Aware of the Whole Body

Take a couple of good, long, deep, in-and-out breaths. Then try to pay attention to your breath. We often talk about watching your breath, but it’s more feeling the breath. Where do you feel the breath? Think of it being all around you. It’s a full-body process, because when you breathe in, the whole nervous system is involved—just that some parts are more involved than others.

So try to think of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. Find a rhythm that feels good, a rhythm that you can stay with. If you stay with a rhythm that feels good for a while, but then after a while it doesn’t feel so good, you can change. We’re trying to keep on top of things here. You want to give this your full attention, because as we work with the breath, it gets the mind more and more settled in the present moment where you can see it clearly. And that’s what we want.

Ajaan Fuang said it’s like catching eels. If you jump into the mud and just try to grab hold of the eels, they slither off every which way. But if you find something they like—and he said if you find a dead dog—you put that in a jar and then put that down into the mud, then the eels go into the jar and then there you have them.

It’s not an attractive image but it’s his image for getting the body comfortable. When the body is comfortable, the mind will be more inclined to want to stay. Then you can watch it, see where it’s going to go.

As the Buddha said, we suffer because of our ignorance. And it’s not ignorance of facts like the orbit of Jupiter or the chemical properties of water, what molecules go into making water. We can be ignorant of that and it doesn’t matter. But the problem is we’re ignorant of what we’re doing. The mind makes decisions, and part of it knows and part of it doesn’t know. We’re not fully aware. All kinds of things can happen in the shadows. So you’re trying to bring light to every corner in the mind, so that whatever decision is being made, you can be there for it, and then decide whether it’s something you really want to follow through with or not.

Shine the full light of your attention on your breath, the full light of attention on your body. Think of the breath and the body as being one, and the mind will come and want to be one with them as well. It’ll settle down. As for any other disturbances in the mind that want to get out of that oneness, you’ll see them clearly. Then you’ll be able to do something about them before they get big.

If greed, anger, and delusion come in little tiny forms—like little tiny insects, they seem, like little tiny seeds—remember that some tiny seeds can grow into big trees. So you have to watch out. Things that look like little insects can turn into big birds. So just because something is small doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have the potential to become powerful.

King Pasenadi came to see the Buddha one time. This was when the Buddha was newly awakened and still young. The king basically said to him, “What right do you have to say that you’re awakened when older people are not?”

The Buddha replied that there are four little things that you shouldn’t be complacent about. One is a little fire, because it can turn into a big fire. One is a little tiny snake, because little tiny snakes can have a lot of venom. Third is a little tiny prince. If you mistreat the little tiny prince, he’s going to remember that. When he gets older and becomes king, then he’s going to search you out. Fourth are what he called tiny contemplatives—by that he meant young contemplatives—because sometimes young contemplatives can be awakened. There are cases in the Canon where seven-year-old kids have awakened.

You could add a fifth item to that list, which would be little tiny defilements. They start out small, but they can grow really big, take over your life, become addictions, ruin everything. So you want to get them when they’re small. And you do that by being fully aware, right here. This is how you protect yourself.

So whenever you have the chance, try to develop this full-body awareness, making the breath comfortable throughout the whole body. And then watch. Feel. Fully sense what’s going on right here. You’ll come to see a lot of things you didn’t see before, which is the whole point of the meditation. In particular, you’ll see the things that, when you change the way you’re doing things, can make the difference between suffering and not suffering. That’s something you really want to know.