..續本文上一頁oint. No need to worry. If the breath disappears, it doesn”t matter. Carefully observe. If you haven”t reached this point yet, then there will still be the sensation of the breath. Then look at the breath. lf the breath is gone, then just look at where it”s gone. It goes at the point it wants to go. Wherever this point is, look at where there is no more breathing, where there is nothing.

　　What exactly do you want to know

　　 If you tell more how far you”ve come, I can explain more accurately. Like this, I don”t really know what to say, so it”s in accordance with the beginning steps. So, when the breath gets lost, is it still there, is it only very soft and refined

　　 Tan Moshe: It”s very soft.

　　Luang Por: If the breath reappears this means that your mind has become coarse again. It needs to be very gentle and light, then it”s going to take you to peacefulness. If the breath fades away, don”t get anxious. Sometimes it is just about to disappear and then we become afraid and quickly re-establish it. This is the reason that the mind doesn”t get peaceful. Just let it go naturally. If it disappears - never mind. When you notice that it”s disappearing, just let it disappear. No need to worry. Keep up the awareness at this point. If you get excited and return to look at the breath again, you will become unpeaceful again, the same if you take up your meditation - word again. Just let it all go. Whatever it is like, just continue on a little more, no matter how it is. Disappearing, okay, disappearing. Or - if the breath doesn”t disappear, this too, doesn”t matter. Do you understand this

　　 If the breath disappears it means that you are already getting peaceful. I don”t think there is anybody who couldn”t get his breath back after the meditation. But there is a second kind of disappearance of the breath, that is: losing the breath because you”ve lost your mindfulness - whereas what we”ve been talking about is losing the breath while knowing where you”re at. Those are two different ways of the breath disappearing. One is complete absence, because one sits there not knowing anything, completely unaware. The other is the breath is disappearing and we know what”s going on. We develop awareness just at that point. Whatever it may feel like, we can”t be bothered; but still we have awareness. If we lose the breath not knowing what had happened, we open our eyes and start reestablishing mindfulness again, focusing on the breath, taking a deep, full in-breath, repeating the meditation word Buddho again. In this case, there is nothing else we can do but start again, as we know we”ve lost it already. If we become aware of it, we re-establish mindfulness on the breath. If we feel we are too drowsy we can try to get up and do some walking meditation.

　　Tan Yatiko: May I ask about how to decide whether our practice is progressing or not again

　　 For us westerners it”s been a habit that we”ve developed to see ourselves in a negative way, and for most of us, to ask ourselves, whether we are worthy or not of the alms-food or the four requisites will increase this negativity. Not a small number of us feel that no matter how much work we do, we don”t necessarily feel worthy of the four requisites. But, still, some monks really take it easy, and even though they have quite a bit of weak points in their conduct, they would never doubt.

　　Luang Por: Okay, I understand, let”s put it this way: if you stay within the 227 training rules, that”s enough, and you stay in the realms of the monastery rules (the korwat). So if you keep the 227 precepts and don”t transgress them, and keep the monastery-regulations, that our teachers have set up -morning and evening chanting, sweeping the monas…

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