Explore & Experiment
October 16, 2023

Close your eyes. Try to be sensitive to where you feel the breathing right now. What does it feel like? Does it feel good? You can experiment with different kinds of breathing to see what kind of breathing feels best right now. You have that opportunity.

I remember when I first encountered Ajaan Lee’s Method Two, that was one of the things I found liberating. I’d always been told that you simply watch the breath as it is, and don’t try to interfere with it. But if you have that idea that you can watch it without interfering with it, that means you’re blinding yourself to the fact that the breath is an intentional process. There is an element of intention in the way you breathe. All too often it’s become subconscious, so you don’t know what’s going on. And if you tell yourself, there’s no intention going on in the breathing, then you keep yourself blind. Whereas, if you’re clear about the fact that, “Yes, my intentions do play a role in how I’m breathing, so let’s breathe in a way that feels good,” you’re taking advantage of that freedom that you have.

The breath is one thing that they haven’t privatized yet, so you have time to explore and you notice how the breath has an effect on the energy level in the body. When you’re feeling tense, there are ways of breathing that relax you. When you’re feeling tired, there are ways of breathing that give you more energy. You also notice that the way you breathe has an effect on the mind.

So while you’re here, you have lots of opportunity to experiment, to learn about these causal relationships and to see how you can best take advantage of them. This way, the meditation becomes not just a chore of forcing yourself to stay in one place or do one thing. You’re exploring. You’re learning. You’re trying things out. And that kind of learning is the most fun.

If you’re simply on the receiving end, it’s like watching a TV show. There’s nothing you can do to change the show. You can turn it off, turn it on, but that’s about it. But think of this more as an interactive game. The choices you make will determine where it’s going to go. And fortunately, you can make some choices and realize, okay, those were mistakes, and you can go back and learn from them and improve your skill.

When you take that attitude to the meditation, then it becomes a lot more interesting, a lot more engaging, and you really do learn a lot more about your mind.

We’re not trying to impose the Buddha’s insights on the mind. We’re using his insights as tools to make ourselves more sensitive so we can gain insights of our own.