Student: Well, sometimes I think it’s [the practice of sitting meditation is] unfair.
AG: Well, why?
Student: I think there’s some constructional concepts that you can hold onto, that you don’t have to put them all out the door.
AG: Well, the constructional concepts we want to hold onto here are, we’re breathing …
This is what I wanted to get to.
AG:… and we’re taking down the … we’re recollecting thoughts on the breath….
Student: I had a wonderful thought about breath that I wanted to….
AG: Are you registered in this course?
Student: I… I…
AG: Are you paying? Is this for free, or are you paying to do this?
Student: I’m thinking about it.
AG: I see. You’re shopping! Okay. Go on. [Allen (conspiratorially) to the rest of the class] – Maybe we can suck him in! Yes, what do you want?…. Go on..
Student: (No), this glass of wine, and then concentrating on the breath, the sip, and then the release of the breath after the sip, is a nice way of thinking about that breath, too.
AG: I’m not following. Can you…
Student: You take a sip of wine or a sip of water, and then you take a sip through your mouth and you release the breath through your nose.
AG: I see. You’re still hung on this thing from mouth to nose, instead. It’s a little irrelevant to what we’re trying (to do here). We’re trying to simplify rather than complicate.
Student:That wasn’t complicated.
AG:I still don’t follow it.
Student:(You were talking about) centering the breath by breathing..
AG: No, I’m not talking about centering it, either.
Student: No?
AG: I’m talking about just recollecting that you’re breathing out your nose. Breathe out the nose and recollect it when you can. As a method
[Audio for the above may be heard here, beginning at approximately thirty-one-and-a-quarter minutes in and continuing to approximately thirty-three minutes in]