Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Refreshing Breathing

"Think of your experience of the body as being primarily energy. It’s not the case that you’re trying to pump the breath energy into a solid body. It’s more like allowing the breath to flow freely into the energy already there without any clear dividing line between the two. When you hold that perception in mind, it gives rise to a floating feeling in the body. See if you can maintain the position of your focus on that perception, on that feeling of lightness, buoyancy. This is what gives flavor to that intention, so that it tastes good and is good for you. This is one of the ways in which you can give rise to a sense of rapture or refreshment in the breathing, as in that verse in the Dhammapada: “We feed on rapture like the radiant devas.” This is food for meditators." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Like an Athlete in Training"

"The breath is always here. When you’re at ease with your breath, when you feel comfortable with your breath, you’ve got a good foundation. That’s where you can take your stance. Then when you respond to things, you’re coming from a solid position. Your response is more precise, more on target. So try to practice keep coming back to the breath, back to the breath because this is a foundation you’ve got to build." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Taking a Stance" (Meditations3)

 "Breathe through your discomfort and dissolve it away. Let the breath create physical feelings of ease and fullness, and allow those feelings to saturate your whole body. This physical ease helps put the mind at ease as well. When you’re operating from a sense of ease, it’s easier to fabricate skillful perceptions as you evaluate your response to the issue with which you’re faced." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Head & Heart Together: Bringing Wisdom to the Brahmavihāras"

"One of the instructions in breath meditation is to learn how to breathe in and out in a way that makes you sensitive to rapture, makes you sensitive to pleasure in the body. Now, it takes a while to figure out how to do that. Part of it has to do with the way you breathe, part of it has to do with how you focus your mind. But it’s a skill you can figure out. Part of the problem, of course, is with that word, “rapture.” It sounds like Saint Teresa going into ecstasies. And sometimes there is a very strong sense of thrill that goes through the body. But what the Buddha’s having you focus on more is the sense of refreshment. You breathe in the way that feels refreshing: It refreshes your torso, refreshes all the different parts of the body where you can feel the breathing process. It starts out very gently, just a sense that things feel okay; they feel like they’ve settled in where they belong. But if you give this sense of “okay” some space, give it some time, it’ll g

"The ability to talk to yourself skillfully can be strengthened by a different kind of feeling: not emotions, but feelings of pleasure. The mind doesn’t operate totally on its understanding of things. Feelings of pleasure and pain do play a role in the way we act, the way we think. This is one of the reasons why we try to give rise to feelings of well-being within ourselves, through the breath, through the meditation: so that we can gain a sense of nourishment, a sense of inner contentment. That sense of inner contentment makes it a lot easier to look at things we have to look at but don’t like to look at, or to do things we have to do that we ordinarily don’t like to do, or to act in harmless and kind ways toward people we don’t ordinarily like. When the mind is feeling hungry, when it feels a lack of pleasure, it will look for pleasure anywhere. Sometimes it takes pleasure in getting revenge on others, or doing things that we know are really unskillful, or in prete

"So we try to give the mind something better to feed on: a sense of well-being inside, the sense of well-being that comes as you learn to adjust the breath, settle down into the breath, make friends with the breath, learn to savor the breath the same way you would good food or good music. What does this flow of energy feel like as it comes through the body? What kind of flow would the body like to feel right now? Do you know? Can you tell? Most of us live within the body for how many years, and we don’t know what kind of breathing the body would like to do, what would feel good for the body to do right now. So take some time to explore, to get acquainted with it. As you develop this inner sense of well-being and stability, you find that the mind would much rather feed here than outside." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "New Feeding Habits for the Mind"

"There’s plenty to explore here. A lot of people find breathing a very dull thing to watch. They think it’s just in and out, in and out, and that seems to be about it. But if you realize that this element of perception influences the breath, and that feelings influence the breath, and that the breath influences your perceptions, and feelings, you’ve got some interesting interconnections to explore to understand the way you experience your own body and mind, and to understand how that experience affects other parts of your life. That’s something you want to keep in mind. But if it’s too much to keep in mind at the moment, go back to just staying with the breath energy, and holding in mind the perception of the breath energy as something that flows easily in, flows easily out. It’s soothing. Refreshing. Energizing. And as you find it easier and easier to stay there, to keep that in mind, you can start adding the other elements: exploring other ways that you can shape t

"You stay with the body as much as you can. Try to make the sense of the breath as refreshing as you can. You don’t want to have just a sense of equanimity as you go through life. You want to have a sense of positive enjoyment in how it feels to have a body. One of the reasons you work with the breath is so that you feel comfortable inside your body. No matter what the world outside may say about your body, you’re perfectly fine with it inside. That way, you’ve got a friend inside. You’ve got a sense of well-being so that you’re not so hungry to go outside and look for something to snatch and grab and chew on outside. So as you’re meditating, realize that having a sense of fullness, having a sense of rapture, is a necessary part of the practice. Try to develop it as much as you can while you’re sitting. Then try to carry that through the day as your food. It’s like your lunch bag for the day. When you have the sense of feeling comfortable inside yourself, you’re less

