Food for the Practice

When you’re focused on the breath, try not to put too much pressure on it. Ajaan Fuang used to use a Thai phrase—he said, “to catch the breath.” I found myself tensing up around it, and I asked him why he used that word. He said, “Well it’s not like you’re catching it. You’re sticking with it, following it.”

The image they give in the Canon is someone holding a baby chick in his hand. If he holds it too tight, it’s going to die. If he holds it too loosely, it’s going to fly away. So find the right amount of pressure. Allow the breath to have some freedom but stick with it.

Think of all the blood vessels opening up, all the nerves opening up. If there’s any tension or tightness in any part of the body, think of it relaxing. We talk about letting the breath energy flow through the body, and some people miss the word “let” or “allow.” It should be emphasized: You’re not forcing it; you’re not pushing it. You’re just opening the passages.

It’s like building roads through a wilderness. You don’t have to push the cars along the roads. You don’t have to force people to follow the roads. Once the roads are open, people will follow them. In the same way, once the body is relaxed, then the breath can flow. And it’s nourishing. This is food for the mind.

There’s a lot the mind needs to do in order to keep itself in good shape. Anything unskillful comes up, you have to abandon it. Anything that’s potentially skillful, you have to develop it. There’s a fair amount of work there. So the mind needs some food, needs some nourishment.

When the Buddha compares the practice to a fortress, the soldiers who do battle stand for right effort. The soldiers are going to need food. There’s also a gatekeeper, mindfulness, to make sure that the enemies don’t come in—in other words, it doesn’t let unskillful qualities come into the mind. It allows only skillful qualities in. The gatekeeper needs food as well, and the food is concentration.

So breathe in a way that’s nourishing. Focus your mind on the breath in a way that doesn’t force things too much, so all the parts of the body have the sense of being nourished by the breath. In that way, you make yourself strong. You feed yourself well. There’s work to be done, but here’s plenty of food, so you have the strength to do it.