Now that is what I wanted to hear.
This is what I was trying to explain earlier, that I just watch the whole breath, the very act of experiencing the whole breath. I don't know, call it body breathing It isn't at the abdomen, the nose, or even the chest, yet it's all those but none in particular.
This what I do, and, more importantly, I can always locate it.
Breath
Re: Breath
That sounds like just the ticket, then.
I don't believe that what the object is is so important (at least for samatha), it's just that it's needed as something for the mind to cohere to, so that it can withdraw* from outside preoccupations, calm the wandering of thoughts, and dive into the experience of the present. And the breath happens to both be convenient, and intimately connected to us, so it's a good object, for those who are comfortable using it.
Look at the classic 1st jhana description, There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities — enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal*, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation (upon the object used to settle the mind and enter the state)
So if you have an object, whatever it is, that you can find easily, can concentrate the mind upon without tension, and is conductive to relaxation, then I would say that you've probably got the basic toolkit necessary to make progress. Now you have to go play with it!
I don't believe that what the object is is so important (at least for samatha), it's just that it's needed as something for the mind to cohere to, so that it can withdraw* from outside preoccupations, calm the wandering of thoughts, and dive into the experience of the present. And the breath happens to both be convenient, and intimately connected to us, so it's a good object, for those who are comfortable using it.
Look at the classic 1st jhana description, There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities — enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from withdrawal*, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation (upon the object used to settle the mind and enter the state)
So if you have an object, whatever it is, that you can find easily, can concentrate the mind upon without tension, and is conductive to relaxation, then I would say that you've probably got the basic toolkit necessary to make progress. Now you have to go play with it!
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Re: Breath
And I guess the beauty of all this, is when you come off the cushion, there's a billion things you can choose to focus on throughout the day.
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Re: Breath
Is it important to actually feel sensation in my nostrils? Or can I just focus my attention on the nostrils and know for a surety that the breath passes through them?
Re: Breath
That will work. I don't focus on the sensation of breath going in and out of the nostrils but just 'center' my awareness on some part of my face or head. Sometimes the lips, sometimes the forehead, sometimes the tip of the nose. As long as I have a sense of being centered there.Collective wrote:Is it important to actually feel sensation in my nostrils? Or can I just focus my attention on the nostrils and know for a surety that the breath passes through them?
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Re: Breath
I think that's the important bit. Maybe it's not so much the breath that's important, it's more the being present, and not being in the past or future.thereductor wrote:That will work. I don't focus on the sensation of breath going in and out of the nostrils but just 'center' my awareness on some part of my face or head. Sometimes the lips, sometimes the forehead, sometimes the tip of the nose. As long as I have a sense of being centered there.Collective wrote:Is it important to actually feel sensation in my nostrils? Or can I just focus my attention on the nostrils and know for a surety that the breath passes through them?
Thank you
Re: Breath
Hiya collective
If you have anxiety in meditation, look at your motivation. You have mentioned relaxation, focus, insight .. basically everything but bodhicitta.
Ask yourself "Why am I doing these meditations?"
You need to recover the ultimate aim. Then things will go better.
If you have anxiety in meditation, look at your motivation. You have mentioned relaxation, focus, insight .. basically everything but bodhicitta.
Ask yourself "Why am I doing these meditations?"
You need to recover the ultimate aim. Then things will go better.
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Re: Breath
I thought all these techniques were a path to bodhicittacatmoon wrote:Hiya collective
If you have anxiety in meditation, look at your motivation. You have mentioned relaxation, focus, insight .. basically everything but bodhicitta.
Ask yourself "Why am I doing these meditations?"
You need to recover the ultimate aim. Then things will go better.
Re: Breath
You should focus on developing all of the Ten Perfections. Why? Because they are the root of cultivating kusala in a Buddhist sense, and kusala mental states lead to calm. The more the Perfections are practiced, the more conditions there are for kusala mind states, and therefore it is easier for your meditation to develop. It is impossible to develop meditation effectively without developing the Perfections. Why? Because There are simply too many akusala mental states, which means lots of lobha and dosa - attachment and aversion - and therefore the mind does not settle on it's object.Collective wrote:I'm practising vipassana.