"For bodily serenity, you work with the breath. Remember the Buddha’s instructions that once you’re aware of long breathing and short breathing, try to make yourself aware of the whole body and then notice the effect that the breath is having on the body. Then try to make that effect more serene, make it more refined. Try to breathe in a way that’s gentle to the body. This helps to calm things down within the body. All the different processes calm down. Whatever tightness you may feel here or there in the body: Think of it dissolving away. If there’s a sense that the breathing requires a lot of effort, just remind yourself: The breath is going to come in and out on its own. There are pores all over your body. You don’t have to pull it in or push it out. The breath will come in naturally, go out naturally. Any perception you can hold in mind that helps to make the breath easier: Experiment to see what way of picturing the breath to yourself helps to make the process of

"It’s important to think of the breath energy in the body as giving off a kind of radiation, a protective field to prevent those other negative energies from coming in to affect you. If you just leave yourself wide open, you pick up negative things from other people. So you’ve got to be careful. This is when you need a kind of barrier around you, a protective energy barrier, the breath flowing throughout the whole body like this does provide that. Just be alert to that potential, learn how to maintain it. As you do this, you find another effect happening as well: your energy becomes a more positive influence on other people. The way people react to you will change, the influence you have on other people will become a better influence. And you begin to see that the effort put into maintaining this inner sense of openness and well-being while you’re doing other things is not simply adding one more task onto all the other tasks you’ve got in the world. It actually simpl

"If you give a lot of attention to the breath, you begin to see its potentials and can take advantage of them. You find that a sense of ease and well-being with the breath can do a lot more for you than any amount of status, material gain, praise, outside pleasures — any of the ways of the world. A sense of ease and well-being that come from within: This is really all you need because it fully nourishes the mind right now." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Less is More" (Meditations6)

"We’re not here simply to see things as they are. One — because we’re here to see things as they work . How cause and effect work. And two — we’re seeing these things so that we can be more discerning in knowing which forms of happiness and pleasure really are satisfying. After all, nibbāna is the ultimate pleasure — the ultimate happiness, the ultimate sukha: bliss, happiness, well-being. You get to appreciate it first by learning how to appreciate what feels good right here, right now, in the body. So try to develop your sensitivity here. Learn how to savor what’s pleasurable here, because that sensitivity will reorient you, give you new ideas about what happiness is, what well-being is — and what’s needed to find it. It also opens you up to the potentials you have right here. Think about all the skills the Buddha found in his meditation, leading at last to the ultimate skill, which is the ending of the effluents. How are you going to know what an effluent is unle

"So think of the breath as your safe place, as your safe haven. And work on making it a comfortable place to stay, because it is yours. The thoughts that come through your mind: You’ve picked up language from this culture, all different kinds of culture sometimes. Even the words going through your mind are words you’ve borrowed from other people. But your sensation of the breath: That’s yours. So allow that to be comfortable. That way you have a good bulwark against all the forces of the world and the forces of your own emotions. At the same time, you learn how to step back from it. You’re not entirely involved in an emotion. That weakens it so that it doesn’t take over. This is what the Buddha means by finding refuge. We develop his qualities inside our own mind. He was a person of mindfulness and alertness, so try to be mindful to keep the breath in mind and be alert to stay with the breath. And just as he found a refuge inside himself, you’ll be able to find a refuge inside you

"Ajaan Lee often taught that the breath is your best home base; the other topics are like tools you bring in when you need to work on specific issues. But you always need the breath as your default mode, as the home to which you return. And having a safe place like this, a sense of being strong and having this as your territory: That makes you safe to other people as well, because when your actions come from a sense of strength, you don’t lash out. You don’t react in fearful ways. You know you’ve got your home here, and nobody can take it from you." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "At Home with the Breath"

"If you’re sitting here, and the breath feels really good coming in, really good going out, all kinds of other things can happen in the world and you don’t feel affected. You feel a sense of well-being that comes from within that’s not touched by those things. As Ajaan Lee says, they can come and curse your mother, and it doesn’t really affect you. You don’t get angry. It’s as if the mind is well fed. If you’re hungry and tired, people can say even the slightest thing that’s critical, and you lash out. But if you’re feeling well fed and in a good mood, you can take the criticism and actually laugh along with them, actually agree with them: “Yeah, that’s right.” Then maybe you can do something about what you’ve been doing wrong. This is why it’s good to have the breath as an ally. When feelings of greed or anger come welling up from the mind, instead of feeling that restraint bottles them in, you can think of allowing whatever pressure you feel in the body as a result of the emoti

