Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Refreshing Breathing

"Think of your experience of the body as being primarily energy. It’s not the case that you’re trying to pump the breath energy into a solid body. It’s more like allowing the breath to flow freely into the energy already there without any clear dividing line between the two. When you hold that perception in mind, it gives rise to a floating feeling in the body. See if you can maintain the position of your focus on that perception, on that feeling of lightness, buoyancy. This is what gives flavor to that intention, so that it tastes good and is good for you. This is one of the ways in which you can give rise to a sense of rapture or refreshment in the breathing, as in that verse in the Dhammapada: “We feed on rapture like the radiant devas.” This is food for meditators." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Like an Athlete in Training"

"The breath is always here. When you’re at ease with your breath, when you feel comfortable with your breath, you’ve got a good foundation. That’s where you can take your stance. Then when you respond to things, you’re coming from a solid position. Your response is more precise, more on target. So try to practice keep coming back to the breath, back to the breath because this is a foundation you’ve got to build." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Taking a Stance" (Meditations3)

 "Breathe through your discomfort and dissolve it away. Let the breath create physical feelings of ease and fullness, and allow those feelings to saturate your whole body. This physical ease helps put the mind at ease as well. When you’re operating from a sense of ease, it’s easier to fabricate skillful perceptions as you evaluate your response to the issue with which you’re faced." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Head & Heart Together: Bringing Wisdom to the Brahmavihāras"

"One of the instructions in breath meditation is to learn how to breathe in and out in a way that makes you sensitive to rapture, makes you sensitive to pleasure in the body. Now, it takes a while to figure out how to do that. Part of it has to do with the way you breathe, part of it has to do with how you focus your mind. But it’s a skill you can figure out. Part of the problem, of course, is with that word, “rapture.” It sounds like Saint Teresa going into ecstasies. And sometimes there is a very strong sense of thrill that goes through the body. But what the Buddha’s having you focus on more is the sense of refreshment. You breathe in the way that feels refreshing: It refreshes your torso, refreshes all the different parts of the body where you can feel the breathing process. It starts out very gently, just a sense that things feel okay; they feel like they’ve settled in where they belong. But if you give this sense of “okay” some space, give it some time, it’ll g...

"The ability to talk to yourself skillfully can be strengthened by a different kind of feeling: not emotions, but feelings of pleasure. The mind doesn’t operate totally on its understanding of things. Feelings of pleasure and pain do play a role in the way we act, the way we think. This is one of the reasons why we try to give rise to feelings of well-being within ourselves, through the breath, through the meditation: so that we can gain a sense of nourishment, a sense of inner contentment. That sense of inner contentment makes it a lot easier to look at things we have to look at but don’t like to look at, or to do things we have to do that we ordinarily don’t like to do, or to act in harmless and kind ways toward people we don’t ordinarily like. When the mind is feeling hungry, when it feels a lack of pleasure, it will look for pleasure anywhere. Sometimes it takes pleasure in getting revenge on others, or doing things that we know are really unskillful, or in prete...

"So we try to give the mind something better to feed on: a sense of well-being inside, the sense of well-being that comes as you learn to adjust the breath, settle down into the breath, make friends with the breath, learn to savor the breath the same way you would good food or good music. What does this flow of energy feel like as it comes through the body? What kind of flow would the body like to feel right now? Do you know? Can you tell? Most of us live within the body for how many years, and we don’t know what kind of breathing the body would like to do, what would feel good for the body to do right now. So take some time to explore, to get acquainted with it. As you develop this inner sense of well-being and stability, you find that the mind would much rather feed here than outside." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "New Feeding Habits for the Mind"

"There’s plenty to explore here. A lot of people find breathing a very dull thing to watch. They think it’s just in and out, in and out, and that seems to be about it. But if you realize that this element of perception influences the breath, and that feelings influence the breath, and that the breath influences your perceptions, and feelings, you’ve got some interesting interconnections to explore to understand the way you experience your own body and mind, and to understand how that experience affects other parts of your life. That’s something you want to keep in mind. But if it’s too much to keep in mind at the moment, go back to just staying with the breath energy, and holding in mind the perception of the breath energy as something that flows easily in, flows easily out. It’s soothing. Refreshing. Energizing. And as you find it easier and easier to stay there, to keep that in mind, you can start adding the other elements: exploring other ways that you can shape t...