It's also given as general advice by Steve Barnes and Scott Sonnon, but they respect the Tibetans.

If I were you and interested in being able to observe my involuntary breathing, I'd experiment with observing my voluntary breathing to see if I could find out what was going on there. This is tough, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a key in what happens at the moment when you decide to observe your breathing.

This might (and I grant that I'm out there in hypothesis land) overlap some issues I'm working on-- a belief that I can't notice things as they're changing, so I have to stop them or slow them down.

I'd also take some yoga classes to find out whether the rest at the end of the class (Dead Man's Pose) has me tired and mellow enough to not take charge of my breathing.

On the other hand, I'm guessing-- I've always had at least some ability to observe my breathing.