Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Refreshing Breathing

"Don’t be surprised if something else will come along and push you off the breath or lead you astray, but don’t just take it lying down. Get up and focus on the breath again. Know that you’re going to have some contrary impulses, but they don’t have to have the upper hand. You just keep coming back, coming back, coming back. Each time you come back, try to reward yourself with a really nice breath. And try to figure out ways that make it interesting to stay here. Explore the different ways that the breathing feels in the body. When you breathe in, which parts of the body are participating in the breath process? Which parts are actually doing the work? Which ones are getting some nourishment? And which parts don’t seem to be having any role at all? Can you get everybody involved? Think of the breath not just as the air coming in and out of the lungs but also as the flow of energy in the body. You know that if the energy flows throughout the body, every part of the bod...

"When you meditate, you’ve got to put the mind in the right mood. Sometimes, focusing on the breath is the way to put it in the right mood. You take a couple of long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and it feels good. You can just feel the stress and the strain melting away. The patterns of tension you’ve been holding in your body begin to dissolve. There’s a sense of nourishment that comes from that. So you just drink it in. If, after a while, long breathing doesn’t feel good, you can try other rhythms: short in, long out; long in, short out; or shorter breathing, more shallow, lighter, heavier. You get to explore this area of what they call form: the way you feel the body from within. Sometimes that’s enough to get the mind to settle down." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "In the Mood"

"Try to be as alert as possible to how the breathing feels. Try to make it feel refreshing. This way the work becomes something you can easily keep on doing, because you feel refreshed in doing your work. Sitting here, it feels good breathing in, feels good breathing out. Ordinarily large areas of the body are starved for breathing energy, so give them a chance to drink it in, to bathe in it. Think of the energy going to the different parts of the body — “Who wants this breath? Who wants the next one?” — until you’ve got the whole body nourished. If it feels good, do it again. Next time around try to be even more perceptive as to what’s going on, what’s needed where." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Generating Power" (Meditations2)

"If you’re mindful, ardent, alert, and have a good sense of being at home here with the breath, where you get a sense of nourishment from the breath, that gives you all the help you need in order to do and say and think the skillful thing. And it’s with the skillful things that we do and say and think that we build a good life for ourselves." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Developing Around the Breath"

"The more you can get interested in the breath, the easier it will be to stay here and the more snug your concentration will become. It’s not like you’re forcing the mind to stay with something that it’s not really interested in or doesn’t really care about. Your breath is your force of life. Care about that. It’s free medicine. It’s free nourishment, if you take advantage of it." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Don’t Focus on Jhana, Focus on the Breath"

"Close your eyes and watch your breath. Watch it all the way in, all the way out. Notice where you feel the breathing in the body, and notice if it feels comfortable. After all, the breath is the force of life, it should feel good coming in and going out. So if it doesn’t feel good, see if you can change it. Make it shorter, longer, faster, slower, heavier, lighter, deeper, more shallow to see what feels best. Think of the breath energizing the whole body, nourishing the whole body." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Weaponize Good Thoughts"

"You can breathe in any kind of way, so how about breathing in a way that feels really, really good? — a way that feels nourishing for the body, soothing for the mind, energizing when you’re feeling tired, grounding when you’re feeling scattered. There’s lots to explore right here. So make that your intention. You want to explore what the breath can do for you here in the present moment." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Your Intentions Come First" (Meditations8)

"Get the mind really to settle down and be at ease with one object: the breath. Think of the breath as the energy flowing through the body that helps the air come in and out of the lungs. And you can look at that flow of energy anywhere in the body. Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths and notice: Where do you feel that energy flow most prominently? Focus there. And then ask yourself if it feels good. If the way you’re breathing right now doesn’t feel good, you can change it. Make it longer, shorter, or in-long out-short, in-short out-long, fast, slow, heavy or light. There are lots of ways you can adjust your breathing. Try different ones for a while and see which ones seem to have the best effect, are easiest to stay with, and actually feel really good. Notice that some areas of the body are more sensitive to the flow of breath energy than the others. For some people, the most sensitive spot is in the area around the heart. For others, it’s in the a...

