At Home with Friends

When the Buddha says that you meditate, he says you enter into the meditation, and then you dwell there. In other words, you’re making a home for the mind: a place where you can stay; a place where you feel safe, protected from the elements; a place that you can make comfortable.

So make your breath comfortable. Experiment for a while to see what kind of breathing feels good right now. What felt good yesterday may not feel good today. So try to notice, what does the body need right now? Then provide that kind of breathing.

When you look after the body this way, then the body gives you a place to stay. It’s like the owner of a house. If he wanders around all the time and doesn’t look after the house, then when he comes back, and it’s not a good place to stay. So he goes out wandering some more, exposed to the sun, exposed to the rain, the wind, with no place to sleep at night, no safe place to sleep at night.

But if you stay inside your house, and you notice if the ants are coming in or there’s a little bit of dry rot here, a pipe has burst there, then you take care of it right away. The house is a comfortable place to stay. You look after the house; the house is going to look after you.

So look after your body right now. Look after the breath, because your breath is your main means for dealing with the body from within. We can give the body medicines and things from outside, but from inside you have this breath energy, and the breath energy can nourish the different organs in the body. It can help to soothe any pains you may have in the body.

It’s useful for all kinds of things. There are ways of breathing that will wake you up when you’re tired, ways of breathing that will calm you down when you’re tense or excited. So learn how to make use of this breath. It’s very, very useful—it has lots of different potentials. But you’re going to notice them only if you spend time with it.

Ajaan Lee’s image is like trying to become friends with the breath. At first, it doesn’t trust you. It’ll test you. As he says, “It pokes you in the back, pokes you in the knees.” But you just have to have a good attitude and tell yourself, “This friendship can develop.” After a while, the breath will become more and more willing to listen to you. You can ask questions of it, learn things from it, and it’ll be willing to do what you want it to do. So you’re making friends inside as you create a home for the mind.

So even though it’s hot outside today, there’s plenty of time to work with the breath inside. Find a cool place to hide out—or relatively cool. Make sure you get enough salt, enough water. Then look after your mind, look after your breath. As for the heat, it’ll take care of itself. You don’t have to comment on it. Make comments about your breath, make comments about your mind, because those are the important things for you to be responsible about right now.

That way, you’ll be able to settle in and have a really safe place here inside, a place where you feel at home, where you feel nourished, where you feel protected, where you feel that you belong. That’s the kind of home you want right here. The homes of the world, as you can see, can be built; they can be torn down. Look and see what happens when there are floods, when there are fires. The homes of the world are not all that safe. But a home inside is safe from all kinds of things. So work on it as much as you can.