Looking after Yourself with Ease (extract)

"If something difficult comes up, you breathe in a different way, you think in a different way, you apply different labels and perceptions. Train yourself beforehand to have a good stock of these things on hand. This is why we listen to Dhamma talks, why we read the Dhamma: so that we can increase our stock of good tools.

Then we work on the concentration to have a sense of well-being underlying all of this. Remember the Buddha’s image of the practice as being like a fortress. You’ve got the soldiers of right effort. You’ve got the gatekeeper, which is mindfulness. You’ve got the well-plastered wall, which is your discernment. And you’ve got a storehouse full of food, which is your concentration. If you can give yourself a sense of well-being simply by the way you breathe, by the way you settle your mind inside, then you find you’ve got something you can tap into anytime of the day, in any situation, because the breath is always there."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Looking after Yourself with Ease"

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