You’ve got the body, you’ve got the breath, you’ve got the mind thinking and aware, and that’s really all you need. Simply learn how to familiarize yourself with what you’ve got, the potentials of what you’ve got, for the purpose of a happiness that’s true, lasting, harmless, blameless.

"Come to the breath with goodwill [mettā]: May the breath be easeful; may you relate to it well. What does it mean to relate to it well? On the one hand, you want to explore it; on the other hand, you want to learn how to direct it. Explore its various ins and outs: long, short, deep, shallow, fast, slow, heavy, light. Explore the range of its possibilities. At the same time, learn to explore what the body needs in terms of the breath right now. What kind of breath would feel good? Make that your intention right now. That’s the beginning of goodwill: learning how to find pleasure in a harmless way, learning to explore the various resources you have right at hand.

One of the themes in the teachings of the forest ajaans is that all you need for awakening is right here. You have it. You’ve got the body, you’ve got the breath, you’ve got the mind thinking and aware, and that’s really all you need. Simply learn how to familiarize yourself with what you’ve got, the potentials of what you’ve got, for the purpose of a happiness that’s true, lasting, harmless, blameless. So come to the breath with that attitude: You’re here to learn its potentials, and then to see what, out of that wide range of potentials, is best for right now.

Following right in the wake of goodwill is compassion, on the one hand, and empathetic joy on the other. In other words, when things are not going well, you want them to go well, you want to explore to see what’s going wrong, why the breath isn’t comfortable so that you can make adjustments. Why is the mind not settling down with the breath? You put in the effort to find out: That’s an expression of compassion. When things are going well, you learn how to maintain them.

On the one hand, this means not abandoning whatever you’ve got; on the other hand, it means not getting so excited that you ruin what you’ve got. This is an important skill in the meditation. When things are going well, how do you keep them going well? Not abandoning means that when you’re having a meditation that’s going well, don’t stop. Suppose you’ve told yourself that you’re going to meditate for an hour, and the hour is up. You say, “Well, that’s it for right now, we’ll just stop right here.” Well, no. Try to maintain that sense of ease and well-being."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Brahmaviharas at the Breath"

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