Updated March 28, 2023
Since the empty breath is not definitive, it cannot be experienced in a specific way. But it can be felt in undefinable ways anywhere within its non-definitive framework – whether that appears to be inside or outside the body – but never consistently the same, although it is always present.
You can feel the empty breath in many ways within its non-definable frame of a ball-like thingy. Its top passes through the head, and the bottom through the stomach. But the ball may be bigger or smaller. See below. It is not explicitly experienced inside or outside the body, so it is not an out-of-body experience. Besides, such an experience is based on the belief in being someone in a body, and the empty breath undoes that idea, so it is a no-body experience. However, that does not mean you do not take care of the body and the world around it when connected with the empty breath, but that you are indifferent to the outcome.
In the connectedness with the empty breath there is nothing that appears disturbing. But trying to connect with it everything seems disturbing, because the purpose of trying to do something is to delay it.
The empty breath has no definitive centre or border, nor is anything else fixed. Everything is constantly moving, so the experience changes from moment to moment. Maybe it is felt in the stomach or chest or outside the body. Should your experience differ from Alexius’ description, go with the flow as it comes to you.
FEELINGS ARE SUBJECTIVE
If you are future-minded, you might experience the empty breath starting in front of you, whereas it probably is felt to arrive from the back if you are concerned about the past. And if you are into the concepts like living in the now, being centred and balanced, it might feel like it has a centre. In other words, the experience of the empty breath is coloured by your conditioning.
That is not a problem for the empty breath because, contrary to you, it does not need to be acknowledged in a particular way. So whether you experience it in the stomach, the chest, or outside the body, it carries out its purpose: to make you indifferent to your experiences.
The empty breath is indifferent to all the apparent differences of the world, so the more you connect with it, the more you adapt to its indifference and the less you want to be someone who makes a difference.
Since the empty breath is not static, its experience may quickly change and differ from those described below. No worries, connecting with it is not about doing something specific to feel something definitive but going with the flow. You only feel obliged to do ‘the right thing’ when you want to make a difference.
Alexius has manipulated this scientific illustration from the internet to give you an idea of the simultaneously circular movements inside the non-definitive ball of the empty breath.
A BASIC INTRO TO THE NON-DEFINITIVE SHAPE OF THE THE EMPTY BREATH
The empty breath is modelled like an egg-shaped ball with oval circles moving inside it. But contrary to what you see in the illustration to the right, it does not have a definitive centre or border. Nor do the circles inside it. They are countless, and there are two yin-yang-shaped waves inside each one. You cannot see the waves inside the circles in the simplified illustration to the right. But in the second image from here, there is a sample of two waves inside one of the circles.
That the empty breath has a non-definitive form does not only mean its edge is blurry but that neither size nor shape is constant. It may get bigger and smaller here and there, so it momentarily feels more pear-shaped than egg-shaped. But it has no up and down, and the apparent centre of each circle inside the non-definitive ball of the empty breath is floating. Hence there are many non-fixed centres.
The innumerable amount of diffused shaped circles inside the non-definitive boundary of the empty breath is located vertically and horizontally, plus in between, with each of them having yin-yang-shaped waves inside them. There is an illustration of the yin-yang-shaped waves inside one of the circles in the below paragraph SURFING THE EMPTY BREATH. But the circles are actually fused into one yin-yang-shaped movement rolling in all directions – a bit like in the animation in the paragraph THE SWING OF THE EMPTY BREATH or the two last animations of this article.
However, since that is very difficult to comprehend in a world where we are conditioned to divide reality into more than one, most do not feel the totality of the empty breath but one of the many circles inside it. No worries. It is not about perfection but going with the flow as it comes to you.
The empty breath has no specific centre, and though it seems to consist of endless circles in various movements, everything is fused into one single move. But since this is hard to comprehend in a world where there seems to be more than one, you may find it easier to deal with one circle at a time.
Maybe the flow is a circle going vertically from the stomach around the back of the body to the top of the head when breathing in, and from there, in a circular movement in front of the body and back to the stomach when breathing out. Or it could also be in the opposite direction. It does not matter. As already said, it is about going with the flow, so follow it where it goes.
Perhaps it goes in a circle, about the same diameter as above, from the abdomen to the throat and back or the rectum to the heart and back. The circle can also expand its diameter, so it goes from the abdomen to a point above the head and back or from the rectum further above the head and back. Since the latter circle metaphorically goes from hell to heaven, you may feel frightened or spaced out if you get stuck in one of those extremes. See Duality Hack #8 The duality flow goes to non-duality.
But the circle may be smaller, from the heart to a point above the head. Or perhaps you do not feel the flow in a vertical circle from the back to the front of you but from the left to the right side or anywhere between these two. You can also feel it horizontally. But no matter where you perceive the empty breath, it is the same emptiness you encounter (read more about that here).
Below is a short introduction to some ways of feeling the empty breath, then a more detailed description. Be aware that feeling the empty breath, as described in this article, is only possible if you do not wish to be or have more because the empty breath has nothing to give but the sheer bliss of emptiness.
A BASIC INTRO TO FOUR WAYS OF FEELING THE EMPTY BREATH
Sensing the operator of the empty breath (see below) feels like you are floating on clouds of bliss. In contrast, going with the rhythmic flow of the empty breath is more like being moved by clouds of bliss.
The rhythmic flow can be heard as a distant sound or felt like a swing (see below). It can also be sensed as if nobody is surfing two yin-yang-like waves in and outside the body (see the next paragraph).
These categories are not meant to limit your experience of the empty breath but to inspire you to follow its flow.
Each non-definable circle inside the cloudy ball of the empty breath – see the previous illustration – consists of two free-flowing yin-yang-like waves (without holes). It may feel like you are surfing these waves, more or less in sync with the physical breath. The colours in this image only have an illustrative purpose.
SURFING THE EMPTY BREATH
You see a simplified simulation of the empty breath in the illustration with the red circles pictured to the right above. But the circles are not actually red, and there are an endless number of them. And the drawing does not reflect that the empty breath has no definitive border or centre, and each circle inside it contains two non-definitive yin-yang-shaped wave holes (see the above image). They are colourless. The colours in this image and the others in the article only have an illustrative purpose.
When the breath expands the body, you surf the outside of the blue wave vertically from the stomach and behind the body up into the head. From there, you surf the outside of the yellow wave in front of the body down to the stomach while the breath is contracting the body. That is, if you are sensing the waves in a circle going vertically from the back to the front of the body. But, as mentioned above, the direction does not matter, and the circle can be smaller and bigger. Besides surfing the two yin-yang-like waves in a vertical circle, you can surf the waves in a horizontal circle or anywhere between.
No need to be in total sync with the rhythm of the physical expansion and contraction of the body, nor does it matter if part of the empty breath’s circular movement is skipped. What matters is you follow the flow as it comes to you. By doing that, you forget the physical breath. Hence it can take care of itself without you trying to inflict it with ideas of balance and whatnot.
Maybe the ecstatic way to surf the waves is to go the whole way around one of them and then continue by going the entire way around the other, more or less aligned with the breath extracting and contracting the body. However, many other joyous ways are probably revealed when you are in the flow.
Alexius has never been surfing in the world of the outward-facing senses, so when he says going with the flow of the two yin-yang like waves in a circle inside the empty breath feels like surfing, it is something he imagines based on movies.
As already said, you can surf the waves of the empty breath in both directions. Going counterclockwise tends to lessen physical awareness, so you become less interested in returning to the conscious experience of being someone substantial in a tangible world. The same applies if the non-definable edges of the empty breath are not experienced to pass through the head but on top of it and below the abdomen.
That sets the body free, so it can follow its biological system without you trying to integrate it with mental ideas of wellness. It is like trying to blend the material world with the immaterial world of a dream or vice versa. It does not work. Read more about that in Duality Hack #7 The fake mix of physical and non-physical issues. However, you can surf the waves of the empty breath to ease pain in the body. See the appendix at the bottom.
Since it takes more than one to feel something, it is only in a world where there seems to be more than one it is possible to do that. Therefore, the more the belief in such a world is undone by the empty breath, the less you feel it.
It is impossible to illustrate the swing of the empty breath because it has no definable form or movement. Nevertheless, this animation may give you an idea. The swing of the empty breath is generated from the blurred curved line in the middle of the picture. But even though going with the swing of it is magnificent, it is often a laid-back experience of expansion and contraction.
THE SWING OF THE EMPTY BREATH
You surf the empty breath on the waves in any of the circles within the non-definitive border of the empty breath. But you feel the swing of the empty breath from the movement of the non-definitive curved line between the two yin-yang-like waves in any of the circles (see the curved line in the illustration to the left). Perhaps due to the definitive size of the body, the curved line in the swing of the empty breath feels less bowed and probably shorter than the rounded line between the two waves described above.
The swing of the empty breath extracts and contracts the body in a steady rhythmic flow of breathing in and out that may seem slower than when you imagined being in charge of the breath. And the break in between expansion and contraction may feel longer. Nevertheless, the swing of the empty breath probably feels more powerful – so much indeed that it feels like the body does not have enough room for it at first.
The curved line does not just swing from the back to front concerning the body but also up and down, from side to side and everywhere in between, which you may sense in the illustration to the left. Though you can feel all these directions simultaneously, it probably is so unfamiliar that you may prefer to feel the swing of the empty breath in one vertical circle at a time.
