Search results for: "The Breath"

  1. Page 137
  2. Ignorance
     … Focus on the breath to create a foundation from which you can then look at other thoughts as they arise, to see them simply as events, arising and passing away as part of a causal stream, so that you don’t get carried away in the stream of what they might mean. It was from this basic distinction between skillful and unskillful that the … 
  3. Shoulds & Wants
    When you sit down and meditate and tell yourself you’re going to be thinking only about one thing — the breath — you find that lots of other thoughts come crowding in, lots of other voices in the mind. Some of them are helpful; a lot of them are not, because a lot of them come from a time when the mind was not trained … 
  4. Hold on to Right View
    We’re here focusing on the present moment, watching the breath in the present moment, watching the mind in the present moment. What’s the theory behind that? Why are we doing this? After all, there’s not much here, while there are so many other issues out in the world right now. Why are we focusing here? It’s because the choices you … 
  5. Step by Step
     … We’re going to stay with the breath, with “buddho,” or with a combination of the two. Then we have to be true to that determination, true to that desire. So you stick with it. This requires mindfulness, the ability to remember, so you don’t forget suddenly. There are lots of different voices in the mind, lots of different attitudes in the mind … 
  6. The Desire for Freedom
     … And even as the breath stops, you have to make sure that the state of your mind stays strong and that you maintain your confidence even as the body is going away. That’s the earnestness with which we should practice. After all, our teacher was in earnest. His desire for freedom was earnest. It’s what turned samvega into pasada. It could have … 
  7. The View from the Mountaintop
     … how to settle comfortably in the body, work with the breath energy in the body, so that you can really settle deeply into the present moment, get familiar with the territory here and then, once you’re here, how to stay here. It’s not all that difficult to get the mind quiet for a little bit, but you find that you run up … 
  8. The Focus on Suffering
     … We’re trying to give rise to right concentration as we focus on the breath. There are times when that requires that you do a lot of thinking and evaluation, and other times when it requires nothing of that sort at all: You have to be very quiet, very still, very uninvolved, just watching what’s coming up. And how do you know which … 
  9. How to Read the Dhamma
     … But what you’re going to do as you’re focused on the breath is shaped by what you’ve read, what you’ve heard. It’s simply a lesson in how to take what you’ve heard and read, and turn it into your own Dhamma. We think of a teacher like Ajaan Chah, who’s noted for his very direct way of … 
  10. Wherever You Go, There You Aren’t
     … A large part of the meditation is not just the technique of learning how to stay with the breath. It’s the attitude of reminding yourself that regardless of what comes up right here right now, whether the technique is working right away or not, there’s always something to learn right here. Because this is where the opportunity is: You’re not going … 
  11. The Acrobat
     … Once you’ve got that sense of solidity, the sense of ease and well-being that comes as you work with the breath and develop a good solid center inside, then in your relationships with other people you’re less grabbing. You’re not looking so much for what you can get out of the other person. You’ve got something to give. As … 
  12. Control
     … You can choose right now to focus on the breath. If the mind slips off, you can choose to come back. With every breath, you have the opportunity to choose what you’re going to do with that breath, what you’re going to do with the strength** **that comes from that breath. So it’s wise to have a clear sense of priorities … 
  13. Think
     … Notice where the breathing is most prominent in the body and focus your attention there. Try to make that spot comfortable, then see how far the sense of comfort can spread. You’re going to need this as your foundation because it’s inevitable that when you’re sitting and meditating, especially for a long time, pains will come up. If you’re going … 
  14. Bad Stuff Happens
     … You make up your mind that you’re going to stay here with the breath. And before you know it, the mind’s off someplace else. There’s no way you can just say, “stay,” and it’ll stay forever. It’s going to want to move. It’s like a dog. It can’t stay forever. But in the course of not staying … 
  15. Peace Requires Character
     … You provide yourself with a sense of well-being just sitting here with the breath. This doesn’t have to take anything away from anyone else. You have your own independent source of food. Now, this source of food is not permanent, but it’s a path to something that lies beyond feeding entirely. That’s the only place where true peace is going … 
  16. The Karma of Not-self
     … You come back and you self with the breath. This is all based on the principle of restraint, the principle of heedfulness, and also the principle of what they call sublimation: the ability to substitute a more skillful pleasure for a less skillful one. And compassion, or what the psychologists call altruism: You see that this is a form of happiness that doesn’t … 
  17. Abandoning Effluents (3)
     … Say it’s the breath, as we’re focusing on right now. Then you have to put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Any thoughts that come up with reference to the world that would pull you out of this frame of reference, you’ve got to put them aside. You discipline them, get them under control. You can’t let … 
  18. Deconstruction
     … said, come from the sixteen steps he recommends, and they involve learning how to breathe in and out conscious of the whole body, then calming bodily fabrication—in other words, allowing the breath to calm down. You train yourself to breathe in and out sensitive to rapture, sensitive to pleasure, sensitive to mental fabrication, calming mental fabrication. You breathe in and out gladdening the … 
  19. The Best Place to Practice
     … right where the mind and body are meeting here at the breath. It’s simply a matter of taking advantage of what you’ve got right here, right now. That attitude is what makes all the difference.
  20. Stretch Your Mind
     … This is one of the reasons why, when the Buddha taught concentration practice, he never mentioned where in the body you should focus, say, when you’re focusing on the breath. He says, be aware of the whole body. When you’re spreading thoughts of goodwill, lots of compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, you make those large as well. In fact, the phrase mahaggataṁ … 
  21. The Taste vs. the Reality
     … Sometimes focusing on the breath starts to lose its appeal. You lose interest. Even when you get nice long periods of bliss and wellbeing, part of the mind gets bored. It wants some action; it wants to taste some emotions. So you start thinking about all kinds of other things. But you have to remember that no matter how attractive and tasty those alternatives … 
  22. Load next page...