A Whole-body Foundation

When we talk about “watching the breath,” it’s probably not the best choice of words. It’s more a matter of feeling the breath because when we talk about the breath, it’s not the air coming in and out the nose. It’s the flow of energy in the body, one of the elements of the body—and you can feel that anywhere. In some places, it’s more obvious than others, so focus your attention on the obvious spots and feel them. Think of your awareness filling the whole body, and the breath is also filling the body. You’re wearing the breath. It’s surrounding you. Then you stay right here. This is your foundation.

If you’re going to stay in the present moment, you don’t want to try to balance on one point. Otherwise, it’s like trying to balance the tip of a needle on a ball bearing. It slips off very easily. If anything comes into the mind and you move your focus, you’ve lost your concentration. But if you have a full-body awareness, that’s your framework. Then things can come in and go out, but they don’t disturb the foundation. That’s the quality of mind you want.

So. Whole body breathing in, whole body breathing out. If there are any parts of the body where you feel tense or constricted, just think of them dissolving away in the breath so that the breath can flow smoothly. It can penetrate everything. And it’s not confined to the skin. It goes out beyond the skin.

So get this sense of wholeness, this sense of having a stable place to stay right here. That way, you can see the things coming in and out of the mind, things coming in and out through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body—and not get disturbed by them. They can come in, they can go out, but the foundation stays solid. It’s like people coming in and out of a building. The fact that they come in and out doesn’t destroy the building, because the building’s foundations are strong. That’s the kind of quality you want here, because you want the mind to be in a place where it can actually see what’s going on. If it drifts away, if it blanks out, you’re not going to see much. But if you’re fully right here, solidly right here, then when anything moves, you know.

It’s as if we’ve been born on a train, and it’s been traveling, traveling, traveling. We finally get the train to stop. We get off the train. While we were on the train and we looked outside, it seemed as if everything moved. People moved, cars moved, trees moved, houses moved, mountains moved. That was because we were moving. But we can get off the train and look around. We can see that certain things do move, but other things don’t. That’s what you want to see. Then you can pick out the things whose movements are skillful and unskillful, and you can figure out which things to encourage and which things not.

So it’s important that you get the mind rested right here. As the Buddha said, of the factors of the path, this is the main one. The other factors of the path are its requisites, its assistants. Getting the mind still and solid right here in the present moment lies at the heart of the path. So. Stay right here at the heart. And whatever else comes and goes, you can see it’s coming; you can see it’s going, but you don’t want to get disturbed by it.

Think of Ajaan Chah’s image. You’re in a house that has one chair. You’re solidly sitting in the chair; you’re fully occupying the chair. Other people come in?—they have to stand. You can tell them what to do. If they come in and they take over the chair, then they’ll be telling you what to do—and you’ll be put to difficulties. So you want to be in charge.

Right here is where you can establish yourself in a way that your foundation is solid. Just make sure nobody else slips into the chair. That’s how you come to see things in the mind you didn’t see before, and you can have an influence you didn’t have before.

So. Feel the breath right here—fully. As the Buddha says, you want to be with the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. This is how you do it.