Think back to when you’ve been in a good mood: nothing really exciting, but just a basic okay sense of well-being. Tune back into the feeling of how the breath was like then; it’s there. Allow the breath that same sense of ease.

"So allow the breath to be in a state of normalcy. Think back to when you’ve been in a good mood: nothing really exciting, but just a basic okay sense of well-being. What was your breath like then? What was the visceral feel of that mood? You can try to tune back into that feeling; it’s there. Tune back in to the way the breath felt at that point and allow it to have that same sense of ease. Then notice where the other areas of ease are, here and there in the body, that you tend to overlook. Where are they? Can you connect them to the sense of ease you’ve developed around the breathing? Try to keep them connected, both in space and in time.

In other words, allow the different parts of the body that feel at ease to connect right here in the present moment and then maintain that sense of connected well-being, based on the breath, as continuously as you can. At first it may not seem like anything special. But if you allow it to stay connected, if you don’t interfere with it and don’t jump away from it, you’ll find that it grows stronger and stronger. You develop a real sense of fullness. You just sit here breathing in and out, and there’s nothing else you need to do to feel content, nothing else the mind would want, simply because you’ve learned how to change the way you look at things.

Then the skill lies in maintaining that state: keeping the sense of awareness, keeping the sense of well-being filling the body as much as possible, and then maintaining contact with that state, allowing it to grow, allowing it to develop. Don’t jump away from it, thinking, “Well, this can take care of itself. I wonder what *that’s* like over there. I wonder what *this* is like over here.” This is not yet the time to follow those thoughts, for the sense of well-being can’t take care of itself. This is the time to develop your ability to stay centered in well-being and allow it to fill the body."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Seeing the Stillness"

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