Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Circumspection
     … When you’re focusing on the breath, how strong is your focus? When you’re holding a concept of the breath in mind, what is the concept? The best way to ferret these things out is to experiment. You look at the various ways Ajaan Lee has of explaining the breath energy in the body. Those all come from his experimentation, and part of … 
  3. The Desire to Be Free from Desire
     … You’re going to stay focused on the breath. The thinking of the mind doesn’t destroy the breath. It’s still here. All you have to do is remember to stay focused here. You begin to notice, when you’re really sensitive to the breath energy in the body, that when a thought comes into the mind, there will be a little pattern … 
  4. Rapture
    Rapture August 22, 2011 Take a few deep, long in-and-out breaths and think of the breath energy filling the body. When we talk of the breath energy being full, it’s not a matter of having your lungs stuffed with air. It’s more that the energy channels throughout the body are open and they feel saturated with comfortable energy. So try … 
  5. Worry
     … So as you’re mindful of the breath, you’re getting ready for the future. As you’re alert to the breath, as you’re alert to what your mind is doing right now, you’re getting ready for the future. And as you’re ardent in trying to do this well—in other words, do it skillfully—that’s getting ready for the … 
  6. Mindworms
     … The first thing, of course, is to try to get with the breath. Even if the mind is obsessed with things, the breath is still coming in, the breath is still going out. And here, having a whole-body awareness is really useful. Because the larger your awareness, the less likely it is to shrink and go back into that circular pattern. You can … 
  7. The Buddha’s Investment Strategy
    As you focus on the breath and stay with the breath, you’re developing good qualities of mind: mindfulness, alertness. As you apply these qualities to the process of breathing, you’ll see that it’s a kind of fabrication. There’s a willed and intentional element in there. And because there’s an element of will, you can change it. You can find … 
  8. The Missing Truth
     … Like right now, you’re trying to stay with the breath, to be mindful to stay with the breath. Keep it in mind each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. If another thought comes in, you remind yourself: “No, that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to work on concentration.” Alertness means watching three things: The first … 
  9. The Regularity of the Dhamma
     … Physical or bodily fabrication is the breath, the intentional element in how you sense the breath, how you create the experience of the breath. Verbal fabrication is directed thought and evaluation, which includes an intentional element. Mental fabrication is feeling and perception. There’s an intentional element there as well. So the intention is what’s important, and it plays itself out in feeling … 
  10. The Flow of Time
     … One of the reasons why we work with the breath, in addition to giving the mind a place to settle down, is that a lot of impulses come because something strange has gotten into your breath energy: The part of the mind that pushes for greed, aversion, and delusion knows how to squeeze the breath and to make you feel that you’ve got … 
  11. Skilled in Aims
     … We focus on the breath and, in working on the breath, we work on the mind. The intention to do this comes from within the mind. It’s not the case that the breath pulls at you and says, “Hey, hey, hey, pay attention to me!” It’s because we have right view, realizing that the mind needs to be provided with a sense … 
  12. Recollecting the Buddha
    Ajaan Lee recommends that you take the breath as your home base. This is the meditation topic you can use for really getting to know the mind. I’ve known some people who’ve studied in Tibetan traditions who say, “What’s wrong with you Theravadans, focusing on the breath? When you die, the breath’s going to leave you, and at that point … 
  13. The Uses of Pleasure
     … Try to be aware of the breath. First try to find some spots in the body where you’re really sensitive to how the breath feels. Try to breathe in a way that feels nourishing there: gratifying, satisfying. Then from there, think of the sense of ease spreading throughout the body and your awareness, which is actually already there in the body, connecting to … 
  14. Walking Meditation: Stillness in Motion
     … In other words, focus on the breath. Even though you’re walking and looking ahead to make sure you don’t trip over things, you want to maintain the sense of being centered in the breath as much as possible. Don’t let the looking and the walking pull you away from your center. This requires practice, maintaining a center in the midst of … 
  15. Stop Weaving
     … This is one the reasons we work with the breath. As you get more and more acquainted with the breath, you begin to realize how certain ways of breathing actually aggravate the problem. Other ways of breathing can help dissipate, disperse the problem. If you’re sitting here, and the breath feels really good coming in, really good going out, all kinds of other … 
  16. There is This
     … Or you can forget about the issue of hot and cold all together, and focus on the breath: how is the breath moving? Is the breath moving in a healthy way? Is it obstructed? Is it unobstructed? You can look at that. As long as you stay simply on the level of elements, you’re not shooting yourself with those second arrows. You’re … 
  17. The Long-Distance Meditator
     … When you can make that switch from the content of the thought to the fact of the thought or the activity of the thought, then right next to the activity of the thought is the breath. So no matter how far your thoughts may roam through the universe, it doesn’t take much to bring them back to the breath. Think of it that … 
  18. The Dhamma Eye
     … You’re going to focus on the breath. You want to stay with the breath—that’s the object. Then the range of your body is the world that’s relevant, and you’re going to be the meditator, looking after this. In the beginning, you don’t have to be too self-conscious about this. Just focus on the breath. Make sure the … 
  19. What to Keep in Mind
     … While you’re focused on the breath, those are the thoughts you want to allow. You don’t want to snuff out thought entirely. After all, directed thought and evaluation are parts of the concentration practice. They’re factors of the first jhāna. You think about the breath and you notice how the sensation of breath is moving through the body. Where does it … 
  20. Possessed by Emotions
     … We’ve got the breath, that’s bodily fabrication. How you’re talking to yourself about the breath, evaluating the breath: That’s verbal fabrication. Then you’ve got images or perceptions in mind about how the breath comes in and out of the body, where you’re going to be focused. That’s mental fabrication. You’re getting some hands-on experience in … 
  21. The Mind’s Ostinato
     … There will still be some questions as you’re staying with the breath, as how to get settled in with the breath, and how to deal with other thoughts that come up. But as long as you’ve established your priorities clearly, then the mind will feel more at ease. You’ll be at ease to think about the breath, evaluate the breath, make … 
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