I have a friend who is a newcomer to sitting. I sent her a link to Sister Elaine McInnis’s video (“Still Sister”):
In the video, Sister McInnis says:
We give people a, shall I call it a techinique, to become one with the breath; I teach ‘being the breath’… to put all our powers of perception into being the breath… The breathing does move a little bit, and then it moves less, and less, and less, and then all of a sudden it has found its own place. And then eventually, that inner power just takes over.
“Being the breath” to me means turning activity of the body around, so that the activity of the posture or carriage takes place as an autonomic response to the feeling of the breath, without any effort.
That said, it’s all I can do when I sit down in the morning, to collect my senses; when I feel I can’t do any more, it’s all I can do to turn it around, and just let the breath be.