The bliss of nothing comes from the absence of something, which the empty breath brings about regardless of the appearance of something.
Although being in the bliss of nothing is straightforward, getting there seems complicated if you assume you must stop thoughts. Nothing needs to be stopped. On the contrary, when you do not block thoughts, they speed up until the explosion of their unedited energy ignites a take-off into the empty breath: the bliss of nothing. [Photo: Alexius]
From Duality Hack #9.6 in Alexius’ Duality Hacks.
When you connect with the empty breath, you may at first feel you have two kinds of breaths: The physical breath, which you experience with the outward-facing senses and the empty breath, which you experience with the inward-facing senses. Perhaps you struggle with the physical one. Or you may worry that the empty breath does not support you physically with enough air.
But, the empty breath brings about all the necessary air, supported automatically by physical motions. First, the underbelly, belly and chest gently expand. Next, after a short break, the body contracts. And then it starts all over. However, the pace of the empty breath may be slower than expected. And it has a more extended break between breathing in and out to stabilise breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.
Fortunately, when you repeatedly experience the empty breath, you are hardly aware of the physical motions supporting it. Hence, you do not feel that you have two breaths.
The empty breath is not about striving for something higher. It is about falling into the bliss of nothing, which occurs when not enhancing the physical breath to feel something more intensely. [Photo: Alexius]
The physical breath
The generator of the physical breath is a muscle called the diaphragm between the stomach and the chest (see Wikipedia). It causes air to flow in and out of the mouth or nose. But you hardly noticed that. Instead, you experience that breathing begins by expanding your underbelly.
However, if you use the mouth or nose to boost the breath, the shoulders tighten and, thereupon, the diaphragm. Therefore, since the stomach bloats, you gasp for air and breathe faster or more deeply. This probably makes you focus so much on the physical breath that you forget the empty breath. That said, nothing changes your experience of the empty breath if you remain in the inward-facing senses.
If your diaphragm is so tight that you do not breathe freely physically, you can surf the empty breath in a circle, goingaround the diaphragm horizontally to soften it. See Duality Hack #9.4.
Breathing through the mouth or nose
Breathing through the nose is preferable physically because it moisturises the air and acts as a filter before it reaches your lungs.
It is also good for getting in touch with the empty breath because you can use the mouth for the Immortal Sweetness technique to defocus (Duality Hack #11.2). Since you do not focus on something specific, it is easy to connect with the empty breath and get the bliss of nothing.
However, if you have rhinitis or a blocked nose, it is more comfortable to breathe through the mouth. Fortunately, it makes no difference to the empty breath.
Psychological problems do not survive the empty breath. The differences that define them are not perceived to make a difference unless you insist on making a difference. Fortunately, the frustration from doing that ignites a take-off into the empty breath. [Photo: Alexius]
Up and down with the empty breath
Be aware that this Duality Hack (#9.6) does not intend to present a factual explanation of breathing when the empty breath is in the driving seat but how it feels. Since you feel the empty breath through the inward-facing senses and the physical breath via the outward-facing senses, the experience of the empty breath continues undisturbed by the body’s physical condition.
Suppose you have a lung or kidney issue that shortens the physical breath. In that case, you still experience the empty breath when you rely on the inward-facing senses and patiently wait for the empty breath to fill your lungs with the bliss of nothing, making you indifferent to the body’s condition.
The ‘dynamo’ of the empty breath is in the underbelly. From there, you follow the swing of the empty breath ((see Duality Hack #9.4)) to the top of the head, more or less aligned with the body’s expansion from the underbelly to the chest. At the same time, you acknowledge thoughts and feelings without suppressing some. Hence, their unbound energy ignites a gentle explosion at the top of the head, erasing the perception of being someone. Thus, you feel like having a body that is not there because you are in the bliss of nothing.
This state of not-knowing remains while the body contracts, and you go with the swing of the empty breath down to the underbelly. After that, you keep going up and down with the swing of the empty breath, still in a state of not-knowing. However, that does not mean that the state resides in the breath’s flow. A state of not-knowing and its bliss of nothing is nowhere. That is why it is obscured by the experiences of something, confirming you as someone definitive, somewhere in particular.
