In this Dhamma talk, Bhante Joe responds to a thoughtful question about breath meditation: if the breath feels uncomfortable, should we adjust it—or “just observe”? Using early Buddhist framing, he explains how both strategies can be skillful at different times: sometimes we counter a defilement through deliberate fabrication, and sometimes we overcome it through steady, equanimous observation. The talk focuses especially on fear and anxiety (often tied to uncertainty and renunciation), and how over-relying on the rational mind can slide into worry through endless planning. Bhante also highlights the “observer” stance as a useful felt sense—but warns against turning it into a view of something permanently safe or “deathless.” Discernment is the key: know when to observe, when to adjust, and when to change approaches.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 — Question: Is “Just Observing” Ever Neutral?
00:00:30 — Intention in Practice: Why There’s No Blank-Slate Observer
00:00:58 — The Breath Feels Uncomfortable: Adjust or Watch?
00:01:24 — The Desk/Posture Simile: When Pain Seems Self-Induced
00:01:53 — Two Ways to Work with Defilements: Observe vs Fabricate
00:02:15 — Even Equanimity Is a Fabrication (A Chosen Way of Attending)
00:02:28 — “Escape” Meditations: Different Tools for Different Hindrances
00:02:47 — Why This Matters for Fear, Anxiety, and Renunciation
00:03:06 — Rationality’s Near Enemy: Worry, Fear, and Over-Planning
00:03:41 — When You Can’t Map the Future: Learning to Not Act
00:04:37 — Watching Emotions Arise, Remain, and Pass Away
00:05:08 — Mindfulness & Alertness: Keeping Proliferation Simple
00:05:22 — The “Observer” Felt Sense: Safety, Peace, and Its Limits
00:06:23 — Ajahn Mun’s Instruction: If It’s Unusual, Just Observe
00:06:42 — Equanimity as an Antidote to Fear (When Proliferation Drops)
00:07:13 — When Observation Is NOT Skillful: Knee Pain, Damage, and Adjustment
00:07:34 — The Big Trap: Mistaking the Observer for the Deathless
00:08:14 — What Observes Is Consciousness: Useful, Yet To Be Let Go Of
00:09:13 — Breath Discomfort: When “Just Observing” Can Calm Anxiety
00:09:46 — Discernment as the Supreme Factor: Choosing the Right Tool
00:10:30 — The Path as Fabricated: Skillful Actions, Skillfully Understood
00:11:10 — A Doctor’s Medicine Chest: Building a Repertoire Through Results
00:11:26 — A Living Example from Thailand: “Just Walking” / “Just Standing”
00:12:09 — Final Point: Even Awareness Must Be Seen as Impermanent, Not-Self
00:12:31 — Context Matters: A Tool Among Many, Eventually Put Down
00:12:49 — Closing: Holding the Practice Properly Makes It Beneficial