                        TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD
  
  
       This is a `how to' book. It teaches the liberation of the 
  mind, not as a mind-boggling theory, but as a very basic skill 
  that starts with keeping the breath in mind.
  
       The teachings here are drawn from the works of Ajaan Lee 
  Dhammadharo (1906-61), one of Thailand's most renowned teachers 
  of Buddhist meditation practices. Ajaan Lee was a forest monk -
  one who prefers to live in the seclusion of the forest and makes 
  meditation the central theme of his practice - so his teachings 
  grow out of personal, practical experience,  although he also 
  makes a point of relating them to standard Buddhist doctrine. 
  
       The book is in two parts: The first is a basic guide to the 
  techniques of breath meditation - Ajaan Lee's specialty - and 
  gives two methods that he developed at separate points in his 
  career. The second part consists of excerpts from five of his 
  talks dealing with the issues that tend to arise in the course of 
  meditation.
  
       If you want to begin your practice of meditation immediately 
  and fill in the details later, turn to Method 2. Read over the 
  seven basic steps until you have them firmly in mind, and then 
  start meditating.  Take care, especially at the beginning, not to 
  clutter your mind with extraneous ideas or information. Otherwise, 
  you might spend too much time looking for things in your 
  meditation, and not see what is actually there. The rest of the 
  book can wait until later, when you want help with a particular 
  problem or - what is often the same thing - when you want an 
  over-all perspective on what you are doing.
  
       The purpose of this book is to suggest possibilities: to 
  direct your attention to areas you may have overlooked, to 
  suggest approaches that otherwise might not have occurred to you. 
  What you actually see is purely an individual matter. Don't try 
  to force things. Don't be worried if you have experiences that 
  aren't covered in the book. Don't be disappointed if you don't 
  have experiences that are.            
  
       Signs and visions, for example: Some people experience them, 
  others don't.  They are an individual matter, and not really 
  essential to the meditation. If you experience them, learn how to 
  use them wisely.  If you don't, learn how to use what you do 
  experience. The important point is to keep the basics in mind 
  and to stay observant.
  
       Meditation, like carpentry, sailing or any other skill, has 
  its own vocabulary that to the beginner is bound to seem like a 
  code.  One of the challenges in using this book will be in 
  breaking its code. Part of the difficulty is that some of the 
  terms are literally foreign: They're in Pali, the language of the 
  oldest extant Buddhist texts, colored by shades of meaning 
  they've picked up from Thai. This problem, though, is relatively 
  minor.  Most of these terms are explained in the text, and the 
  glossary at the back of the book gives definitions for any that 
  aren't, plus additional information on many that are.
  
       A greater challenge lies in getting a feel for the author's 
  point of view. In meditation, we are dealing with the body and 
  mind as experienced from the inside.  Ajaan Lee practiced 
  meditation most of his adult life.  He had long experience in 
  viewing the body and mind from that perspective, and so it is 
  only natural that his choice of terms should reflect it.
  
       For example, when he refers to the breath or breath 
  sensations, he is speaking not only of the air going in and out 
  of the lungs, but also of the way breathing feels, from the 
  inside, throughout the entire body.  Similarly, the 'elements' 
  (dhatu) of the body are not the chemical elements.  Instead, they 
  are elementary feelings - energy, warmth, liquidity, solidity, 
  emptiness and cognizance - the way the body presents itself 
  directly to inner awareness. The only way to get past the 
  strangeness of this sort of terminology is to start exploring 
  your own body and mind from the inside, and to gain a sense of 
  which terms apply to which of your own personal experiences.  
  Only then will these terms fulfill their intended purpose - as 
  tools for refining your inner sensitivities - for the truth of 
  meditation lies, not in understanding the words, but in mastering 
  the skill the leads to a direct understanding of awareness 
  itself.
  
       You might compare this book to a recipe. If you simply read 
  the recipe, you can't - even if you understand all the terms - 
  get any flavor or nourishment from it.  If you follow the first 
  few steps and then give up when it starts getting difficult, 
  you've wasted your time. But if you follow it all the way, you 
  can then set it aside and simply enjoy the results of your own 
  cooking.
  
       My hope is that this book will be helpful in your personal 
  exploration into the benefits that come from keeping the breath 
  in mind.
  
                                     Thanissaro Bhikkhu
                                     (Geoffrey DeGraff)
  
  
  Metta Forest Monastery
  PO Box 1409
  Valley Center, CA 92082
  
