Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Enjoying the Path
     … It’s not just an idle pastime, working with the breath energy in the body. It’s not a distraction, because as you work with the breath energy, you begin to see the results of the movements of the mind. The breath energy may be flowing perfectly fine for a while, and then suddenly your mind goes running off to something else. You come … 
  3. Mindful Judgment
     … You’ve got the breath coming in and going out, and as long as you’re alive it’s going to be coming in and going out. So it’s a good place to start. You focus on the breath going in, you focus on it coming out. After a while, you realize that in order for the mind to stay with the breath … 
  4. Escape Routes in the Present
     … Simply being with the breath can be a pleasurable experience. You’ve got this whole field to play with: the breath energy in the body. You want to be able to tap into that whenever you need to, so that things that are difficult outside don’t weigh so heavily on you. As for the things we don’t endure, they come in two … 
  5. Stress
     … You work with the breath, think about the breath, adjust the breath. Once you’ve got something good, you try to maintain it. Once you’ve maintained it, you try to spread that comfortable sense of energy flowing freely through the body. It’s a fair amount of work. Think of the bathman having to knead the soap powder and the water all day … 
  6. This Fathom-Long Body
     … When you focus on the breath, you actually do get a sense of being one with the breath. You begin to have a sense that your sense of “I” is located at some part of the body—most often, up in the head. But then as you work with the breath in the body, you begin to realize that staying exclusively in the head … 
  7. Dhamma Medicine
     … And it’s the same with working with the breath energy in the body. This is one of those general tonics that’s useful in all kinds of situations. If you learn how to think about the breath in a way that immediately brings ease to the breathing, this is a good tool in almost any situation, because if you’re coming from a … 
  8. Not What You Are, What You Do
     … You’re directing your thoughts to the breath and evaluating the breath. You use certain perceptions, and certain feelings get involved. These are all elements in the factor of fabrication, which comes right after ignorance. We breathe ignorantly. We perceive things through ignorance. Our thoughts about things, the way we evaluate things, and our use of language generally are done with ignorance. As a … 
  9. The Seven Factors for Awakening
     … You’re trying to keep the breath in mind. Then there’s alertness, watching what the breath is doing and watching how the mind is relating to the breath. These two qualities, the Buddha said, are always appropriate. They’re always skillful. Then he goes on to describe how the rest of the factors for awakening depend on the situation. Three of them are … 
  10. Things Aren’t as They Should Be
     … You can take something simple like this—the fact that you’re talking to yourself about the breath, focusing on the breath; you have a perception of the breath, an image of how the breath flows in the body; you’re trying to create a feeling of well-being: Okay, that’s the activity. You can watch yourself doing that activity and you’ll … 
  11. Doubts
     … If, for example, you notice that you’re wandering off because the breath is too weak, you strengthen the breath. Or if it’s not comfortable, you ask yourself, “What can I do to make the breath more comfortable?” So you are engaged in some thinking as you’re staying here—thinking related to staying with the breath—but you have to fend off … 
  12. The Reality of Your Thoughts
     … We’re very busily stitching together something that makes sense out of these random thoughts, but to what extent is our stitching really helpful? And to what extent could we stitch together all sorts of weird stuff? This is one of the reasons why we stay with the breath, because the breath allows us to step back a little bit from the thinking process … 
  13. A Skillful Attitude
     … Getting the mind into position means focusing it on the breath. Wherever you sense the breath or the process of breathing, focus your attention there. And allow yourself to think of the concept of breathing in a wide way. It’s not just air coming in and out of the lungs. It’s the whole energy flow in the body. And wherever in the … 
  14. A Haven for Inner Wealth
     … And here, “just right” means getting your pleasure from the concentration but not getting so distracted from the breath that you just wallow around in the pleasure. Otherwise, you’re going to lose the source of the pleasure to begin with. The Buddha said the sense of pleasure comes from staying attentive to the breath, being alert to the breath. So keep the cause … 
  15. Collecting Your Tools
     … So you use the breath as your central skill, your central object of attachment. As for everything else, learn to put it up and take it down as you need it. Eventually, you get to let go of the breath, but don’t be in too great a hurry to do so. The mind needs a center that it can hold to, so that … 
  16. The Making Of
     … You think about the breath. Ask yourself, “Where is the breath comfortable? Where is it uncomfortable? How is it fitting in with the mind? How is the mind fitting in with the breath?” And when there’s a sense of ease, what do you do with it? In the Buddha’s images for the different jhānas, the first jhāna has the only image in … 
  17. Challenges
     … What it comes down to is that we play with the breath, we work with the breath—playing in the sense of learning how to enjoy being with it, and working in the sense of giving ourselves something really important to do with the breath, to develop good qualities of mind and, as a side effect, to improve the health of the body. Of … 
  18. Beyond Gratitude
     … You’ve made up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, well, you’ve got to keep remembering that. That’s the thread that holds everything together. And you want to make the breath a good place to stay, so pay attention to how the breathing affects the different parts of the body. Notice: What kind of breathing feels good in … 
  19. Expand Your Expectations
     … It’s very easy to focus on the breath for a while and then go off for a bit then come back for a while and then go off for a bit. There are these little bumps in the breath that tend to knock us off. See if you can ride right through the bumps. Some people, when they start watching the mind, realize … 
  20. Yes & No
     … Yes, of course, means giving your full attention to the breath, your full attention to what the mind is doing with the breath: watching the breath; watching the mind, making sure they stay together. That’s the Yes. The No applies to anything that has to do with the world of the senses, the world of sensual pleasures, your issues with the world outside … 
  21. Inner Negotiating Skills
     … This is one of the reasons why we work so much with the breath. Make the breath comfortable. Make the breath interesting. Here it is—one of the primary properties of your body, and it can be used for all kind of good things: to create a sense of lightness when you feel heavy, a sense of heaviness when you feel light-headed. It … 
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