APPENDIX The earliest editions of Keeping the Breath in Mind contain a version of Step 3 i
APPENDIX
The earliest editions of Keeping the Breath in Mind contain a version
of Step 3 in Method 2 that Ajaan Lee later shortened and revised to
its present form. Some people, though, find the original version
helpful, so here it is:
3. Observe the breath as it goes in and out, noticing whether it's
comfortable or uncomfortable, broad or constricted, obstructed or
free-flowing, fast or slow, short or long, warm or cool. If the
breath doesn't feel comfortable, change it until it does. For
instance, if breathing in long and out long is uncomfortable, try
breathing in short and out short. As soon as you find that your
breath feels comfortable, let this comfortable breath sensation spread
to the different parts of your body. For example, each time you
breathe in and out once, think of an important part of the body, as
follows:
As you let the breath pass into the bronchial tubes, think of it as
going all the way down the right side of your abdomen to the bladder.
As you take another in-and-out breath, think of the breath as going
from the main arteries to the liver and heart on down through your
left side to the stomach and intestines.
As you take another in-and-out breath, think of the breath as going
from the base of the throat all the way down the internal (front) side
of the spine.
As you take another in-and-out breath, think of letting the breath
go from the base of the throat down the front of your chest through to
the tip of the breastbone, to the navel, and out into the air.
As you take another in-and-out breath, inhale the breath into the
palate down to the base of the throat, on through the middle of the
chest to the large intestine, the rectum, and out into the air.
Once you've completed these five turns inside the body, let the
breath flow along the outside of the body:
As you take an in-and-out breath, think of inhaling the breath at
the base of the skull and letting it go all the way down the external
(back) side of the spine.
Now, if you're male, think first of your right side, both with the
legs and with the arms. As you take an in-and-out breath, think of
the right buttock and of letting the breath run all the way down the
right leg to the tips of your toes.
As you take another in-and-out breath, think of the left buttock
and of letting the breath run all the way down the left leg to the
tips of your toes.
As you take another in-and-out breath, think of the base of the
skull and of letting the breath run down your right shoulder, along
your right arm to the tips of your fingers.
As you take another in-and-out breath, inhale the breath into the
base of the skull and let it run down your left shoulder, along your
arm to the tips of your fingers.
As you take another in-and-out breath, inhale the breath into the
area inside your skull, thinking of your ears -- eyes -- nose --
mouth. (Men should think of the right side first, with each part of
the body: the right eye, right ear, right nostril, right arm, right
leg, etc.; women: the left eye, left ear, left nostril, left arm, left
leg, etc.)
Once you've finished, keep careful watch over your breath. Make
the breath refined, light, and free-flowing. Keep the mind steady and
still in this breath. Be thoroughly mindful and self-aware. Let the
various breath sensations join and permeate throughout the body. Let
the mind be neutral, impassive, and well-composed.
* * * * * * * *
GLOSSARY
Arahant: A Worthy One or Pure One -- i.e., a person whose heart is
freed from the effluents of defilement and is thus not destined
for further rebirth. An epithet for the Buddha and the highest
level of his Noble Disciples.
Ariya sacca: Noble Truth. The word Noble (ariya) here can also mean
ideal or standard, and in this phrase carries the meaning of
objective or universal truth. There are four: stress, its cause,
its disbanding, and the path of practice leading to its
disbanding.
Asava: Effluent -- mental defilements (sensuality, states of being,
views, and unawareness) in their role as causes of the flood of
rebirth.
Avijja: Unawareness, ignorance, obscured awareness, counterfeit
knowledge.
Ayatana: Sense medium. The inner sense media are the eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, body, and intellect. The outer sense media are
their corresponding objects.
Buddha (buddho): The mind's innate quality of pure knowingness, as
distinct from the themes with which it is preoccupied and its
knowledge about those preoccupations.
Dhamma: Event; phenomenon; the way things are in and of themselves;
their inherent qualities; the basic principles that underlie their
behavior. Also, principles of behavior that human beings ought to
follow so as to fit in with the right natural order of things;
qualities of mind they should develop so as to realize the
inherent quality of the mind in and of itself. By extension,
Dhamma refers also to any doctrine that teaches such matters. To
view things -- mental or physical -- in terms of the Dhamma means
to view them simply as events or phenomena, as they are directly
perceived in and of themselves, seeing the regularity of the
principles underlying their behavior. To view them in terms of
the world means to view them with regard to their meaning, role,
or emotional coloring -- i.e., in terms of how they fit into our
view of life and the world.
