Presencing process: embodiment and healing in the Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing

Abstract

The Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing is of utmost importance in the Buddhist and clinical training in mindfulness. It is a method in which the practitioner learns to focus consciously on the bodily phenomenon of the breath. This focus should help the person to cultivate concentration and gain deeper insight into the phenomena that constitute his/her experience. The cultivation of concentration and insight plays a critical role in the Buddhist goal of overcoming suffering, as well as the clinical aim of enhancing mental and physical health. In this article, Buddhist embodiment in the practice of mindfulness of breathing is analysed in detail. Connections are drawn to Western phenomenological ideas on embodiment and clinical applications of mindfulness. The analysis of Buddhist mindfulness from the perspective of embodiment is an extremely useful way to make sense of mindfulness's therapeutic effects and first-person experiential dimensions.

Keywords:

• mindfulness
• Pali Buddhism
• Theravada
• Buddhist psychology
• phenomenological psychology
• embodiment
• breath

Acknowledgements

I thank Sarah Shaw and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions.