Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … Make the breath your primary focus. Use the talk as a fence around your meditation so that when you wander away from the breath, you run into the fence, which reminds you to go back. Otherwise, while you’re with the breath, you don’t have to give the fence any thought at all. If there’s anything in the talk relevant to what … 
  3. A Rite of Passage
     … So you have to notice, “When I focus on the breath, what do I do? What changes happen in the breath? Can I focus in a way that doesn’t lead to those negative changes?” Sometimes the problem is with the breath on its own, and you can fix that. But sometimes the problem is how you’re focusing on the breath. So there … 
  4. Inconstancy
     … In the beginning, you have to talk to yourself, evaluate the breath to make sure that the breath feels good for the body, feels nourishing, that all the different breath energies are working together, and that they’re just right for the mind. The breath is not laborious, but at the same time not so subtle that you can’t follow it. When it … 
  5. It’s All about Action
     … If you’re with the breath, the breath itself is a kind of activity. Even though the body would breathe on its own, say, as when you’re asleep, the fact that you’re alert and watching it means you’re automatically going to start fiddling with the breath. So fiddle well. In other words, try to figure out: What way of breathing right … 
  6. False Friends
     … This is one of the reasons why, when we practice concentration, every thought that comes up that doesn’t have to do with the breath is considered not a friend, someone you don’t want to hang out with, someone you want to avoid. It may seem like suppression or denial, but it’s not. It’s learning a skill, to put you in … 
  7. Weathering Karma Storms
     … If you’re able to sit here without too much of an invasion from past actions, you can give all your attention to what you’re doing right now—focusing on the breath, talking to yourself about the breath, holding in mind a perception of the breath that makes it easy for feelings of well-being to spread through the body. There are other … 
  8. Karma for Freedom
     … Or just the idea that you’re “watching” the breath: Sometimes that creates an internal image of you like a bird perched on your shoulders, looking through your eyes down at the body. That has one effect. How about thinking the perception of wearing the breath, being bathed in the breath? It’s all around you, in the head, in the body. What does … 
  9. Your Gyroscope
    Your Gyroscope January 16, 2010 Bring your awareness to the breath. Think about the breath and then notice where you feel the breath—not just the air coming in and out of the lungs, through the nose, but any place in the body where there’s a sensation that corresponds to the breathing: the rise and fall of the abdomen, the rise and fall … 
  10. The Karma of Narratives
     … It’s in the evaluation that you develop discernment, so you’re trying to figure out how to get the mind out of everything that’s not related to the breath right now. That’s the purpose of your thinking right now. Try to make the breath as interesting as possible. Think of the breath not just as the air coming in and out … 
  11. Choiceful Awareness
     … Stay right here with the breath. Find a way to settle in. Start out with mindfulness, which leads to concentration. It’s not the case that these are two separate practices. Mindfulness gets you focused on body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities, in and of themselves, all of which are the basic components of concentration. “Body,” here, of course, is the breath. Feelings: The … 
  12. Sensitivity All the Time
     … when the breath is too long, when the breath is too short, when the breath energy in the body is too sluggish, when it’s too active. Being attentive is what enables you to notice these things, to be sensitive to them, to read what they’re telling you. So the insights you gain are not necessarily wise sayings that you can write down … 
  13. Worlds to Watch Out For
     … This is where it’s good to know some of the techniques for staying with the breath with a sense of confidence, a sense of ease, so that the breath feels good. Breathing in feels good. Breathing out feels good. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change the way you breathe. That’s another choice you can make. Try long breathing, short … 
  14. Let Go Like a Millionaire
     … Hold on to the breath. Whatever else comes up in your mind, don’t let go of the sensation of the breathing as the breath comes in, the breath goes out. Try to make yourself interested in the breath, to see what kind of breathing feels good and what kind of breathing is good for the body and mind. If you’re tired, what … 
  15. Lessons in Fabrication
     … Perceive the breath coming in both sides of the body, to loosen up the pain, alleviate the pain. Tightness here, tightness there: Think of the breath flowing through those areas of tightness. So you learn how to breathe, learn how to perceive the breath, how to talk to yourself about the breath in ways that give rise to a sense of well-being. That … 
  16. Guardian Meditations
     … So sometimes just to get back to the breath and stay with the breath requires that you put the breath aside for a minute, or not worry about the breath for the time being, and use of the other techniques that the Buddha teaches for getting the mind back into shape. Four of them are called guardian meditations, in that they guard against defilement … 
  17. Creating a New Self
     … So one of the purposes of grounding you in the breath right here is to have the breath as a different world, your awareness with the breath as a different becoming, you in a different place. You’re right here. And as you get more and more a sense that this is the normal place to be, then the mind when it’s clearly … 
  18. Change Your Mind
     … First there’s establishing mindfulness in the body in and of itself, like we’re focusing on the breath right now. You try to be ardent, alert, and mindful in putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, you put aside any thoughts that would pull you away from the breath. You keep the breath in mind, you’re … 
  19. Exercising Discernment
     … If you’re meditating on the breath, you keep the breath in mind. If you’re meditating on goodwill, you keep goodwill in mind. Just keep remembering that, again and again and again. Every time you breathe in, every time you breathe out, this is where you want to be. Alertness means checking on what you’re actually doing. Are you with the breath … 
  20. Delusion
     … Even something as simple as the breath: As you’re sitting right here with the breath, you have certain beliefs about the breath. For me, one of the most liberating lessons in meditation was reading Ajaan Lee’s description of the breath and realizing it’s not just the air coming in and out of the lungs, it’s the flow of energy throughout … 
  21. Crossing the River
     … It’s constant in that, as long as you’re alive, there’s always going to be the breath. Wherever you go, you’ve got the breath with you. You can take that as your foundation so that you’re not placing your happiness on things outside, people outside, situations outside, outside purposes. Your purpose is here to train the mind. And the breath … 
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