Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. Doubting the Buddha
     … As when you focus on the breath: Try to be very sensitive to how the breathing feels, figuring out which way of breathing feels right coming in, feels right going out, and then try to maintain that. It’s the maintaining that’s going to let this very ordinary-feeling breath become more and more refreshing. Try to breathe in a way that doesn … 
  13. Relationships
     … Be with the breath. The breath is already happening. There’s nothing much you have to do. You don’t have to breathe the body. The body will breathe on its own. All you have to do is tend it, nudge it a little bit in the right direction, so that the breath feels good coming in, feels good going out. You’re not … 
  14. Free Not to Suffer
    You’re free to spend the rest of the hour focusing on the breath, focusing on your mind, bringing the two together. Why would you want to do that? The Buddha explains an awful lot about why. Sometimes I’ve encountered people who just want to do the technique. They don’t want to hear the theory behind it, but the question is: What … 
  15. Questioning Everything
     … As you’re focusing on the breath, the only thoughts that are really relevant are the ones that help you stay focused on the breath, the thoughts that ask questions about: How is this breath? What’s going on with that breath? How’s the mind right now? Is it staying with the breath? What do I need to do in order to help … 
  16. Appropriate Attention Plus Admirable Friendship
    Bring your attention to the breath, and try to keep it here. Follow the breath in the same way that you’d follow a road: Just keep going, step, by step, by step, not wandering off to the forests and the fields on the left or the right, but staying right on the road. Because this is a road that goes someplace. Remember, this … 
  17. Getting Back on Your Feet
     … If he was with the breath, he would just go back to the breath. If you feel discouraged by the fact that you’ve got a relearn those old things, look at it as an opportunity to get a more solid foundation this time around. Maybe there were some things in your old foundation that weren’t good. It’s like the advantage of … 
  18. How We Cling
     … As you’re focusing here on the breath, the breath is form. You’re trying to create a feeling of pleasure. You do that by holding certain perceptions in mind about how the breath moves through the body, together with thought constructs or fabrications: how you talk to yourself, directed thought and evaluation—directing your thoughts to the breath, evaluating how the breath is … 
  19. Protect Your Energy
     … Then notice how the breath comes in, goes out, where you feel the breathing process, and to what extent it’s comfortable. If it’s not comfortable, you can change. You do have some control over the breath processes. This is why the Buddha calls it “bodily fabrication,” because it’s something you can shape and it has an impact on how you’re … 
  20. Being Your Own Teacher
     … While you’re here with the breath, how observant are you of how the breath is going, or how the mind begins to wander off away from the breath? Can you catch it before it goes? Can you learn how to read the signs? Do you have any techniques for bringing it right back? That’s a really useful exercise. Another useful exercise is … 
  21. Question Your Actions
     … What are you doing? Right now you’re trying to focus on the breath, trying to maintain the mind with the breath, trying to breathe in a way that feels good. And you’re talking to yourself about this: “How’s this breath? How’s the next breath? Where does it feel good in the body? Where does the breath feel clear in the … 
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