Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Keep Your Spirits Up
     … Think about that inspiring theme until the mind settles down, happy to be with that theme, and then see if you can transfer that sense of calm over to the breath. In other words, don’t limit your tools. Always have the right attitude: that there’s no problem that cannot be overcome. You’re not likely to find a problem in your mind … 
  3. Your Judgments Matter
     … And then when you’ve got it, what do you do with it? You can try spreading it around, the sense of well-being that comes from the breath. It helps a lot with your ability to stay concentrated, to stay still with a sense of ease, with the breath energies in the blood and everything in the body flowing smoothly. If any insights … 
  4. Training the Whole Mind
     … As we were saying today, there are times when, for your own good, you don’t want to be focused on the breath. There are things you have to think about, things you’ve got to plan for, things you have to ponder, where you take all the powers of the mind you’ve trained in concentration and put them to other uses. That … 
  5. Gifts of Noble Wealth
     … Look at what Ajaan Lee did with the breath. The texts give just a few basic ideas, and yet he was able to run with them and develop a very detailed course for how you work with the breath energy in the body, how you make it a really good place to be, how you could get the mind in concentration just by the … 
  6. At Normalcy
     … But if you learn how to stay with the breath and see that your focus on the breath is the cause of the rapture, the rapture will come when you need it and go when you don’t need it. You’re more in control. You’ve been able to maintain your normalcy—and at the same time, you learn how to observe. The … 
  7. King Asoka’s Vow
     … In the same way, you approach the practice as a skill with your breath and the way you relate to the breath. Where are the best places to focus? What is the best way to breathe? What’s the best way to picture the breath to yourself? These are things you do and then you check up on the results. You’re alert to … 
  8. The Chess Game
     … This is what the concentration practice is for as you’re working with the breath; trying to keep the breath in mind; keep coming back so that you get more and more familiar with it. You begin to know more of its ins-and-outs. You can create a state of mind that’s really willing to look at the truth. Most of us … 
  9. True Values
     … Then, finally, there’s the pleasure that comes from concentration, where all you have to do is to breathe, focus on your breath, and learn how to stay with the breath, learn how to relate with the breath in a way that gives rise to a sense of ease, well-being, refreshment, even rapture inside. That, in turn, can lead to higher levels of … 
  10. The Challenge of Faith
     … See what happens if you stick with this one intention, just to stay stay stay with the breath. And then you have to use your discernment, one, to make the breath interesting so it’s easier to stay, and then, two, if there are other intentions that come up that are really tempting you, you have to figure out ways around them and not … 
  11. Surveying the World
     … And what can be done with these things?” Try to use good perceptions of the breath. They give you an anchor. Then you apply acts of attention and intention. As they stick here, they pay careful attention to what’s going on, and you can create a state of concentration. If you can stay on this level, then when you see thoughts that would … 
  12. Goodwill Starts with Gratitude
    When the Buddha taught breath meditation to his son Rahula, he started out with some preliminary meditations to get the mind in the right shape to be focusing on the breath. I’ve talked a lot in the past about the meditation on making your mind like earth so that you’re not shaken by events coming up outside or coming up inside your … 
  13. True to the Teachings
     … When you’re focusing on the breath, you’re giving the mind another place to stay. You’ve always got that other place to stay, so learn how to make the most of it. If you catch yourself wandering off, you can let go. Think of that as dropping one more burden from the mind. If you find yourself picking up the burning thought … 
  14. The Kamma of Concentration
     … You sit here and you choose to focus on the breath. That’s an intention right there. And the next question is: How do you maintain that intention? How do you keep supporting it with other skillful intentions? This is where you have to deal with the different techniques of how you get the mind to settle down, how you focus on the breath … 
  15. Heightening the Mind
     … We just bring the mind to the breath so the mind doesn’t have to spin around anymore. It simply stays with the breath coming in, going out, and gains at least some measure of freedom. From this heightened perspective we can look at our normal involvement with the world and begin to realize that, for the most part, it doesn’t go anywhere … 
  16. Guarded
     … Try to have that combination of the physical sense of well-being that comes with the breath—the technique—and the right attitudes in the mind: that this is a world filled with all kinds of things, all kinds of people. Your own mind is filled with all kinds of thoughts; you have to be guarded around your own thoughts. So learn how to … 
  17. Truths of the Will
     … So you focus on the breath. And whatever energy is required to keep the mind with the breath, you apply that energy. Whatever skill is needed to pull away from any disturbances, any hindrances, any distractions, you apply that skill. You keep at it. Of course, truths of the observer require a certain amount of will for you to know them. In other words … 
  18. A Warrior’s Strengths
     … When the storms in your mind are blowing and they seem really strong, just say, “I’m going to stay right here with the breath and focus on that and not get involved in anything else.” As soon as you have the complicating thought or the proliferating thought that “I am the thinker,” then the thoughts become your thoughts and you’ve got to … 
  19. Analyzing Suffering
     … After all, when you’re practicing concentration, you’ve got the breath, which is form, and you’ve got the feelings of pleasure that you’re trying to develop out of the breath. You’ve got the perception that keeps you with the breath. You’ve got the fabrications of directed thought and evaluation, along with the breath, which counts as a physical fabrication … 
  20. Conviction & Confidence
     … If you’re trying to get the mind to settle down, he says, watch the breath as it’s long, watch it as it’s short. Train yourself to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in and breathe out. Train yourself to calm the sense of fabrication that comes with the breath. The meaning of these instructions isn’t obvious, but … 
  21. Wisdom Requires Integrity
    Allow your mind to settle in with the breath. This means finding a place in the body where it’s congenial to stay focused and a way of breathing that’s congenial to settle on. What feels good for the body right now? Nobody else can tell you. You have to notice for yourself. And you have lots of choices. You can try long … 
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