Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Right Mindfulness
     … As you stay with the breath, you focus on the breath in ways that deal with feelings, that deal with the mind, that deal with mental qualities, but you never really leave the breath. You simply train yourself to observe things in conjunction with the breath. So of all the various places you can establish mindfulness, the breath is the most important, the most … 
  3. Things Don’t Have to Be This Way
     … First, you’re watching the breath: “Is the breath coming in? Is it going out? Where is it coming in? Where is it going out?” And you also watch the mind: “Is it staying with the breath? Is it getting ready to leave the breath?” Just notice these things. Is the breath comfortable? Is it not? Is the mind comfortable with the breath? And … 
  4. Training for Happiness
     … That’s all you have to pay attention to right now, just the breath. Any other thoughts that come into your mind, you can let them go. Try to be sensitive to how the breathing feels. When it comes in, does it feel good? It is too long? Is it too short? If it feels too long or too short, you can adjust it … 
  5. A Good Place to Not-Self
     … We focus on something simple like the breath. It’s right here, right next to the mind. When you’ve got the mind with the breath, then you can see it clearly. So take a good long deep in-and-out breath and notice where you feel the breathing in the body. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t … 
  6. One Point, Two Points, Many Points
    One Point, Two Points, Many Points August 18, 2007 Ajaan Lee sometimes talks about not being aware of the breath in the whole body. He sometimes recommends focusing on one spot and just staying right there. Some people, he says, find it too distracting to deal with the breath sensations in the different parts of the body. As you’re thinking about your hand … 
  7. Producing Discernment
     … When things are not going well, what alternatives do you have? There may be alternative ways of breathing, alternative places to focus, alternative ways of perceiving the breath, imaging the breath to yourself. Or there are times when you need to use another meditation theme altogether. The mind isn’t willing to settle down with the breath. There’s something going on in the … 
  8. Mindfulness Gets Intimate
     … You’re focusing on the breath. But you’re not totally without reference to the terms of becoming, because if you look at the way the Buddha describes how you talk to yourself while you’re focused on the breath, on feelings around the breath, on the mind states you can develop around the breath, or on the mental qualities that either get in … 
  9. Lessons from Stilling the Mind
     … So, be glad to be here with the breath. Be with the breath in such a way that you feel good being with the breath, not only mentally, but also physically. That means adjusting the breath, making it long, making it short, figuring out what kind of breathing feels good for the body right now, what kind of breathing is good for the mind … 
  10. Bring the Right Attitude
     … Focus on the breath, allow the breath be comfortable, and keep remembering word, “allow.” You can’t make the breath comfortable, but you can create conditions that let it become comfortable. Try to find the right amount of focus. You can focus on any part of the body where you have a sensation of the in-breath and a sensation of the out-breath … 
  11. Adjusting the Flame
     … You remember that you’ve got to try to get the mind to settle down, so you try to remember the topic, such as the breath, and then you remember what’s worked in the past, what hasn’t worked in the past, so that when something comes up that’s going to pull you away from the breath, you remember, “Okay, I had … 
  12. The Power of Intention
     … How is the breath going? How do you stay with the breath? It requires fabrication. The breath itself is a kind of fabrication. You can breathe in all kinds of ways. You’re not stuck with any one way of breathing. And there’s nothing in the Buddha’s teachings to say that you just let the breath do what it’s going to … 
  13. Full Attention
     … just the body in and of itself, the breath in and of itself, on its own terms. Stay with it and ask yourself, “What would be a way of breathing, a way of relating to the breath, a way of perceiving the breath that would allow a sense of ease to flow through the body?” The Buddha says you want to get the body … 
  14. Training in Commitment & Reflection
     … You’ve made up your mind to stay with the breath and all of a sudden you find yourself thinking about, what: Los Angeles, next week, last week—things totally unrelated to the breath. So you pull yourself back to the breath. If the mind wanders off again, you bring yourself back again. Try not to get discouraged. When you are with the breath … 
  15. Exploring Fabrication
    Exploring Fabrication August 29, 2011 The Buddha once told the monks that they should practice breath meditation, and one of the monks said, “I already do practice breath meditation.” So the Buddha asked him, “What kind of breath meditation do you practice?” The monk replied, “I focus on the breath, let go of any hankering after the past, any hankering after the future. I … 
  16. The Noble Path to Happiness
    The mind is bound to chatter, so if you’re doing meditation, have it chatter about the breath. What should it say? “Just focus on the breath. Be alert to the breath. Know when it’s coming in; know when it’s going out. Let it be comfortable. Don’t try to force the breath or to put yourself into a trance.” What you … 
  17. The Power of Intention
     … Bring it back, bring it back to the breath. If the breath is interesting, if the breath is comfortable, the mind will be more inclined to want to stay. You can begin to change its allegiance. Its old allegiance was to running around. Even before they had the word multitasking, our minds liked to multitask. Here, we’re going to do some mono-tasking … 
  18. Sensitive to Fabrication
    A lot of people, when they focus on the breath, want to be with the pure sensation of the breath without any mental images, without any words. But these things are intimately tied together. If you’re not clear about the image you’re holding in mind about the breath, it goes underground and has an impact on the way you’re seeing things … 
  19. Surprise Yourself
    It’s possible to focus on the breath and not learn much of anything. One of Ajaan Lee’s friends, who was also a student of Ajaan Mun, complained to Ajaan Less one time, “Why do you teach people to focus on the breath? All there is in and out, in and out.” And as Ajaan Lee replied, “If that’s all you can … 
  20. Dealing with the Hindrances
    Ajaan Lee talks about directed thought and evaluation in the meditation as dealing with the breath: figuring out what kind of breathing feels best for you right now, where you can create a sense of well-being in the body, and then how you can make the best use of that sense of well-being, letting it spread down the nerves, down the blood … 
  21. Breath by Breath
     … So keep the mind with the breath continuously, and then let them do their work. The mind does its work on the breath, and the breath does its work on the mind. And bit, by bit, by bit, the sense of ease, the sense of pleasure, grows. But even when it gets large and intense, you can’t abandon that producing mode. The ease … 
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