Your frame of reference is just this: the breath coming in and going out; your sense of the body right here, right now. Think of the breath cleaning out all the parts of the breath energy in the body that haven’t been ventilated for a while.

"Your frame of reference is just this: the breath coming in and going out; your sense of the body right here, right now. Think of the breath cleaning out all the parts of the breath energy in the body that haven’t been ventilated for a while.

We tend to have stagnant areas in different parts of the body, so make a survey. See which parts are not getting as much breath as the other parts. Wherever there’s a sense of blockage or a sense of things tightening up, loosen it up. Remind yourself that the breath can go through anything. It’s like cosmic rays that can cut through rock. The breath can go through anything in the body: the bones, old tight muscles. Try to notice which muscles you tend to tighten up just to hold the body erect. Can you keep the body erect while loosening them? Try to figure out which patterns of tightness in the body are totally unnecessary right now."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Free for the Time Being"

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