Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Whole-Hearted Concentration
     … Like the breath right now: Gather the mind around the breath. If you’re going to be thinking, think about the breath. If you’re going to be asking questions or exploring, ask questions about and explore the breath. You do this singly in the sense that this is the one topic you’re going to focus your mental activities on. If you really … 
  3. Solid Inside
     … In meditation, we focus on the breath. The breath isn’t Buddhist, it isn’t Christian, it’s common property all over the world. In focusing on the breath, we get to know our own minds. Then we can talk about our own minds. We don’t have to bring in the terms Buddhist or Christian.” The first step in the meditation is simply … 
  4. When it’s Hard to Settle Down
    When it’s Hard to Settle Down January 17, 2017 When the mind has trouble settling down with the breath, you want to check to see whether the problem is with the mind or with the breath—or with your perceptions of the mind or of the breath. The first problem, the mind: Sometimes you have lots of issues that are unresolved, and simply … 
  5. The Wealth of Simplicity
     … Think of yourself standing in the breath, surrounded by the breath, bathed by the breath, permeated by the breath. You can envision your body as a big wire cage, and the breath flows in flows out through all the holes, no problem at all. Nothing needs to be pulled in, nothing needs to be pushed out. And the wire starts to glow with a … 
  6. Lean into the Present
     … What the Buddha’s telling us is to be here with the breath in order to fabricate feelings around the breath, fabricate your perceptions around the breath for the sake of settling in and really get to know the breath—to see what potentials its got. This, too, is something we fabricate. In-and-out breathing is bodily fabrication, and the perceptions you apply … 
  7. Listening to the Practice
    Thinking about the breath and being aware of the breath are two different things. But they go together. The thinking here is designed to keep your attention focused, to keep reminding yourself that this is where you want to be, right with the sensation of the breathing. That’s the function of mindfulness or sati. The awareness can also be translated as being self … 
  8. Things as They’ve Come to Be
     … Right here and now as we’re meditating, verbal fabrication—what the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation—is the way you talk to yourself about the breath. How is the breath going right now? Is it too long? Too short? Too fast? Too slow? How is the mind in relationship to the breath? Is it ready to settle down? There are times, the … 
  9. Recovering Your Balance
     … You can watch it as it’s staying with the breath. Watch the breath. Watch the feelings. Those four frames of reference are all right here. You’ve got the breath, which is the body. You’ve got the feelings associated with the breath. You’ve got the mind state that’s either staying with the breath or not staying with the breath, and … 
  10. Calm
     … And where are you going to develop those?” Well, by focusing on the breath—so come on back. Thoughts like that calm the mind down; feelings like that calm the mind down. As for perceptions, look at how you perceive the breath. What images do you have in mind as the breath comes in, as the breath goes out? Where is it coming in … 
  11. Therapy for the Mind
     … Think of the breath energy coming in all over the body. Wherever there are any patterns of tension, any tightness, any blockage, think of the breath working through. In Method Two, Ajaan Lee offers one map. You start with the breath energy at the back of the neck, going down the spine, out the legs. Then the breath energy in the middle of the … 
  12. Shaping Your Breath, Shaping Your Life
     … When you tell someone to focus on the breath, immediately those pictures get kicked into action. This is why one of the important parts of learning how to focus on the breath is also learning how to skillfully picture the breath to yourself. Ajaan Lee recommends some ways of imagining the breath energy moving through the body. This doesn’t mean moving the air … 
  13. The Buddha’s Medicine
     … A sense of well-being with the breath helps an awful lot in that way. You breathe in, breathe out, and try to develop a sense of fullness. Notice, when you’re breathing in and breathing out, where in the body there’s a sense of pulling the breath in, a sense that you’re really hungry for the breath. Try to think of … 
  14. Attachment to the Body
     … The Buddha goes on to have you meditate, focused on the breath, inducing a sense of rapture, a sense of pleasure, getting sensitive to mental fabrication, in other words, your feelings and perceptions: the perceptions you hold in mind as you visualize the breath to yourself, as you visualize the breath moving through the body, and then the feelings of ease that you’re … 
  15. Strength of Mind
     … Get a sense of what the body needs and how you can provide for those needs with the breath. And keep at it. Once you’ve found something good, keep at that, too. In other words, try to maintain it. Try not to squeeze the breath too much. Sometimes, when we’re focusing on the breath and we’re told to stay with the … 
  16. Anxiety
     … As you’re doing with the breath right now: The breath is what you’re directing your thoughts to, and you’re evaluating, “Is the breath good? Is it not good? Is my mind with the breath? If it’s not with the breath, what can I do to make it more inclined to want to stay?” When the breath feels comfortable, what are … 
  17. Gather ’Round the Breath
    Gather ’Round the Breath August 10, 2011 So here you are. At least, part of you is here. What you want to do is bring all of you here, all of your thoughts, all of your feelings, perceptions. Concentrate right around here. Ajaan Lee talks about two types of aggregates. There are those that basically head outside, interested in forms outside, feelings and perceptions … 
  18. The Dhamma Channel
    When you focus on the breath, also pay attention to the perception you have of the breath: the image you have in mind. Think of the body being filled with breath channels and that they all connect—so that when you breathe in, every part of the body gets nourished by good breath energy. If one part of the body has an excess and … 
  19. Standards for Thinking
     … What’s the breath doing right now? What impact does it have on the way you feel your body? And how are you perceiving things right now? Because our perception of the breath, the way we imagine the breath to ourselves, is going to have a huge impact on how we breathe, how we experience the breath in the body and what we can … 
  20. Factions in the Mind
     … This is why it’s important to keep hanging on to the breath and allowing the breath to feel good, to feel clear in the different parts of the body. This is how you exercise mindfulness and alertness so that they grow strong. Wherever you can sense the breath, focus on that. Then let the different breathing sensations connect so that they feel all … 
  21. Dethinking Thinking
     … So it’s not like you’re trying to push the breath through the solid parts. You’re just allowing the breath to come first. Give it priority. And let those other things fall into the background, because, after all, the breath is what allows you to sense these things to begin with. This becomes a useful way of dealing with pain. Pain tends … 
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