We watch the breath so we can watch the mind. Our breath is a reflection of our mind but at the same time watching our breath can help calm our mind. The secret is keep watching and to do so you need to be patient.
We also need to be willing to get to know our breath deeply. Once you know the breath you get to know the mind. You start seeing the different layers of awareness. The more focused, narrowed one and the background awareness, that is always there. If your concentration is only one-point focused when the point shifts you may also lose your focus. But if you get familiar to the background awareness as well, you can observe the shifts from a certain distance. It takes time and it takes patience. It also takes the right intention. The Buddha insisted on cultivating happiness through our actions. If your action causes happiness for yourself and for others, then do it. Reflect on your thoughts, on your deeds, on your words. The quest for happiness is fundamental. Bring it up, notice it while you are breathing. Is it worth it? What's the reward? Does it lead to happiness? Give your mind a solid basis and then start seeing things come an go. What is the gratification of your actions? What is the drawback? By focusing on the breath we give ourselves a good place to watch, to observe mind actions, body actions and speech actions. We start getting true knowledge. We discern which thoughts are skillful and which are not. This is why we have to remember to step back. If we are in the thought we can't see it. We can't see the mental process and understand the cause of suffering. Mindfulness is about being a gate keeper. We have to be careful of who we let in and who we let out. We observe pleasure, desire. We observe when they cause suffering. We learn how to undo our activities. The mind is constantly active, trying to connect and experiencing things. We develop concentration so that we can step back and watch all of these things.We learn to be more and more still. We see the suffering caused by the motion of the mind. We get the mind still but we also have awareness. And we work with the breath so that we give ourselves a solid place and we become more aware of where we are causing suffering and how we can stop causing it. We stop craving all the times. We observe the connection between a thought and the motivation for that thought.This is why we need cultivating Mindfulness.
We start asking, what is going on? What is this thing? We step back and see things with a different freedom. We learn to see them rising and passing. We learn to let them go. This is the potential of the practice. And this is what we have to keep in mind.
The reflections above have been inspired by Thannissaro Bhikkhu's dhamma talks.
For further investigation or to listen to his podcasts: www.dhammatalks.org