Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. The Five Precepts for the Mind
     … You stay with the breath. Try to keep in touch with the breath as best you can. If you can’t stay with the in-and-out breath, at least be in touch with the quality of the breath energy in the body. Does it feel tight? Does it feel open? Does it feel soothing? Does it feel constricted? If it feels tight and … 
  3. A Trained Observer
     … When you’re sitting here, you’ve got form, which is the breath. Feeling, which is the feeling of pleasure you’re trying to develop. Perception, the image you hold in mind of how the breath moves through the body, where it starts, where it finishes. Fabrication, how you talk to yourself about the breath, evaluate it, make adjustments. And then consciousness, which is … 
  4. Joy in Effort
     … Notice what you’re doing with the breath and what things seem to be problematic. The problem might be a physical pain or an emotional one. Try to figure out how the breath can help. Notice the mechanics of how you breathe. When you breathe in, where in the body does the in-breath energy—the swelling in the abdomen, the swelling of the … 
  5. Disenchantment
     … You start by focusing on one object, like the breath, and then you stay with it long enough that you start developing a sense of oneness with it. Your awareness of the breath and the breath itself seem to become one and the same thing. There’s a sense of unification — ekodi-bhava — which the Buddha has us develop as much as possible. And … 
  6. Detail Work
     … But if you tell yourself, “I’ve got to think about this in detail, try to figure things out,” then it stirs up some energy in the mind so that the mind is ready, when the time comes to focus on the breath, not just to zone out on the sense of ease or pleasure from the breathing. The same way with contemplation of … 
  7. A Noble Warrior’s Path
     … So you focus on the form of the body; you focus on the breath, as you feel it. Breathe in a way that gives rise to feelings of well-being and ease. Hold a perception of the breath in mind and try to adjust the perception so that it allows you to breathe in a way that’s really comfortable. You have to question … 
  8. Inner Civil War
     … So you bring the breath to mind. As you’re working with the breath, see where in the body you feel the irritation that aggravates your lust. Then see if you can breathe in a way that soothes that irritation. A good place to start is on the back of your hands and the tops of your feet, and then work up from there … 
  9. Believe in Your Actions
     … But at least she now discovered that maybe it would be a good thing to decide that you want to stay with the breath during the meditation and to keep coming back to the breath—both because it develops your powers of mindfulness and alertness and also because it’s a mature way of showing goodwill for yourself. Easy goodwill is saying, “Well, whatever … 
  10. Opening Your World
     … Some of these tools are very simple, like focusing on the breath—focusing on the breath in a way that gives rise to a sense of ease and well-being. Without that ease and well-being, it’s hard to resist the temptation to keep going back to unskillful behavior. There are basically four kinds of actions: Those that you like to do and … 
  11. Cause & Effect
     … You’ve got to look at the breath. See how the breath is comfortable, see how it’s not. See what you’re doing to make it comfortable, and see what you’re doing to make it not. That way, the meditation becomes more of a skill. And it gives you the energy you need to do the right thing. Because so often we … 
  12. The Not-Self Discourse
     … You direct your thoughts to the breath and then you evaluate how good the breath is. Then you evaluate how well the mind is staying with the breath. Ajaan Lee makes a comparison, that alertness is like a pulley. You pull a rope in one direction, then you pull the rope in the other direction. You look at the object of your mindfulness, and … 
  13. Outside of the Box
     … They can sit down, focus on the breath, and stay with the breath with no problem at all. The other type of tree is one in the middle of the forest whose branches are entangled with the branches of the trees around it. If you want to cut that one down, you’ve got to use a lot of strategy: learn how to cut … 
  14. A Sense of Time & Place
    When you focus on the breath, you’re creating a home base for the mind, a home base for your actions. This is the place where you’re going to take your stance: being with the breath all the way in and all the way out—being with the direct sensation of how it feels to breathe, and learning to relate to that in … 
  15. Working Hypotheses
     … So find any spot in the body that’s especially sensitive to how the breathing feels. It might be in the middle of the chest, in the stomach, in the middle of the head. Focus there because those really sensitive spots in the body—the ones that are really sensitive to the breath—tend to connect up with other sensitive parts of the body … 
  16. The Karma of Self & Not-Self
     … You’ve got the form of the body as you sense it through the breath; you’ve got feelings of pleasure; you’ve got the perceptions that you hold in mind about how the breath runs through the body and where you are in the body as you focus on the breath; fabrications would be the intentions that hold you here; and then there … 
  17. Refuge
     … You get so that you can settle down with the breath and gain a sense of what kind of breathing really feels good. You’ve got an immediate visceral sense of well-being inside, and this is a huge support. We live in a rough world. When we want to do good in the world, often we get thwarted, but you have to realize … 
  18. Attention with an Agenda
     … So as you focus on the breath, you’re alert to what the breath is doing. You’re alert to how the mind is relating to it. You remember what you’ve done in the past that’s helped you settle down. And you really try to do this well. When you do, you get the mind into concentration. That’s what you’re … 
  19. “May I Be Happy”
     … Think of the breath coming in and out all the pores of your body. Think of the breath energy untangling; work up from your toes, up through your feet, your legs, up through your torso. You can learn to relate to the breath energy in new and different ways. You find that the less suffering you cause yourself here—and it’s totally needless … 
  20. The Guarantee of Concentration
     … When the mind creates a comment, you have to say, “Wait and see, wait and see, wait and see.” For those of us who want things instantly packaged and instantly explained, it’s frustrating to be told, “Just go back to your breath, go back to your breath.” But the going back to the breath is important. It’s part of that quality of … 
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