Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Refreshing Breathing

"There’s nobody forcing you to breathe in an uncomfortable way, or in a way that puts yourself to sleep, or in a way that gets you anxious and on edge. And yet we allow these things to happen because we’re distracted, often about things that are really none of our business. But the breath is something that really is your responsibility. Nobody else can breathe for you. And nobody else can tell you what kind of breathing is going to be comfortable. You have to pay attention yourself. So this is another area where you really are responsible. And it does have a huge impact. If the mind has a sense of inner well-being, you’re operating from a position of strength. You don’t have to be a slave to things outside. You don’t have to let the mind be shaken by things outside. You have a different source for happiness that comes from within. You’re coming from a position of strength, which means that you’re in a better position to act in skillful ways." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Wisdom...

"So notice, when you breathe long right now, is it pleasant? If it’s not, you can change. Make it shorter or in long, out short; in short, out long. From there you can extrapolate — heavy, light, fast, slow, deep, shallow. Then as the body gets energized by the breath, you want to spread your awareness to fill the whole body, because you want that sense of energy to suffuse the body along with this sense of pleasure. Then, when everything feels nicely energized by the breath, the breath energy in the body feels full, you can allow the breath to calm down." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Psychology of Harmlessness"

"You can stay with the breath. Each breath coming in, going out, is a new breath. Maybe your last breath was uncomfortable but the next one doesn’t have to be. Think of the breath going throughout the body, surrounding the body. There’s a breath energy that surrounds the body, and sometimes you can sense it when you get really still and the mind gets really sensitive. That kind of breath energy can get tensed up, too, even though it doesn’t have anything directly to do with the muscles. It can be tense; it can be tight. There may be major gaps there. So you work with them. Get a sense of energy that surrounds the body, suffuses the body, that feels good, feels comforting, feels soothing. You can focus on that. You don’t have to focus on the pains." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Light Merit"

"You may create a particular feeling through the breath. You can focus on a point someplace around the middle of the chest and find a quality of feeling there that feels nice. You try to maintain that niceness, that pleasant feeling, so that nothing in the in-breath and nothing in the out-breath touches it or disturbs it. This is where the Buddha’s image of holding a baby chick in your hand comes in handy. You gently hold that nice feeling all way through the in-breath, and all the way through the out-breath, adjusting your breathing so that it doesn’t disturb the feeling." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Power of Perception"

"Find some way to get interested in the breath. It helps gladden the mind to remember that it’s working on something worthwhile. I found it really helpful when I first got into breath meditation to work with the breath energy at a sore or injured spot. It gave a sense that I was doing something positive and constructive. I could really see some results. You can think of the breath as a healing process or a rejuvenating process. Ajaan Lee noted that as people get older, the out-breath gets longer than the in-breath, and the energy level of the breathing goes down. You might consciously try to fight aging by doing longer in-breaths and shorter out-breaths to see if the breath can have a rejuvenating influence on the body. Whatever technique you find that gives more energy to your practice is helpful. Ajaan Fuang once said, “You have to be really crazy about this to do it well.” Otherwise, you might not be paying close attention when things seem to be going okay, and then “okay” be...

"This is a practice where you’re making the Buddha’s instructions your own meditation. He gives you the basic outlines for your own exploration. He tells you to breathe in and out in a way that’s conducive to feelings of refreshment, and why you do that. You ask yourself, where’s the potential for refreshment in here? Look. Listen. He tells you to breathe in ways that give rise to a sense of ease. Again, look, listen: Where’s the potential here? When there’s a sense of ease, he says to think of it spreading throughout the whole body. One of the images he gives is of a bathman. In those days, they didn’t use bars of soap. They would take soap powder and mix it with water and you’d get a kind of dough, like the dough we make bread out of. You have to mix the water and the powder until the water moistens every bit of the dough. In the same way, you want the pleasure to moisten and refresh every part of your body. How do you do that? Ajaan Lee gives some ideas. Think of the breath ene...

"Take a deep breath. Take a couple of deep breaths. Get a sense of the energy in your body: the energy of the breathing and whatever other energy there may be there. Think of everything being coordinated, everything getting along. Each breath as it comes in mingles harmoniously with the breath energy already there. You can focus your attention on any one spot in the body that seems convenient or you can focus on the body as a whole right from the start. The choice is yours. What’s important is that you allow the breath to be a good place to stay, a comfortable place to stay. If the body seems tired or weak, think of breathing in a way that’s more energizing. If you’re tense, think of a way of breathing that’s more relaxing. If your mind feels scattered, think of everything coming together: a sense of unity right here. What you’re trying to do is to create a place where the mind can settle down and just watch what’s going on in as balanced and impartial a way as possible." ~ T...

