Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Potentials
     … As you get sensitive to the breath in the body, you begin to notice that it’s not just the breath coming in and out of the lungs. There are feelings of energy flowing here, flowing there in different parts of the body. How can you take advantage of that? How can you develop that potential? When the breath starts feeling good, one of … 
  3. The Body In & Of Itself
    When you focus on the breath you’re focusing on the body in and of itself. That’s your frame of reference, and you want to hold to that frame of reference. Take that as the world you’re inhabiting right now. As for the outside world, just let it drop away. Friends, family, issues at work, issues at school—you don’t have … 
  4. Happy to Be Here
     … There’s the breath itself, with is bodily fabrication, and then there’s the way you talk to yourself, which is verbal fabrication. Here you talk to yourself in a calm and soothing way. Then you take an interest in the breath, realizing that the breath and the breath energies in the body have lots of potentials. They can do a lot of good … 
  5. A Divine Seat
     … As the Buddha said, you direct your thoughts to the breath and then you evaluate. On the one hand, you evaluate the breath. How does it feel? What kind of breathing would feel good now? This is an area where you can experiment. He calls the breath bodily fabrication, and the word fabrication is often equated with intention. There’s an intentional element in … 
  6. Bigger than the World
     … One of the big mistakes we make as we work with the breath is that we have some cartoon ideas of what we should be feeling as the breath comes in; what we should be feeling as the breath goes out. We then create those feelings and, as a result, add a lot of unnecessary tension to the breathing process. So think of the … 
  7. A Rite of Passage
     … One of the tricks is making sure that you don’t squeeze the end of the breath in as you change to the breath out. Try to think of the in-breath flowing into the out-breath, the out-breath flowing back into the in-breath. In other words, let the breath do the breathing. You don’t have to use the solid parts … 
  8. Limitations
     … Once you’ve made up your mind to stay with the breath, you try to keep it there and use whatever techniques, whatever strategies you can think to keep the mind with the breath. This can include experimenting with the breath, thinking of the breath energy circulating throughout the body, exploring areas in the body that are tense or tight, and using the breath … 
  9. Respect for Suffering
     … Stay right here with your basic awareness focused on the breath coming in, the breath going out. This develops two of the main qualities that are important for developing a real foundation of mindfulness, a really solid frame of reference: mindfulness and alertness. The third quality is ardency, being ardent in your mindfulness and ardent in your alertness. Ardent in your mindfulness means that … 
  10. The Path of Questions
    The Path of Questions July, 2001 Let the mind settle down comfortably on the breath. Don’t push it too hard and don’t let it float away. Try to find just the right amount of pressure for staying with the breath. Let there be just that one question in the mind right now: how heavily to focus on the breath. Other questions you … 
  11. Fear of Mistakes
     … As you focus on the breath, you have the breath as your topic. You direct your thoughts to the breath and evaluate the breath, evaluate the mind in relationship to the breath: Is the breath comfortable? How do you know if it’s comfortable? Well, you test it. Try different ways of breathing, and then you can decide which one is best for giving … 
  12. An Island of Certainty
     … As you stay with the breath, you begin to watch the mind at the breath: first with the perceptions dealing with the breath, and also with the thoughts that come wandering through. Why is it that when you’ve made up your mind to stay with the breath, something else comes in and immediately you go? When was the choice made? Sometimes it was … 
  13. Count Yourself Lucky
     … In other words, you keep reminding yourself to stay with the breath. The awareness turns into alertness: You see what the breath is doing, you see what you’re doing with the breath. Because you can fashion it. It’s not that you’re not allowed to change your breathing. If you’re not consciously changing the breathing, then all the adjustments of the … 
  14. In Charge of Your Moods
     … You’re talking to yourself about the breath. If you find yourself talking about something else, bring your conversation back to the breath. Ask yourself: How does the breath feel? Where do you feel it? Where do you not feel it? Where is it comfortable? Once it feels comfortable in one spot, try to protect that spot, so that it stays comfortable all the … 
  15. Self-Healing
     … Focus on the breath. Talk to yourself about the breath until you figure out what kind of breathing is most comfortable. And then you create feelings and use perceptions: an image of the breath flowing through the body, say. You can ask yourself, “Where does the breath come in when it comes in? Does it come in one spot, or does it come in … 
  16. The Alternative of Concentration
     … You want to be right here, watching the breath coming in, working with the rhythm of the breath, working with the texture of the breath, the whole quality of the breath energy. It’s useful when you start out meditating to make a very quick scan through the body—through your various joints, especially around the wrists, around the hands, any part of the … 
  17. Speech for the Sake of Stillness
     … You’re focusing on the breath. Where do you feel the breath right now? Do you know when it’s coming in? Do you know when it’s going out? Does it feel comfortable? If it’s not comfortable, this is where you start talking to yourself. What can you do to make it more comfortable? Is the breathing too long? Is it too … 
  18. Looking in Three Directions
     … When you’ve got a plan here—you want the mind to settle down with the breath, and you want the breath to be comfortable—then you have to look at what you’re actually doing. Where are you focused? How is the breath going right now? To what extent are you controlling the breath, and to what extent are you allowing the breath … 
  19. The Right Touch
     … Be there just enough so that you don’t leave the breath, but don’t squeeze it. After all, we’re trying to get a sense of fullness. If we squeeze the breath in pushing it around, it’s not going to feel full. Or, if you squeeze the breath between the in-breath and the out-breath to mark, “Well, now the breath … 
  20. At Home with the Breath
     … It’s like that definition of home in the Robert Frost poem: “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.” The breath is the object; it’s the primary vihāra-dhamma. When the mind settles there, the breath has to take it in. You can watch someone else breathing, but it’s not nearly the same as … 
  21. A Mind Like Earth
     … And the breath gives you a good place where you can stand. So you work with the breath. And also in working with the breath, it takes your mind off a lot of other things that it could be making itself miserable about. At the same time, the breath is something that you can work with and see results. You change the way you … 
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