Search results for: "The Breath"

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  2. Clinging to Karmic Diarrhea
     … If it’s the breath, what kind of breathing do you like? Where do you like to focus on the breath? What kind of perception of the breath helps you settle down? This is something you have to evaluate for yourself. If not the breath, then what other topic do you find engaging? It’s important that you find something you like and that … 
  3. Recollection of Hell
     … focusing on the breath. That’s a form, one of the elements of form. You direct your thoughts to the breath and evaluate the breath: That’s a type of fabrication. You hold the perception of breath in mind, all this so you can create a sense of feeling that’s pleasant, easeful. You want to spread that throughout the body. Then you’ve … 
  4. Values
    When you focus on the breath and try to stay focused on the breath, it’s partly a matter of technique and partly a matter of your values. The technique can be explained in just a few pages—Ajaan Lee’s seven steps take just two or three pages. And they cover a lot of the territory in the technique: focusing on the breath … 
  5. Desire Is Part of the Path
     … being able to find some pleasure with the breath, to find a sense of refreshment with the breath that strengthens your mind, strengthens the ability to stay here and stick with the path. It’s good for the body, good for the mind. Even if you’re not planning to gain awakening, it’s a good skill to develop because it helps get your … 
  6. A Unified Committee
     … One part is devoted to the breath right now, other parts have nothing to do, so they start wandering off to the past, wandering off to the future, because that’s what they normally do. And when you won’t let them go wandering off as they normally do, they can create trouble. So you’ve got to find some way of getting everybody … 
  7. Character
    As we practice keeping the breath in mind, we bring three qualities to the practice. The first is mindfulness, which is the ability to keep something in mind. In this case, you’re remembering to stay with the breath. And you’re also remembering the lessons you’ve learned from your past meditations—things that worked, things that didn’t work—so that when … 
  8. The Gift of Meditation
     … So what are you doing as you calm the mind down? Often we talk about working with the breath, but sometimes you have to just let the breath go. It’s going to do whatever it’s going to do. You find a spot where you feel safe and secure, and just hold out there for a while and watch. Because it’s only … 
  9. Maintenance Work
     … Think about the breath and be aware of the sensation of the breathing. See? It’s not all that hard. Just doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is the maintaining: keeping it there. That’s because the mind isn’t used to staying in position, just as the body isn’t used to staying in position. But the mind tends … 
  10. The Taste Is Release
     … Think of the breath as surrounding you. We talk about watching the breath, which sometimes is unfortunate. It can give the impression that you’re in one part of the body, right behind your eyes, and you’re watching the breath someplace else, in another part of the body. So remind yourself: There’s breath in your eyes right now, too. If you can … 
  11. The Four Frames of Reference
     … Get back simply to the sensation of the breathing, right here, right now. How does it feel when you breathe in? How does it feel when you breathe out? We have certain preconceived notions about where the breath comes in, how it comes in, how it goes out. But allow yourself to put those notions aside and explore just the actual sensation of breathing … 
  12. All for the Sake of Freedom
     … This is the territory you’re going to try to inhabit right now—the body as you feel it from within—focusing particularly on the breath energy as it flows in the body. When you breathe in, where do you feel the breath? What does the breath feel like? Here we’re not talking just about just the air coming in and out of … 
  13. Cutting the Fetters
     … You’ve got the breath, which is form. You’ve got the feeling of pleasure that goes with the breath: That’s feeling. You’ve got the perception that holds you with the breath — how you visualize the breath coming in and going out, where it goes in the body, how it goes in the body, which sensations in the body can be labeled … 
  14. Together but Separate
     … You’re aware of the breath in a way that gives rise to a feeling of pleasure. If you can’t get the whole body pleasant, you try to get at least part of the body pleasant. Find which part of the body responds to the way you breathe, is sensitive to the way you breathe. For a lot of people, it’s down … 
  15. Take Care
     … Be very careful to stay with the breath. Be very careful to notice even the slightest hint that the mind is going to wander off. Catch it and come right back. The more sensitive you are to that potential, the more solid your concentration’s going to be. The more solid your concentration, the more you can see. The two go together. So, as … 
  16. A Multilingual Mind
     … This is why we start with the breath. What kind of breathing is skillful breathing? What kind of breathing is unskillful breathing? What kinds of perceptions are skillful, what kinds are unskillful? The breath and the questions about the breath are all elements in the process of fabrication. When you’re talking to yourself as you meditate, what kind of talking is skillful, what … 
  17. The Meaning of Insight
     … The primary choice will be whether to stay with the breath. You made up your mind at the beginning of the session that that’s what you’re going to do. See what happens when you stick with that decision. Each time the question comes up and there’s a little stirring of a thought in the mind, choose to come back to the … 
  18. The Need for Right View
    As you focus in on the breath and try to stay with the breath, you’ll notice that there’s a commentary going on in the background. It might be as simple as the reminder: “Stay with the breath. Stay with the breath.” Or it may be more elaborate. And as much as we’d like to think that there’s a simple, pure … 
  19. Feeding your Attack Dogs
     … So prepare yourself for the fact that the mind is going to leave the breath. There will be a lot of vagrant intentions that don’t fall in line with the initial intention, which was to stay here with the breathing, to try to stay concentrated all through the hour. You’ve got to watch out for the present karma of when you decide … 
  20. Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom
     … Learn to think about the breath in a way that makes it easier to breath. For example, you can try holding in mind the perception that your body is like a big sponge, and the breath is coming in and out every pore of the skin. Think of the breath as an energy field that fills the body, and see what that does to … 
  21. Goodwill & Kamma
     … And so it’s the intention there that’s important, the intention to pay attention to the breath continuously, that keeps that feeling going. Two, the Buddha’s also reminding you that you don’t switch your attention away from the breath to focus in on the feeling. If you do, everything gets very blurred. Either you lose your concentration or you goes into … 
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