Where to focus

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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greggorious
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Where to focus

Post by greggorious »

When one is focussing on the breath for meditation is it best to focus on the abdomen to make sure you're breathing correctly?
As someone who suffers from anxiety I notice I breath a lot from my chest, and the breaths are often shallow.
I know it's often said one should not try and manipulate the breath during meditation, and just let it rise and fall naturally, but I feel that I am actively taking deeper breaths from the abdomen in order to feel slightly more relaxed.
"The original heart/mind shines like pure, clear water with the sweetest taste. But if the heart is pure, is our practice over? No, we must not cling even to this purity. We must go beyond all duality, all concepts, all bad, all good, all pure, all impure. We must go beyond self and nonself, beyond birth and death. When we see with the eye of wisdom, we know that the true Buddha is timeless, unborn, unrelated to any body, any history, any image. Buddha is the ground of all being, the realization of the truth of the unmoving mind.” Ajahn Chah
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LonesomeYogurt
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Re: Where to focus

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

I would really recommend focusing at the nostrils for Samatha meditation, but there's no reason you can't start with focusing on your abdomen until the breath slows.
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
greggorious
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Re: Where to focus

Post by greggorious »

Ok thanks. By the way I've noticed some people put their favourite quotes at the bottom of their messages. How do you do that?
"The original heart/mind shines like pure, clear water with the sweetest taste. But if the heart is pure, is our practice over? No, we must not cling even to this purity. We must go beyond all duality, all concepts, all bad, all good, all pure, all impure. We must go beyond self and nonself, beyond birth and death. When we see with the eye of wisdom, we know that the true Buddha is timeless, unborn, unrelated to any body, any history, any image. Buddha is the ground of all being, the realization of the truth of the unmoving mind.” Ajahn Chah
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Cittasanto
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Re: Where to focus

Post by Cittasanto »

greggorious wrote:When one is focussing on the breath for meditation is it best to focus on the abdomen to make sure you're breathing correctly?
As someone who suffers from anxiety I notice I breath a lot from my chest, and the breaths are often shallow.
I know it's often said one should not try and manipulate the breath during meditation, and just let it rise and fall naturally, but I feel that I am actively taking deeper breaths from the abdomen in order to feel slightly more relaxed.
nothing wrong with that if it promotes a sense of ease!
Thanissaro Bhikkhu actually encourages this as does his teachers teacher Ajahn Lee. also the Samatha group apparently teach controlled breathing initially.
the Body does need training to relax at times, particularly when there has been a learnt behaviour. Behavioural therapy is rooted in this sort of approach i.e. you do it, and the mind follows. you need to balance the mind and body so they are doing the appropriate thing together.
There is no correct place to pay attention to, everywhere is correct for different people at different times.
you may want to look at each place you can sense the breath before settling on one, but if one place is more conductive or needs more attention focus there.
Although after a time you may want to focus elsewhere to allow the body to do it on its own.
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But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
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Cittasanto
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Re: Where to focus

Post by Cittasanto »

greggorious wrote:Ok thanks. By the way I've noticed some people put their favourite quotes at the bottom of their messages. How do you do that?
go to the user controll panel ->profile -> edit signature.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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mikenz66
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Re: Where to focus

Post by mikenz66 »

Hi greggarious,

This question depends a lot on your experience and what method you are practising. I'd recommend reading/listening to the instructions of a reputable teacher and stick to that. Randomly mixing instructions is likely to be confusing if you are not well-established in one technique.

As LY says:
LonesomeYogurt wrote:I would really recommend focusing at the nostrils for Samatha meditation, but there's no reason you can't start with focusing on your abdomen until the breath slows.
There definitely can be differences depending on where/how you focus. The abdomen tends to give a "softer" concentration. [This is useful if you want to investigate various body/mind phenomena, but is less useful to for deep concentration.] Furthermore, acording to teachers such as Ajahn Brahm (Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond http://ebookbrowse.com/ajahn-brahm-mind ... -d84597124) and Commentary-based teachers such as Pa Auk Sayadaw, for deep (Jhana level) concentration you'll eventually be letting go of particular physical sensations for the concept of the breathing and the nostrils (or in AB's case " knowledge that breathing is happening" is a more useful object.
Ajahn Brahm wrote: If you locate the breath at the tip of your nose then it becomes “nose awareness,” not
breath awareness, and if you locate it at your abdomen then it becomes
“abdomen awareness.” Just ask yourself right now: “Am I breathing in
or breathing out? How do I know?” There! The experience that tells
you what the breath is doing, that is what you focus on. Let go of the
concern about where this experience is located. Just focus on the expe-
rience itself.
:anjali:
Mike
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gavesako
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Re: Where to focus

Post by gavesako »

This might be useful:

Ajahn Sudhiro - Qualities of Right Samadhi
http://youtu.be/qnIiqT21dTw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Ajahn Sudhiro - Four Satipatthana
http://youtu.be/DB8qsNNbW-c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Ajahn Sudhiro - Body Scanning Meditation and Ekaggata
http://youtu.be/1NsIPq4zbjI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


(Sound is quite low, use headphones to listen.)
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
Dhammatalks.org - Sutta translations
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