"All too often, when you’re really tired or stressed out, you say to yourself that the pleasure that comes from the lust is really worth it; it’s something you really need; you want your quick fix. But if you can take a few minutes to stop and just breathe in a way that’s really refreshing, really nourishing, you give yourself some relief, you give yourself some strength, you give yourself some food, and then that enables you to say to yourself, “Actually, I don’t really need that other kind of pleasure after all.” This is why ardency in developing concentration can be your first-line protection against lust. As the Buddha said, you can know all the drawbacks of sensuality but if you don’t have an alternative form of pleasure, all that knowledge is worthless. So ardency here also has to develop concentration, a sense of non-sensual well-being, working with the breath." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Protection Through Mindfulness Practice" (Meditations8)

"So try to stay alert. As soon as there’s a sense of pleasure, try to be aware of the whole body, letting the pleasure seep through the body, and keep that awareness going. You’ll find that it’s not as easy as it sounds because the mind has a habitual tendency to shrink. Keep reminding yourself: “Whole body breathing in, whole body breathing out.” And the amount of mindfulness and alertness that are required to keep that whole body awareness going will keep you awake, keep you alert as long as you maintain them. This is one very immediate, very visceral way of showing goodwill to yourself, providing yourself with a sense of pleasure and ease." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Mature Strategies" (Meditations2)

"So spreading thoughts of unlimited goodwill [mettā] help in this direction is a way of preparing you to settle down with the breath. Then actually being with the breath is a very good way of showing goodwill for yourself right now. There’s enough suffering in life. You don’t have to compound it by breathing in a way that’s harsh, uncomfortable, or unhealthy. So you look at the breath and see how it’s affecting the body in different parts: where the breath energy seems comfortable, where it seems strained, what you can do to make it comfortable throughout, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out, and all the way through all the different parts of the body. You start seeing which part of the breath cycle you push too much: Are you squeezing out breath energy too much as you breathe out? Are you making the breath too long as you breathe in? Notice how you relate to the different parts of the cycle. Notice also how you relate to the different parts of the body

"You look in the texts and you see that breath meditation and the development of the goodwill, the brahmavihāras, are listed as separate techniques, but in practice they really come together. In the process of working with the breath, you’re learning lessons in how to make yourself happy, how to develop a sense of pleasure within. Once you have that sense of pleasure, that sense of well-being, then it’s a lot easier to spread thoughts of goodwill [mettā] in an unlimited way. Because if you’re feeling put upon, feeling simply the desire to run away, it’s hard to wish happiness for anybody, much less happiness for all living beings unconditionally. Once you develop the sense of pleasure, the lessons in happiness that you can learn from the breath are that, one, you understand what happiness is all about, and, two, you’ve got it. You’re in a position where you want to share. You also understand what you’re doing when you wish happiness for other beings. You wish that they, too, cou

"So we respect concentration, one, by respecting it in theory, reminding ourselves that it’s something we’ve got to do. And two, while you’re doing it, you want to give yourself to it fully. Don’t hold anything back. Immerse yourself in your object. Here we’re working with the breath. When we say to focus on the breath, it’s an unfortunate image. It gives the impression that your mind is like a camera, and you’re going to focus the lens of the camera on something outside of the camera. It’d be better to say, “Wear the breath. Put it on, wear it. Think of it being all around you.” And you want to develop an all-around awareness as well. So you don’t hold anything back. If you hold anything back, you’re off to the side. Be in the middle. When you hold things back, there are big blind spots in the mind. Those blind spots are ignorance, and it’s precisely because of the ignorance that we suffer. So as you begin to settle down and the breath begins to feel good, allow yourself to plun

"You really do have the freedom to breathe in many different ways, you know. Take advantage of that freedom, take advantage of that potential for adjusting your experience of the present moment. Choose to breathe in more comfortable ways. It’s amazing how much a simple change in the way you breathe can put a whole new cast on things. So we work with this. We work with this object that’s right in front of us. It’s our basic exercise in beginning to answer that question about skill and lack of skill. As you work with the breath, you begin to get more sensitive to the mind as well. You begin to see which qualities of the mind are helpful in breathing skillfully and which are not." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Questions in the Practice"

"The whole body is involved in this quality of breath, breathing, energy flow. The body is wired in such a way that it can actually pick up energy from within itself, one part feeding another. The energy doesn't have to come in with the air. In fact, the air coming in and out is simply a byproduct of the energy flow in the body. Try holding that perception in mind and see what it does for the breathing. See which parts of the body's energy can feed the parts that feel starved. If that gets too complicated, just get back to directing your thoughts to the in-and-out breath, evaluating the in-and-out breath, and leave it at that." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Uses of Fear" (Meditations5)

