Updated June 24, 2022

Since the empty breath is not definitive, you cannot experience it in a specific way. Yet, 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 there.

You can feel the empty breath in many ways within its non-definable frame of a ball-like thingy,  which top passes through the head – or above it – and the bottom through the stomach or below it. 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 this idea. Read more about that here. Hence it is a no-body experience. This does not mean that 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 do it. Thus you want to be disrupted.

The empty breath has no definitive centre or border or anything else in a fixed position. 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 coming from 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 be felt as if it has a fixed centre. In other words, the experience of the empty breath is coloured by your conditioning.

This 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 to be in the stomach, the chest, or outside the body, it carries out its purpose, which is 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 in this article. 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 on 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 all have two waves shaped like a yin-yang sign inside them. You cannot see those waves in the simplified illustration to the right but in the second image from here.

That the empty breath has a non-definitive form does not only mean that its edges are blurry but that neither size nor shape is constant. It may get bigger and smaller here and there so that it momentarily feels more pear than egg-shaped. It has no up and down, and the apparent centre of each of the circles inside the non-definitive ball of the empty breath is floating, so there are many non-fixed centres.

The innumerable amount of diffused shaped circles inside the non-definitive boundaries of the empty breath is located vertically and horizontally plus in between, with each of them having yin-yang-shaped waves inside them. 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 probably 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 many different movements in their size and shape, everything is fused into one single move. But since this can be hard to comprehend in a world where there seems to be more than one, it is most likely easier to experience just one of its aspects at a time.

Maybe it comes in 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. The direction, however, does not matter. As already said, it is all about going with the flow. So if it seems to go the opposite way, by all means, follow it.

The flow can also be in a circle, about the same diameter as above, that instead goes from the abdomen to the throat or rectum to the heart. But the circle can also expand its diameter, so it goes from the abdomen to a point above the head or from the rectum further above the head. 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 hack #4.4 The duality flow goes to non-duality.

These are just samples. You may experience the circle bigger or smaller, for example from the heart to a point above the head. Or perhaps you feel it somewhere else, for example from the left to the right side of you or anywhere between this and the location mentioned above. You could also feel it horizontally. But no matter where you perceive the empty breath, it is the same emptiness you experience a second before the brain processes it into an experience of something perceived as substantial (read more about that here).

Going with the flow of the circular movement in one of the above circles feels like you are surfing two yin-yang-like waves inside the empty breath. But this is just one way to experience the empty breath. Below is a short introduction to ways of feeling it, then a more detailed description of each of them.

Be aware that feeling the empty breath, as described in this article, is only possible to the extent that 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 WAYS OF FEELING THE EMPTY BREATH
Sensing the operator of the empty breath (see the below paragraph of the same name) or the indifference of it (see the section The empty breath is not the giver of joy and happiness but indifference in the article The indifference of the empty breath wash out conditioning) is a state of not-knowing in which you seem to float on clouds of bliss. In contrast, the state of not-knowing coming from 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 (see the below paragraph The transparent sound of the empty breath) or felt inside the body (see the below section The swing of the empty breath), or sensed as if nobody is surfing the two yin-yang-like waves in and outside the body (see the next paragraph).

These categories are not meant to limit you to experience the empty breath like that, but to inspire you to go with its flow.

Each of the non-definable circles inside the cloudy ball of the empty breath – see the previous illustration – consists of two free-flowing yin-yang-like-looking waves (without holes). They govern the physical breath, so it is not about following the extraction and contraction of the physical breath but the flow of the empty breath. It may feel like you are surfing the outside of the two yin-yang-like waves, more or less in sync with the physical breath. The colours in this image only have an illustrative purpose.

SURFING THE EMPTY BREATH
In the illustration with the red circles pictured above to the right, you see a simplified simulation of the empty breath. You cannot see that the number of circles inside it is endless. Nor does the illustration reflect that the empty breath has no definitive border or centre, and each of the circles inside it contains two non-definitive waves that you can surf. The waves look like a yin-yang sign without the holes (see the above image). They are colourless, so 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 yellow wave vertically from the stomach and behind the body up into the head. From there, you surf the outside of the blue 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.

In the above intro to the empty breath, there is a more detailed explanation of how the circles containing the waves are arranged. As mentioned there, the circle can be smaller and bigger, and the direction does not matter. And besides surfing the two yin-yang-like waves in a vertical circle, you can surf the waves in a horizontal circle or anywhere in 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 circular movement is skipped. What matters is to follow the flow as it comes to you. Doing that, you forget the physical breath. Hence it can take care of itself without you trying to inflict it with ideas of wholeness, balance and whatnot.

Maybe the most 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 may be revealed when you go with 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 the empty breath feels like surfing, it is something he imagines based on pictures.