The circles with the swing of the empty breath are more egg-shaped (see the illustration to the left). But you will not notice that because it is only the swing of the curved line inside ‘the egg’ that you feel, probably in a way that does not seem logical. For example, breathing in, you may solely experience the swing of the empty breath at the bottom of ‘the egg’ and breathing out at the top of it – or the other way around, or only in the bottom, or the top. You can also experience the curved line going repeatedly or up and down simultaneously.
Like the other ways of feeling the empty breath, it presupposes you acknowledge you are not in charge. Using the technique for the taste of oneness, you automatically lose control because, whether you taste it, the method is beneficial for defocusing. And without focus, you are out of control. Read about the taste of oneness and defocus in The four aspects of Enlightenment and how to sample them.
If you experience the swing of the empty breath in all the egg-shaped circles simultaneously, their fusion initially feels like everything is spinning. See the speedy animation just below. But it quickly becomes a feeling of everything standing so still that you feel the bliss of being indifferent to what and where you appear to be.
The swing of the empty breath is not felt as fast as the movements in this animation but rather like a steady ongoing rhythm with much force that expands and contracts the body. Yet the resulting breath in the body is often very subtle. It probably seems slower than you are used to – unlike the operator of the empty breath, which is a rush of energy within the non-definable ball that constitutes the empty breath. Even though the particles of this force are moving completely unstructured and at any speed, fast or slow – a bit like in this animation – it is such a relief to merge with this apparent chaos because that prevents you from focussing on anything specific. Hence you feel like a fountain of sparkling joy.
THE OPERATOR OF THE EMPTY BREATH
Besides feeling the swing of the empty breath or surfing its yin-yang-like waves more or less in alignment with the extraction and contraction of the physical breath, you can also feel a constant rush of energy within the non-definable border of the empty breath. This chaotic energy is not rhythmic but irregular at the root of the empty breath. Yet, it is the force behind the constant rhythm of the empty breath. The feeling is a subtle sense of being here and everywhere, or as if spinning through a world with no limits, undefined as someone.
There are no rules, but it could very well be that a take-off into the empty breath will take you to the operator of the empty breath – and what a relief it is to float in chaos instead of having to fit into the rigid world of the outward-facing senses.
Unlike the swing of the empty breath, but like surfing its waves, the operator of the empty breath is sensed inside and outside the body – or rather like there is no inside and outside. When you do not try to catch this abstractness, it feels like you are a fountain of sparkling joy. Sometimes it is easier to recognise outside, where the dense bodily feeling is not an obstacle. You will automatically be taken inside from there because the operator does not know one from the other. Next, you may start surfing the empty breath, feel the swing of it or hear its transparent sound (see the next paragraph).
Hearing or feeling the sound of the empty breath makes you seem transparent as if nothing is separating you from other appearances in the world of the outward-facing senses. The graphic is grabbed from the web.
THE TRANSPARENT SOUND OF THE EMPTY BREATH
Just like the rhythm of bass is heard and felt in the body, so is the sound of the empty breath, which is like ‘so’ when it expands and ‘ham’ when it contracts.
Sometimes it is like this rhythmic sound of ‘so-ham’ comes from the nose, but at other times, it is sensed from an undefined space in the back of the head. And then again, since the sound does not seem to have a definable location, it is neither experienced to be inside nor outside the head. It may even appear to originate from an invisible space outside the body that has nothing to do with it.
In other words, feeling the sound of the empty breath is not a compelling experience because it cancels out the notion of being in a body – as if there is no definable border between the body and its apparent surrounding. For example, a sofa does not seem to differ from a body sitting there when deeply connected with the empty breath (read more about that here). Consequently, since there is no inside and outside, there is nothing to define a world where there seems to be more than one, wherefore it is seen as make-believe.
But like the set-up in a game world is the same whether you know it is fictional, a world where there seems to be more than one remains the same even though you sense it is an illusion. However, your relationship with it changes. Appearing there is pretence, like when you pretend to be someone in the world of a game. See hack #2 Pretending to be in a world of duality, you undo it.
Do not get attached to the rhythm of the empty breath, because the feeling of the rhythm is related to the body, so it stops when the body does not function anymore.
Since a rhythm has a beginning and an end, it is best not to get attached to the rhythm of the empty breath, because it ends when the body stops to function. At that moment, it is better to merge with the indifference of the empty breath or the non rhythmic and very chaotic energy in its operator, so there is not something specific to stop the Enlightenment of that which is One from absorbing the nothingness of you. See hack #10 The Enlightenment of that which is One.
Via the transparent sound of the empty breath, you naturally float into glimpses of the Enlightenment of that which is One. See hack #11 Enlightenment and its glimpses. The visual-minded will experience them as visions of light, and the auditory-minded as ethereal harmonies. However, if you are more emotional-minded, you may feel the vibration that Aum, Sohang, and The Word of God symbolise or taste its sweetness.
