Search results for: "The Breath"
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- Cooking the Mind… They come from very ordinary things—being aware of the breath; trying to be aware of the breath as continually as you can—though Ajaan Sao didn’t add even those explanations. If people asked, “What should I expect?” he’d just say, “Don’t ask. Just do it.” In a lot of ways, Ajaan Fuang was the same sort of teacher. “This is …
- Samsara… You learn how to focus your thoughts on the breath. The mental label you keep repeating—“Keep the mind on the breath, mind on the breath, mind on the breath, breath, breath”: Take that faculty of the mind that’s always labeling things and learn to use it skillfully. Label things that allow the mind to settle down. Once the mind has settled down …
- Take Your Time… Your mind is ready, you see the value of training the mind, and so you can focus in on the breath. But sometimes you find that it takes a while to get into the mood, and that’s perfectly fine. If there are mental habits or ways of thinking that get in the way of the mind settling down, sometimes you have to spend …
- Fabricating Equanimity… Now, this doesn’t mean you just stay there non-reactive, because the next step after the Buddha taught his son to have his mind like earth, was to focus on the breath. And in dealing with the breath, you’re more proactive. You breathe in certain ways, you breathe holding certain things in mind, trying to develop a sense of ease, try to …
- Over & Over Again… So the breath comes in, the breath goes out. It’s not like you’ve never seen the breath before, but in one way you have to act as if that’s just the case: Look at it with new eyes all the time. But you’re going over the same territory again and again and again. Don’t count the number of times …
- How to Look, How to Listen… Then, as the issues of the breath get lighter and lighter, you’ll be able to see your own mind. That’s what we’re here for: to see the mind. We use the breath as bait to get the mind in the present moment, to clear things out in the body, so that they don’t interfere with your ability to observe your …
- Evaluation… You focus on the breath. Think about the breath and evaluate it. Is this a good comfortable breath to stay with? Does it feel good being with the breath? If it doesn’t, you can change. No one is standing over you with a whip, telling you not to change, not to do anything, or to just accept whatever’s there. After all, you …
- A Position of Strength… It’s as if the mind has only so many hands, and you’re filling all its hands with the work of being right here with the breath. So notice how the breath energy feels in your physical hands, in your wrists, coming up your arms, your shoulders. If it doesn’t feel good, think of it flowing more freely to nourish those parts …
- Switzerland Inside… And where do you find that wealth? By staying focused on the breath in and of itself. Staying focused on the feelings around the breath in and of themselves. Staying focused on the mind as it relates to the breath in and of itself. In other words, everything, in and of itself right here: That’s where the wealth will be found. So let …
- Hope… So be as still with the breath as you can. Try to be as sensitive to the breathing as you can. The more sensitive you are, the more you catch the details. This means, one, bringing the mind to the breath, and then two, learning how to keep it there. It’s in the learning how to keep it there that you see a …
- Angry… In the first tetrad, you get sensitive to the breath and then you get sensitive to what he calls bodily fabrication, i.e., the impact that the breath has on the body and then, through the body, how it has an impact on the mind. You can calm that. You let the breath fill the body, you let your awareness fill the body, and …
- Two Kinds of Defilements… Bodily fabrication is the breath. That gives you one of your primary tools for digging around: learning how to change your breath around a particular issue. When anger comes and there’s a catch in the breath, try to calm the breath down. When lust comes, when fear comes, try to keep the breath normal—so that you have a place where you can …
- Strength Training… You create feelings of ease of the breath, you perceive the breath energy as filling the body, you direct your thoughts and evaluate the breath —that’s fabrication—and you’re aware of all this. You’re taking these five aggregates and turning them into the path. That’s what you learn when you start reading the Buddha’s teachings. It opens your awareness …
- Evaluating Your Practice… To begin with, you’re focusing on the breath in and of itself. At the same time, you’re also keeping track of the mind, to make sure it stays with the breath. If the mind slips off, you want to be able to remember, “What have I been able to do in the past that keeps the mind with the breath and keeps …
- A Happiness Without Boundaries… So this is what we’re working on as we sit here focused on the breath, realizing that we have the choice to stay with the breath or to go wandering off and thinking about whatever, the way we’ve always been doing in the past. Try the choice of staying with the breath no matter what comes up. As soon as you catch …
- Drowsiness… Evaluating the breath, spreading the breath around: These are Ajaan Lee’s techniques. The Buddha would have you spread your awareness throughout the whole body, and the effort of spreading awareness and keeping it spread is one thing that can help keep you awake, keep you from drifting off. So know that you have to go through this minefield before you settle down, and …
- The Economy of Goodness… You have to think of yourself not sitting here looking at the breath but wearing the breath: surrounded by the breath, bathed in the breath, immersed in the breath, with the breath all around you, flowing smoothly. It soothes the body and it can also soothe the mind. When the mind is here with a sense of well-being, then when any thoughts come …
- Worldly Narratives… skillful thinking, thinking that keeps you with the breath, keeps you getting more and more absorbed in the breath. But it’s still a thinking process, an intentional process. It’s through learning how to use your intentions wisely that you really get in touch with what your intentions are in the present moment. If you tell yourself you’re just going to be …
- How to Leave Concentration… When did the mind settle down? When was the concentration strongest? When was the sense of well-being strongest? Where were you focused? What was the breath like? What had you done leading up to that? Can you remember? If you’ve been ardent, alert, and mindful as you get the mind into concentration, you should be able to remember at least something about …
- An Inside Job… How you experience the breath is something no one else can know. This is one of the reasons why it’s so difficult to talk about breath energies, or how the breath is experienced in the body. Your experience may be different from someone else’s, and we don’t have much of a vocabulary in Western languages to describe this. I have a …
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