Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Food Insecurity
     … Look at how you’re talking to yourself about anything in the present moment, but particularly about the breath. Look at how you’re developing comfortable feelings through the way you associate with the breath, and at the perceptions you use to keep yourself with the breath. If these things are done in ignorance, they’re going to lead to suffering. If they’re … 
  3. Potentials Past & Present
     … For the time being, talk to yourself about the breath. What kind of breathing would feel good now and would give rise to a sense of well-being? How can you let that well-being spread through the body? Ajaan Lee, my teacher’s teacher, would say to think of the breath flowing through the nerves. The comfort that goes with the breath flows … 
  4. Is the Buddha’s Wisdom Selfish?
     … the form of the body or the breath. The feeling of pleasure we’re trying to maintain as we focus on the breath. The perception of the breath that holds us here, how you picture the breath to yourself. Fabrication, how you talk to yourself about the breath; how you adjust it and get it so that it’s a good breath to be … 
  5. Sensuality
     … the pleasure that comes from settling down with the breath, and working the breath energy through the body, the working around any sense of blockage you might have here or there so there can be a sense of real fullness in the body. You breathe in, and all the different parts of the breath energy in the body are working together. They’re energizing … 
  6. A Heart & Mind of Goodwill
    Close your eyes and focus your attention on the breath. It’s good to start with a couple of good long deep in-and-out breaths to make very clear the sensation of breathing in the body, because the breathing in the body is what we’ll focusing on—not so much the air coming in and out of the nose, but the energy … 
  7. Honesty & Integrity
     … You stay with the breath, but as soon as the breath gets comfortable, you’ve got to spread it out to the different parts of the body: Spread the breath or the sense of comfort. Think of the energy as nice, easy energy, like melted butter going through the body—filling up all the little spaces, saturating all the dry parts—and then maintain … 
  8. The Karma of Pleasure
     … We have a certain amount of experience with the breath. That’s the past karma we’re working with. And then we’re trying to fashion that past karma into an experience of well-being in the present moment. In the beginning, you focus on trying to create a sense of ease and well-being with the breath. To get established in that sense … 
  9. The Language of the Heart (1)
     … In fact, jhana is not the topic of jhana; the breath is the topic. Not one of the factors of jhana is the thought, “jhana.” You direct your thoughts to the breath, you evaluate the breath, you evaluate the relationship of your mind to the breath, and as you get more and more interested in that one issue, the mind gathers around one place … 
  10. At Home in Jhana
     … Apparently he was directing his thoughts to the breath, evaluating the breath till it gave rise to a sense of rapture and pleasure, a sense of fullness and ease, that came from his mind’s not being involved in any unskillful thoughts at all. He asked himself, could this be the way? And the response arose in the mind: Yes. So he followed that … 
  11. Happy to Be Here
     … Usually, in the beginning, it’s good to breathe long for a while as a way of energizing the body and emphasizing the sensations of the breathing. But then when long breathing starts to feel tiresome, you can shorten it, make it softer, more shallow. Not quite so long, not quite so deep. But experiment. Sometimes if you engage in soft, gentle breathing too … 
  12. Right Effort & Right Mindfulness
     … You’re with the breath in and of itself, which means that you’re not thinking about the breath in relationship to anything else except things that are right here, right now: the rest of the body, feelings, the mind that’s aware of the breath, mental qualities that are involved in staying with the breath. You stay with these things and put aside … 
  13. A Seeker’s Habits
     … How you’re focusing on the breath, how the breath feels. Notice, when the mind slips off from the breath, when it’s first getting ready to slip off. When it’s beginning to settle down, notice how it settles down, the different ways it can settle down. These are all things that you have to watch for: things that make your alertness a … 
  14. Endurance Made Easier
     … This is why adjusting the breath is sometimes called playing with the breath. If you’re sitting with pain, ask yourself, “What can the breath do that I’ve never had it do before?” And think of the breath in different ways you’ve never thought of before—coming in and out different parts of the body, running in different ways through the body … 
  15. The Ivory Intersection
     … Ajaan Fuang compared the sense of ease and fullness of the breath, the ease and fullness of the rapture, to the lubricant for your meditation. Without it, he said, the motor of your practice is going to seize up. So you have to work with the breath, play with the breath, experiment. This gives you nourishment and keeps you interested in the present moment … 
  16. Grasping the Snake
     … Try to go through the day rooted in the body, rooted in the breath. The lessons you learn as you try to keep the mind under control as you’re rooted in the breath will be there in the breath. They’ll be right there, available so that when you sit down to meditate and you get focused on the breath, a lot of … 
  17. Defilements
     … The armor you get with the breath, though—if you’re fully with the breath and the breath energy is good—creates a force field around you, where the things that you used to have to fight off with your spite or malice or whatever, you can deflect without having to use any of those unskillful mind states. You need to develop some confidence … 
  18. Mature Happiness
     … To gain that place to step back, we start with something simple like the breath. It’s right nearby. It doesn’t have too many features but it can be adjusted. You can adjust it to be long or short, deep or shallow, cool or warm. Notice how the breathing affects your experience of the body here in the present moment. And if you … 
  19. Inconstancy
    Try to keep your attention constantly with the breath, all the way in, all the way out. This is what makes the meditation special. Otherwise, you’re with the breath a little bit, and then you’re someplace else. Then back again, then someplace else. That’s the way your mind normally acts. Try to train it in new habits: the habit of staying … 
  20. It’s up to You
     … labels for how the breath goes in the body, how we’re related to the breath. Where are you in relationship to your breath right now? Are you above it? Behind it? Surrounded by it? Which of those perceptions is most useful? I’ve found that the perception of being surrounded by the breath, being bathed by the breath, helps to center the mind … 
  21. Focal Points
     … So play with the breath as you please. Many people have trouble staying with the breath or getting in touch with the breath energies in the body because their conception of how their body works is determined by what they’re told about how it works: what other people can observe; what a doctor says or what a machine can measure about their breath … 
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