Control

What is control? It sounds robotic, does it not?

Even typing the word gives me the shivers…

We usually use such words for computers, after all, not human beings!

To control oneself needn’t be understood in the realm of ‘restriction’, however, or other ways of describing the human as somewhat robotic or programmed for a single function. Self-control, instead, can give birth to life in all its many facets; wild, playful, routine or otherwise.

Let me explain how…

If the human being is indeed conscious - meaning he or she has a purposeful sense of self-will (or, ‘freedom of choice’) - then what is the ‘practice’ through which one indeed can choose to live best?

Many art forms, religions, educational methods, sports (etc) claim to be such a ‘practice’, and perhaps rightfully so. These practices needn’t be excluded, or shunned, from the ‘true’ practice of mindfulness. That being said, there is one ‘function’ which exists beneath all such practices, whether it be dance, prayer, writing, playing an instrument or taking part in a volleyball competition; and that function is the breath!

Control, in the most fundamentally human sense of the word, simply means to regulate one’s breath.

Sounds simple, does it not? Perhaps it is; and yet so few do it as a conscious practice, daily, weekly, monthly throughout their lives. 

Imagine you were building a house and every time you laid down a certain number of bricks they collapsed through the ground beneath it. Most people, metaphorically speaking, would find a new arrangement or clever method of re-laying them without giving much attention to the very foundation (the floor) beneath it all.

Even if one took notice of the ground, they might pat it with their hand a little bit, perhaps find a more secure part, or just blindly try another piece of land somewhere else.

It’s obvious to see from this analogy that the real work – that which will support and maintain everything else on top – must come from the foundation underneath; in this case, the ground!

It doesn’t matter how beautiful and intelligently crafted the building is above it, soon enough it’ll crumble and the whole structure will need constant readjusting, or perhaps even knocked down completely in order to start all over again.

The same can be said for the human being!

The breath is that which unites the mind and body; it cannot be described or understood accurately without elements of both being considered. The breath carries with it every experience - in its rhythm, quality, speed and intensity, the story of one’s entire life is revealed.

To observe one’s story, in this way through the breath, is therefore confronting, and can be both physically and emotionally challenging for obvious reasons. No one returns from the ‘awareness experience’ unchanged.

Each life is filled with baggage; fears, emotions, traumas, addictions, cravings, desires, memories, dreams. It is what makes us human. And yet one needs only to observe them and subtle transformations, over time, begin to take place.

With observation naturally arises a more harmonious regulation, and with regulation comes self-control.

And what arrives from self-control?, you might ask... Freedom!

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