The connection with the empty breath is a state of not-knowing. Therefore, since there is no notion of separation, the apparent difference between past, now and future makes no difference.
It is not possible to illustrate the empty breath in its totality. But this yin-yang animation (please ignore the holes in the waves and imagine it is completely full of yin-yang-like waves) may give you an idea about the simultaneous movement of the waves inside it.
THE CONNECTEDNESS WITH THE EMPTY BREATH IS A STATE OF NOT-KNOWING
Nobody knows what the connectedness with the empty breath feels like because it is a state of not-knowing. So Alexius had to go back and forth between a state of not-knowing and the conscious experience of being someone to compile his distant memories of how the empty breath feels. Hence, his writing about it may seem patchy and confusing. If so, do not try to correct your disorientation but use it to ignite a take-off into the empty breath. See also Take-offs into the empty breath and How to ignite a take-off into the empty breath..
Please remember that even though the connectedness with the empty breath is impersonal, your memory of it is personal. Therefore, you may not remember it as Alexius.
If you are still confused, you are welcome to mail Alexius, although using your uncertainty to ignite a take-off into the empty breath is preferable because he can help neither you nor himself, as he sees nobody in need of help.
Hence you are better off reading about the empty breath until you can hardly stay awake. Then go to bed, forget what you read, close your eyes, and patiently wait for the empty breath. But your eyes do not have to be closed, and you do not have to go to bed to connect with the empty breath. Besides, you can sit anywhere in any position. You can also walk, run or talk. But you cannot bring about the empty breath by manipulating the physical breath or exercising any other form of control. Instead, it is the other way around. When you are not in control, the empty breath joins you.
A bicycle has nothing to do with the place, it takes you.
That is not to say that techniques cannot help you tone down the experience of being someone definitive so that your apparent existence in a tangible world is exposed as make-believe. But unfortunately, most forget that techniques have nothing to do with their accomplishments. Like the remote control, it has nothing to do with the music it triggers.
In a sick body, the swing of the empty breath might be experienced to come in bursts – a bit like in this animation but probably slower. However, no matter how restricted the swing of it is experienced, connecting with it will always entail indifference. Therefore, sticking to that, how the empty breath is experienced makes no difference.
APPENDIX: SURFING THE EMPTY BREATH TO HEAL YOUR PROBLEMS
Alexius usually join the flow of the empty breath without thinking about directions and whatnot because, in his case, it primarily results in the sense of indifference. However, it is possible to be pickier. For example, if you worry about a strange pain in the back, you can have it massaged by continuously surfing the whole wave behind you but not the wave in front of you in a vertical circle. It may not make the pain go away but surely the worry. And without that, the pain may be easy to fix. See Duality Hack #7 The fake mix of physical and non-physical issues.
Should you want to be grounded, you surf the waves in a horizontal circle, passing through the abdomen or even lower. Suppose you want to enhance being impulsive. In that case, you surf all the way around the wave to the right inside a horizontal circle going around the head. If you want to be more calculated, surf the left wave instead.
In a circle that also is horizontal but around the chest, you can surf all around a wave in front of the chest to ease the restricted feeling caused by imagined emotions there. Surfing both waves in a horizontal circle around the head or stomach is excellent in the case of vertigo.
Sometimes problems like spasms are the body’s way of shaking parts into a position that benefits the whole. In such cases, spasms should be left course. But if that is not the case, you can use the empty breath to calm down the spasms.
Should you have tight hips, a blocked abdomen or spasms in the lower back, you surf the whole wave behind you and then the one in front of you in a horizontal circle in that area. You could also try surfing in a similar circle where the waves are not behind and in front of you but on your sides. The circle size, thus the waves, adjusts to the need for relaxing these areas.
The empty breath is also beneficial for alleviating allergy symptoms or the symptoms of IBS and COPD, for example. However, it may not heal these or the aforementioned physical sicknesses because Alexius’ Duality Hacks aims not to heal the body but the sick belief that someone is in it. Read more about that here. But since that frees the body from your domination, it often heals itself. That said, if this is what you want, it is best not to use the empty breath but instead be used by it and trust that it gives you what is in your best interest.
The look of these sound waves reminds Alexius of how the connectedness with the empty breath often feels and how that makes him indifferent to the apparent differences in the world experienced outside him.
NOTE ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Alexius searched the web for animations and still photos to illustrate the movements of the empty breath in how he remembers them. He does not know if the illustrators had the empty breath in mind when they made these images – but probably not. Except for the last three, the animations are grabbed from Electromagnetic Plasma Energy Light.
NOTE ABOUT THE ARTICLE
The above article, part of Duality Hack #9 The empty breath is the bliss of nothing, is to be continued in the next one, What is the empty breath about?
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