Take a couple of good, long deep in-and-out breaths, and then try to
breathe in a way that feels good and refreshing for the body. If long
breathing doesn’t feel good, you could change the rhythm. Try to find
a rhythm and texture that feels right for you. Or ask yourself, “What
parts of the body need energizing? What parts of …
… You have your ways of shaping this experience and if you’re
not paying careful attention to what you’re doing, middle-level
management takes over—in other words, your old habits. You can find
yourself tensing up over a little pain here and there without even
realizing that it’s happening. It’s almost like somebody else is
giving the orders. Part of …
… middle, admirable in the end. But the best is saved for last.
In the beginning, you’re making a gamble. You don’t know if the
Buddha’s right or wrong about things like rebirth or karma. But you do
know that they’re good things to believe, in the sense that they
affirm your power to shape your life in a good way …
… That’s not a good way to live. A
much better way is to think of garbage pail as having a big hole in
the bottom, so that everything just goes right through, right through.
In other words, you know what people are saying, you know what they’re
doing, but you don’t take that as something to focus on. You keep
breathing …
… Starting in the middle of the chest right at the heart and
then going down through the stomach and the intestines. This is good
nourishment, because you don’t have to fight anybody for it. It’s
right there, it’s free, and it’s very immediate. When you get familiar
with the breath and the different ways of breathing, you find that you …
… for the protection of those within and to ward off those without; in the same way, the disciple of the noble ones has heard much, has retained what he has heard, has stored what he has heard. Whatever teachings are admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end, that—in their meaning & expression—proclaim the holy life that is entirely …
… That’s one way of thinking about death.
The other way is to realize that there are things you can do to
prepare. In other words, there are skillful and unskillful ways of
living, skillful and unskillful ways of dying. I’ve seen this in my
own life. I’ve seen two teachers of mine approach death, and I’ve also
seen my father …
… After all, the path is one that’s admirable in the beginning,
admirable in the middle, admirable in the end—admirable not just in
the sense that it’s noble, but also in the sense that it’s a good path
to follow. Even when you don’t get all the way to happiness, you
realize that being on this path is a good …
… But if you learn how to settle in here well in advance, you have a sense of how the awareness in the present moment can relate to the body in such a way that it doesn’t have to suffer from the issues in the body. That way, aging, illness, and death are not much of a problem. They’re simply issues of the …
… Keep reminding yourself that’s the way skills are. If this were a very
simple skill, the kind of skill where you could make steady progress,
it wouldn’t have such a deep impact on the mind. The mind is a very
complex phenomenon, so its progress, its growing mastery, is going to
be a complex process as well.
Ajaan Lee makes a comparison …
… Sometimes you want it to stop, but that’s like going out into the
middle of the highway: The cars are coming along, and you’re telling
them to stop. Of course, they’ll run over you. The wise thing to do
then is to get out of the way.
So that’s where the real problem is. It’s not with your eyes …
… Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathāgata—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding.
‘And what is the middle way realized by the Tathāgata that—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding? Precisely this noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech …
… So when you think in these ways, holding these perceptions in mind, you can develop a more and more genuine feeling of goodwill, a feeling that’s not threatened by the fact that other people are going to continue to act in sometimes really outrageous and horrible ways. Because when you see them acting in horrible ways, you’ve got to have compassion for …
… impact on the
breath—because that’s another way of adjusting the breath: simply
changing your perception of it.
Visualizing the body as a sponge is one perception that can be helpful
in opening up the breath energy. Or as Ajaan Fuang once recommended,
you can visualize a column of breath energy in the middle of the body,
from the head on down. Then …
… Try long
breathing, short breathing, or longer or shorter, or more middling,
deeper or more shallow. heavy or light or faster or slower. There are
lots of ways of experimenting with the breath, which not only makes it
more comfortable but also makes it more interesting to sit here. Here
it is, this energy in your body that keeps you alive. It has a …
… And in whatever way the Teacher or a fellow person leading the holy life teaches the Dhamma to the monk, in just that way the monk, with regard to that Dhamma, is sensitive to the meaning, is sensitive to the Dhamma. In him—sensitive to the meaning, sensitive to the Dhamma—joy is born. When he is joyful, rapture is born. In one who …
… That’s one way you have to look for a balance so that contentment and being unburdensome follow the middle way of moderation.
Another set of balancing qualities are contentment on the one hand, and shedding pride and being modest on the other. Some people like to make a show of how frugal they are. This, the Buddha said, is the danger of developing …
… You want to get to know the filtering process very well, so you can recognize when it’s filtering things in an accurate and useful way, and when it’s filtering them in a harmful way that gives rise to suffering.
So we focus on the breath not simply as a means for getting the mind to settle down and be still, but also …
… It basically lays things out, and in an honorable way.
As the Buddha said, it’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end. In other words, the words of the Dhamma are inspiring. The practice is a noble practice, one in which we engage in developing the noble qualities of our own minds. And the end result is total …
… You can look at the Buddha’s teachings as advice on how to
fabricate all these three kinds of fabrication in skillful ways.
He even gives you instructions on how to breathe: Breathe in a way
that makes you sensitive to rapture, sensitive to pleasure; breathe in
a way where you’re aware of the whole body; breathe in a way where you
gladden …
Beyond All Directions | Beyond All Directions
… for the protection of those within and to ward off those without; in the same way, the disciple of the noble ones has heard much, has retained what he has heard, has stored what he has heard. Whatever teachings are admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end, that—in their meaning & expression—proclaim the holy life that is entirely …
DN 34 Dasuttara Sutta | Progressing by Tens
… And in whatever way the Teacher or a fellow person leading the holy life teaches the Dhamma to the monk, in just that way the monk, with regard to that Dhamma, is sensitive to the meaning, is sensitive to the Dhamma. In him—sensitive to the meaning, sensitive to the Dhamma—joy is born. When he is joyful, rapture is born. In one who …
