Updated May 14, 2023
Although being in the bliss of nothing is straightforward, it may seem complicated if you assume thoughts must be controlled or stopped because focusing on them is impossible in the bliss of nothing. Neither is focussing beneficial for getting there. On the contrary, when not trying to control thoughts, they speed up until the explosion of their unedited energy ignites a take-off into the empty breath and the bliss of nothing. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
Connecting with the empty breath may initially feel like you have two kinds of breaths. You may struggle with the physical one, taking quick gasps of air, deep breaths or manipulating breathing per a specific philosophy. And you may feel the empty breath does not supply you with enough air. But that is probably because its pace is slower than you expect. It has a more extended break between breathing in and out to stabilise breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.
UP AND DOWN WITH THE EMPTY BREATH
It does not feel like it is yourself but a ‘generator’ in the abdomen that makes the empty breath. It expands the abdomen, the belly, and the chest very gently. Then, after a short break, it contracts the body. And then it starts all over. But it may feel like hardly any air is coming through the nose because the empty breath is experienced via the inward-facing senses, which requires the outward-facing senses turned down. Hence you are not much aware of physical movements. Nevertheless, like an inner breath, the empty breath brings all the necessary air. Read more about the inward and outward-fencing senses here.
Physical speaking, breathing can be done through the mouth, but the nose is better. It allows you to use the mouth for the taste of oneness technique, thus getting its side-effect of defocusing and, therefore, in the bliss of nothing. See the paragraph The taste of oneness in The four aspects of Enlightenment and how to sample them.
Please be aware that this article does not intend to present a factual explanation of breathing when the empty breath is in the driving seat but how it feels. Since it is felt via the inward-facing senses and the physical breath is felt by the outward-facing senses, the experience of the empty breath goes on undisturbed by the physical condition of your body.
Therefore, if you have an issue with the lungs that shortens the physical breath, you still get the whole experience of the empty breath when you remain in the inward-facing senses and patiently wait for the empty breath to fill your lungs with the bliss of nothing. And since there was nothing before there was something, the nothingness of the empty breath gives you maximum charge if you do not expect something.
Following the rhythm of the empty breath described here and elsewhere in Duality hack #9 In the bliss of nothing with the empty breath is hypnotising. That is why you forget to experience yourself as someone separated from others by time and space. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
The generator of the physical breath is the muscle called the diaphragm, between the stomach and the chest (see Wikipedia). But, as already said, the ‘dynamo’ of the empty breath is in the abdomen. So from there, you follow the swing of the empty breath to the top of the head, more or less aligned with the body’s expansion from the abdomen to the chest. At the same time, you acknowledge thoughts and feelings without editing them. Hence their unbound energy ignites a gentle explosion in the top of the head, erasing the perception of being someone. After that, it is like having a body that is not there because you are in a state of not-knowing.
Read more about the swing of the empty breath in What does the empty breath feel like? And read about a state of not-knowing in A state of not-knowing and the after-effect.
That remains while the body contracts, and you go with the swing of the empty breath down to the abdomen. After that, you keep going up and down with the swing of the empty breath, thus still in a state of not-knowing and its bliss of nothing. This is not to say that a state of not-knowing resides in the breath’s flow. It is nowhere. That is why it is obscured by the experiences of time and space that seem to confirm you as someone definitive in a tangible world.
If the above example, you followed the swing of the empty breath going up and down. But you could also have surfed the yin-yang-shaped waves in a vertical circle from the front to the back of you or the other way, thus going up and down in a circular movement. Or perhaps you listened to the transparent sound of the empty breath while going up and down. – or maybe you changed between those ways or did them simultaneously. Read about that in What does the empty breath feel like?
But if you stay in a state of not-knowing for more than 20 minutes, 45 at most, at a time, you cannot return to the experience of being someone definitive in a world where there seems to be more than one. Read more about that here. So if you want to return to that, you better depart a state of not-knowing relatively quickly. Since you do it with the slate wiped clean, you come back unconditioned, wherefore igniting a new take-off into the empty breath is easy. Below we look at how you can quickly go back and forth between a state of not-knowing and the conscious experience of being someone.
The empty breath cancels out the apparent differences in a world where there seems to be more than one. That does not mean they are not experienced as different anymore, but that difference is not perceived to make a difference. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
When you every so often return to the empty breath, nothing remains a problem because the differences that appear to cause problems are not perceived to make a difference when you are with the empty breath.
That is, if you do not prevent the empty breath from doing that by insisting your spouse, for example, makes a difference. Fortunately, the frustration that seems to arise from upholding a singular perspective can be used to ignite a take-off into the empty breath.
EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE WITH THE EMPTY BREATH
In the aforesaid, you followed the empty breath from the abdomen to the head, where you entered a state of not-knowing in which you remained as nobody for some time.
