A Good Foundation

Close your eyes and feel your breath. Where do you feel the breath? Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths to emphasize the feeling of breathing wherever you sense it in the body. And wherever it’s most prominent, focus your attention there. Then try to stay there. One good way of staying there is to take an interest in what kind of breathing is comfortable. If long breathing doesn’t feel good, you can try shorter breathing. Deep doesn’t feel good, you can try more shallow. Heavy, light, fast, slow. There’s lots to experiment with here, getting to know how you feel the body from within, right here, right now. Give the mind a good foundation.

As we go through life, we deal with all sorts of things, and if we don’t have a good foundation, we get knocked out of balance. Right looks wrong; wrong looks right. We can do a lot of unskillful things when we’re knocked out of balance. So try to give yourself a good, solid foundation. And think of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out, so that the foundation is large. You can settle in right here. And this becomes your territory.

You look out at the world and everything is up for grabs. One person has something; well, somebody else wants it. Maybe lots of other people want it. You have things in the world? Well, there are other people who want the things you have. But here inside your body, your sensation of the body as you feel it from within, that’s your territory. Nobody else can sense it. So try to make the most of it.

Get to know what it means to be here, right here, solidly, and then let other things come in. If they’re going to come in, in the course of the day, you’re in a better position to deal with them—not get blindsided, sideswiped. Try to maintain this foundation as best you can.

We start meditating with our eyes closed so that we can focus our attention here. But you want to get so that you can carry this foundation around with you when your eyes are open. In that way, you’re coming from a position of strength. Whatever you say, whatever you do, you’re coming from your territory. When you’re out there trying to lay claim to other people’s territory, you’re not really safe.

Like those rabbits you see as you drive down the road: They’re on the right side of the road, but their burrow is on the left side of the road. So even though they’re relatively safe on the right side, they go running in front of you to get back home. A lot of times this happens to the mind as well. You’re away from your foundation. Something comes and you try to develop a foundation, but you get sideswiped. So do your best to stay right here to begin with.

There’s plenty to feed on right here. There’s plenty to take an interest in right here. You can feed on the pleasure of breathing well. You can take an interest in this breath element in the body, what it can do for you. A lot of times there are pains that come from breathing unskillfully. It’s as simple a matter as that. So you can learn how to take care of those pains. Other pains may not come from the breathing, but because you’ve got a good solid place to stay, you don’t have to go jumping into the pain. So give yourself a good foundation and try to maintain that foundation as you go through the day.

In the language of the Buddha, when they talk about the object of meditation, they use the word ārammaṇa, which literally means “support.” You’re looking for some support here inside. Then, from that support, you can gather your strength, and you’re in a much better position to see what’s right, what’s wrong. And when you see what’s right and wrong, then because you’re coming from a position of strength, you can do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong.

All too often we go through life, we know something is wrong, but we’re feeling weak, feeling threatened, feeling anxious, worried, so we end up doing things we know are wrong. Then, of course, we suffer the consequences. So give yourself a source of strength inside right here. That way, you’ll be more likely to do the right things and you’ll get good consequences from those good actions. It’s a very simple principle, but it takes a while to master.

So take some time every day, every day. You can wash your face every day. You can brush your teeth every day. So look after your mind every day. It’s worth a lot more than your face or your teeth. And it deserves your careful attention.