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 the body with mental ideas of wellness, which 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 hack #4.3 The toxic mix of physical and non-physical issues.

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 feel something. Thus the more the belief in such a world is undone by the empty breath, the less you feel it.

SURFING THE EMPTY BREATH TO HEAL YOUR PROBLEMS
Alexius usually join the flow of the empty breath without thinking about direction 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 the past or feel pain in the back, you can get a massage by continuously surfing the whole wave behind you and leaving out the wave in front of you in a vertical circle.

Should you want to be grounded, you surf the full horizontal wave in the lower half of a vertical circle passing through the abdomen or even lower in the direction from the back to the front of you. You could also choose the bottom wave in a vertical circle going from the left to the right side of you – or the wave in the lower half in one or more circles between the two others mentioned. No reason to memorise this. Just go with the flow.

Just like what you believe in being is nothing, so is the empty breath. But unlike you, it has no need to conceal its nothingness by appearing as something specific. Consequently, there is not something that prevents it from being what and where is most beneficial for you – even under your feet if that is what it takes to make you see you are a fantasy made from nothing.

Suppose you want to enhance being impulsive or deliberate. In that case, you respectively surf all the way around the wave to the right and the left inside a horizontal circle going around the head. In a circle that also is horizontal but around the chest, you can surf all the way around the wave in front of the chest to ease the restricted feeling in the chest caused by imagined emotions there. Surfing both waves but only on the side aligned with a horizontal circle around the head or stomach is excellent in the case of vertigo.

Should you have tight hips, blocked abdomen or spasm 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 size of the circle, thus the waves, adjust to the need for relaxing these areas. Should this release sadness, you may feel like crying. If so, forget about the empty breath and take the time to grieve. Then return to the same circle of the empty breath if that is what the flow calls for.

Sometimes problems like spasms are the body’s way of shaking parts of it into a position that benefits the whole. In such case, spasms should not be healed, of course. But if that is not the case, you can use the empty breath to calm down the spasms.

It may call for surfing another combination of other waves, for example the whole wave in front of you in a horizontal circle going around the abdomen and a complete wave in front of you in a vertical circle from the head to the stomach or the other way. Maybe surfing them simultaneously or whatever seems beneficial regarding getting through the problematic 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 you are in it. Read more about that here. But since that frees the body from your domination, it can often heal itself. That said, if you want that, it is best not to use the empty breath but instead be used by it and trust it gives you what is in your best interest.

It is impossible to illustrate the swing of the empty breath because it has no definable form or movement. However, this animation may give you an idea about how the swing of it feels like it comes from the blurred curved line between the two shapes of a yin-yang sign – but less curved. The swing of this line expands and contracts the body so that it breathes in and out. But unlike in a yin-yang sign, the swing of the empty breath is not inside a flat circle but a non-definable ball, in which there are many similar circles with each their curved line. Depending on where one of these circles is experienced to be located, the swing of the empty breath is experienced to swing upwards and downwards, sideways, forwards and backwards or anywhere in between. Unfortunately, the animation is not really illustrating this. Although the swing of it is magnificent, its experience often is that it is very laid-back in expanding and contracting the body.

THE SWING OF THE EMPTY BREATH
What is said above about surfing the empty breath generally also applies to feeling the swing of it, except that this is solely felt inside the body. There the movement of the non-definitive curved line between the two yin-yang-like waves is sensed as a swing that extracts and contracts the body in a steady rhythmic flow of breathing in and out. Due to the definitive size of the body, this line feels less curved and probably also shorter than the line in between the two waves described above.

The steady swing of the empty breath may seem to expand and contract the body slower than when you imagined being in charge of the breath. Maybe the break in between expansion and contraction also feels too long. But the swing of the empty breath probably feels more powerful – so much indeed that at first, it feels like the body does not have enough room for it.

Surfing the empty breath is done on the waves in any of the circles within the non-definitive border of the empty breath, whereas the swing of it is the movement of the curved line between the two yin-yang-like waves in any of the circles.

In other words, the curved line is not just pumping 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 circle at a time.

The circles with the swing of the empty breath are more egg-shaped (see the illustration). But you will not notice that because it is only the swing of the curved line inside inside ‘the egg’ that you feel, probably in a way that does not seem logical. Breathing in, you may solely experience the swing of the empty breath in the bottom of ‘the egg’ and breathing out, in the top of it – or the other way around, or only in the bottom, or the top. You can also experience the whole curved line going back and forth or up and down simultaneously.

