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With Each and Every Breath
A new breath meditation manual by Thanissaro Bhikkhu drawing on two sources: the Buddha’s own set of instructions on how to use the breath in training the mind, and Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo’s method of breath meditation — which builds on the Buddha’s instructions, explaining in detail many of the points that the Buddha left in condensed form. Available online from:
http://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_inde...
http://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_inde...
124 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2013
53 people are currently reading
595 people want to read
About the author
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
140 books139 followersṬhānissaro Bhikkhu, also known as Ajaan Geoff (born Geoffrey DeGraff, 1949), is an American Theravada Buddhist monk of the Dhammayut Order (Dhammayutika Nikaya), Thai forest kammatthana tradition. He is currently the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery in San Diego County. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu is a translator of the Pāli Canon as well as more modern Buddhist works and the author of many articles and books on Dhamma.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
April 6, 2021
EDIT: I no longer prefer TMI and actually far prefer With Each and Every Breath. The approach is more relaxed and there is less striving. There is a much greater emphasis on generating piti and sukkha early on which TMI does not do and that is crucial for fast progress. This book is the real deal. TMI is still a very good book and can counterbalance by providing a much more analytical approach.
Great introduction to anapanasati. I personally prefer The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa if you are a beginner (and maybe even if you are not). With Each and Every Breath has the stages be 1. Meditate Daily. 2. Meditate to the point of mostly overcome gross distractions. 3. Feel the breath sensations at various parts of the body. 4. Full body breathing into Jhana and 5. Jhana. Culadasa in TMI splits step 2 into 3 separate degrees of distractions which is helpful for a beginner. Additionally, TMI better explains exclusive attention and why full body breathing helps attain this. With Each and Every Breath is a significantly thinner book and that is a big benefit of this book.
Great introduction to anapanasati. I personally prefer The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa if you are a beginner (and maybe even if you are not). With Each and Every Breath has the stages be 1. Meditate Daily. 2. Meditate to the point of mostly overcome gross distractions. 3. Feel the breath sensations at various parts of the body. 4. Full body breathing into Jhana and 5. Jhana. Culadasa in TMI splits step 2 into 3 separate degrees of distractions which is helpful for a beginner. Additionally, TMI better explains exclusive attention and why full body breathing helps attain this. With Each and Every Breath is a significantly thinner book and that is a big benefit of this book.
June 1, 2014
Possibly the best manual on breath meditation out there. While the Buddha did teach an array of meditation techniques, breath meditation is something he himself engaged in as a useful pastime, and taught it as a central method of meditation. Thanissaro Bhikkhu is himself a master of meditation describes the basic principles ground-up, and develops the manual to its culmination - jhana. This book should be with anyone wishing to learn meditation. And if I had gotten this book at least 10 years back, I might have learned to meditate far better.
May 18, 2013
Possibly the best book I've read on meditation practice so far.
The focus on breath seems to me only one of many approaches, but this is the one he takes.
Tan Jeff lists a lot of hindrances experienced in meditation, and offers very practical advice -
in my opinion with a lot of wisdom and gentleness.
The chapter on advanced practice and the four Jhana's felt like it was still outside my understanding, but that's fine. :)
The focus on breath seems to me only one of many approaches, but this is the one he takes.
Tan Jeff lists a lot of hindrances experienced in meditation, and offers very practical advice -
in my opinion with a lot of wisdom and gentleness.
The chapter on advanced practice and the four Jhana's felt like it was still outside my understanding, but that's fine. :)
October 28, 2024
Good beginners manual for meditation through a Buddhist lens. Insanely comprehensive, very practical. Originally started this book out of desperation because I had developed bad anxiety, however kept reading because of the applications to everyday life. The direct ways in which meditation can help strengthen the mind is so fascinating. And all of this ultra-mindfulness-maxxing can be achieved mainly through breathing. Buddhism is very cool
March 22, 2018
An extensive and broad meditation manual that teaches the Mindfulness of Breath technique as well as explaining to a very good extent how the practice of meditation falls under Buddhist training and how it relates to the entire doctrine. The first 25 pages of the book outline a summary of the practice up front.
January 7, 2023
Pretty good book by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Ajahn Geoff), a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest tradition. This book teaches on breath meditation, and while one of the later chapters on jhana was rather confusing, the rest of the book had very practical, inspiring, and easy to understand strategies for meditation.
Here are some (... a lot of) quotes that I liked:
“Virtue makes it easier to settle down in concentration and to be honest with yourself in discerning which members of the mind’s committee are skillful and which ones are not. Concentration provides the mind with a sense of refreshment that allows it to resist unskillful urges that would create lapses in virtue, and the stability it needs to discern clearly what’s actually going on inside. Discernment provides strategies for developing virtue, along with an understanding of the mind’s workings that allow it to settle down in ever-stronger states of concentration.”
