If you’re going to get to freedom from suffering, focusing here on your breath is what you’ve got to know first. This is what you’ve got to empathize with first. This is what you’ve got to be friends with first. This friend will take you where you want to go.

"So having the breath as a friend can be really good for the mind, because it gives you a comfortable place to stay, a solid place to stay, if you know how to work with it. Then, when other things come up in the mind, you can see that you’re not so hungry for them. All too often we’re like a person standing in the sun by the side of the road. You’re hot and tired and have no place to rest. Someone comes along in a car and says, “Jump in, let’s go!” And you jump right in. You don’t ask “Who are you, where are you going?” You figure that wherever he’s going must be better than where you already are. And so you jump right in.

This is the way we tend to deal with our thoughts. Something comes driving up in the mind, and you just go with it. Sometimes it doesn’t even invite you. You jump in on your own, thinking that it must be better than where you are. But if you already have a good place for the mind you stay, you can be selective. You can ask, “Who are you? Where are you going? Where is it going to take me?” If you see that it takes you someplace good, then you can go with it and come back safely. If it’s going someplace that doesn’t look so good, you can say, “No thanks,” and just let it go.

This way, you can look into the intentions arising in the mind and decide which ones are worth going with and which ones are not. This puts you more in control. Instead of your thoughts running your mind, your mind is in charge of your thoughts. If a thought is insistent, you can figure out what spot in the body the thought is associated with — because there will be tensions associated with every thought. Breathe right through the tension in that thought, and the thought will go away.

So these are some of the benefits the come for the body, the benefits that come for the mind when you stay with the breath, when you start studying the breath. So give all your attention to the breath, realizing that all the good things you want in your meditation are going to be found right here.

Don’t have one eye on the breath and the other eye someplace else looking for what’s going to happen down the line. “When are the results going to come? When am I going to see this? When is jhāna going to come?” You don’t need to think those thoughts. Just get to like the breath. Become friends with the breath. Pay it some attention, in the same way you’d pay attention to a friend. When you’re trying to make friends with a person, don’t make it too obvious that you’re using the person. You really want to have some compassion for the friend, be empathetic with the friend, be interested in the friend. And then the friend will be happy to help you.

So take your desire for happiness, take your desire for freedom from suffering, and focus it here on your breath. If you’re going to get there, this is what you’ve got to know first. This is what you’ve got to empathize with first. This is what you’ve got to be friends with first. This friend will take you where you want to go. At the same time, you find that your desire to get to know the friend will lead to all the other bases for success. You’ll be persistent as you keep coming back, coming back, coming back to the friend. You’ll give your full attention to the friend, figuring out what needs to be done to make things better."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Skillful Desire"

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