Like the other ways of feeling the empty breath, it presupposes you acknowledge you are not in control. Using the technique for the taste of life, you automatically lose control because, whether you taste it or not, the method is beneficial for defocusing. And without focus, you are out of control. Read about the taste of life and focus versus 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, the fusion of them at first feels as if everything is spinning. See the speedy animation just below. But it quickly becomes a feeling of everything standing so still – see the third image from here – 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. 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 sparkling with joy.

THE OPERATOR OF THE EMPTY BREATH
Besides feeling the swing of the empty breath or as if you are surfing 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 of it is a subtle sense of being here and everywhere, or as if spinning through a world with no limits and where you are not defined as someone.

There are no rules, but it could very well be that a take-off into the empty breath will take you to this aspect of it – 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, this force is sensed inside and outside the body. It is often easier to feel its subtle but erratic energy outside of the body, where the dense bodily feeling is not an obstacle. If you do not try to catch its abstractness but go with its fleetness, you feel like a fountain of sparkling joy.

Sensing the operator of the empty breath outside of the body, you will automatically be taken inside, as the operator does not know one from the other. From there you probably are transferred to the rhythmic flow of surfing or feeling the swing of the empty breath.

The apparent chaos at the root of the empty breath, where the operator of it resides and where you often land after igniting the empty breath, is therefore a good starting point, when you want to be in the rhythmic flow of the empty breath.

If you, out of habit, try to focus on the empty breath to hear its transparent sound (see the next paragraph) or feel its rhythmic flow, you are bound to perceive it as something and thus fence it off. A more beneficial way to approach the rhythmic flow and transparent sound of the empty breath is to start in the chaos of its root – whether sensed in front or back of the body, on top of it or all around it – because that leaves nothing specifically for you to focus on, wherefore there is not something definitive blocking out hearing or feeling the rhythmic flow of the empty breath.

Hearing or feeling the sound of the empty breath, you seem transparent as if there is not something 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 the body and ‘ham’ when it contracts it.

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, the sound does not seem to have a definable location, so it is neither experienced to be inside nor outside the head. It may even appear to originate from an invisible space outside the body like it has nothing to do with the body.

And as that is actually so, feeling the sound of the empty breath is not a compelling experience like feeling the rhythm of the bass because it cancels out the feeling of being in a body – as if there is no definable border between the body and its apparent surrounding. A sofa, for example, does not seem to differ from the body sitting in it.

This is because you do not perceive bodily experience as specific when you are deeply connected with the empty breath (read more about that here). Thus there is no inside and outside and nothing to define a world where there seems to be more than one, wherefore it becomes evident that it is unreal. But like the reality in the world of a game is the same whether you know it is fictional, the reality of 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. Being someone in such a world is all pretence – like it is, within that reality, when you pretend to be in the world of a game. See hack #1.3 Pretending to be someone definitive).

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.

Via the transparent sound of the empty breath, you naturally float into glimpses of the Enlightenment of that which is One. The visual-minded will experience this 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 glimpses of the Enlightenment of that which is One are revealed as the Enlightenment of that which is One if not interpreted to differ from each other. See the article The four aspects of Enlightenment and how to sample them.

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 or you and Alexius does not make a 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 waves) may give you an idea about the simultaneous movement of the yin-yang-like waves inside it.

THE CONNECTEDNESS WITH THE EMPTY BREATH IS A STATE OF NOT-KNOWING
Nobody really 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 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 how to do that in Take-offs into the empty breath and How to ignite a take-off into the empty breath.

The empty breath is not only to be experienced within its border, because it has no specific border, so if you experience it somewhere else, you have really become indifferent to the belief in being someone definitive, as only as such would you expect to experience it somewhere specific.

Please remember that even though the connectedness with the empty breath is impersonal, your memory of it is personal. Therefore, you may have different memories from those of Alexius.

If 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.

Thus, you better read about it until you can hardly stay awake. Then go to bed, forget what you read, close your eyes, and most likely, you feel the empty breath one way or another. Indeed, the feeling will rapidly change. That is, if you do not try to hang onto one of them. In that case, you miss the empty breath.

However, your eyes do not have to be closed, and you do not have to go to bed to connect with the empty breath. And 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 go with the flow, the empty breath joins you.

A bicycle has nothing to do with the place, it is transporting you to.

This is not to say that techniques cannot be helpful with toning down the experience of you as someone definitive so that the apparent existence of you in a tangible world does not seem to be a fact but make-believe. But unfortunately, most forget that techniques have nothing to do with what they seem to accomplish. Just like a remote control have nothing to do with the music, it triggers.

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 different movements of the empty breath in the way 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 three last ones, the animations are grabbed from Electromagnetic Plasma Energy Light.

NOTE ABOUT THE ARTICLE
The above article that is part of hack #5.1 Uncontrolled speed leads to a state of not-knowing, is to be continued in the next one. What is the empty breath about?.