About an Hour

On Page Fifty-Nine, Sayadaw begins to take questions (I believe from retreatants).  The first one is "How do we, in mindfulness of breathing, decide when to go from one stage to another?"

I'm so glad to see this.  I need more breath training before I go about focusing on  a spot of paint.

He suggests (inspiringly) that if a yogi can concentrate on the whole breath for about an hour, the breath will automatically become subtle.  If not he suggests that we give concentrated attention to the breath, deciding that it should become calm.  This is a good view to have in the mind.  While on retreat, I could feel myself talking to my mind, which was restless like a child. Reluctantly, the mind or should I say the stream of thought in it, became calm.  The breath became somewhat calm, but I'm quite sure I was concentrating on the breathing for about five to ten minutes maximum.  I love having the goal to work on.