“don’t let a mood dictate whether you’re going to meditate or not. Remember, a bad meditation session is better than no meditation session at all.”
Meditation Steps
“1. Find a comfortable way of breathing.”
“2. Stay with each in-and-out breath.”
“3. When the blatant sensations of breathing are comfortable, expand your awareness to different parts of the body to observe more subtle breathing sensations.”
“4. Choose a spot to settle down. Ultimately, you want to be able to keep your attention focused on any spot in the body. This ability will be useful when you’re suffering from a disease or injury, as you can sometimes speed healing by focusing on the breath energy at particular spots in the body.”
“5. Spread your awareness from that spot so that it fills the body through every in-and-out breath.”
“6. Think of the breath energy coursing through the whole body with every in-and-out breath.”
Leaving Meditation
“1. Reflect on how your meditation went.”
“2. Spread thoughts of goodwill again.”
“3. Try to stay sensitive to the breath energy in the body as you open your eyes and leave the meditation posture.”
Becoming a Meditator
“When you focus on the breath in line with the above instructions, mindfulness is what keeps the instructions in mind, alertness is what watches what you’re doing and the results that come from what you’re doing, while ardency is what tries to do it well. When you slip off the breath, ardency tries to come right back to the breath as quickly as possible. While you’re with the breath, ardency tries to be as sensitive as possible to what’s going well and what isn’t. When things aren’t going well, it tries to figure out why, so that it can improve them. When they are going well, it tries to maintain them so that they can grow.”
Observer and Doer
“The more passive of the two [distinct identities] is the observer, which “develops around alertness. This is the part of the mind that steps back a bit and simply watches what’s going on with a minimum of interference. As it develops, it gives you practice in exercising your patient endurance—your ability to stick with things even when they’re unpleasant—and in exercising your equanimity, your ability not to react to things, so that you can see them clearly for what they are.”
“The more active of the two identities is the doer, which develops around mindfulness and ardency. This is the part that tries to make things go well; that, when they aren’t going well, asks questions and investigates to understand why, tries to remember what worked in the past, and then decides how to respond—when it’s best to interfere and when it’s not. When things are going well, this identity tries to keep them going well. Over the course of time, you’ll find that the doer can assume many roles, such as the investigator and the director. This part exercises your ingenuity and imagination, as you try to shape things in the best possible direction.”
“Similarly, when an unskillful emotion comes into the mind, you don’t have to identify yourself as the person who feels the emotion or agrees with it. You can be the observer, stepping back from the “emotion. Or, as the doer, you can be the investigator, taking the emotion apart; or the director, assembling a new emotion to replace it.”
“Your ability to plan for the future can turn into worries that can destroy your peace of mind. Your ability to relive the past can make you miserable in the present. One of the important skills in meditation is learning how to turn these thought-worlds off and on at will, so that you can think when you need to think, and stop thinking when you don’t. In this way, the mind’s ability to create thought-worlds won’t cause it harm.”
Dealing With Wandering Thoughts
“There are five basic strategies in dealing with wandering thoughts. Each of them helps to strengthen your concentration. But each can also give lessons in discernment.
1. Return to the breath.
4. Relax the tension that keeps the thought going. As you get more sensitive to the subtle breath energies in the body, you’ll come to notice that the act of holding onto a thought requires that you develop a slight pattern of tension somewhere in the body, as a kind of marker. Try to locate that pattern of tension, dissolve it with a breath, and the thought will go away from lack of support.
“5. Suppress the thought. If your concentration and discernment aren’t yet good enough for these techniques to work with every distracting thought, then when they’ve all failed with a particularly persistent thought, place the tip of your tongue at the roof of your mouth, clench your teeth, and repeat to yourself over and over that you won’t think that thought. Or you might repeat a meditation word, like buddho, very quickly in the mind to jam the circuits until the temptation to follow the thought has subsided.”
Pain
“You might find it useful to drop the word “pain,” and replace it with “pains,” for not all pains are alike. Learning the differences among them is one of the prime ways you’ll develop discernment into the workings of the mind.”
Distractions
“1. Any thought connected with improving your focus on the breath is okay. Any other thought has to be dropped”
“2. Focus on the drawbacks of letting yourself stay distracted.“
“3. Ignore the thought.”
Drowsiness
“If you’re feeling sleepy, the first step is not to immediately regard it as a sign that you need to rest. Often the mind uses drowsiness as a way to avoid an issue that’s about to surface from your inner depths.”
“The important principle here is that when the mind is comfortable, it needs some work to do. Otherwise, it will drift off into drowsiness. As long as the work stays within the confines of the body, it won’t disturb your concentration.”
