Counting the breaths is a good method. The Agamas say it can be used to attain arhatship. Using it can also generate wisdom and the four preliminary levels of dhyana. If you use this method for a while and then want to switch, that is okay. For instance, you can contemplate the mind or switch to the ocean seal samadhi method. It's like walking and then hopping a train. If you just walk, you'll get there. If you switch to a vehicle, you'll also get there.

Counting the breath is a basic method. In using this method you should be able to examine yourself better to see if you are working hard or not. It is an excellent method. If it weren't, I wouldn't teach it.

STUDENT:

Sitting for however long you like and getting up whenever you like bothers me. There's no discipline. Many thoughts go through the mind. The purpose of sitting is to watch your thoughts. If you answer every thought that goes through the mind, you wouldn't sit for very long. Five minutes in you might think that you are hungry. After ten minutes you might think meditation is useless. But after sitting for a while I have come to realize that fifteen minutes into it there might be a thought that says sitting is wonderful. Really, the whole purpose of sitting is precisely to watch these thoughts come and go, to see that thoughts do rise and fall. You would never realize it if you didn't sit through it. If you got up, you would never know this. Isn't it better to ride it out?

SHIH-FU: