Dalai Lama Quote of the Week - Focusing on Breath Breaks Flow of Attachment

THE GELUG/KAGYU TRADITION
OF MAHAMUDRA
by H.H. the Dalai Lama
and Alexander Berzin
more...

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

When we focus our attention on the passage of breath, we break the usually continuous flow of thoughts of attachment, hostility and so forth, whatever they might be. This causes such thoughts to subside for the moment. Thus, by occupying the mind with our breath, we cleanse it of all positive and negative conceptual thoughts and thus remain in a neutral state of mind unspecified as either constructive or destructive. This is the meaning of the line in the root text, "Thoroughly clean out your state of awareness." This unspecified or neutral state of mind, cleaned out of all positive and negative conceptual thoughts, is the most conducive one to work with. Because an unspecified state of mind like this is unburdened and supple, it is relatively easy to generate it into a constructive state.

--from The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra by H.H. the Dalai Lama and Alexander Berzin, published by Snow Lion Publications

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Tags: Buddhism, meditation, books, focusing on breath, attachment, The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Alexander Berzin, Snow Lion Publications