Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Licking Yourself Clean
     … Then you work with the breath. Does the breath feel good? Notice where exactly you feel the breath — which parts of the body have sensations that let you know that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. How do those sensations feel? Are they tight, restricted? If they are, think of their loosening up a little bit. Or do … 
  3. Dependable Friends
     … You’ve got to find just the right amount of pressure to stay with the breath so that you’re there, you don’t go wandering off, but at the same time, you’re not putting so much pressure on the breath that it gets uncomfortable. In this way, your awareness can be with the body and with the breath at the same time … 
  4. Fabrication at the Breath
     … The tranquility comes from just staying with the breath and trying to keep things calm. The insight comes from seeing things in terms of what the Buddha calls fabrication. How does the body get fabricated by the breath? What kind of influence does the breath have on the body? Here, fairly quickly in the meditation, he’s having you look at things in terms … 
  5. Capture Your Imagination
     … So as you sit here focusing on the breath, ask yourself: Where is the sport? Where is the game? How do we win at it? Where is the enjoyment? Part of it lies in exploring the breath and seeing what you can learn about the breath. You’ve got this breath element in the body. If that concept is foreign to you, you might … 
  6. A Safe Haven Through Alertness
     … Because sometimes you find that the breath just doesn’t want to get comfortable, and then you can ask yourself, “Well, maybe the problem isn’t with the breath, maybe it’s with the attitude I’m bringing to it.” So you want to turn around and look how your mind is having an effect on the breath. This is very important throughout the … 
  7. Samatha, Vipassanā, Jhāna
     … After all, we’re not here to think about those activities, we’re here to think about the breath, focus on the breath, perceive the breath, feel the breath. The breath is the focus. As you focus on the breath, all these other activities will gather around. If something’s getting in the way, then you can scratch here, scratch there, analyze it, ask … 
  8. The Best Use of Your Time
     … the tip of the nose, the middle of the chest, the base of the throat, anywhere in the body where you can sense that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. The breath is not just the air coming in and out the nostrils, it’s the whole process of the energy flow that brings the air in and … 
  9. Thoughts, Wanted and Unwanted
     … by being with the breath, observing the breath, learning how to keep one thing in mind—i.e., the breath. So the best way to prepare for future uncertainties is to come back to the breath. In other words, even though there are thoughts you don’t like, and you’re frustrated that they’re there in the mind, there’s also going to … 
  10. Noble Right Concentration
     … The mental image you have of the breath: That’s perception. Directed thought and evaluation as you try to adjust the breath, play with the breath, make the most of the sense of pleasure that comes from being with the breath: That’s fabrication. Then there’s consciousness of these things. You want to see how these things change as the mind gets more … 
  11. The Skill of Not Suffering
     … One of the best ways to see them clearly is to focus on your breath and maintain that intention to stay with the breath—because intention is the action. What are your intentions right now? “Stay with the breath. Stay with the breath. Try to make the breath comfortable.” You notice when you set this intention in your mind, you might stir up some … 
  12. The Range of Our Responsibility
     … When you’re dealing with the breath, what kind of breathing is good? And how do you relate to the breath? Where do you focus? How do you conceive the breath? What kind of perceptions do you have related to the breath? If you think of the breath as the air that you draw in and out of the lungs, does that help the … 
  13. Friends with the Breath
     … So you use these ways of thinking as knives to cut right through everything, to come right here to the breath, because this is the best thing you could be doing right now: getting the mind to settle down, getting a sense of being at home with the breath, being friends with the breath. Don’t think of the meditation as a struggle. If … 
  14. Toward Release
     … You focus on the breath, applying the right questions to the breath and to your mind’s relationship to the breath. We’re here looking at three things, basically: the breath, the feelings that come up with the breath, and then the mind state that watches and that is soothed by the breath. The mind is both on the receiving end and on the … 
  15. The Search for Something of Substance
     … When you tell yourself you’re going to stay with the breath, you really do stay with the breath. When you tell yourself you’re not going to follow any random thoughts that come in that would pull you away from the breath, you really do have to stick with that determination. Now, that requires a certain amount of ingenuity. How do you make … 
  16. The Four Bases of Success
     … How can you stay with the breath in this situation? How can you stay with the breath in that situation? You’re talking with somebody you don’t like – how do you stay with the breath? You’re talking with someone you do like – how do you stay with the breath? You’re working at a task – how do you stay with the breath … 
  17. Proactive Mindfulness
     … This takes you to the fourth step, which is to train yourself to calm the breath as you breathe in, calm the breath as you breathe out. You begin to notice that you have a lot of preconceived notions about what you have to do in order to get the breath to come in and to get it to go out, and you begin … 
  18. Elemental Normalcy
     … The same principle applies to the breath. When you’re working with the breath—trying to get acquainted with the breath in the body and to use the breath energies in the body—it’s good to start with an area that’s relatively comfortable so that you’re coming from a place of well-being. As for the more difficult parts, the parts … 
  19. A Touchstone at the Breath
     … You want to be with the breath so that you can look—the breath here meaning all of the breath energy in the body. If you’re going to look at suffering, you need a solid place to stand. If you’re going to listen to the Buddha’s words, you need a touchstone in order to see: How does this apply to me … 
  20. Everything’s Right There
    We focus on the breath because when the mind is focused on the breath, everything you need to know to put an end to suffering is right here. You’re at the right spot. It’s simply a matter of getting used to it, realizing the potentials all around you right here, both in the body and in the mind. In the body, you … 
  21. Getting Familiar with Concentration
     … This is why we work with the breath, staying with the breath, keep returning to the breath, getting to know the breath, getting familiar with the breath, getting on good terms with the breath. That’s planting the mind in the right place, and giving it the soil, fertilizer, and water it needs. Because if you’re going to see anything, you’re going … 
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