However, in this sample, you are only in a state of not-knowing when you follow the empty breath from the head to the abdomen while the body contracts. But when it expands, you return to the conscious experience of being somebody by remembering something specific. Fortunately, with the help of the empty breath, you do not perceive that as something. Hence you return to the head as nobody and go down to the abdomen in a state of-not-knowing while the body contracts. From there, you go up to the head again as somebody and leave as nobody in a state of not-knowing. And so on.
Having done this for a while, going back and forth between a state of not-knowing and the conscious experience of being someone becomes automatic. Eventually, you do not know when you are somebody because the contrast of up and down is soon cancelled out (read more about that here). Thus it feels as if nobody is going nowhere and everywhere.
Please notice that when parts of the body, like the head, are mentioned in the movements of the empty breath, you do not experience those parts as compact but transparent because you are with the empty breath. In What does the empty breath feel like? you can read more about the different ways of experiencing the empty breath.
Suppose you think you find something better around the next corner. In that case, you will probably not notice the empty breath because it is not behind anything but before everything that the brain has twisted into an experience of something from out of nothing. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
HERE OR THERE?
Since you a long time ago accepted that the body’s expansion and contraction are related to breathing in and out, you do not have to think about this connection anymore. The same applies if you psychologically decide that breathing in means you are conscious of being someone and breathing out that you are in a state of not-knowing – like you do not have to do anything to feel attracted to the kind of look you have decided is cool.
Having said that, in a state of not-knowing, all conditioning is cancelled, so you return to the consciousness of being someone with the slate wiped clean. Therefore, since you are the basic self, you are in the duality flow, thus unable to uphold a specific decision. Fortunately, that is unnecessary because a state of not-knowing complements the duality flow. Besides, a state of not-knowing makes you laugh, so you may still be laughing when returning to the conscious experience of being someone, thus quickly reentering a state of not-knowing.
FROM THE THIRD EYE WITH THE EMPTY BREATH
So far, we have said the ‘dynamo’ of the empty breath is in the abdomen. But if you prefer a more metaphysical approach, you can use the third eye as ‘dynamo’ and start going with the empty breath from there.
You do that by defocusing on the third eye. Then you patiently wait until the breath starts by itself. But you do not go with the flow of it. Instead, you rest in the space that seems to have opened in the third eye, filled with the transparent sound of the empty breath. From there, you probably sense the swing of the empty breath in the upper part of the body, and when breathing in, you have glimpses of the Enlightenment of that which is One.
Whether connecting with the empty breath from a ‘dynamo’ in the abdomen or the third eye, you do not notice the constant streaming of thoughts from the brain. So, except when returning to the conscious experience of being somebody, you are in the bliss of nothing, thus feeling transparent, regardless of looking the same.
There is also a ‘dynamo’ for the empty breath in the eighth chakra above the head. From there, you start in a state of not-knowing and simultaneously surf both sides of a vertical circle side of you until you reach the heart. Here you start contemplating the bliss of nothing, so you are not in a state of not knowing when you surf back to the eighth chakra simultaneously on both sides of a vertical circle that goes forward and backwards of you. Returning to the eighth chakra, you are back in a state of not-knowing until you surf down to the heart, where you again contemplate the bliss of being nobody. And so it goes. If you are a high-frequency person, this is probably your way with the empty breath.
You do not need to remember every detail of this photo to get a sense of it. Likewise, you do not need to remember all the explanations about the empty breath to sense it. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
FORGETTING UP AND DOWN
Connecting with the empty breath is not a matter of letting go or surrendering because doing so enhances the belief in being someone definitive. And you keep the empty breath at bay if you try to figure out which way to follow it or if it follows the physical breath. It has nothing to do with the body. Actually, you will never know if the physical and empty breath are aligned because you are in a state of not-knowing when connected with the empty breath.
It is a matter of speech when Alexius’ Enlightened Non-Teachings say that the empty breath fills you with emptiness. It does not supply you with anything. But it exposes the body as nothing covered by an experience as if it is something. The same applies to any experience you have. They are nothing disguised as something. Acknowledging this, you are not bothered by something. That is why it is so blissful to be with the empty breath.
Should you forget to go up and down with the empty breath, there is no reason to blame yourself because there is no self. It takes more than one to be or have a self, and there is no more than that which is One. Thus being someone is make-believe. Of course, that also applies to being connected with the empty breath. Nevertheless, it does not establish you as something because it gives you nothing. Hence what you believe in being is exposed as unreal.
Since the empty breath sees nothing but emptiness where you believe to see something, it has no need to be free from anything or be recognised as something. Photo © Alexius Jorgensen.
RELATING TO THE NOTHINGNESS OF THE EMPTY BREATH AS SOMETHING
It may be easier to remind yourself about the nothingness of the empty breath by relating to it via something. For example, sometimes Alexius calls it Uma, the name of his beloved cat. She is dead, thus not appearing as something but nothing like the empty breath, so the memory of her hooked up with the empty breath is like a laser of nothing going through his perceived obstacles of something in the body. Hence nothing stops him from feeling the connection with the empty breath.
NOTE: This article is part of Duality Hack #9 The empty breath is the bliss of nothing.
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