External Noises
“If you find yourself complaining about external noises while you’re meditating, remind yourself that the noise isn’t bothering you. You’re bothering the noise. Can you let the noise exist without your commenting on it? After all, the noise has no intention to bother you.”
“Allow the energy to flow. Don’t push it.”
“keep reminding yourself of the importance of meditating: that if your mind isn’t trained, it can easily respond to the demands of your daily life in unskillful ways.”
“If impatience comes from a desire to get past the meditation so that you can get on with the rest of your life, remember that the rest of your “life has left your mind in need of some healing medicine. Meditation is just that medicine, like the cream you’d rub on a rash. You can’t just rub the cream on and then wash it off. You have to let it stay there so that it can do its healing work. In the same way, you have to give the breath and all the skillful qualities that you’re developing around it time to do their work. And remember that meditation is not something you “get past.” Just as your body will need medicine as long as it’s exposed to the ravages of the world, your mind will need the healing medicine of meditation as long as you live.”
“If you can’t control your mouth there’s no way you’re going to control your mind. So, before you say anything, ask yourself: (1) “Is this true?” (2) “Is this beneficial?” (3) “Is this the right time to say this?” If the answer to all three questions is Yes, then go ahead and say it. If not, then keep quiet.”
“Meditation gives you a solid place to stand so that you can juggle your other responsibilities with more ease and finesse. As many meditators will tell you, the more mindfulness and alertness you bring to your responsibilities, the better your performance. Instead of interfering with your work, the meditation makes you more attentive and alert in doing it. The fact that you’re staying focused, instead of letting the mind wander all over the place, helps to husband your energy, so that you can bring more stamina to whatever you have to do.”
“All too often, when we think of doing something or looking at something, we focus simply on what we like or dislike. Restraint forces you to look at why you like or dislike things, and at what happens as a result when you follow your likes and dislikes. In this way, you broaden your perspective and gain insight into areas of the mind that otherwise would stay hidden behind the scenes.”
“In addition to creating a healthy attitude and peaceful environment conducive to the practice, the precepts exercise many of the skills you need to get started in meditation. They give you practice in setting up a skillful intention and then sticking with it. They also give you practice in dealing in a mature way with any lapses that may occur. To keep to them successfully, you have to learn how to recognize and acknowledge a mistake without getting tied up in remorse and self-recrimination. You simply reaffirm your intention not to make that slip again, and then develop the brahmaviharas to help strengthen that intention. This way you learn both how to take your mistakes in stride and how not to repeat them.”
“If you see that unskillful intentions are directing where you focus your attention or how you look at something, change your focus. Look at something else, or look at the same thing in a different way. If you’ve been contemplating a beautiful body, look for the aspects that aren’t so beautiful—and they aren’t far away, just under the skin. The same principle holds for anger. If you’re thinking about someone you really hate, remember that there’s another side to that person as well, a good side. Be a person with two eyes, and “not just one. Or if you find that when you drop the lust or the anger, you’re no longer interested in looking at or thinking about those people, you realize that the problem wasn’t with them. It was with the committee in your mind. You learn that you can’t really trust some of its members.”
“renunciation is easiest when you regard it not as deprivation but as a trade. In trading the pleasures of an ordinary life for a meditative life, you’re trading candy for gold”
“Admirable people have four qualities: They’re virtuous, generous, wise, and have conviction in the principle that skillful qualities should be developed, and unskillful qualities abandoned.”
“Buddhist monks are encouraged every day to reflect on why they use the four requisites of life: food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. The purpose of this reflection is to see if they’ve been using these things to excess or in ways that will develop unskillful states of mind. ”
“Seclusion enables you to look directly at the issues created by your own mind without the distraction of issues created by other people. It’s a chance to get in touch with yourself and to reaffirm your true values. This is why the Buddha advised monks to go into the wilderness, and to create a wilderness state of mind even when living in society.”
“they place limits on the pleasure you try to take from each of the five physical senses, they encourage you to examine your attachment to the body and to sensual pleasures, and to look for pleasure in training your mind instead.”
“Breath meditation is an ideal practice for giving rise to strong states of concentration, called jhana. Jhana then provides an ideal basis for fostering the insights that can free the mind from its habitual ways of causing itself suffering and stress. Those insights can ultimately lead to an experience of release into the unconditioned dimension—called the deathless—where suffering and stress all end. So there are three aspects to advanced practice: jhana, insight, and release.”
“the Buddha didn’t write meditation guides like this, and instead set up the monastic training as a form of apprenticeship. Meditation skills are best passed down person-to-person”
“the first prerequisite in benefiting from a teacher is being willing to take criticism, both gentle and harsh. This is why genuine teachers don’t teach for money. If the teacher must be paid, the person paying is the one determining what’s taught, and people rarely pay for the criticism they need to hear.”
