Teachings of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
Keeping awareness with the breath is directed thought (vitakka).
Knowing the characteristics of the breath is evaluation (vicāra).
Spreading the breath so that it permeates and fills the entire body is rapture (pīti).
The sense of serenity and well-being in body and mind is pleasure (sukha).
When the mind is freed from the Hindrances so that it’s one with the breath, that’s singleness of preoccupation (ekaggatā).
All of these factors of jhāna turn mindfulness into a factor for Awakening.
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There are two kinds of evaluation when we meditate on the breath. The first is to evaluate the in-and-out breath.
The second is to evaluate the inner breath sensations in the body until you can spread them out through all the properties of the body to the point where you forget all distractions.
If both the body and mind are full, there’s a sense of rapture and ease that results from our directed thought and evaluation.
This is Right Action in the mind.
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Don’t put pressure on the breath, force it, or hold it. Let the breath flow easily and comfortably, as when you put a fresh egg in cotton batting. If you don’t throw it or push it down, the egg won’t get dented or cracked.
This way your meditation will progress smoothly.
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If the mind isn’t yet still, just watch the in-and-out breath without trying to notice whether it’s comfortable or not. Otherwise, the mind will start to stray.
It’s like a farmer planting an orchard: If he mows down too much grass all at once, he won’t be able to plant all his trees in time and the grass will start growing again. He has to mow down just the area that he can plant in one day. That’s how he’ll get the results he wants.
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One of the benefits from working with the breath is that the properties of the body become friendly and harmonious with one another. We spread the breath all over the body, and then when it grows still it gives you a sense of physical seclusion.
This is one of the physical benefits.
As for the mental benefits, mindfulness becomes enlarged. When mindfulness is enlarged, awareness is enlarged. The mind becomes an adult and doesn’t go sneaking off like an ordinary mind. If you want it to think, it thinks. If you want it to stop, it stops. If you want it to go, it goes.
When the mind is well-trained it gains knowledge, like an educated adult.
When you converse with it, you understand each other.
The mind of a person who hasn’t trained it is like a child. This kind of mind doesn’t understand what you say and likes to slip off to roam around—and it goes without saying good-bye. You have no idea what it takes with it when it goes, or what it brings back when it returns.
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From The Skill of Release: Teachings of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.
https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#skillofrelease
Ajaan Lee's breath meditation instructions (Method 2):
https://www.facebook.com/.../a.647987305.../647986991928530/
10 June 2023
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