"Sometimes you feel difficulty in breathing. This is a problem of perception. If you think of the breath wanting to come into the body and that it can come in from any direction at all, then you’ll find that the breathing goes much easier. Also, the breathing feels easier when you think of yourself as being in the middle of the breath, being bathed by the breath, rather than off to one side or behind it. You can also change your mental image as to where the breath enters the body. If you find after a while that your shoulders or your chest are getting tired, think of the breath coming in someplace else besides the nose: for example, from the back." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Issues with the Breath"

"You can experiment, say, emphasizing the out-breath. Without paying much attention to the in-breath, be more careful to breathe out, to get all the unhealthy air out of your lungs: See what holding that idea of the breath in mind does. Or you can experiment the other way around. See what works best right now." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Use of the Present" (Meditations9)

"Pay special attention to the in-breath, because that’s the energizing breath. The in-breath is something you do. The out-breath is something you should learn how not to squeeze out. You do the in-breathing; the body will allow the breath back out again at its own pace. Then when you feel the need to breathe in again, then breathe in." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Savor Your Breath" (Meditations11)

"As you get more and more sensitive to the breath, you find that you develop the sensitivity you need to dig deeper into the heart. At the same time, it gives you a sense of exactly how much suffering you’re unnecessarily causing yourself even just by the way you breathe, something we do every day: breathe in, breathe out. Again, it’s just one of those things that’s part of life, but if you turn your attention to the breath and really focus on it, you begin to realize that there are comfortable breaths and uncomfortable breaths. And why on earth would you want to breathe an uncomfortable breath? Nobody’s forcing you. It’s just something you take for granted. But once someone points out, “Hey, you can breathe in a lot more comfortable ways,” you can start exploring that. And as you explore it, you become more sensitive to whole areas of your being in the present moment that you tended to cover up before, tended to ignore. So this simple technique we have of just being with the bre...

"Just the way you breathe, sitting here focusing on your breath, makes a difference in the mind’s sense of well-being. And it’s potentially always there. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a mood that takes a while to get back there, but it’s there. The more quickly you can tap into this sense of well-being, the easier it is to deal with unpleasant things coming up inside. You find that you can breathe right through them. And it helps to alleviate that pressure that you sometimes feel, that you’ve just got to get it out of your system by saying something nasty to someone else, or saying something hurtful, or whatever. The old attitude that “As long as I’m suffering, I might as well make everyone else suffer” — you realize that it doesn’t accomplish anything at all. It just makes things worse. So when the pressure builds up inside, you can tell yourself, “I can just breathe through it, allow it to dissipate.” This gives you an immediate handle that this conviction is som...

"Just be right here, be aware right here, be comfortable right here, and the fullness of your awareness will develop over time without your having to plan ahead, without your having to pace yourself. Give yourself fully right now. If you give yourself fully right now and if it grows fuller in the course of time, fine. If not, you’ve done everything you can, so there’s no need to worry about it. You don’t have to ask yourself where you are in the grand arc of the hour. You don’t have to save yourself for the last lap. It’s not like being a runner who has to pace himself. You give yourself fully to the breath right now, right now, and don’t have to worry about what you’re going to have left at the end of the hour. The full-giving right now is what’s going to see you through the hour. So, as you’re meditating here, there’s just this one thing: this breath. That’s all you need to know." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Just This Breath"

"Less is more. Just the breath. Just the breath. You don’t need anything else. 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)

"So ask yourself: What really feels good when you’re breathing right now? If you can’t figure out what really feels good, hold your breath for a while until the mind comes to the point where it’s screaming at you: “Breathe! You’ve got to breathe!” Then, when you breathe, notice what feels really good as you breathe in. Take that as a guide." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Start Out Small" (Meditations2)

"So one of the purposes of breath meditation is to soothe things. In one of the Buddha’s analogies, he said when there are unskillful states of the mind, working with the breath and soothing the body with the breath is like the first rains after the hot season. If you’ve ever been in India at the end of the hot season, you know that everything’s really dusty. When the first rains come, they clear all that dust out of the air. It’s the same with the breath, when the breath feels good, and you’re with a sense of ease and refreshment, and you allow it to percolate through the body. Whatever unskillful notions or impulses that the mind might normally feed on just get washed out of the mind like so much dust. When you’re in this state — secure, at ease — you can look at the petty concerns you have from the day and you actually see them as petty. They seem a lot smaller from this perspective than they do when you’re in the midst of them. This allows you to step back and have some freedo...

