Search results for: "The Breath"

  1. Page 25
  2. Don’t Objectify
    We focus on watching the breath so that ultimately the mind can watch itself, because the breath is probably the closest thing that you could focus on outside of the mind. In the beginning, it’s a lot easier to stay with the breath than it is just to stay with awareness, because awareness is so large and vague and has such ill-defined … 
  3. Name & Form
    Name & Form January 24, 2020 When you close your eyes and focus on the breath as you feel it, you’re moving from the level of sensuality to the level of form. It’s a step up. The pleasures that can come from the level of form are much more refined and much less likely to lead to unskillful behavior than the pleasures of … 
  4. Inner Refuge Through Inner Strength
     … You focus on the breath, try to stay with the breath as much as you can. If you need a meditation word to help, use buddho, which means “awake”; or you can just do in and out—anything that helps you stay with the breath. Then, when you can stay with the breath, you can drop the meditation word. And the more continually you … 
  5. Coming into the Present
     … For instance, with the breath: You focus on the breath coming in and going out. As you do that, there’s always the question of which of your sensations in the body right now are related to the breath. A lot of it depends on your perception, the way you conceive of the breath. If you think of the body as a big bellows … 
  6. A Magic Set of Tools
     … Keep reminding yourself to come back — stay with the breath, stay with the breath, stay with the breath — consistently. And then evaluation, which grows out of alertness, looks at the breath: Is this a comfortable place to stay? What do you need to adjust? Do you need to move the focus of your attention? Do you need to adjust the breath? Do you need … 
  7. The Forerunner of All Things
     … We focus on the breath because it’s close to the mind, and we give it the task of staying with the breath, getting to know the breath, being sensitive to the breath. As we do this, other things will come up in the mind that will get in the way. There’s a standard list of hindrances, and those are just five large … 
  8. Mental Seclusion
     … What kind of image do you have of the breath when you breathe in? Does it help or does it not? And if the mind is staying with the breath, try to be as sensitive as possible to the breathing. This moves into the third quality, ardency. You want to do this well. So while you’re with the breath, try to be super … 
  9. Doing, Maintaining, Using
     … Think, “a little bit longer,” think, “a little bit shorter.” See how the breathing responds, and how it feels as it responds. You can think, “deeper,” think of your whole body all the way down to your toes breathing in, breathing out. Think of the breath all around the body. Think of the body as being like a big sponge and the breath is … 
  10. Simple & Basic
     … You’re going to stay with the breath. The mind wanders off: Bring it back. Wanders off again, bring it back again. Make the breath comfortable. See if making the breath comfortable makes it easier to stay. This is all pretty basic stuff, but there’s a lot there. When the mind wanders off and you’re bringing it back, all the factors of … 
  11. Staying True
    Focus the mind on the breath. Notice where you feel the breath in the body. Any spot where the sensation is very clear that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out: Focus on that spot. It doesn’t have to be at the nose. It might be in the chest. You can feel the rising of the chest as … 
  12. Looking after Yourself with Ease
     … And while you’re doing this, you’re talking to yourself about the breath. That’s what the verbal fabrication is: technically, directed thought and evaluation. Keep directing your thoughts to the breath. If they go wandering someplace else, turn the arrow around and bring it right back to the breath. And then you can talk to yourself about the breath. Evaluate it. “How … 
  13. Nurturing Your Inner Adult
     … Sometimes, when you’re consciously breathing, you tend to tense up certain parts of the body to get the breath in, to push the breath out, and those patterns of tension get unpleasant after a while. They constrict the flow of the breath energy. So, think of everything being wide open. The energy can flow freely, and you just sit in the middle of … 
  14. The Practice of Right View
     … The purpose of the talk is to act like a fence, to catch you when you wander away from the breath, to keep pointing you back to the breath. Because it’s right at this spot—where the mind and the body meet at the breath here in the present moment—that your practice takes place. That’s where you’re going to see … 
  15. The Power of Intention
     … The breath can’t get through it, and the breath gets confined to a narrow space. But remind yourself that the breath was there first. The flow of the blood was there first. The pain came later. Then you find it easier for your conscious awareness to spread there and for the flow of energy to spread there. It’s your space. It’s … 
  16. Perceptions as Targets
    When you focus on the breath, try to be sensitive to the image you hold in mind of what the breath is doing, and of where you are when you focus on it. Use those images as your targets to help keep you with the breath. And notice the impact that those particular perceptions have on your breathing. If you find that the breathing … 
  17. Giving Ballast to the Mind
     … This is one of the reasons why we focus on the breath, because the breath is something you can adjust. You can change it to make it comfortable. And the breath has an influence in the whole body. The way you breathe has an influence on what you experience. Your head, your shoulders, your arms, your legs, your back, your abdomen—all the parts … 
  18. On an Even Keel
     … But you don’t want to leave the breath for the pleasure. Just think of the breath and the pleasure going together through the body. The flow of the breath is not only in a line from the nose down into the lungs. It’s all over your skin, it’s all through your muscles, it’s all along the nerves and the blood … 
  19. Skillful Desire
     … So these are some of the benefits the come for the body, the benefits that come for the mind when you stay with the breath, when you start studying the breath. So give all your attention to the breath, realizing that all the good things you want in your meditation are going to be found right here. Don’t have one eye on the … 
  20. Breath Meditation: The Second Tetrad
     … Look into your perception of the breathing: Is it getting in the way of your concentration? Is it helping it? If you have a perception that the breath has to struggle in order to get in, that’s not a helpful perception. If we picture to ourselves that we only have two little holes—i.e., the nostrils—for the breath to come in … 
  21. The Constancy of the Body
     … So when you see that the breath is constant—even when it’s still, there’s an element of still energy that counts as breath as well—when you see that the breath is constant, try to make your mind as constant as the breath. Pick up some habits from it. When things go well, look at the properties in the body: They don … 
  22. Load next page...