Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. How to Listen
     … In other words, you’ve been adjusting the breath, relating to the breath, getting the breath so that the breath and the mind can fit snugly together. Now that they’re snugly together, you don’t have to think anymore, just let them stay together. Ajaan Fuang’s comment was that it’s like raising a water buffalo. When you want it to come … 
  3. Approaching Painful Memories as a Meditator
     … You’re sitting here with the breath and all of a sudden you’re off someplace else, at some other time, with a different identity. At other times, as you’re working with the breath energy, you come across knots in the energy that, when you untie them, reveal… unpleasant presents, let’s put it that way. You open one up and a really … 
  4. The Joy of Monotasking
    Focus on one task—getting the mind to stay with the breath. We live in a society that values multitasking, but often when you do many tasks all at once, none of them gets very well done. And when we do many things all at once, we miss out on a lot. People who multitask and say that they get the tasks done just … 
  5. Coping & Beyond Coping
     … We create that place by giving the mind something good to focus on, something nearby—the breath, the way you feel the body from inside. When we talk about the breath, it’s not the air coming in and out through the nose. It’s more the feeling of energy that flows through the body as you breathe in, as you breathe out. It … 
  6. Stop Squirming
     … You’re mindful to stay with the breath and then you try to evaluate and work with the breath so that you can develop a sense of well-being. This becomes your foundation, a place where you can rest, a place you can take as your haven. And because it gives you strength, it gives you your place to take a stance, where you … 
  7. Uncertainty
     … Even when the breath is comfortable, it holds back from the breath. It’s like dealing with wild feral cats. They hold back. Even when you’re really nice to them, they don’t really trust you. You may have a feral mind, in which case you have to be patient. There has to be some spot in the body where there’s a … 
  8. Visakha Puja – True Homage
     … Know when the breath is coming in, know when it’s going out. They say that the Buddha, on the night of his awakening, was focusing on his breath as well. So what’s the difference between his breath and ours? He was able to gain awakening, but where are we? The difference doesn’t lie on the breath, it lies in the qualities … 
  9. Make Yourself Reliable
     … This is one of the reasons why we work with the breath. We’re taking the breath back, learning to get it on our side. From the breath, it affects other physical processes in the body as well. As you develop these habits, you do become more and more reliable. And you do begin to get some knowledge you can trust. Think of the … 
  10. Defabricating Anger
     … You focus on the breath, and you talk to yourself about the breath. Ask yourself, “What kind of breathing would feel good right now?” You can experiment: long breathing, short breathing; fast, slow; heavy, light; or in long, out short; in short, out long; deep or shallow. Experiment for a bit and see what feels best. Then, when you find something that feels good … 
  11. Know the Dhamma by Its Results
     … People sometimes ask, “When you focus on the breath as your meditation topic, what are you going to focus on as you die, when the breath leaves?” Well, you’ll notice that Buddha’s instructions on breath meditation deal not only with the breath but also with mental fabrication, and the instructions themselves are verbal fabrication. And in every case, you learn how to … 
  12. As Days & Nights Fly Past
     … So the next step is to focus on your breath, because the breath is a good anchor for keeping the mind in the present. It’s also what makes the present livable in terms of getting the mind to settle comfortably into the body in the present moment. The breath is the part of the body that’s most changeable and lies most under … 
  13. Humility
     … We’re not just trying to get through the breathing to the end of the hour. We want to open up and appreciate each breath for what it has to teach us. It teaches us about the processes of breathing, it teaches us about where our blind spots have been. So, approach the breath with an attitude of humility and empathy. Delight in the … 
  14. No-Tech Meditation
     … You’ve got the breath and your awareness of the body, you’ve got the awareness itself and the feelings that go along with the breath, and you’re trying to bring them all together. You’re creating a state of becoming right here, and that becomes your laboratory case. You’ve got to talk to yourself as you’re settling down. But there … 
  15. A Matter of Life & Death
     … This is one of the reasons why the Buddha has us focus on the breath, to be sensitive about the breath. Even in dependent co-arising, right after ignorance comes fabrication, and bodily fabrication, i.e., the in-and-out breath, is right there first in the list. If you can bring some awareness and alertness to the process of your breathing, you’re … 
  16. The Gatekeeper Doesn’t Just Note
     … As Ajaan Lee teaches it, you evaluate the breath to see what kind of breath feels good. See what way of conceiving the breath helps the breath feel even better. Spread that good breath energy around, so that you have a sense of well-being throughout the body, along with a strong sense of nourishment. When the mind feels nourished like this, then it … 
  17. In the Land of Wrong View
    Focus your attention on the breath. Notice, when you breathe in, where do you feel it? You may not be feeling it primarily in the areas where you think you should. But that doesn’t matter. In fact, when you notice that the breath is doing things you don’t expect, that’s when you know that you’re really watching it. Because the … 
  18. Comfort Dhamma
     … The mind fits with the breath; the breath fits with the body. Everything fits together. You need this sense of comfort because a lot of the discernment teachings are going to be like medicine. They may be a little harsh and hard to take. But they’re a lot easier to take if you’ve got a sense of well-being going in the … 
  19. A Full Heart
     … A good way to do that is to expand your sense of the breath, to think of the breath not just as the air coming in and out the lungs, but also as the energy flow throughout the body. This gives you something all around the body to be sensitive to. As you work with the breath energies in the different parts of the … 
  20. Seeing Danger in Birth
     … You’ve made the intention to stay with the breath, you work with the breath, get familiar with the breath, try to make the breath comfortable so that it’s a good place to stay, and yet the mind will still wander off. Why is that? How does it do that? What are the stages? There are psychologists who say they’ve studied brain … 
  21. The Power of Your Actions
     … That’s basically a recipe for concentration practice—keeping one topic in mind, keeping focused on it, like the breath, that you’re doing right now. “Breath in and of itself” means just the breath as you experience it directly. Any other thoughts that would come up about the world, you put them aside. So you’re developing a singleness of mind here. To … 
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