Search results for: "The Breath"

  1. Page 39
  2. Not Swept Away
     … You focus on the breath as the breath comes in, the breath goes out. Whatever the breath is going to do, you be aware of it. Keep in mind that this is where you want to be. It’s not that you’re here to get the breath. You’re after the mind, and you’re going to learn a lot of interesting things … 
  3. Four Bases of Success
     … We’re here not for the sake of the breath—we’re here to use the breath for a higher purpose—but learn how to transfer your desire for that higher purpose to the causes that’ll get you there. In this case, the cause is being able to stay with the breath, wanting to stay with the breath. The more comfortable you can … 
  4. Deconstructing Anger
     … As you learn to get more and more in touch with the breath energies in the body, you can learn how to deal with them to calm the body and make it a good place to settle down. This is where you bring in verbal fabrication: Think about the breath and evaluate the breath. You notice the pleasure that comes when the breath is … 
  5. The Opportunity to Be Quiet
     … You’re nourishing the body with the breath. Right effort: You’re trying to stick with the breath the as best you can. Right mindfulness: You’re with the body in and of itself, the breath as you’re directly experiencing it right now. You don’t have to think of anything beyond that—just the direct sensation of the breath. All these factors … 
  6. Balancing the Bases for Concentration
     … So we start out with the breath, learning how to look at the breath, learning how to ask questions about the breath, so that the process of breathing becomes more than a simple physical processes keeping you alive. It becomes something that’s really refreshing. What kind of breathing would feel refreshing right now? What kind of breathing would feel blissful? Pose the question … 
  7. Shifting Your Paradigm
     … In this way, the way you play around with the breath, the way you explore the breath, leads you into concentration in one of two ways: One, after a while the mind just gets tired of playing around and really wants to rest. So it settles in and just stays with the breath. The other way is when you realize that you’ve taken … 
  8. Samvega
     … When the breath comes in, open things up for it to come in comfortably. When it goes out, allow it to go out comfortably. Whatever way you have of relating to the breath that makes it feel good just to be with the breathing coming in, going out right here in the present: Take that approach to the breath. This gives you a beachhead … 
  9. Five Precepts, Five Virtues
     … You’ve got to keep in mind your determination that each time you breathe in, you’re going to stay with the breath. Each time you breathe out, stay with the breath You also have to be alert to make sure that you actually are staying with the breath and to notice how the breath feels. One of the ways of making it easier … 
  10. More than Just Letting Go
     … How do I do that?” That’s skillful verbal fabrication around the breath. How do you make the breath comfortable when there’s a sense of comfort with the breath? How do you let it spread so that it fills the body? Once it’s filled the body, how do you maintain that sense of fullness? Those are useful ways of talking about the … 
  11. Doing the Practice
     … Tell yourself to focus on the breath, and you can immediately do it. The issue is staying with the breath, staying with each present moment as it comes. That requires practice. You need to know how to encourage yourself to stay, as well as the various techniques for staying. Encouragement comes from the chanting we did just now. As the chant on goodwill says … 
  12. Why Now
     … Like right now, trying to stay with the breath: Are you really with the breath? Are you really sensitive to the breath? In other words, are you ardent in your practice? These are the three qualities that the Buddha said go into mindfulness. And then, from mindfulness they lead the mind into concentration. You’re mindful, i.e., you keep something in mind. In … 
  13. Purity
     … In the beginning, you have to talk to yourself about staying with the breath and adjusting the breath, because you want the mind and the breath to fit together well—and you’re dealing with the parts of the mind that are not ready to settle down yet. In some cases, there are specific issues that different parts of the mind want to talk … 
  14. Focusing on the Breath to Learn about the Mind
  15. Your Breath, Your Territory
     … Don’t think of it as a dead area where the breath can’t penetrate. The breath can. The fact that you’re feeling something there means that there’s already breath energy, but it may be stifled, it may be bottled up, stagnant. So think of what you can do to bring it more to life so that the breath flows comfortably through … 
  16. Harmlessness
     … Your awareness of the breath should be the container for the day. And even when you can’t focus entirely on the breath, or give it your 100% attention, you can still make it the framework. Even though you’re aware of what’s going on outside and you’re responding to what’s going on outside, you can still be aware of the … 
  17. Wake Up from Addiction
    Wake Up from Addiction January 12, 2016 As you’re settling down with the breath, you don’t want to think too much about it, just enough to make it comfortable. You don’t want to analyze things to the point where you start losing the breath and getting caught up in the analysis. So you ask yourself just a few simple questions: Where … 
  18. The Buddha’s Cure
     … Think of the breathing as a whole-body process. If there are parts of the body where the breath doesn’t seem to go, just watch them for a while and ask yourself, “Suppose the breath did flow there?” If you hold that perception in mind, what would that do to those sensations? There are some sensations in the body that seem hard and … 
  19. Your World to Practice In
     … Think of the breath breathing the breath. The breath energies are already in the body. As they move, the in-and-out breath moves with them. When you think of the breath in this way, then it’s easy to have a sense of fullness, a sense of ease in the breathing. Years back, I was teaching in Malaysia, and I was told that … 
  20. Cornered
     … So you do the breathing in. Let the body breathe out on its own. You don’t have to squeeze the breath out. Another thing to watch out for is the moments between the breaths. Instead of trying to squeeze the end of the breath to make a marker that “now the out-breath has ended” or “now the in-breath has ended,” use … 
  21. Jhāna & Discernment
    Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths, and ask yourself, “Where do you feel the breathing in the body?” We know the air comes in and out through the nose into the lungs. But when the Buddha’s talking about the breath, he doesn’t talk about the air, he talks about the energy in the body itself. You have … 
  22. Load next page...