Search results for: "The Breath"

  1. Page 58
  2. Being Still
     … And in the same way if you want to see things in the mind, see things in the breath, you have to make yourself very quiet. The quieter the mind is the more it sees. So, when the breath comes in, the breath goes out, the mind doesn’t have to come in and out with the breath. You choose a spot in the … 
  3. Animals in the Mind
    As we sit here focusing on the breath, we’re developing what’s called mindfulness immersed in the body. You keep the body in mind and you try to fill the body with your awareness, allowing your awareness to spread out and be filled with body. Don’t squeeze off your awareness of the body, which is something we normally do an awful lot … 
  4. Something to Stand On
     … Can you detect any parts of the body that are not being affected by the breath? See if you can get the breath to go there. This gives you work to do because it’s something to explore. And don’t think that you’ll explore it all within one hour. There are lots of lessons to learn about the breath that can take … 
  5. Nobody’s Servant
     … Allow the breath to become comfortable, think of the sensitive parts in your body and how the breath might nourish them. Sometimes just thinking of that as a possibility changes the way you breathe, changes the way you relate to the breath. Align the sensitive spots with the breath; keep them together, and they give energy to each other. Then the mind can calm … 
  6. To Begin the Day
     … Then, as the breath gets comfortable, the next step is to be aware of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. That’s one way of avoiding a tendency we may have when the breath gets comfortable: to go for the comfort and to forget about the breath. It’s like standing on a tall building and seeing a nice, soft … 
  7. Four Roles to Play
     … As you get more familiar with what you’re doing—getting the mind to fit with the breath, getting the breath to fit with the mind; getting a sense of the whole body being aware; the breath going through the whole body; a sense of ease going through the whole body; everything coming together like this—you get more and more conscious of this … 
  8. Patience & Curiosity
     … So the Buddha taught Rahula patience, endurance, equanimity, as a basic prerequisite for then working with the breath. Working with the breath wasn’t just a matter of accepting what’s already there. Some of the steps of breath meditation require that you sit and watch, and others require that you actively interfere, that you play around with the breath, do things with the … 
  9. Something Good to Cling to
     … Like right now, as we’re meditating, we focus on the breath in the present moment and see what we can do to make it comfortable, to have a sense of well-being right here. The pleasure of the breath may not be all that great, but the pleasure of a mind that’s able to settle down in a place that it knows … 
  10. An Island in the Flood
     … In other words, the doer has to know how to stay with the breath, how to manipulate the breath in such a way that you’re not forcing it too much, you’re allowing it to find a good rhythm. It feels good breathing in and breathing out. Notice where in the body you seem to be most sensitive to whether the breath is … 
  11. Habits of Perception
    Habits of Perception November 27, 2004 What have you got here in the present moment? You’ve got the body, you’ve got the breath, you’ve got thoughts, and you’ve got your awareness. But you’re also carrying a lot of habits. In fact, this is the main issue in the meditation. If you didn’t have certain habits of perception, you … 
  12. The Airplane Mechanic
     … When you’re working with the breath, you’re ery patient to observe the breath; to see what really does feel comfortable. And then when you have a sense of comfort, allowing that sense of ease to spread through the body without pushing it; without forcing it, because if you force it too much, it’s not going to be ease anymore. It’s … 
  13. Honoring the Noble Ones
     … So, right now we’re focused on the breath, not because we want to *get *the breath—although by focusing on the breath you find that you can breathe in ways that are really satisfying for the body, settling for the mind—but because you want to get the mind, and once you’ve got the mind then you want to put it to … 
  14. Cooking Food for the Mind
     … Your basic diet here is the breath. Fortunately, the breath has lots of variations, and of the many meditation exercises out there, it’s probably the safest because there’s not much content to the breath. It’s basically a feeling, a sense of energy. But to keep it from getting dull, you have to realize that the energy in your body can be … 
  15. Constructing & Deconstructing
     … Like right now, you’re trying to stay with the breath, to settle in, to have a sense of ease with the breath. That’s tranquility. But as the Buddha said when he gave breath meditation instructions, you’re trying to look at the breath as bodily fabrication, and your feelings and perceptions around the breath as mental fabrication. When you see things in … 
  16. Getting into the Body
    One of the Buddha’s terms for concentration is adhicitta, which can be translated as “heightened awareness” or “the heightened mind.” It can also be translated as “heightened intentness.” In other words, you really do pay careful attention to what you’ve got here, the object you’re focused on—in this case, the body, the breath. Give all your attention to how the … 
  17. Wise about Pain
     … Are you staying with the breath? If not, what can you do to get it back? If you are, what can you do to get more sensitive to what’s going on? At the same time, be alert to how your mind is having an effect on the breath, how the breath is having an effect on the mind, and how you can improve … 
  18. Faith in the Buddha’s Awakening
     … While the mind is with the breath we try to be as sensitive as possible to the breathing. Think of the breathing as a whole body process. Your entire nervous system, from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes, every part of the body is involved to some extent with the breath. And think of the breath not just … 
  19. Analysis of Dhammas
     … The key is basically learning to adjust the mind and the object of the mind so that they fit snugly together and the breath is a good place to stay. You’re working with the breath. Can you evaluate the breath? What ways of breathing are good? What ways of perceiving or conceiving the breath are helpful? If you’re not sure, try some … 
  20. Persistence
     … Things can feel good but you can’t go wallowing in the ease, because the sense of ease comes from being with the breath. If you drop the breath, you’ve abandoned the cause. The ease may continue for a while, but as it gets very fuzzy you get into a state called delusion concentration, where you’re sitting here very still but not … 
  21. Inner Poise
     … staying with the breath, staying in the body, staying with the breath energy filling the body. When we can maintain this frame, it gives us some space. One of the things you learn as you sit here with your eyes closed is how much nicer the breath feels when you pay some attention to it, when you give it space to do its thing … 
  22. Load next page...