Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. Joy in the Effort
    It’s important, as you settle in with the breath, that you have a sense of ease with the breath, of liking to be here, of being interested in being here. That combination of qualities—at ease, liking, and being interested—is an important part of creating the safe space you want inside. As the mind grows more and more still, things are going … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. Safe Haven
     … If you’re thinking about other things, you tend to squeeze the breath or limit the breath in the body, so you don’t get as much good out of the breathing as you normally could. Thinking and planning or whatever take up so much energy, so much space in your body. So for the time being, you give the body entirely over to … 
  10. Figuring Out Concentration
     … What do you direct your thoughts to? What do you evaluate? To begin with, you try to direct your thoughts to the topic of the concentration itself—in this case, the breath. So, keep thinking about the breath. Of course, you don’t just think. You watch the breath. You feel the breath. Ask yourself, where do you actually feel it? And is there … 
  11. Tranquility, Insight, & Concentration
    Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths, and notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. It might be at the nose, the base of the throat, the chest, the abdomen. Wherever it’s clearest—that now the breath is going in, now the breath is going out—focus your attention there. Then ask yourself if long breathing … 
  12. Nourishing & Interesting
     … What can the breath do to help with those things? The body gives you these challenges, and the Buddha says to stick with the meditation. Ajaan Fuang would say, “Take the breath as the basis for your skill.” The question always is, “What can the breath do here?” or “What can your awareness of the breath do to help with whatever’s coming up … 
  13. Greed & Distress with Reference to the World
     … Your interest simply is learning how to settle down with a sense of the body, a sense of the breath right here. You want to make this your home, so learn how to feel that you’re surrounded by the breath. It’s not just in one spot of the body. It’s all around. Allow yourself to feel bathed in the breath, bathed … 
  14. Put Your Books Back on the Shelf
     … You want the breath and the mind in the present moment to run your practice, because that’s where the real problems are. The problems are not in the books. The problems are here. One, how to get the mind to be with the breath. Two, how to think about the breath in a way that helps you to settle down. And the more … 
  15. Breathing Easy
    One of the first things you discover when you meditate is that you can set up intention to stay with the breath and it can very quickly disappear and be replaced by another intention, even though you were sincere in the first intention. It’s almost as if you have many minds. Strictly speaking, there’s just one mind in any one person, but … 
  16. Wise Choices
     … If you find it difficult to settle down with the breath, you can focus on other ideas that you find inspiring, things that encourage you to do what’s good, encourage you to do what’s wise. Then, when the mind is ready to settle down, it can stay with the breath. It’s important to learn how to settle yourself in the present … 
  17. Right View, Right Attention
     … So each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, you ask yourself, “Where is my mind right now? Is it with the breath?” If it’s not, you bring it to the breath. That’s what right effort does. If it is with the breath, you try to get more sensitive to how the breathing feels. As the Buddha said, you can … 
  18. Breath Energy
    When we focus on the breath, it’s not so much the air coming in and out through the nose. It’s the feeling of energy in the body. Some people say, “Where is the energy?” It’s in your sense that you have a body. You sense that through the breath, through the breath energy. If you were to hold your hand out … 
  19. The Teacher Inside
     … First you do this, this is how you focus on the breath, this is how you make the breath comfortable. Sometimes you consciously work with it, sometimes you simply try to make your awareness of the breath as continuous and non-stop as possible. The fact that you’re consistently watching it seems to iron out a lot of the wrinkles. Once you’ve … 
  20. Fabrication
     … the feelings that come with the breath, the perceptions that label the breath: “Now the breath is coming in. Now the breath is going out. Now the mind is like this. Now it’s like that.” The directed thought and the evaluation are there as well, keeping you focused on the breath and on evaluating the breath. So these things are all together. If … 
  21. Twigs & Branches
     … You work with the breath energy. When you breathe in, how does it feel? When you breathe out, how does it feel? We’re trying to create a feeling of well-being here. The Buddha says that simply by careful attention to the breath, being alert to the breath, you can make the breath comfortable. He doesn’t go into the details, but Ajaan … 
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