Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Asalha Puja – Completeness
     … This is why we meditate, focusing on the breath here in the present moment, because the breath is about as close to the mind as you’re going to get until you can look at the mind directly. It’s a good place to bring your attention, because the breath is very sensitive to what’s going on in the mind. Fear arises in … 
  3. Self-Reliance
     … So the breath is the safest of all meditation objects. This means that if you notice something strange coming up in your mind and you’re not sure about whether it’s going to be helpful or not, step back a bit and just stay with the breath. Keep the breath as your frame of reference and you’ll be safe. Or if you … 
  4. The Power of Choice
     … So we focus on the breath, because that’s one thing that you really do have a lot of leeway in. It may not seem like much, but you can choose to breathe short breaths, long breaths, deep breaths, shallow breaths. You can choose to focus on any part of the body at all to be aware of the breath. Because the breath is … 
  5. A Mind like Wind
     … You’ve got the breath right here. That’s a body issue in and of it self. Learn how to relate to the breath in a friendly way. That makes it easier to stick with it. Learn how to be sensitive to how it feels when it’s long, how it feels when it’s short, and decide which kind of breathing feels best … 
  6. Not-self in Context
     … So focus on the breath. Learn how to be passionate for the breath. If the level of ease in the breath is not very constant, try to make it more constant. See how you can bring this under control so that the mind is willing to settle down with it. Bringing the breath more under control, you bring the mind more under control as … 
  7. Elephant Training
     … We’re going to focus on the breath. The breath is common property. It’s not Christian, not Buddhist, not Hindu; it’s common property throughout the world. If you focus on the breath, you get to know your mind. Then when issues come up in the mind, we can talk about the mind without having to talk about what religion we’re coming … 
  8. Free from Buddha Nature
     … The first one is the physical fabrication, which is the breath. If you breathe in ignorance, it’s going to contribute to your suffering. This was one of the reasons why the meditation technique the Buddha taught most frequently was breath meditation, to bring some awareness to the breath and particularly, bring awareness to whether the breath is comfortable or not—whether it’s … 
  9. Skills to Make You Free
     … You work with the breath, you make the breath comfortable, but you have to make sure that you not get distracted by the comfort. The comfort is there, but you maintain your focus on the breath. Work with the breath energies throughout the body. Try to develop a full-body awareness from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes … 
  10. Changing Your Default Settings
     … And then you hold to a perception of the breath: a mental image. It can be either a picture in the mind, or just a word or whatever, of how you conceive the breath, and how you hold the concept of breath in mind. You hold on to that: both to the sensation of the breathing itself and to the perception. And then you … 
  11. Solving Real Problems
     … You get sensitive to how long the breath is, how short the breath is, all the variations of the breath. Then you learn to breathe in and out aware of the whole body, so that you can see the breathing as a whole body process, because you’re going to be trying to develop feelings of rapture, feelings of pleasure, and let them spread … 
  12. At the Door of the Cage
     … Allow yourself to be attached to the breath, get to play with the breath, make the breath a really comfortable, good place to stay. As the breath gets more refined, you find that the mind goes through more refined stages. The two help each other along. The greater the refinement of the mind, the more refined the breath, and vice versa, back and forth … 
  13. Owning Your Actions
     … Are you getting the results you want out of your meditation? If not, what can you change? Do you want to change the breath? How about changing the point where you’re focused? Or if the mind is unwilling to settle down with the breath, ask yourself, “What’s bothering it right now?” Because there are reflections that you can use to get the … 
  14. Conserving Your Strength
     … Stay with the breath. When the breath comes in, know it’s coming in. When it goes out, know it’s going out. There’s only one thing you have to pay attention to right now: how the breath feels in the body. And think of it being comfortable. Just think that thought, “May the breath be comfortable,” and notice what ways you may … 
  15. The Walls of Ignorance
    The Walls of Ignorance January 29, 2004 Try to be alert to the breath: what it’s doing right now and what you’re doing with it right now. Sometimes you may notice that you’re putting too little or too much pressure on it. “Too little” means that the mind keeps slipping off. “Too much” means that the breath feels confined. It’s … 
  16. The Mirror Inside
     … We adjust it to see what potentials there are in the breath. As the Buddha said, when the mind settles down with the breath, there can be a strong sense of pleasure, a strong sense of rapture or refreshment. That potential is there in the breath someplace—in the quality of the breath energy in the body. So, keep that possibility in mind. This … 
  17. The Power of Human Effort
     … the things you say to yourself as you’re watching the breath. You focus on one aspect of the breath and then you evaluate how things are going. Is the breath comfortable? Is it not? Is your focus solid, or is it not? Is it too light? Too heavy? Could you be focusing some place else? Could the breath be doing something else, going … 
  18. Hunker Down
     … The whole point of the talk is to keep directing your attention back to the mind, back to the breath. It acts like a fence. When the mind starts wandering away from the breath, it runs into the fence, which directs you back. After all, that’s where the Dhamma appears: right back at the mind, right back at the breath. The talk is … 
  19. The Purity of Your Intentions
     … When you think about how the breath fabricates feeling, and feeling fabricates the mind, you realize how important it is to get to know the breath. Then you think about all the important things you’re going to learn about the mind as it stays here, the things that’ll be revealed as you set this one intention in place. That way, you’re … 
  20. Peace of Mind
     … You stick with the breath: That requires mindfulness. You watch the breath, you’re sensitive to the breath: That requires alertness. These are the two qualities you really need for any endeavor. In this way, meditation is like exercising your mind in the same way you exercise your body to make it strong. You use the qualities that you need and you find that … 
  21. Right View: Feeding Instructions
     … There are the feelings of ease or dis-ease that come with the breath. Your perceptions of how you think of the breath to yourself: What image do you hold in mind? When you breathe in, where do you feel the breath? What do you think is happening when you breathe in? Some people think of their body as a big bellows. When you … 
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