"Learning how to make [the breath] comfortable is one of the tricks in learning how to maintain [your focus], because the mind is always looking for food. What we’re doing as we’re meditating is giving it good food to eat. The sense of comfort that comes with being familiar with the breath helps get the mind more and more inclined to keep coming back. It’s like feeding a stray dog. If you give it good food, it’s going to come back. The mind has a tendency to stray, but as long as you feed it well, it’ll learn more and more that this is a good place to be, a really good place to feed. You can think of the meditation techniques as cooking techniques — you’re learning how to feed yourself well." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Doing, Maintaining, Using"

"You’re perfectly free to breathe in any way you like, perfectly free to try deep breathing, say, for a while, to see if it feels really good. There’s nobody out there to say, “Well, you failed that test, or you are not right, this is not as comfortable as it could be.” You’re the one who is gauging the results, and it’s up to you to decide what feels good over the long term. Sometimes you’ll find the rhythm of the breathing will change, as your physical condition changes, as the mind begins to settle down. Other times you’ll find there is a fairly steady rate that feels good, and all you have to do is stay with that steady rate. But it is entirely up to you. After all, this is a time for the mind to look after itself, and so it has the freedom to decide what to do with the breath." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Our Primary Responsibility"

"The breath, the Buddha said, is the most refreshing form of meditation. He compared it to the first rain storm of the rainy season. If you’ve ever been in Asia during the hot season, you know what it’s like when the first rains come. There’s been dust in the air for months and months, along with the oppressiveness of the heat. All of a sudden the rain comes and washes everything, cools everything off. The air is suddenly clear like it hasn’t been for months. That’s the image the Buddha gives for breath meditation. When the breath is refreshing, it'll wash away all unskillful states." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Undirected Insight"

"We have certain preconceived notions of how the breath comes into the body, what we have to do in order to bring it into the body, how the process of breathing relates to the different parts of the body, and then we breathe in line with that. And many times it’s a caricature of what’s actually going on. So we have to learn to look at the process in other ways. Consciously change the way you conceive of your breathing; see what happens. At the very least it’ll give you a good insight into the relationship between mental events and physical events. It’s not always the case that the mind is just reacting to its experiences. Sometimes it’s shaping its experiences, too. If we don’t get a sense of how we shape things, we never really get a chance to look into the mind. For starters there’s the concept of the breath not as the air coming in and out of the lungs but the energy flow in the body. Some people have problems with this; others have no problems at all. But allow yourself to thi

"Learn to open your mind to other ways of conceiving and perceiving the breath. Ajaan Lee talks about the breath coming in and out of the back of the skull, in and out the middle of the chest, lots of different spots in the body. Allow yourself to conceive the breath in that way and see what happens to your experience of breathing as you do that. Then you find that it expands your sense of the energy in the body and your repertoire of what you can do with the energy — because you find, when there are aches and pains in the body, that conceiving of the breath in a particular way will help. Sometimes you can think of the breath coming in and out of the body right there at the ache and the pain, so that you don’t have to create extra tensions trying to pull it in or push it out. It’s right there readily available, anywhere you want it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Power to Transcend Suffering"

"To begin with, it’s distinctive that [Ajaan Lee] taught that we can play with the breath, to try different kinds of breathing as a way of providing the mind a good place to settle down. Before I had encountered his teachings, I had always been told that you don’t adjust the breath. Just leave it as it is and then don’t do anything to it at all. I found it very boring and had difficulty staying with the breath as a result. Then when I encountered his teaching that you could adjust the breath, it felt liberating — especially when it relates to the second point, which is that we’re not just watching the in-and-out breath, but we’re also looking at the breath energies in the body. At first, I found the concept of breath energies strange but intriguing." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Ajaan Lee's Teachings"

"The way you manipulate the energy in your body is going to determine how you identify yourself, along with sense of the world you inhabit. If the energy in your body’s really uncomfortable, whatever world you’ve got out there is going to feel confining. But if you can breathe through it, you can learn to walk through those uncomfortable worlds, dissolve them away." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Close to What You Know"

"In addition to the worlds we intentionally carry around, there are also lots of unintentional ones that come blowing through our minds. Those come because of the force of our old actions. As those storms come blowing through, sometimes the best thing you can do is simply hold onto the breath. Just as you would batten down for a storm, you just lie low and try to hold tight to the breath for dear life as the winds blow through. You hang onto the breath as tenaciously as you can. Even though it doesn’t fill your awareness, it at least gives you a corner where you’re still in the context of the present moment." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Worlds" (Meditations2)