Dhatu: Element; potential; property; the elementary properties that
make up the inner sense of the body and mind: earth (solidity),
water (liquidity), fire (heat), wind (energy or motion), space,
and consciousness. The breath is regarded as an aspect of the
wind property, and all feelings of energy in the body are classed
as breath sensations. According to ancient Indian and Thai
physiology, diseases come from an aggravation or imbalance in any
of the first four of these properties. Well-being is defined as a
state in which none of them is dominant: All are quiet, unaroused,
balanced, and still.
Ekaggatarammana: Singleness of object or preoccupation.
Jhana: Meditative absorption in a single notion or sensation.
Khandha: The component parts of sensory perception; physical and
mental phenomena as they are directly experienced: rupa
(sensations, sense data), vedana (feelings of pleasure, pain, or
indifference), sanna (labels, names, concepts, allusions),
sankhara (mental fashionings, thought formations), vinnana
(sensory consciousness).
Lokavidu: An expert with regard to the cosmos -- an epithet normally
used for the Buddha.
Magga-citta: The state of mind that forms the path leading to the
transcendent qualities culminating in Liberation. Phala-citta
refers to the mental state that follows immediately on magga-citta
and experiences its fruit.
Nibbana (nirvana): Liberation; the unbinding of the mind from greed,
anger, and delusion, from physical sensations and mental acts. As
this term is used to refer also to the extinguishing of fire, it
carries connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. (According
to the physics taught at the time of the Buddha, the property of
fire in a latent state exists to a greater or lesser extent in all
objects. When activated, it seizes and gets stuck to its fuel.
When extinguished, it is unbound.)
Nimitta: Mental sign, theme, or image.
Nivarana: Hindrance. The mental qualities that hinder the mind from
becoming centered are five: sensual desire, ill will, torpor &
lethargy, restlessness & anxiety, and uncertainty.
Pali: The name of the most ancient recension of the Buddhist canon now
extant and -- by extension -- of the language in which it was
composed.
Samadhi: Concentration; the act of keeping the mind centered or intent
on a single preoccupation. The three levels of concentration --
momentary, threshold, and fixed penetration -- can be understood
in terms of the first three steps in the section on jhana:
Momentary concentration goes no further than step (a); threshold
concentration combines steps (a) and (c); fixed penetration
combines steps (a), (b), and (c) and goes on to include all higher
levels of jhana.
Sangha: The community of the Buddha's followers. On the conventional
level, this refers to the Buddhist monkhood. On the ideal (ariya)
level, it refers to those of the Buddha's followers -- whether lay
or ordained -- who have practiced to the point of gaining at least
the first of the transcendent qualities culminating in Liberation.
Sankhara: Fashioning -- the forces and factors that fashion things,
the process of fashioning, and the fashioned things that result.
As the fourth khandha, this refers to the act of fashioning
thoughts, urges, etc., within the mind. As a blanket term for all
five khandhas, it refers to all things conditioned, compounded, or
fashioned by nature. 'Sankharupekkha-nana' refers to a stage of
liberating insight in which all sankharas are viewed with a sense
of indifference.
Vipassana (-nana): Liberating insight -- clear, intuitive discernment
into physical and mental phenomena as they arise and disappear,
seeing them for what they are in terms of the four Noble Truths
and the characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and
'not-selfness,'
* * * * * * * *
If anything in this translation is inaccurate or misleading, I ask
forgiveness of the author and reader for having unwittingly stood in
their way. As for whatever may be accurate, I hope the reader will
make the best use of it, translating it a few steps further, into the
heart, so as to attain the truth to which it points.
The Translator
* * * * * * * *
CHANT FOR
THE DEDICATION OF MERIT
sabbe satta sada hontu
avera sukha-jivino
katam punna-phalam mayham
sabbe bhagi bhavantu te
May all living beings always live happily,
Free from animosity.
May all share in the blessings
Springing from the good I have done.
* * * * * * * *
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank