When you can learn how to tap into gratifying breathing when you need it, then it can be your new attachment — a much better one. If you want to call it an addiction, it’s a healthy addiction, as opposed to the unhealthy ones you’ve pursued in the past.

"There come times when just the process of breathing can feel really gratifying. There’s a very strong, intense feeling of pleasure that feels almost sensual. But as the Buddha says, it’s not sensual. It has to do with the form of the body, as opposed to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and outside tactile sensations. But it can feel really good in a very visceral way. That’s important. Once you see that there’s this possibility, it’s easier to let go of your other desires as they arise. You’ve got something better.

There’s a passage where the Buddha says that the reason we get so stuck on sensual desires, sensual pleasures, is because we don’t see any other alternative to pain. But when you see that there is the alternative and, as you reflect on it, you see that it has fewer drawbacks, greater rewards, and that you can learn how to tap into it when you need it, then it can be your new attachment — a much better one. If you want to call it an addiction, it’s a healthy addiction, as opposed to the unhealthy ones you’ve pursued in the past.

So in the beginning it’s a matter of learning to imagine yourself accessing the pleasure of concentration, realizing that there is that possibility, and then developing the skill."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Levels of Addiction" (Meditations4)

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