The methods of cultivating the body from non-Buddhist paths can also be borrowed for cultivating the body

A student's revised breath-observation experience

1. The overall state during this session was much clearer than last night. Breathing naturally, air entering and exiting through the left nostril; the inhalation was deep and somewhat long, the exhalation clear and gentle but slightly shorter, and the pause after exhaling was long. The passage from the left nostril to the throat felt dry; the sound was louder on inhalation and softer on exhalation.

2. I tried visualizing fire descending on the right side and water rising on the left. While visualizing, the breathing became very subtle, and the phenomena described above disappeared. When I shifted my attention back to the breath, the breathing returned to the state described above.

3. Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in sitting meditation should preferably not be done when tired or sleepy, otherwise it easily becomes muddled and unclear. Yet last night, after rising from the seat and lying down, I naturally and clearly began observing the breath.  

Assessment: Here the method of the Daoist Taiji Bagua diagram was used. Because the bodies of Buddhist practitioners have the same structure as those of non-Buddhists, with no difference, when regulating the body one may borrow methods from non-Buddhist traditions. After all, they are rich in experience; whatever is useful for one's own practice, just take it and use it—a cat that catches mice is a good cat. Non-Buddhists all cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), and meditative concentration is after all useful for training the body, the mind, and wisdom, so we should cultivate concentration too. There is no need to deliberately show ourselves as different from non-Buddhists, as if we were superior to them. If our meditative concentration is inferior to theirs, our afflictions will be even heavier than theirs, and that would invite ridicule.