The instructions are to just focus on the breath, the sensation in the nose. Warm, cool, that kind of thing. But it gets so subtle, I can't.
Re: Breath
Having a mindstate conductive to the development of meditation (or rather, success in meditation) requires adequate morality, and practice. If you want to talk about the ten perfections, they'll be developed naturally in following the eightfold path. How is that developed? Practice. Learning to keep the mind centered upon the breath when it becomes more subtle strikes me as more of an issue of practice-makes-perfect rather than insufficient paramis. One probably must already have a level of development in the perfections to take any interest in the dhamma in the first place, but in the bizarre situation where someone had a high development of paramis but very little skill in meditation, I bet they'd need some time to practice, too.
Telling someone to develop the perfections seems tantamount to telling someone to "get more enlightened". Of course that's what we're all trying to do, but that's just too vague to be useful.
Telling someone to develop the perfections seems tantamount to telling someone to "get more enlightened". Of course that's what we're all trying to do, but that's just too vague to be useful.
Re: Breath
The point is that only kusala citta lead to calm. When the mind is calm and kusala ones meditation can develop. The way to having kusala citta arise more and more is to condition it through the Perfections such as Generosity, Patience, and so on. When we focus on these things, less unwholesome mind states arise and then our mind can settle down during samatha meditation because it is not pushed and pulled with attachment and aversion so much.Kenshou wrote:Having a mindstate conductive to the development of meditation (or rather, success in meditation) requires adequate morality, and practice. If you want to talk about the ten perfections, they'll be developed naturally in following the eightfold path. How is that developed? Practice. Learning to keep the mind centered upon the breath when it becomes more subtle strikes me as more of an issue of practice-makes-perfect rather than insufficient paramis. One probably must already have a level of development in the perfections to take any interest in the dhamma in the first place, but in the bizarre situation where someone had a high development of paramis but very little skill in meditation, I bet they'd need some time to practice, too.
Telling someone to develop the perfections seems tantamount to telling someone to "get more enlightened". Of course that's what we're all trying to do, but that's just too vague to be useful.
Re: Breath
Are you doing metta meditations?Collective wrote:I thought all these techniques were a path to bodhicittacatmoon wrote:Hiya collective
If you have anxiety in meditation, look at your motivation. You have mentioned relaxation, focus, insight .. basically everything but bodhicitta.
Ask yourself "Why am I doing these meditations?"
You need to recover the ultimate aim. Then things will go better.
- retrofuturist
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Re: Breath
Greetings Collective, Catmoon, all,
Metta,
Retro.
Bodhicitta is a Mahayana term is not found in the Pali Canon or in the instructions of Theravada meditation teachers... therefore it's not really appropriate to this sub-forum.Collective wrote:I thought all these techniques were a path to bodhicittacatmoon wrote:Hiya collective
If you have anxiety in meditation, look at your motivation. You have mentioned relaxation, focus, insight .. basically everything but bodhicitta.
Ask yourself "Why am I doing these meditations?"
You need to recover the ultimate aim. Then things will go better.
Metta,
Retro.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
- Collective
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Re: Breath
I like the idea of following the 8 fold path to enhance a calm mind. Generosity, Patience, Forgiveness etc. Focusing on these virtues means less attention to negative thoughts/feelings, which in turn settles us down because it is "not pushed and pulled with attachment and aversion so much".
Thanks for that
Thanks for that
Re: Breath
Your welcome.Collective wrote:I like the idea of following the 8 fold path to enhance a calm mind. Generosity, Patience, Forgiveness etc. Focusing on these virtues means less attention to negative thoughts/feelings, which in turn settles us down because it is "not pushed and pulled with attachment and aversion so much".
Thanks for that
Kevin