“As the Buddha pointed out, if you can’t find a trustworthy teacher, you’re better off practicing on your own. An unqualified teacher can do more harm than good. You have to take care in choosing a teacher whose judgments will influence the way you shape your mind.”
“You can’t be a fair judge of another person’s integrity until you’ve developed some of your own.”
Here are some (... a lot of) quotes that I liked:
“Virtue makes it easier to settle down in concentration and to be honest with yourself in discerning which members of the mind’s committee are skillful and which ones are not. Concentration provides the mind with a sense of refreshment that allows it to resist unskillful urges that would create lapses in virtue, and the stability it needs to discern clearly what’s actually going on inside. Discernment provides strategies for developing virtue, along with an understanding of the mind’s workings that allow it to settle down in ever-stronger states of concentration.”
“don’t let a mood dictate whether you’re going to meditate or not. Remember, a bad meditation session is better than no meditation session at all.”
Meditation Steps
“1. Find a comfortable way of breathing.”
“2. Stay with each in-and-out breath.”
“3. When the blatant sensations of breathing are comfortable, expand your awareness to different parts of the body to observe more subtle breathing sensations.”
“4. Choose a spot to settle down. Ultimately, you want to be able to keep your attention focused on any spot in the body. This ability will be useful when you’re suffering from a disease or injury, as you can sometimes speed healing by focusing on the breath energy at particular spots in the body.”
“5. Spread your awareness from that spot so that it fills the body through every in-and-out breath.”
“6. Think of the breath energy coursing through the whole body with every in-and-out breath.”
Leaving Meditation
“1. Reflect on how your meditation went.”
“2. Spread thoughts of goodwill again.”
“3. Try to stay sensitive to the breath energy in the body as you open your eyes and leave the meditation posture.”
Becoming a Meditator
“When you focus on the breath in line with the above instructions, mindfulness is what keeps the instructions in mind, alertness is what watches what you’re doing and the results that come from what you’re doing, while ardency is what tries to do it well. When you slip off the breath, ardency tries to come right back to the breath as quickly as possible. While you’re with the breath, ardency tries to be as sensitive as possible to what’s going well and what isn’t. When things aren’t going well, it tries to figure out why, so that it can improve them. When they are going well, it tries to maintain them so that they can grow.”
Observer and Doer
“The more passive of the two [distinct identities] is the observer, which “develops around alertness. This is the part of the mind that steps back a bit and simply watches what’s going on with a minimum of interference. As it develops, it gives you practice in exercising your patient endurance—your ability to stick with things even when they’re unpleasant—and in exercising your equanimity, your ability not to react to things, so that you can see them clearly for what they are.”
“The more active of the two identities is the doer, which develops around mindfulness and ardency. This is the part that tries to make things go well; that, when they aren’t going well, asks questions and investigates to understand why, tries to remember what worked in the past, and then decides how to respond—when it’s best to interfere and when it’s not. When things are going well, this identity tries to keep them going well. Over the course of time, you’ll find that the doer can assume many roles, such as the investigator and the director. This part exercises your ingenuity and imagination, as you try to shape things in the best possible direction.”
“Similarly, when an unskillful emotion comes into the mind, you don’t have to identify yourself as the person who feels the emotion or agrees with it. You can be the observer, stepping back from the “emotion. Or, as the doer, you can be the investigator, taking the emotion apart; or the director, assembling a new emotion to replace it.”
“Your ability to plan for the future can turn into worries that can destroy your peace of mind. Your ability to relive the past can make you miserable in the present. One of the important skills in meditation is learning how to turn these thought-worlds off and on at will, so that you can think when you need to think, and stop thinking when you don’t. In this way, the mind’s ability to create thought-worlds won’t cause it harm.”
Dealing With Wandering Thoughts
“There are five basic strategies in dealing with wandering thoughts. Each of them helps to strengthen your concentration. But each can also give lessons in discernment.
1. Return to the breath.
4. Relax the tension that keeps the thought going. As you get more sensitive to the subtle breath energies in the body, you’ll come to notice that the act of holding onto a thought requires that you develop a slight pattern of tension somewhere in the body, as a kind of marker. Try to locate that pattern of tension, dissolve it with a breath, and the thought will go away from lack of support.
“5. Suppress the thought. If your concentration and discernment aren’t yet good enough for these techniques to work with every distracting thought, then when they’ve all failed with a particularly persistent thought, place the tip of your tongue at the roof of your mouth, clench your teeth, and repeat to yourself over and over that you won’t think that thought. Or you might repeat a meditation word, like buddho, very quickly in the mind to jam the circuits until the temptation to follow the thought has subsided.”
