Perfect Breathing Isn't the Goal (extract)

"Sometimes we work with the breath and we think that “If I got perfect breath throughout the body, that’d be a sign that I have no clinging in my mind.”

But that’s not the case. There are cases when there’s mental clinging and there is a tensing up in different parts of the body. But there’re lots of ways that the mind can cling that don’t have any effect on the breath at all. You can have perfectly good breath, smooth breath, wide-open breath, well-connected breath, and there can still be defilements in the mind.

So, you have to remember that we’re here not to create perfect breathing. We’re here to breathe well enough so that the mind can feel comfortable with the breath and be willing to settle down so that it’s not disturbed by the breath."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Perfect Breathing Isn’t the Goal"

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