Meditating (again)
Throughout my life, I have been meditating on and off. I have meditated long enough to feel like I have a general shape of what meditation, as is taught in the buddhist tradition, is getting at. Of course, I am still very much a beginner and have no profound realization.
I am starting anew my meditation practice and I am starting with the Samatha practice, or calm-abiding meditation, or zhi gne in Tibetan. The resources I am relying upon are 'The Mind Illuminated', Lamrim Chenmo volume 3 (serenity and insight), and occasionally the attention revolution. I am sprinkling in some Milarepa songs as well that serves as both inspiration and literature reading.
One little thing that I learnt from the TMI book that really helped me is the instruction to reconceptualize the exhalation as the start of the breath instead of the end. The latter enforces a pause that allows for the mind to wander and for me makes breathing feel more effortful as I tend to forget to inhale and hold that breathless state for too long. The instruction to see the exhale as the start forces the body to inhale, leaving not much room for a pause for the mind to wander off as well as the body forgetting to breathe.
Such small but precise instructions I feel drives the most returns and this is why I imagine people advice to train with other masters who have trodden on the path and can finetune the teachings to the pupil's unique disposition.