It’s very hard to leave the breath alone because the breath is an intentional process in the body. It’s what the Buddha calls bodily fabrication, and we have a lot of issues with the breath.

"The second question is, “As you’re focusing on the breath, why do you mess around with the breath? Why don’t you just leave it alone?” The answer is that it’s very hard to leave the breath alone because the breath is an intentional process in the body. It’s what the Buddha calls bodily fabrication, and we have a lot of issues with the breath. Often we don’t realize it, but they’re there. You can start digging them up as you meditate. You find that as you work with the breath energy in certain parts of the body, memories come up. Attitudes come up. Emotions come up, because the way you breathe is an important part of the emotions.

There was once a teacher who heard that one of my former students was working on the breath this way. He said to her, “Why are you fooling around with the breath? Why are you trying to straighten out the breath? The breath is just a fabrication. It’s just a sankhara.” She mentioned that to me, and I told her that if he had said that to me, I would have responded, “Well, your body is just a sankhara. Why do you bathe it?” If you’re not bathing your body, it means you’ve got some issues around the body that really should be looked into. And it’s the same with the breath."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Working Through the Breath"

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