Search results for: "The Breath"

  1. Page 89
  2. Finding Your Own Balance
    Try to find a balance with the breath, not too long, not too short, not too heavy, not too light. And how do you know when you find a balance? It feels good. And how you know if it really feels good, if it’s good enough? That you have to observe. You have to learn how to trust your powers of observation, and … 
  3. Make a Difference
     … You’ve done your work in adjusting the mind, you’ve done your work in adjusting the breath, and they fit. All you need to keep the mind with the breath is just the perception of breath, or the perception of oneness with the breath. This is like going even beyond being a cowherd. You don’t even have to be the cowherd who … 
  4. Self-starting
     … For example, with concentration, you can’t just order the mind to be still, but you can find something you find interesting in the present moment—something that makes it pleasant and intriguing for the mind to be here, i.e., the breath. There’s a lot you can do with the breath. You can make it go up; you make it go down … 
  5. Still
     … When everything is in place, then you focus on the breath. Remember to think of the breath not so much as the air, but as the energy flow in the body, because that’s what you experience first in the body, and that’s what you can experience anywhere in the body. In the modern world with all our screens, we tend to be … 
  6. Cutting Edge Perceptions
    When you focus on the breath, it’s important to take it one breath at a time. If the prospect of sitting here for a whole hour focusing on the breath weighs you down, remember it’s only one breath at a time. This breath right here. This breath coming in; this breath going out. This helps keep you focused and doesn’t weigh … 
  7. Work with It
     … In this way, you actually start siding with the perceptions that say, “This is not any place I want to go.” We’ve talked in the past about how certain defilements tend to hijack the breath and get it to create certain feelings in the body so that you like the defilement. Well, you can learn how to take the breath back. Make the … 
  8. Success Through Maturity
     … You direct your thoughts to the breath. You evaluate the breath so that it’s comfortable. If it’s not comfortable, you ask yourself, “What can I do to make it comfortable?” When it finally is comfortable, “What do I do to maintain it to keep that sense of comfort going all the way through each in-breath, each out-breath?” As the needs … 
  9. When Things Regress
     … And remember that one of those steps involves trying to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in and breathe out after you’ve been watching the breath for a while. So as you’re watching this, you maintain a whole-body awareness. Then you try to calm the breath. You don’t suppress it. Just allow it to get more and … 
  10. Contentment in the Practice
    Contentment in the Practice June, 2001 Every time you sit down to work with the breath, remember the story of the foolish, inexperienced cow. The cow is in a nice meadow on the hillside, has plenty of green grass and water, but sees another meadow over on another hillside and starts wondering, “What’s the grass like over there? What’s the water like … 
  11. Everyday Feeding Habits
     … How’s the breath right now? You may have tried out Ajaan Lee’s various ways of playing with the breath. Well, there are a lot more. One time when I was staying with Ajaan Fuang, I tried to get him to write his own breath meditation manual. He said, “Ajaan Lee did a really good job already. Why should I add to it … 
  12. Equanimity & Action
     … But as soon as you focus on the breath, something goes wrong. Okay, what are you doing when you focus on the breath? Try to catch it as soon as you can. So you’re not just here passively accepting whatever comes up. You have to remember that the Buddha’s picture of the mind is that it’s active, simply that in its … 
  13. The Uses of Concentration
     … Once there’s a sense of well-being with the breath, you think of that well-being spreading round the body. Then you make a survey: Where in the body is the breath still not going well? Where in the body is that sense of ease not willing to flow? What can you do to open things up? And how can you be aware … 
  14. Alighting on the Dhamma
     … Learn how to evaluate what’s going on, say with the breath. How does the breath feel right now? What kind of breathing would feel best? If you don’t know, try things out. Have something you can compare. Try longer breathing for a while, then try shorter breathing. Compare the two. It’s through comparisons that you see things. I have a book … 
  15. Gladdening the Mind
     … Another way of gladdening the mind with the breath is to explore different ways of breathing. Try to think of a way of breathing you never thought of before, and see what it does for the sense of the body. Think of the breath energy coming in, not from the outside, but welling up from within. Or breathing with different parts of the body … 
  16. Respect for Concentration
     … Try and create a useful perception of the breath. Create a perception of yourself as a capable person—someone who’s capable of meditating. Other people can do this. Why can’t you? Then there’s fabrication, when you’re talking to yourself about the breath—and there’ll be a fair amount of talking as you try to get the mind to settle … 
  17. Respect for the Mind
     … This is why we place the mind on the breath. Adjust the breath so that it feels comfortable coming in, going out. Place your mind there, both with the breath and with the sense of ease that comes from breathing comfortably. Spend a lot of time with the breath so that you get to know it well, seeing what kind of breathing is good … 
  18. Pleasure on the Middle Way
     … Ask yourself, what would feel really good there? The more you allow yourself to be sensitive to the breath and the more you open up these sensitive spots to the breath, the more you see that the breath really does have the potential to create a good strong sense of pleasure. This is an essential part of the concentration. Sometimes there will be a … 
  19. Look After Yourself with Ease
     … And there’s also that sense of well-being that comes when you learn how to stay with the breath. I was talking today to a group of people who were taught that meditation is simply maintaining mindfulness in daily life, watching what comes up and goes away in their minds, and they found that their minds run away from them. And when it … 
  20. The Wounded Warrior
     … This is one of the reasons why in the breath meditation we’re taught to find as much ease and fullness and energy as we can in the breath, because it’s one of our allies for strengthening the mind. When the breath energy feels good in the body, the body gets stronger, and the mind dwelling in a comfortable place finds it easier … 
  21. Five Steps to Insight
     … Just be right here with the breath. Make the breath as comfortable as you can, as interesting as you can, because sometimes the mind isn’t satisfied with comfort. It wants something more. It wants to understand. So in this case, you try to understand: When you breathe in, where does the in-breath start? Where is the impulse that gets it started? And … 
  22. Load next page...