Pain
“You might find it useful to drop the word “pain,” and replace it with “pains,” for not all pains are alike. Learning the differences among them is one of the prime ways you’ll develop discernment into the workings of the mind.”
Distractions
“1. Any thought connected with improving your focus on the breath is okay. Any other thought has to be dropped”
“2. Focus on the drawbacks of letting yourself stay distracted.“
“3. Ignore the thought.”
Drowsiness
“If you’re feeling sleepy, the first step is not to immediately regard it as a sign that you need to rest. Often the mind uses drowsiness as a way to avoid an issue that’s about to surface from your inner depths.”
“The important principle here is that when the mind is comfortable, it needs some work to do. Otherwise, it will drift off into drowsiness. As long as the work stays within the confines of the body, it won’t disturb your concentration.”
External Noises
“If you find yourself complaining about external noises while you’re meditating, remind yourself that the noise isn’t bothering you. You’re bothering the noise. Can you let the noise exist without your commenting on it? After all, the noise has no intention to bother you.”
“Allow the energy to flow. Don’t push it.”
“keep reminding yourself of the importance of meditating: that if your mind isn’t trained, it can easily respond to the demands of your daily life in unskillful ways.”
“If impatience comes from a desire to get past the meditation so that you can get on with the rest of your life, remember that the rest of your “life has left your mind in need of some healing medicine. Meditation is just that medicine, like the cream you’d rub on a rash. You can’t just rub the cream on and then wash it off. You have to let it stay there so that it can do its healing work. In the same way, you have to give the breath and all the skillful qualities that you’re developing around it time to do their work. And remember that meditation is not something you “get past.” Just as your body will need medicine as long as it’s exposed to the ravages of the world, your mind will need the healing medicine of meditation as long as you live.”
“If you can’t control your mouth there’s no way you’re going to control your mind. So, before you say anything, ask yourself: (1) “Is this true?” (2) “Is this beneficial?” (3) “Is this the right time to say this?” If the answer to all three questions is Yes, then go ahead and say it. If not, then keep quiet.”
“Meditation gives you a solid place to stand so that you can juggle your other responsibilities with more ease and finesse. As many meditators will tell you, the more mindfulness and alertness you bring to your responsibilities, the better your performance. Instead of interfering with your work, the meditation makes you more attentive and alert in doing it. The fact that you’re staying focused, instead of letting the mind wander all over the place, helps to husband your energy, so that you can bring more stamina to whatever you have to do.”
“All too often, when we think of doing something or looking at something, we focus simply on what we like or dislike. Restraint forces you to look at why you like or dislike things, and at what happens as a result when you follow your likes and dislikes. In this way, you broaden your perspective and gain insight into areas of the mind that otherwise would stay hidden behind the scenes.”
“In addition to creating a healthy attitude and peaceful environment conducive to the practice, the precepts exercise many of the skills you need to get started in meditation. They give you practice in setting up a skillful intention and then sticking with it. They also give you practice in dealing in a mature way with any lapses that may occur. To keep to them successfully, you have to learn how to recognize and acknowledge a mistake without getting tied up in remorse and self-recrimination. You simply reaffirm your intention not to make that slip again, and then develop the brahmaviharas to help strengthen that intention. This way you learn both how to take your mistakes in stride and how not to repeat them.”
“If you see that unskillful intentions are directing where you focus your attention or how you look at something, change your focus. Look at something else, or look at the same thing in a different way. If you’ve been contemplating a beautiful body, look for the aspects that aren’t so beautiful—and they aren’t far away, just under the skin. The same principle holds for anger. If you’re thinking about someone you really hate, remember that there’s another side to that person as well, a good side. Be a person with two eyes, and “not just one. Or if you find that when you drop the lust or the anger, you’re no longer interested in looking at or thinking about those people, you realize that the problem wasn’t with them. It was with the committee in your mind. You learn that you can’t really trust some of its members.”
“renunciation is easiest when you regard it not as deprivation but as a trade. In trading the pleasures of an ordinary life for a meditative life, you’re trading candy for gold”
“Admirable people have four qualities: They’re virtuous, generous, wise, and have conviction in the principle that skillful qualities should be developed, and unskillful qualities abandoned.”
“Buddhist monks are encouraged every day to reflect on why they use the four requisites of life: food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. The purpose of this reflection is to see if they’ve been using these things to excess or in ways that will develop unskillful states of mind. ”
“Seclusion enables you to look directly at the issues created by your own mind without the distraction of issues created by other people. It’s a chance to get in touch with yourself and to reaffirm your true values. This is why the Buddha advised monks to go into the wilderness, and to create a wilderness state of mind even when living in society.”
