Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Judging Your Meditation
     … Does the breath feel good? Does it not feel good? What would feel better? When you choose a point to focus on, which spot is going to be most congenial? You’ve got to learn how to judge these things. So it’s good to keep in mind some important principles about judging as it applies to the meditation. The first one is that … 
  3. In the Light of Karma
     … When you have that attitude, then, as you focus on the breath, you focus on the breath with a light mind, with a sense of having come to a place that does offer safety. Concentration may be something fabricated but it takes you to a good place. You can start engaging in your verbal fabrications—all the thoughts and conversations of the mind—in … 
  4. Feeding on Feeding
     … the form of the body, which is the breath; the feelings of pleasure and pain that you find in the breath; the perception of breath, with which you find that as you manipulate it, you experience the breath in different ways. Then, of course, there’s the fabrication: If the breath doesn’t feel good, what are you going to do to make it … 
  5. Right Resolve & Right Speech
     … Watch the breath. If the mind is settling down with the breath, fine. Keep it going. Try to breathe in a way that’s comfortable. But if the mind is not settling down, you have to look into why. This is where you want to hear more truthful speech inside. What’s the mind focused on? There will be times when it’ll be … 
  6. Relationships
     … The breath comes in, the breath goes out, you stay with the breath, the mind relates well with the breath: There’s a sense of well-being that comes from being with the present moment like this. Then it’s easier to deal with some of the more difficult issues that come up in the mind: things where ordinarily you tend to lie to … 
  7. Kindfulness
    Kindfulness May 1, 2010 As you train the mind, focusing on the breath, allowing the breath to be comfortable, trying to become friends with the breath, it’s a very direct way of showing goodwill to yourself and to the people around you. Goodwill for yourself in the sense that you learn how to develop a source of happiness that comes from within. Your … 
  8. The Meaning of the Body
     … And one way of doing that is to stay with the breath coming in, going out, being with the sensation of the breath. Or you can analyze the 32 parts of the body. Or the elements of the body: the warmth, which is the fire element; the motion in the body, which is the wind element; the cool and liquid sensations, the water element … 
  9. The Path of Giving
     … You direct your thoughts to the breath and evaluate the breath. Then there’s the consciousness of all these things. So you’re taking those raw materials that you use to make into a self and now you turn them into the path. That’s how you give yourself to the Dhamma. You disassemble your own sense of who you are and you reassemble … 
  10. Respect
     … Just try to focus, pay careful attention because we’re trying to get ourselves grounded in the body, grounded in the present moment right now, staying with the breath. Think of the breath not so much as the air coming in and out through the nose, but as the flow of energy in the body. Where do you feel that? Which direction does it … 
  11. Equanimity & Exertion
     … Like we’re doing right now here with the breath: You work with the breath. If it’s not comfortable, you can work with it and make it longer, shorter, faster, slower, deeper, more shallow. See what does feel comfortable right now. The breath itself is a fabrication. Your directed thought and evaluation—that’s a fabrication, too. And they have, as the Buddha … 
  12. Self View & Conceit
     … When you’re with the breath, you don’t leave the breath. It’s a matter of learning how to be with pleasure, sometimes very intense pleasure, and yet not focus on the pleasure itself. Keep your eye on the breath. Stay with the breath. It’s like that image the Buddha gives of the man walking through a crowd. He’s got a … 
  13. Of Past & Future
     … Focus your attention on the breath. The talk is here to be a fence to direct you back to the present moment, direct you back to the breath in case you wander off.” The reason I say that is because that’s how the Dhamma functions as a whole. It’s meant to point you back to your mind in the present moment, to … 
  14. Just Events
     … We work with the breath, but there will come times when the breath is not cooperative. Your heartbeat gets strange, and you try to breathe in a way that’s calming, but it doesn’t seem to have that much of an effect. This is when you have to reflect back on your awareness as being something separate from all this, and it can … 
  15. A Sense of Direction
     … You focus on the breath, allow the breath to be comfortable, think of that comfortable breath sensation then seeping throughout the whole body. And you work with it. If you find any areas that seem to be blocked, you do what you can to allow that sense of ease and well-being to seep through or seep around until it permeates everything in the … 
  16. Kill Your Anger
     … This is one of the reasons why we meditate so much on the breath, learning how to deal with tension in the breath, blockages in the breath. It gives us an alternative. All too often we see the only alternatives with anger is either you get it out of your system by saying something or doing something under the force of anger, or you … 
  17. Filling in the Buddha’s Outline
     … The ajaans often talk about taking a survey of your mind when you sit down and before you focus on the breath. In what direction is the mind headed? Is it sleepy? Is it drowsy? There are ways of counteracting that. If you find that a particular topic puts you to sleep, change the topic. If you’re focused on the breath, try changing … 
  18. What You’re Choosing to Do Right Now
     … what you’re doing with the breath, what you’re telling yourself about the breath, how you’re evaluating it, and how you want to change it. Even with the feelings in the body: There are some feelings that you focus on and other feelings you ignore. Then there’s the whole idea of breath energy going through the body—one of the properties … 
  19. When Aging Closes In
     … From the concentration, you learn how to nourish the body with the breath so that you can counteract at least to some extent the effects of aging, the effects of illness. Having the breath as an alternative place to put your awareness also puts the mind in a much better mood. When the mind is in a better mood, it doesn’t make the … 
  20. Treasure Island
     … You explore the breath. What way of breathing is refreshing in the body, strengthening the body? Explore, trying to develop a sense of ease, a sense of coolness. If you’re feeling oppressed by the heat, try to gladden your mind. What things would make you glad right now, things in line with the Dhamma? Could you get fascinated by the breath? You could … 
  21. Rebirth & Not-Self
     … You focus on the breath. There are lots of things in the aggregate of form you could focus on right now, but focus on the breath. Breathe in a way that gives rise to a feeling of pleasure. Now, you’ll be helped by using a perception. Think of the breath not just as air coming in and out through the nose—because after … 
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