Where Mind & Body Meet
November 22, 2011

We keep coming back to the breath because the breath is our foundation.

You want to learn to know it really well.

Ajaan Lee said it’s like following a path that you walk over many, many, many, many times. The path gets worn so that it’s easier to walk on, and you get to know all the things along the side: which plants you can eat, which plants you can’t eat. You get to know it really thoroughly.

This is important because so many of the good things we have in our life, so many of our inner resources, are right here and yet we overlook them. We go looking for happiness outside. We go looking for satisfaction outside. When we want strength, we go running to people outside. We don’t take advantage of what we’ve got inside right here.

So keep coming back, coming back, and looking at this spot where the mind and the body meet at the breath. It’s not just at the tip of the nose. The mind and the body meet at the breath throughout the body.

You know where your feet are, you know where your legs are, you know where everything is because the breath energy is the medium through which you’re aware of the body.

All too often, we think of the body as a big solid lump here, and the breath is something we pull in and push out of the lump. But actually our primary awareness of the body is of breath energy. Then, through the energy, we’re aware of solidity and warmth and coolness and all the other things that let us know we’ve got the body. But the energy comes first.

Keep that point in mind. It helps make the body a lot lighter to carry around.

And it can change your mind about where the breath can and cannot go in the body. Sometimes there seems to be a blockage. That’s because your perception has allowed that particular tight or heavy sensation to act as a blockage to the energy. Actually, the energy can go right through because the energy actually has the first right to be there. It’s not the case that the solid parts have the first right and can push the breath out when they want to. It’s the other way around. The energy is there first.

When you keep that in mind, it makes it a lot easier to deal with the difficult sensations you may find in the body.

At the same time, you learn a lot about perception: how if you change your perceptions just a little bit, things can be totally turned around.

So try to get really acquainted with what’s going on inside here.

You learn both about the body and about the mind as you stay anchored here with the breath.