This meditation is about using the breath to connect with the infinite.  Observing the breath, I see its impermanence, its interdependence, and then perhaps let go of the notions associated with “in breath” or “out breath” as specific events in time and space.  It is one way to “milk” the ordinary in order to touch the ultimate.

I begin by coming back to the breath, aware of my in-breath, aware of my out-breath.  Just awareness of the breath as a whole, taking refuge in the breath.

Then I start to deepen my awareness, following the in-breath from its very beginning, as it deepens and grows, and then as it fades and disappears.  I continue, following the out-breath from its beginning and all its stages of growing, peaking, declining and disappearing.

I see that my breath is constantly changing.  In-breath changes to out-breath, and outbreath to inbreath, and that within an in-breath there are many phases constantly moving, changing, coming to being and fading.  Within each out-breath there are also many phases constantly moving and changing.  I observe the ever-changing nature of breath, the impermanent nature of my breathing.

Now I connect and look at my breathing and I see that the in-breath is born of many conditions.  For example, that I am alive, that there is air on the planet, that the out-breath has ended, that the lungs are empty, that the diaphragm moves, the lungs expand, that trees produce oxygen, etc.  These all are part of the in-breath.
Similarly, I see that the out-breath is born of many conditions, my being alive, my lungs being full with metabolic byproducts, that the in-breath has completed, the diaphragm moving, and the lungs contracting – these are all part of the out-breath, coming together to form the out-breath.

I see that my breath is born of many conditions and it changes according to many conditions.  My in-breath is born from my out-breath, my outbreath is born from, is the continuation of, my in-breath. I observe the inter-dependent nature of my breathing.

I can define an in-breath, but it is part of a whole, it is not separate from all that is.
I can create the event of “in-breath” or “out-breath” as if frozen in time.  I can even delineate an event as a gap between in-breath and out-breath.  These are concepts.  Thoughts that help me grasp or define.  The breath itself is not those thoughts, those concepts.

I sit with the understanding that the mind makes eternity appear like time, with defined segments, that the mind allows infinity appear like space with defined segments

I sit.  I the finite me, coming back to connect with the infinite.