A state of not-knowing wipes out conditionings. So, when you leave it to enter the conscious experience of duality, you are in the duality flow. Therefore, since you cannot uphold a specific decision, you can return to the bliss of nothing when you feel like taking a break from duality. Besides, a state of not-knowing makes you smile. So, you may still be smiling when returning to the conscious experience of duality, thus quickly re-entering a state of not-knowing.
Other ways of going up and with the empty breath
Above, you followed the swing of the empty breath going up and down. But you could also have surfed the yin-yang-shaped waves where they meet a vertical circle from the front to the back of you or the other way, so you were going up and down in a circular movement. Read about surfing the empty breath in Duality Hack #9.4. Or you could have listened to the transparent sound of the empty breath while going up and down (see Duality Hack #9.4). Of course, you could have changed between those ways or done them simultaneously.
However, if you remain in a state of not-knowing for more than 20 minutes, 45 at most, at a time, you cannot return to the conscious experience of being someone in a world of duality. See Duality Hack #9.10. So, if you want to return to that, you better depart a state of not-knowing relatively quickly.
Fortunately, you leave it with the slate wiped clean, so you return unconditioned to the conscious experience of duality. Therefore, igniting a new take-off into the empty breath is manageable. 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 in a world of duality.
Everywhere and nowhere with the empty breath
In the following sample, you are nobody in a state of not-knowing when you follow the empty breath from the head to the underbelly while the body contracts. Then, when its expansion begins, you set off from the underbelly and remember something specific. Hence, you return to the conscious experience of being somebody.
Fortunately, with the help of the empty breath, you do not perceive that as something. So, you arrive at the head as nobody and go down to the underbelly 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.
You do not experience body parts you pass following the empty breath as compact but transparent becauseyou are with the empty breath.
After doing that for a while, switching back and forth between being a nobody and somebody becomes automatic. Eventually, you do not know one from the other because the contrast between somebody and nobody – brings you into the duality flow.
From the inward-facing senses’ single eye with the empty breath
Above, you felt the empty breaths ‘dynamo’ in the underbelly. But suppose you prefer a more metaphysical approach. In that case, you can sense the ‘dynamo’ as an insubstantial generator in the inward-facing senses’ single ‘eye’ between the two eyes above the eyebrow – often called the third eye. In that case, you start following the empty breath from there.
You do it by defocusing on the single eye and patiently waiting until the empty breath unfolds as a transparent sound in the space that opens in the single eye. 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 underbelly or the single eye, you hardly 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 appearing as something.
You can also sense a ‘dynamo’ for the empty breath in the eighth chakra above the head. There, you start in a state of not-knowing and in a vertical circle going sideways, you simultaneously surf both sides down to the heart. Here, you begin 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 backward your body.
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 on. That may be the preferred way for high-frequency persons.
It may be easier to remind yourself about the nothingness of the empty breath by relating to it as something you love. For example, sometimes Alexius calls it Uma, the name of his beloved cat. She is dead, thus not substantial but insubstantial like the empty breath. Hence, the memory of her linked with the empty breath is like a laser of nothing going through Alexius’ perceived world of something. Consequently, nothing stops him from feeling connected with the empty breath. [Photo: Alexius]
Forgetting up or 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. That also applies to figuring out which way to follow the empty breath or if it is linked to the physical breath. You can never know because you are in a state of not-knowing when connected with the empty breath.
It is a matter of speech when Alexius’ Duality Hacks say that the empty breath fills you with emptiness. It does not supply you with anything. Instead, it exposes the body as nothing camouflaged by experiences of something. The same applies to all experiences of something. Thankfully, you are not bothered by anything in the absence of 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 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, thus not hiding that which is real.
Following the empty breath is hypnotising. Therefore, since you forget to interpret experiences as something, so you are in the bliss of nothing. [Photo: Alexius]
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