"If you give a lot of attention to the breath, you begin to see its potentials and can take advantage of them. You find that a sense of ease and well-being with the breath can do a lot more for you than any amount of status, material gain, praise, outside pleasures — any of the ways of the world. A sense of ease and well-being that come from within: This is really all you need because it fully nourishes the mind right now." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Less is More" (Meditations6)

"You’re aware of the breath in a way that gives rise to a feeling of pleasure. If you can’t get the whole body pleasant, you try to get at least part of the body pleasant. Find which part of the body responds to the way you breathe, is sensitive to the way you breathe. For a lot of people, it’s down around the sternum, or it could be in the throat, or some place in the middle of the head. But wherever you’re especially sensitive to how the breath feels, try to focus your attention there and ask yourself, “What kind of breathing would feel really good? What would nourish the sense of well-being at that spot?” As that spot gets comfortable, keep on breathing in a way that maintains the sense of comfort. Then let your awareness encompass the whole body, and see how the breath relates to the whole body. Wherever there’s a sense of ease, let it spread. There are two ways of doing this. One is just thinking of the sense of ease flowing out from that one spot, running along the blood ve...

"This is your safe territory. And you want to have a sense of well-being in here, because that enables you to bring well-being into all your interactions with other people. That’s your strength. And the ease of the breath is the nourishment for the well-being of your mind. Otherwise, the mind gets hungry and then it turns into something else. So do what you can to maintain this perception of breath energy. One way of using this perception is that, instead of thinking about the world surrounding you, think of your awareness of the breath surrounding your awareness of the world. You can turn tables on it. The world is moving through. It’s like your awareness is a theater and the world is the show on stage. The theater encompasses the stage. So there’s breath all around your awareness of what other people are doing, what other people are saying. The breath is larger. You can use those images the Buddha gives of the entire earth or the entirety of space — or of the River...

"Learn how to develop an interest in the breath. After all, it is your  breath. It’s the force of life that keeps you with the body, keeps the mind and the body together. And if the breath is good, it’s nourishing. If the breath energies flowing through the nervous system and circulatory system are good, that’s going to have a good impact on the health of the body. When the body feels healthy and strong, the mind is going to find it easier to stay here. So take an interest in this and develop the ability to ask questions not only about your meditation, but also about the rest of your life." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Ask Yourself the Buddha's Question"

"If you want to understand the process of intention, one, set up a really good, clear intention. Like right now: You’re going to stay with the breath, to watch the breath come in, watch the breath go out. Then you learn how to augment that intention, because simply making the intention is not going to make it last. You’ve got to learn how to nurture it and keep it going. You can do this by experimenting with the breath. Make this a process of exploration. You’re not tying the mind down to something boring, you’re actually focusing on something interesting: this breath energy in the body. When we use the word breath, it’s not just the air coming in and out of the lungs. It’s the whole movement of energy, the quality of energy throughout the body, all the way through the nervous system and out to every pore. How does your in-and-out breathing affect that energy? You can experiment with long breathing, short breathing, or in long, out short; in short, out long; deep, shallow, heavy,...

"So it’s important that you have a good, solid place to stay right here in the present moment. You’re not running off into some corner and hiding out from things. You’re just staying right here in the present moment, trying to develop a sense of a center where you feel at ease, where you feel solid. Then you can look at things for what they are without feeling threatened by them. So it’s important to be able to relax around the breath in the present moment, to get a sense of ease, well-being, a sense of being nourished and healed by the breath. But it’s also important to learn how to use that new center you’ve developed, to see even deeper into the way the mind causes itself unnecessary stress and suffering, because that act of seeing leads to where the real freedom lies." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Basic Breath, Basic Insight"