“they place limits on the pleasure you try to take from each of the five physical senses, they encourage you to examine your attachment to the body and to sensual pleasures, and to look for pleasure in training your mind instead.”
“Breath meditation is an ideal practice for giving rise to strong states of concentration, called jhana. Jhana then provides an ideal basis for fostering the insights that can free the mind from its habitual ways of causing itself suffering and stress. Those insights can ultimately lead to an experience of release into the unconditioned dimension—called the deathless—where suffering and stress all end. So there are three aspects to advanced practice: jhana, insight, and release.”
“the Buddha didn’t write meditation guides like this, and instead set up the monastic training as a form of apprenticeship. Meditation skills are best passed down person-to-person”
“the first prerequisite in benefiting from a teacher is being willing to take criticism, both gentle and harsh. This is why genuine teachers don’t teach for money. If the teacher must be paid, the person paying is the one determining what’s taught, and people rarely pay for the criticism they need to hear.”
“As the Buddha pointed out, if you can’t find a trustworthy teacher, you’re better off practicing on your own. An unqualified teacher can do more harm than good. You have to take care in choosing a teacher whose judgments will influence the way you shape your mind.”
“You can’t be a fair judge of another person’s integrity until you’ve developed some of your own.”
February 27, 2020
The best book on meditation I’ve ever read. I’m sure I’ll read it again and again as it is so condensed in profound knowledge.
January 26, 2018
A short and sometimes-to-the-point and often excellent book on meditation. I'm tempted to give five stars. If you want to read one practical advice book about meditation, I think I'd recommend reading (parts of) thise one. (If you have time and inclination to read a much longer more detailed and less woo-woo book, read "The Mind Illuminated" which I haven't reviewed yet but definitely gets five stars.)
Pros: Full of usable instructions. Contains much wisdom. Short. Free pdf available online. Presents a useful model of your mind as a committee of subminds rather than a unified whole.
Cons: More than a little woo-woo in places. The author offhandedly refers to people who are very strong meditators having psychic powers, as if this was something we all already knew. Additionally, the author takes a very dim view of lust, generally suggesting we deal with it by imagining people's bodies with no skin so they're not so attractive; I'm open to the idea that I'm just not ready to let go of my lust yet, but still, it didn't resonate.
Advice: Skip part 4 on the Jhanas. Be the sort of person who is able to take four good things from a book while ignoring one crazy or extreme one.
Pros: Full of usable instructions. Contains much wisdom. Short. Free pdf available online. Presents a useful model of your mind as a committee of subminds rather than a unified whole.
Cons: More than a little woo-woo in places. The author offhandedly refers to people who are very strong meditators having psychic powers, as if this was something we all already knew. Additionally, the author takes a very dim view of lust, generally suggesting we deal with it by imagining people's bodies with no skin so they're not so attractive; I'm open to the idea that I'm just not ready to let go of my lust yet, but still, it didn't resonate.
Advice: Skip part 4 on the Jhanas. Be the sort of person who is able to take four good things from a book while ignoring one crazy or extreme one.
January 29, 2014
Wow! What a book! One of the best manuals on meditation I've encountered so far.
We've all heard to treat meditation as a skill, to train it as a skill, to practice deliberately. But how? This book shows you how. One of the most important ideas is to 'play' with your breath. Try this and that, see how it feels, make adjustments, take what's working and leave what's not.
Short, precise, technical and very thorough. Amazing book!
We've all heard to treat meditation as a skill, to train it as a skill, to practice deliberately. But how? This book shows you how. One of the most important ideas is to 'play' with your breath. Try this and that, see how it feels, make adjustments, take what's working and leave what's not.
Short, precise, technical and very thorough. Amazing book!
December 24, 2017
Really accessible and practical meditation guide. Method presented by Thanissaro Bhikkhu is really effective for me. Focusing on flow of bodly breath energy instead of sensations in nose area is great for my concentration and ardency to continue practice.
It's really suprising that this free book is not popular. It has really good polish translation (most of meditation/buddhism books are not translated at all). Gonna recommend it to my friends that want to get into daily meditation practice.
It's really suprising that this free book is not popular. It has really good polish translation (most of meditation/buddhism books are not translated at all). Gonna recommend it to my friends that want to get into daily meditation practice.
August 2, 2019
I am not a meditation specialist, but I can hardly think there could be something written more carefully, precise, practical, concise but with all the necessary details in the same time, on the subject.
August 13, 2024
If you are looking for a manual on breath meditation in the context of Theravada, this is a fantastic resource. It is not a general instructional text on meditation or breathwork for the non-buddhist public. While I'm sure that the first few chapters will be useful to any meditator, the instructions here are innately tied to buddhist concepts.
