Search results for: "The Breath"
- Page 126
- Protecting Your Space… So you want to focus in, using your magnifying glass to clearly see the different parts of the body to see how the breath feels. See if there are any locations where you tend to tense things up or tighten up, where the energy doesn’t flow very well, and learn how to breath in a way that allows them to stay relaxed and …
- Xtreme Drama… This is where the breath became helpful. When she was feeling down, she could breathe in a way that would add more breath energy, make the body lighter, lighter, lighter, so she didn’t feel so weighed down all the time. And without the physical experience of being weighed down, her depressive mind states didn’t have so much to latch onto. This began …
- Heeding the Deva Messengers… how to get the breath really comfortable, really still, and then you watch, like a spider on a web. The fly hits the web, the spider immediately leaves its spot and goes over and takes care of the fly, and then goes back to its original spot. You, too, stay with the breath, but you keep an eye out for any stirring or tangle …
- The Brightness of Life… This is why we focus on the breath as we meditate, because the breath is very close to the mind. As you get to know your breath better, you get to know your mind better, in a way that allows you to see: This is where you’re adding that unnecessary suffering and this is how you can stop. So all of these teachings …
- Negotiating with the Committee… We’re not talking about something far off in the future.” All you have to do is breathe in a comfortable way, allow the breath energy to circulate around the body in a comfortable way. Think of the blood, say, flowing through your hands, flowing through your feet, relaxing whatever tension may be there in the hands and feet. Then working up from there …
- Past Intentions, Present Intentions… Notice the breath energy in those comfortable parts and think about spreading it. This gives you something to do. The comfortable parts don’t have to be very comfortable, and they don’t have to be very large, but you take advantage of what you’ve got. If you’ve had really great meditation experiences in the past, your memory of those experiences can …
- Guardian Meditations… You’ll often find, as you’re sitting here meditating on the breath, that the problem is not with the breath. It’s with the mental baggage you’re carrying with you. So you want to open up the bags and throw out all the unnecessary weight. There’s an image they have in Thailand of the old woman who carries around a huge …
- Better to Give than to Consume… When you’re focused on the breath, it’s good not to hold anything back. Just think of yourself plunging into the breath and the body, totally. The reward is that you develop an all-around experience of ease and refreshment. If part of you is pulled back, there’s a part of you that’s not sharing in this, that’s not gaining …
- One Thing Clear Through… And there’s a lot more value in focusing on the breath, trying to stay with the breath as continually as you can to develop some strength of mind. This is a basic principle all the way through the Buddha’s teachings. Luang Puu Dune one time came to see Ajaan Suwat when he was in Thailand and gave a Dhamma talk. The main …
- The Power of Action… You’re going to stay with the breath and you’re not going to let your mind wander around all over the place where it likes, just noting this and noting that and not really having a good place to settle down. Having a place to settle down is what allows you to see, “Ah, the mind’s moved,” and you bring it back …
- Right Speech, Inside & Out… When you’re talking to yourself about the breath or talking to yourself about the state of your mind, you want to be truthful—in other words, not blowing things up more than they are, but also not denigrating what you’ve been able to accomplish. You want to be fair and truthful and accurate in how you observe what’s going on, in …
- Think… Generally, I advise people not to force the breath into different parts of the body, but there are times when there are exceptions, and sometimes you find that you’re dealing with an exception. So be alive to that, contemplate that, use your ingenuity, and then put forth the right effort. Right effort has to rely on your thinking powers. There’s no place …
- Over-informed… What happened if you drop that? In the beginning, the directed thought and evaluation were necessary parts of getting the mind to settle down, because otherwise, if you didn’t direct your thoughts to the breath, it would go someplace else. The mind has a tendency to talk to itself. So have it talk to itself about one thing: the breath. But there does …
- Wisdom for Dummies… Having the breath as a way of training yourself to be kind to yourself is an important aspect of developing goodwill: It helps you realize that you really do have a role in shaping your present experience, starting with the breath and then moving into other areas of the present. There’s nobody forcing you to breathe in an uncomfortable way, or in a …
- What’s Relative, What’s Constant… Verbal fabrication—directed thought and evaluation—all the different ways you can talk to yourself about the breath, all the different questions you can ask, all the different ways you can try to change the breath and evaluate what you’ve done. And then mental fabrications—feelings and perceptions, i.e., the mental images you use. Try out different ones. Learn how to master …
- Staying Normal… Just be with the breath. And you find there is a part of the mind that can stay with the breath. The other parts that would get knocked around: You can let go of them for the time being. Try to develop this quality of normalcy, so that the mind is not affected by things. That’s actual normalcy for the mind. It may …
- The Reality Principle… In other words, allow the breath to be comfortable so you can have a foundation. Where it’s not comfortable, work at making it more comfortable: That’s compassion. Where it is comfortable, appreciate it. Sometimes, especially in the very beginning, the states of comfort seem to be very minor and not impressive at all, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have …
- Here to Learn… Where were you focused? What was the breath like? If there seems to be a point where things were especially solid and clear inside, what were the steps leading up to that? Can you remember? If you’re mindful enough, you should have some memory. Try to apply that the next time around. Now, the next time around it may not work, which means …
- Defiant Like the Buddha… Use the breath as your anchor to stay here and make it as comfortable as you can, a more and more a pleasant place to stay. But there will come times when the breath gets very labored, and you can’t do much about it. That’s when you go straight for the awareness, and that will save you a lot of grief. Just …
- The World of Conviction… The “you” who’s here meditating, the inner world of your mind that you’re inhabiting right now, along with the world of the breath, should be prominent, and other things should fall into the background. The concentration you’re aiming at, too, is a kind of becoming. In fact, you actually see the process of becoming very clearly as you try to meditate …
- Load next page...
