Search results for: "The Breath"
- Page 101
- Teaching Old Selves New Tricks… This is one of the reasons why we work on the breath. The breath is always there. It’s right next to your verbal fabrication. It’s bodily fabrication, and the fact that it’s a fabrication means that you can tell the breath to do different things: for instance, to breathe in a way that calms you down, keeps you nourished, so that …
- Suffering Comes from What You’re Doing… Because you want to see, “What can I do to bring the mind to settle down? What can I do with the breath? How do I think about the breath?” And what’s the role of desire in all this? As the Buddha said, all dhammas are rooted in desire, which means all things good and bad that you can do. So you have …
- The Real World Isn’t for Real… When you look at the breath, you’re very close to looking at the mind. When you look at the breath you give yourself a good foundation—a place to stand so that when you look into the mind and see things you don’t like about the mind, you’re not blown away. So try to develop a sense of ease, well-being …
- Inner Worlds… So look at the way you breathe, look at the way you talk to yourself about the breath, about other issues that might come in and interfere with the breath. Look at the perceptions you’re holding in mind—again, about the breath itself and also about the things that would pull your way—and learn how to sort them out. When you engage …
- Heedful of Death… Or focus on the breath. Think of the breath surrounding the body. When you get really into the breath, you start forgetting about the heat. You realize that the opportunities for practice are still here and you want to make the most of them. If you don’t make the most of them, then when your time is up, you’ll regret all the …
- A Good Buddhist Ego… The only warning there, of course, is that when you’re practicing concentration and the breath gets really comfortable, don’t drop the breath and wallow in the comfort. You stay with the breath. That’s what’s going to produce the comfort. Let the sense of comfort work on your body, work on your mind. It’ll do its work. All you have …
- A Gift of Strength… concentration—staying with one object, like the breath, or whatever object you find comfortable, effective, at any one time, staying with that object until you develop a sense of well-being around it. Remind yourself, you’re going to learn how to be friends with your breath, be friends with the way the breath energy permeates the body, so that you can be aware …
- Admirable in the Beginning, Middle, & End… You develop them by staying with the breath, keeping the breath in mind, continually watching the breath coming in and going out, and then trying to do it well. Doing it well means learning how to breathe with a sense of ease, with a sense of fullness. Learning how to breathe with a sense of being aware of the whole body. Calming the effect …
- Four Determinations… You have to think your way to get the mind to settle down with the breath: You adjust the breath to fit with the mind; you adjust the mind to fit with the breath. But there comes a point where you don’t have to adjust anymore. The fit is perfect, or at least good enough to settle down in. But often the mind …
- One Thing Only… There are ways of thinking that can get you around those problems, all with the purpose of getting you back to the breath – because it’s when you’re with the breath that you can see your subtle intentions most clearly. Those are the troublemakers. Those are the things you want to see more and more clearly so that you can figure out exactly …
- Meticulous… When the mind chooses to focus on the breath or on something else, there is a moment when you can influence that choice. All too often, when we’re aware of the fact that the choice was made, we’re already off some place else. We don’t see clearly what led up to the choice. That’s because we’ve gotten so used …
- Restlessness & Anxiety… With the breath, of course, you try to calm it down. Try to be aware of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. Think of the breath as a medicine to soothe things inside. Then you’ve got to give yourself a good talking to. If you’re worried about things happening in the future, remind yourself that a certain amount …
- Heedfulness… We have an intention to stay with the breath. We have some ideas of what the breath is, we have some ideas of how we should focus, how we should adjust the breath, how we should not adjust the breath, so we bring those ideas with us to the practice. But then it’s important that you not just stick with the ideas but …
- Food for Consciousness… If you’re feeding on the breath right now, there’s an intention to keep you here, and there’s also the contact, where you feel the breath. How does it feel right now? You can use your intentions to adjust the breath. As the Buddha said, this is probably the best food for the consciousness that needs to be fed, because it’s …
- When You Practice on Your Own… You start out focusing on the breath, and as you’re focusing on the breath, you can’t help but notice how the breath has an impact on feelings, and how the fact that you’re alert to the breath will influence what feelings you have in the body, and how you can develop them. That gives you some insight into the process of …
- Imperturbable… Let the breath come and go freely. If it wants to settle down and stop, let it stop, but don’t force it to. You apply force to the mind, not to the breath. Learn how to make that distinction. It’s an important one. You want the body to be light, open, but you want your mind to be solidly centered right here …
- Our Sense of Self… Work on making the breath comfortable. Once the breath is comfortable, start spreading it down, especially into the areas that tend to be painful, and out through them. If the pains are in your back and your hips, think of the sense of comfortable relaxed breath going down the neck, down the back, out through your hips, out through the legs, out through your …
- See Your Thoughts as Strange… Explore the breath to see how it feels, and adjust it so that it feels just right: not too long, not too short, too deep, too shallow, too heavy, too light. When the breath feels good, try to notice where there’s a sense of ease and think of it spreading around the body—like a liquid that can seep through all the little …
- Strategies for Happiness… As we’re meditating here, what are we focusing on? We’re focusing on the body, focusing on the breath. We’re learning to maximize the feelings of pleasure that come from the breath. We’re learning ways of perceiving the breath energy in the body that create stronger and stronger states of concentration. We’re learning to direct our thoughts and evaluate the …
- An End to the Stories… So you’re right here with the breath in the present moment. This is a good place to be. This is the place where things can come to an end if you choose to have them come to an end. It’s up to you—and you’re making that choice every time there’s a temptation to go wandering off away from the …
- Load next page...