"One of the most powerful elements of fear is your unwillingness to think of what you can do. You don’t even want to think of the situation. But if you actually sit down and think about it patiently, step by step, you realize you can handle it. You might have to muddle through, and things might get difficult, but you can handle it. And as you’re thinking this, it’s helpful to have the breath coming in, going out really comfortably. So learn how to use the breath, reclaim your breath. Get in touch with your inner adult and fortify the inner adult with what you now know about the breathing. That’ll change the balance of power in the mind." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Nurturing Your Inner Adult" (Meditations7)

"Where do you feel the energy of the breathing? Sometimes it’s at the nose, but sometimes it’s not. It’s more down in the chest and the abdomen. And if the diaphragm expands, it’s not just the diaphragm. Other parts of the body move as well. So, notice where you sense the breathing most clearly and focus your attention there. Try not to tense up around that spot. Allow it to feel comfortable as your breathe in, comfortable as you breathe out. Think of it as a porous sensation. The edges aren’t too well defined. If you define the edges very tightly and very precisely, it means you’re probably tensing up around it. It’s important that you be comfortable with the sensation of breathing." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Sowing Good Seeds"

"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...

"You’ve got to keep the focus right here, right now. Each breath. How you’re shaping each breath right now: Be sensitive to that, so that each breath becomes your goal, in and of itself. And try to find the most delicious breath, the most comfortable breath, the most gratifying breath, not because you’re going to keep it and put away in storage, but because the process of looking for these things is what clears up your ignorance." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Between You and Your Eyes"

"One of the most important principles in meditating on the breath is learning how to experiment with it. Try different kinds of breathing to see which rhythm, which texture of breathing feels best for the body right now, and which is also best for the mind. Some ways of breathing can put you to sleep, other ways of breathing get you irritated, so you want to check and see what kind of breathing is going to make it easiest for the mind to settle down in a state of mindful alertness and want to stay there. If the body is uncomfortable because of the way you breathe, you’re not taking advantage of the fact that the breath can make it comfortable." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Experimental Intelligence" (Meditations4)

"You learn as you focus on the breath that there are different ways of perceiving the breath. You can perceive it simply as air coming in and out of the lungs, and the lungs are kind of like a big bellows. You suck the air in and you force the air out. That’s one perception of breathing. But then you can perceive the breath as an energy field that picks up energy not only in the lung area but also anywhere in the body. The whole nervous system gets involved in the breathing process. And if you hold that perception in mind for a while, you begin to see that it really does work that way. This provides a much more comfortable way of breathing, less constricted, less forceful, and more nourishing for the body. This too makes you more sensitive to the role of perception." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Enlightenment is Not a Hot Dog"

"Take, for instance, your sense of the body right here, right now. Buried deep down inside in many of us is the idea that we’re sitting here with a solid body that has liquid coursing through it, and then the breath comes in and out certain parts of it, through openings in the solid parts, but our primary experience of the body is its solidity. Try turning that perception around. Think of your basic experience of the whole body as breath: either in-and-out breathing or the breath flowing through the blood vessels, through the nerves. After all, without that breath you wouldn’t sense the body at all. You’d be dead. The experience of the breath comes prior to the experience of the other properties. So learn to look at your sensation of the body as a set of variations on the breath energy. And then work with that perception. If there’s a blockage or a sense of tightness in the body, don’t perceive it as solidity. Perceive it as a sign that the breath isn’t running right. Maybe you’re...

"Ajaan Fuang — who would often speak up to meditators as they were meditating — said, "Hey, you’re focusing too long on cool, subtle breathing. If you do that all the time, it’s not going to be good for you." Here she’d been happy that she’d be able to get to that subtle level of breathing, but he said, "Look, you need to go back sometimes and give the body stronger breathing, because the body needs that. It needs to be nourished in different ways at different times." This is an important part of using your discernment in your meditation: not just sticking with whatever you think is the highest stage you can reach, but realizing that the different stages have their uses, the different levels of concentration have their uses." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Third Frame of Reference"

"We think of the breath coming in from outside, but that’s the air coming in from outside. The breath energy originates in the body. You can think of every cell breathing in, breathing out. Notice where the movement of the energy seems to be smooth and where it seems to be interrupted. Ideally, it should flow smoothly throughout the body. The different organs all get nourished as they’re allowed to breathe in, breathe out. Where there’s tension or tightness, it’s a sign that the breath is not flowing well. So, we can think of the breath either going through those patterns of tension or, if it’s a line of tension, it either goes through the middle of the line or it starts at one end of the line and goes down the line to the other end. Allow parts of the body that seem to be starved of breath energy to have their share. Sometimes you have a sense that some of the muscles are doing most of the work of the breathing, and they get tired after a while, so think of the breath coming in o...

"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." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Feeling & Intention"

"[We're] staying with the breath as it comes in, staying with the breath as it goes out, doing what we can to make it easy to stay with the breath. Part of that involves allowing the breath to be comfortable, and having the sense that the breath is not just air coming in and out of the lungs. We learn how to perceive the breath as the whole-body energy flow. How do the different parts of the body feel during the in-breath? Do you tend to tense up around your neck, or in your shoulders? Can you breathe-in in a way that you don’t tense up? It’s all connected — your posture, the way you breathe, the way the blood flows through the body. You can explore these issues as a way of making it easier to stay here." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Post by the Ocean" (Meditations4)