Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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