"So if you give the mind something good to feed on — like the comfortable sensation of the breath coming in and going out — the mind has a good source of nourishment. As it gets a taste of comfort, you begin to notice when it’s not comfortable. Often that discomfort is associated with unskillful states of mind arising: anger, greed, jealousy, fear. These things will cause a change in the breath. If you’re there with the breath and you’re used to having it comfortable, you notice these changes immediately. They’ll alert you to the fact that something’s gone wrong in the mind." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Survival Tactics"

"You hold a label in your mind and apply it to what you’re experiencing. The label can be a mental picture, a feeling, a word, or even just a kinetic sense that you have of the breath in the body. In other words, you might have a mental picture of how the breath goes into the body. Or you may create a particular feeling through the breath. You can focus on a point someplace around the middle of the chest and find a quality of feeling there that feels nice. You try to maintain that niceness, that pleasant feeling, so that nothing in the in- breath and nothing in the out-breath touches it or disturbs it. This is where the Buddha’s image of holding a baby chick in your hand comes in handy. You gently hold that nice feeling all way through the in-breath, and all the way through the out-breath, adjusting your breathing so that it doesn’t disturb the feeling. Or you can just keep in mind the word “breath,” ”breath,” “breath,” as a way of reminding yourself not to leave the breath, when ...

"Appreciate the simple quality of getting the mind still, finding a sense of ease simply by the way you breathe; gaining a sense of well-being, rapture, equanimity when you need them. In this way, you nourish the mind with good food. That’s right livelihood in the highest sense. It puts you in a position where, while you’re still alive this time around, you weigh lightly on the world around you. And you’re developing the skill so you don’t have to come back and weigh the world down again. This is why the Buddha’s teachings are not selfish. They’re an act of kindness both for you and for the whole world around you." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Right Livelihood" (Meditations4)

"Ajaan Fuang has a nice passage where he talks about the breath as being like a nursemaid who’s been looking after you for all your life, but you haven’t paid that much attention to her to see what kind of person she is, why she’s been so kind to you. Whether you pay attention or not, she keeps breathing in, breathing out. Of course, if she’s neglected she can’t do her best for you. So, give her some attention. How does the breath feel right now? Is it long? Is it short? Heavy? Light? What kind of breathing feels good right now? — because the breath is nourishment for the body, and it’s most nourishing when it feels refreshing. The breath becomes even a better friend if you make friends with it. You do it in the same way that you make friends with someone: You have to listen, you have to ask questions, notice. People don’t tell you all about themselves all at once, and often the things they don’t tell you are most important for establishing a friendship. So try to be observant. Wh...

"So content yourself to be right here, right now. There’s another teaching that Ajaan Suwat would often stress, which was to content yourself with the practice. If it is going to be a little spot inside, content yourself with that little spot. Meditate, he would say, with a sense of contentment. That way, you build a foundation for other better things, as the meditation begins to take root. This is a basic principle you try to follow, not only while you’re sitting here meditating but also as you go through the day. You’re going to run into lots of situations you can’t control, so don’t go out and try to feed on them. Don’t go out trying to claim them as you or yours. Learn to have at least a little spot inside that you can feed on, that provides you with some nourishment, so that you’re not out there eating scraps and garbage that other people have thrown away. Learn to be selective in your feeding." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "A Good Mood to Meditate"

"This is your safe territory. And you want to have a sense of well-being in here, because that enables you to bring well-being into all your interactions with other people. That’s your strength. And the ease of the breath is the nourishment for the well-being of your mind. Otherwise, the mind gets hungry and then it turns into something else. So do what you can to maintain this perception of breath energy. One way of using this perception is that, instead of thinking about the world surrounding you, think of your awareness of the breath surrounding your awareness of the world. You can turn tables on it. The world is moving through. It’s like your awareness is a theater and the world is the show on stage. The theater encompasses the stage. So there’s breath all around your awareness of what other people are doing, what other people are saying. The breath is larger. You can use those images the Buddha gives of the entire earth or the entirety of space — or of the Rive...