as you've established regularity with your 4 (or more) times a day practice, start looking for creative ways to expand on that. Start enjoying the pleasure of breathing while you're doing other things. If you commute, enjoy the pleasure of breathing instead of fuming at other drivers or worrying about traffic. Any time you're walking, especially outdoors, let the pleasure of breathing be part of that. If you get stuck in traffic or in a waiting room or because of some other obstacle, enjoy breathing. You can't enjoy breathing too much.
Your goal is to make the pleasure of breathing your constant companion. This alone will completely reorient your life, because in focusing on that pleasure you're turning your attention to being, the first step in recreating your life so that it's centered on being. If your attention is already turned to being, you'll be much more likely to recognize being pleasure when it occurs. Being pleasure is similar to the pleasure of breathing, but much more intense and profound. It's critical to be able to recognize being pleasure, to notice it, because it's direct guidance from being that you're doing the right thing, moving in the direction of being. It's also important to recognize a time when you might've thought being pleasure would be there but it wasn't, for instance when you're doing some other practice that's supposed to be moving you in the direction of being. No being pleasure means no development, so you need to change your strategy.
The reorientation of your life that occurs as you make the pleasure of breathing your constant companion empowers you to begin doing real work: living well, day to day. You can't do real work unless you're paying attention to being; paying attention to being is not something you can do just because you think about it sometimes or think you're doing it. Your mind is completely powerless, absolutely impotent when it comes to development, to moving in the direction of being. Any kind of thinking can only prevent progress, not contribute to it. Focusing on the pleasure of breathing is a way of circumventing the mind's interference, and a steady source of feedback: if you start thinking too much, the pleasure of breathing disappears. Everything you do in your daily life can and should move you in the direction of being, but none of it will if you're not paying attention to being. Your goal is to establish an ongoing connection between your life and being.
Paying attention to being leads you toward recreating your life so that it's anchored in being. This is what you're after. Forget about getting high and higher realms and all that transcendent stuff; what you really want is everyday life, anchored in being. The experience of moving through life anchored in being has little in common with popular notions of enlightenment, ecstasy, or altered states. You won't look any different to anyone else, or necessarily act differently. But you'll feel real to yourself. You'll be able to experience the fact that you exist, and there's no ecstasy or altered state that comes close to the satisfaction and pleasure of that experience. Being anchored in being doesn't make you a "better person" by anyone's standards but your own. You don't care so much what people think or say about you; that's just not very interesting anymore.
As you find the life that's right for you - which well may be the life you already had or something very close to it - you'll find it immensely delightful, and you'll continue to shape your life into a truer and deeper reflection of being. You'll find it easy to change or get rid of parts of your life that have no value or that you don't find interesting. You'll begin doing things you always wanted to do but never got around to. Choices made from being will be the right choices; it'll be easy to see what needs to change and to begin changing it.
In addition to visible changes, there will be subtler changes that those close to you may notice. As you come to understand ways you want to live differently, you'll naturally begin moving in that direction. You won't have to figure it out; it'll happen organically, the result of many moment-to-moment choices, and it'll be unstoppable. The more grounded you are in being, the less susceptible you are to being pushed, stopped, or persuaded. Being is uncompromising; instead of compromise, you'll find creative solutions that let you move in the direction you want to go.
| 