[Gem]

I know people take offense to the things I say and claim it's not really Buddhist, and they can paste real Buddhist stuff as knowledge, but I talk about things you can discern for yourself. You can google any point I make, but what google scholars say doesn't validate nor invalidate what I say. I'm just depending on reason and consistency and you can think for yourself, look within yourself, and discern rightly enough in your own way.

You don't know what the breath feels like unless you pay attention and feel it, and the feeling never feels the same. It is different from one moment to the next. 'Knowing' is only possible when you directly notice it - as it already is.

The breath meditation is notice what the real-lived feeling is like. There is no point generating counting, timing or controlling the rate of breath when all you want to know is what you r breath actually feels like.

People artificially generate the extras because they are trying to get something. They feel a desire, which incites the volition, and do these things as a means to an end. The end, however, is not abstract in space and time. It is where you actually exist as it 'already is'. Life lives now. Nothing is so self evident, so are you more interested in the truth, or is what you want what really interests you? If the latter, then best do the things as means to your ends. If the former, you have to stop and look into 'this'.

Mindfulness is for walking the path of truth, not for 'getting what you want'. Hence the practice is to 'see it as it is', not 'make it as you want it to be'. That's why you 'don't do' but 'just observe' so as to 'know' what is, as it is, exactly how it is experienced by you.

That was a bit intense, and I think maybe agree/disagree mentality has started, but I'll be back again, and you'll see, it'll all add up in the end.