Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Free Sources of Energy
     … That’s also when he learned how to use the breath to pull his body back together. So there you are: bodily fabrication, verbal fabrication. And of course, when you’re focusing on the breath, you have to have certain perceptions in mind and you’re developing certain feelings. That’s mental fabrication. In this case, what kind of breathing would feel energizing? What … 
  3. Get Out of the Way
     … The flow of the breath energy through the body doesn’t involve any pushing at all. It’s just a matter of relax, relax, relax, allow, allow, allow, as the breath comes in and the breath goes out. Try to catch and disperse areas in the body where you’re tensing up even the least little bit around the breath. The important principle here … 
  4. Noble Happiness
     … Focus on the breath. Notice when the breath is coming in; notice when it’s coming out. Think about the breath. Keep the breath in mind. That’s mindfulness. And then be alert to how the breath feels. Notice when it’s comfortable, notice when it’s not. When it’s not comfortable, you can change it. This is a very immediate and visceral … 
  5. If at First You Don’t Succeed
     … This is why you’re trying to make the breath comfortable, why you’re trying to use the breath energy to deal with pains in different parts of the body. You learn to observe how your mental image of the breath—or the words you use to describe where the breath is going—can change how you actually experience the breath. That gives you … 
  6. Nobility Through Inner Strength
     … Getting it in position simply means focusing on the breath. Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths. Notice where you feel the sensation of the breathing. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If not, you can change the rhythm: short in-breaths and long out-breaths, or long in and short out; short in, short out; deep or … 
  7. Not Getting What You Want
     … Think of every sensation you have in the body as being related to the breath somehow. Make a survey through the body: When you breathe in, where do you feel it inside? When you breathe out, where do you feel it? Is there a boundary around the breath? Well, no. How far can you gain a sense of how the breath relates to the … 
  8. Delighting the Mind
     … Even though your focus is the breath, the feelings are right there; the mind is right there; mental qualities are right there. Sometimes you’ll notice that it’s easy to get them together, and other times it’s hard. When it’s hard, you have to see which frame of reference is the problem. Is it the breath? Work with the breath, play … 
  9. Here to Learn
     … In other words, the observer is not something that’s hard set against the breath. It’s something that dives into the breathing, dives into the sensation and learns to enjoy it. The sensation of not breathing out too much or not breathing in too much, or too little: You can experiment with that. At what point does the out-breath start becoming unpleasant … 
  10. Chickens from Hell
     … Get interested in the issues of the breath: How do you make the breath energy really good? And what is the breath energy, anyhow? How do you sense when it’s flowing well and when it’s not flowing well? What ways of dealing with the breath improve your health? What ways wear you down? These are things that you can study, that are … 
  11. Gladden, Steady, Release
     … Part of this has to do with the breath. Notice how the breath feels right now. What would feel really good right now? What way of breathing would feel good in your most sensitive parts, say, of the torso, your chest, your abdomen?—any of the places where you’re really sensitive to how the breathing feels. The parts of the body that need … 
  12. Seclusion
     … Keep the breath comfortable. The more comfortable it is, the easier it is to stay with the breath. If you find yourself inadvertently squeezing or pulling or pushing to get the breath in and get the breath out, you can just let that stop. The breath is going to come in and out without your having to do anything to enhance it. As you … 
  13. No Happiness without Restraint
     … In fact, you find as you get more and more focused on the breath that the more limited your range, the more you can make of the breath. So focus your attention on one spot and try to make that spot as comfortable as you can, as you breathe in, as you breathe out. Then from that spot you can spread both the breath … 
  14. Making an Effort
     … So you strengthen the breath. That can help drive the clouds of sleepiness away. Or when you’re angry: The breath can be uncomfortable. It feels as if the anger has gotten into your body, into your nerves, and you’ve got to get it out of your system. But if you change the way you breathe, smoothing out the breath, letting the breath … 
  15. Exploring Possibilities
     … Can you stay with the breath? How long can you stay with the breath? Can you make yourself stay with the breath longer than you might have thought possible? Where are the little gaps where mindfulness lapses? Can you bridge those gaps? Can you relate to the breath in a friendly way? These are the questions you set up, and then you explore. This … 
  16. Generating Energy
     … So when you practice, when you finally get to the breath, and it feels easiest to stay with the breath, that’s when you’ve caught the wind. The practice picks up its own momentum. The tricky part, of course, is getting the kite up into the air, getting to the point where the energy you put into the practice gets less and less … 
  17. Empathetic Joy
     … It’s the same way with the breath. We pick up certain ideas, either from our own conjecture or from what we’ve read about what the breath does. Then we force it into that mold. So when we talk about breath energy, we’re asking you to open up your mind at the same time that you’re opening up the breath channels … 
  18. Your Ancestral Territory
     … That way—when, in the course of the day, something difficult comes up, either from outside or inside—you go to the breath, and surrounding the breath are thoughts about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, thoughts about the brahma-viharas, to give you some perspective on the issue facing you. That way, as you stay with the breath, you’re not simply hiding … 
  19. A Point of Balance
     … In the case of the breath, you really have to get on intimate terms with it if you’re going to be able to settle down in the present moment. If you can’t be on friendly terms with the breath, on good terms with the breath, you can’t stay here. You’ll always be slipping off to the past, slipping off to … 
  20. Terror & Revulsion
     … Now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. And wherever you focus, allow the sensation to be comfortable so that it feels good breathing in, feels good breathing out. If it feels good, it’s a lot easier to stay with the breath. This may require adjusting the rhythm and the texture of the breathing: deep breathing or shallow breathing … 
  21. The Raft
     … You’ve got the breath. That’s a part of the body, part of “form.” Then there are feelings: the feelings of pleasure you try to create by the way that you look at the breath. There are perceptions—saññā—the images you have in the mind about how the breath comes into the body, where it comes in, where it goes out, where … 
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