Mindful Breathing The four noble truths can’t simply be understood intellectually. They contain key ideas, such as nonduality, emptiness, no-self, interbeing, and signlessness, that can only be understood through practice. The foundational practice of the Buddha is mindful breathing. Before we can commit to or practice any ethical action, we need to begin with our breath. Awareness of our breath is the first practical ethical action available to us. This is the only way we can begin to truly understand the basic suffering of human beings and how we might transform it. When we look at all the suffering around us, at poverty, violence, or climate change, we may want to solve these things immediately. We want to do something. But to do something effectively and ethically, we need to be our best selves in order to be able to handle the suffering. Being able to stop, to breathe, and to walk or move in mind- fulness are the keys to the practice. they can be done anywhere, at any time. We can say: Breathing in, I know this is my in-breath. Breathing out, I know this is my out-breath. It’s very simple but very effective. When we bring our attention to our in-breath and our out-breath, we stop thinking of the past, we stop thinking of the future, and we begin to come home to our-selves. Coming home to ourselves is the first thing we need to do, even for politicians, scientists, or economists. Don’t think this practice doesn’t apply to you. If we don’t go home to ourselves, we can’t be at our best and serve the world in the best way. We have to be ourselves to be our best. Our quality of being is the foundation for the quality of our actions. Breathing in, I’m aware of my whole body. Breathing out, I’m aware of my whole body. Breathing mindfully brings us back to our bodies. We have to acknowledge our bodies first because tension and suffering accumulate in the body. Breathing in this way, we create a kind of family reunion between mind and body. The mind becomes an embodied mind. If we are truly aware, we know there is tension and pain in our bodies. We can’t do our best if we don’t know how to release the tension and the pain in ourselves. Breathing in, I’m aware of tension in my body. Breathing out, I release all the tension in my body. We can do something right away to improve ourselves and release our tension and suffering so we can see and act more clearly. With our mindful breathing, body and mind come together, established in the here and now, and we can more easily handle the difficult situations in our lives. Mindful breathing brings more well-being into our bodies. In one breath we can recognize and release the tension within us. We can use our in-breath and out-breath to help us notice the painful feelings inside us. With our in-breath we can acknowledge these feelings and with our out-breath we can let them go. Breathing in, I am aware of a painful feeling arising. Breathing out, I release the painful feeling. This is a nonviolent and gentle way to help our bodies release tension and pain. It is possible to practice mindful breathing in order to produce a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness. When we are well-nourished and know how to create joy, then we are strong enough to handle the deep pain within ourselves and the world. With one in-breath and out-breath, we can practice all the four noble truths: we acknowledge our tension or pain and call it by its true name; we release it and let well-being arise. Reprinted from Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh (2012), Parallax Press, Berkeley, California.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:00:01 +0000
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