I found this to be an amazing piece of instructional material. I have been meditating for a decent time primarily via the western "Mindfullness meditation" taught by pop-psych books and meditation apps. While this has been somewhat useful as a calming exercise, I have found the standard images of "letting thoughts float by" as almost completely useless. By setting the goal as
an "empty" mind with no intermediate steps, you are bound to fixate on anything you perceive as interrupting that peace.
Breath meditation uses a different approach: stilling the mind by directed focus toward one thing: the breath. This is enormously helpful in quieting the mind. You first focus on a series of steps that build your ability to maintain your concentration on just the breath. By having something to direct the mind's energy toward, you can much more easily let go of anything else your mind might be fixating on. Over time, you can then let go of even the focus on the breath to cultivate the same sense of emptiness that "mindfulness" meditation tries to shortcut directly to.
This was extremely helpful to me. I find Ajaan Geoff's writing style somewhat dry, but the content of his writing is amazing.
I found this to be an amazing piece of instructional material. I have been meditating for a decent time primarily via the western "Mindfullness meditation" taught by pop-psych books and meditation apps. While this has been somewhat useful as a calming exercise, I have found the standard images of "letting thoughts float by" as almost completely useless. By setting the goal as
an "empty" mind with no intermediate steps, you are bound to fixate on anything you perceive as interrupting that peace.
Breath meditation uses a different approach: stilling the mind by directed focus toward one thing: the breath. This is enormously helpful in quieting the mind. You first focus on a series of steps that build your ability to maintain your concentration on just the breath. By having something to direct the mind's energy toward, you can much more easily let go of anything else your mind might be fixating on. Over time, you can then let go of even the focus on the breath to cultivate the same sense of emptiness that "mindfulness" meditation tries to shortcut directly to.
This was extremely helpful to me. I find Ajaan Geoff's writing style somewhat dry, but the content of his writing is amazing.
January 26, 2021
As a meditation guide: 4/5.
As a buddhist philosophy book: 3/5.
As an enlightenment aid 0/5.
Thanissaro starts off with a good description of meditation and what the experience may feel like to the unexperienced. By following the given recipe one will be proficient to this meditation style, that's for sure. However how can I concentrate in the practice if you keep telling me what 'levels' to expect while at the same time telling me not to label things. Paradoxical.
The buddhist teachings are quite straightforward described in the beginning and then repeated at the end. I found the first part wholesome. The last one not so much; it's just vagueness disguised as wisdom. Catch-22 is even mentioned by the author, it's clear his own description is confusing even to him.
The book mentions the "[...] sense of infinite knowing of the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness". Labeling sensations and experiences is moving precisely in an orthogonal direction of where you want to be going with meditation.
As a buddhist philosophy book: 3/5.
As an enlightenment aid 0/5.
Thanissaro starts off with a good description of meditation and what the experience may feel like to the unexperienced. By following the given recipe one will be proficient to this meditation style, that's for sure. However how can I concentrate in the practice if you keep telling me what 'levels' to expect while at the same time telling me not to label things. Paradoxical.
The buddhist teachings are quite straightforward described in the beginning and then repeated at the end. I found the first part wholesome. The last one not so much; it's just vagueness disguised as wisdom. Catch-22 is even mentioned by the author, it's clear his own description is confusing even to him.
The book mentions the "[...] sense of infinite knowing of the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness". Labeling sensations and experiences is moving precisely in an orthogonal direction of where you want to be going with meditation.
February 13, 2018
Good introduction to meditation for the beginners, and a good refresh read full of good tips for the intermediate or more advanced meditators. I found particularly useful the chapter on ‘Disruptive emotions’, with sections on how to deal with feelings of grief, and how to identify and distinguish healthy from unhealthy grieving and build the inner strength to help us maintain a sense of well-being in spite of our losses. Other sections in the chapter address other defilements such as anger, lust, jealousy, doubt.
Also particularly interesting the chapter on Inner focus, and how to apply meditation in our day to day activities so that its benefit are not confined to the daily sitting meditation session. For those of us with a busy life and a stressful job is critical that we extend the momentum from one formal practice to the next and apply to all our activities, in any surrounding we may found ourselves in.
This is a freely distributed book available on accesstoinsight.org where you’ll find plenty additional material, Dhamma articles and talks, books and video. At the end of each chapters there is a section pointing to additional reading and audio/video material with links to accesstoinsight and dhammatalks.org.
Talks from the author are available on the links listed above and youtube.
Also particularly interesting the chapter on Inner focus, and how to apply meditation in our day to day activities so that its benefit are not confined to the daily sitting meditation session. For those of us with a busy life and a stressful job is critical that we extend the momentum from one formal practice to the next and apply to all our activities, in any surrounding we may found ourselves in.
