Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Breathing to Awakening
     … So, how are those factors related to the breath? It depends on how you approach the breath. To begin with, you’re mindful of the breath—you keep it in mind that this is where you want to stay. You’re also mindful of all the things you’ve learned about dealing with the breath, and you try to bring them to bear on … 
  3. Take Time to Evaluate Your Life
     … We’re supposed to be concentrating, yet with a strong sense of allowing and not putting too many boundaries around the breath. The first thing to do is to evaluate how you’re settling in with the breath. How does your mind relate to the breath? Is the breath comfortable? How can you change the breath in a way that’s going to make … 
  4. Focused on the Breath
     … Sometimes we think of some of the muscles in the body doing the breathing while the breath goes through other muscles, which means that the ones who are doing the work are getting starved. So, think of them getting the breath as well. In fact, you can focus on the muscles that you usually use to breathe. Think of filling them with good breath … 
  5. Permission to Play
     … If you put too much pressure on the breath, it starts getting constricted. If your attention to the breath is too light, it slips off and floats away. So find just the right amount of pressure to maintain on the breath—here meaning the pressure of your attention—but allow the breath to flow as freely as possible in the body. We often make … 
  6. Remarkable Qualities
     … the desire to learn about the breath; persistence in just sticking with it; and using your intentness, and your powers of ingenuity and circumspection. As you bring these qualities to the breathing, the breath will develop into something remarkable. The mind will begin to develop into something remarkable as well. It’s all a matter of what you give to the practice. We all … 
  7. A World Apart
     … It’s good to get to know all these levels of the breathing so that you can get more and more absorbed simply in the process of being with the breath. You can create this separate world and emphasize this separate world simply being here in the present moment with the sensation of the breathing. The more interesting you can make the breath, or … 
  8. Healing Skills
     … In this case, you’re keeping the breath in mind. At the same time, you keep in mind the fact that you could slip off the breath very easily, so you have to be very watchful. Try to notice when the mind begins to reach out away from the breath to find something else. Part of it seems to be with the breath but … 
  9. One Hand Clapping
     … And all kinds of variations on those various different ways of looking at the breath or working with the breath. You want to see what your body needs right now. Now, sometimes the anupassana that you’re following will switch from the breath to the feelings, and as long as the feelings are related to the breath, that’s okay. Sometimes it’ll switch … 
  10. Taming the Elephant
     … In the same way you’re focused on the breath in and of itself, but you don’t think thoughts about the breath anymore. You don’t have to talk to yourself in full sentences about the breath. Just remind yourself: Stay with the breath, breath, breath. That’s when the mind gets into a state of oneness with the breath. Your awareness fills … 
  11. The Mind Comes First
     … Keep the breath prior to the other elements in the body; keep the mind prior to the breath. The mind, remember, is quicker than the breath. The breath can be pretty fast. As soon as you breathe in, the breath energy has already started going all the way through the body. It’s not the case that you have to start with one spot … 
  12. Looking Off to the Side
     … One of the reasons we focus on the breath is because it’s very close to that element of intention which is so important to understand. The breath is a bodily fabrication, which means that there’s an intentional element in the breath. To get to know it, you don’t pretend that you’re going to sit here and watch the breath simply … 
  13. The Power of Perception
     … Notice which parts of the body, when you do this, have an especially good effect on how you experience the breathing, so that it feels more fulfilling, as opposed to struggling to get the breath in or to move the breath around. The breath energy is already there, and it’s simply a matter of nourishing it, filling up a little bit. You may … 
  14. The Five Strengths
     … So try to focus more attention on the breath. Notice how it feels when it comes in, how it feels when it goes out. You can focus your attention on the breath at any spot in the body where it’s clear: now the breath is coming in; now the breath is going out. Allow that spot to be relaxed and comfortable. Notice what … 
  15. The Steps of Breath Meditation
     … It’s where all the insights needed for Awakening can arise — while the mind is being mindful of the breath, alert to the breath, and also conscious of how it relates to the breath. In the later stages of breath meditation the emphasis is focused less on the breath than on the mind as it relates to the breath. In the beginning stages, though … 
  16. Specifics
     … No matter how much you’ve learned about the breathing process in the past, there’s always more to learn. Look at all those talks at Ajaan Lee gave on different ways of conceiving the breath, seeing the breath. Part of it is having an experimental approach to the breath, trying new things and thinking of new things to try. It’s an important … 
  17. Looking Inward
     … You make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath for the hour. And the second is the right object: the breath. So—where is the breath right now? Where do you sense it? You may have some preconceived notions about where the breath comes in and where it goes out, but where do you actually sense it? What movement of … 
  18. Square One
     … And notice what perceptions you have of your relationship to the breath, your place in the body. Sometimes we feel like we’re perched up here on our shoulders looking down at the breath. But remind yourself: The breath is all around you. You’re in the entire body, from your head down to your toes. Hold that perception in mind. The breath is … 
  19. Breath vs. Distraction
     … Like the breath energy: We say that it flows through the body. But does it flow through the solid parts? In other words, are the solid parts there first, so that you have to pump the breath into them? Or does your awareness of the solid parts actually come to you through the breath? If it weren’t for the breath, you wouldn’t … 
  20. Into Position
     … You think about the breath and you’re aware of the breath. And in thinking, you don’t just think about the breath in the abstract. You keep reminding yourself to be alert to the breath, at the same time that you’re alert to the mind. Is the mind with the breath or is it about to wander off? Oftentimes at the beginning … 
  21. Stay
     … Now, for this to work, it requires that you spend a lot of time with the breath. This is why we practice again and again and again with the breath, so that we’re not only more aware of the subtleties in the breath, but we can also learn how to trust the breath more. This is an important element of the meditation. This … 
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