This is a freely distributed book available on accesstoinsight.org where you’ll find plenty additional material, Dhamma articles and talks, books and video. At the end of each chapters there is a section pointing to additional reading and audio/video material with links to accesstoinsight and dhammatalks.org.
Talks from the author are available on the links listed above and youtube.
April 28, 2025
A very short but impactful guide to breath meditation.
1. Develop Sila and keep the precepts so that you develop a healthy sense of satisfaction / pride. (Virtue)
2. Carry it over to concentration practises allowing the eenergy of your virtues to wash over he entire body and stay with the breath as long as possible (Concentration)
3. Carry over concentration practise from meditation over to everyday life, identifying unskilful thought patterns, speech and actions. When you do that you end suffering. (Compassionate Wisdom)
4. Still if you wish to take things further you can further progress to deeper Jhana states and formless realms. (This section is beyond my understanding at present, but its ok)
5. Find a teacher, ASAP.
1. Develop Sila and keep the precepts so that you develop a healthy sense of satisfaction / pride. (Virtue)
2. Carry it over to concentration practises allowing the eenergy of your virtues to wash over he entire body and stay with the breath as long as possible (Concentration)
3. Carry over concentration practise from meditation over to everyday life, identifying unskilful thought patterns, speech and actions. When you do that you end suffering. (Compassionate Wisdom)
4. Still if you wish to take things further you can further progress to deeper Jhana states and formless realms. (This section is beyond my understanding at present, but its ok)
5. Find a teacher, ASAP.
August 5, 2020
The book covers a lot of ground and it could definitely help someone who is new to meditation. Even if you're not new to meditating, there are a number of useful tidbits in here. But personally, I wasn't a fan of Thanissaro Bhikkhu's style of explanation. That's not to say it's bad; there are just other books and teachings that I've found clearer (like Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo). I also would have preferred if Thanissaro Bhikkhu pulled more from the Bhudda's teachings since he references them many times.
September 26, 2024
Местами неплохое вводное пособие, даже без сильных дидактических вайбов, которые можно было бы ожидать в стереотипном представлении от тхеравадинской литературы по теме. Местами слишком абстрактно и слишком многие умозрительные конструкции предлагается принять на веру (на мой взгляд, не очень убедительно). Но автор и сам указывает, что читать вторую половину книги сразу скорее не стоит, возможно, это для более окуклившихся персон, чем я.
September 6, 2025
The best and most thoroughly meditation manual I've put my hands on. No need for breaking it down into different stages or overwhelm the read with information. Just a very simple practice and a very extensive and practical instruction on how to extend it, modify it and solve a great variety of problems. Revisiting WEaEB and listening to Bhikkhu infinite list of dhamma talks became an integral part of my daily practice.
April 5, 2019
Wonderful book for meditation starters which also covers advanced stages of the practice. The best thing is that despite it's a Buddhist technique it's written in a coloquial language, making it very easy to digest (but please don't underestimate it!)
January 19, 2023
Did not finish. Thanissaro Bhikkhu is clearly very knowledgeable and experienced, and there's lot to learn here for an intermediate meditator. However the writing style is extremely dry and made me feel like I would begin to like meditation less. Would not recommend to a beginner.
October 16, 2023
Для самого начала медитации неплохая книга.
Даётся обзор не только самой техники, но и практические рекомендации по продолжению техники в жизнь, а также некоторые основы буддизма.
Вдвойне интересно было параллельно слушать лекции про буддизм.
Даётся обзор не только самой техники, но и практические рекомендации по продолжению техники в жизнь, а также некоторые основы буддизма.
Вдвойне интересно было параллельно слушать лекции про буддизм.
January 29, 2025
Excellent book to go back to when the complexities of the too many "maps" followed when studying more complex systems such as TMI get in the way of the practice. It's like hitting the reset button and instantly remember what the practice is all about.
June 18, 2018
An in-depth guide: how to practice breath meditation; common difficulties; the stages of practice and progression through the jhanas.
April 28, 2019
It took me a few attempts to get into this, but once I did it is an interesting and simple approach to meditation.
May 29, 2019
Excellent. Re-read delving into additional readings.
November 12, 2019
An interesting take on "anapana" as a full-body-breathing practice from the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism.
June 14, 2020
Very thorough and beautiful book on meditation on the breath energies.
June 8, 2021
There is no finer book on meditation than this. Ajaan Thanissaro knows his stuff. Worth the read.
June 27, 2021
one of the best jhana manuals(thai forest style). very practical and pragmatic, no frills, pure and simple.
December 22, 2021
From my friend Nathan, a minister's kid like me. I have also been listening to Bhikkhu's talks.
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