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Arrived, Home — True Presence and the Transformation of the Five Rivers
The practice “I am here for you” consists in generating your true presence by uniting body and mind in the present moment. To do this, we use conscious breathing and walking meditation:
- Breathing in mindfully (“Breathing in, I know I am breathing in”), breathing out mindfully (“Breathing out, I know I am breathing out”) to bring the mind back to the body in just a few seconds.
- Walking step by step, synchronizing each in-breath and out-breath with a step, mentally repeating: “I have arrived, I am home.”
This method is based on the observation of the five skandhas (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness) as five impermanent rivers:
• Each element is born and dies in every moment, revealing impermanence and the absence of a separate self.
• The “mental formations” (49 categories, including fear, anger, compassion, mindfulness) sprout from seeds (bīja) in store consciousness; we practice selective watering to nourish the wholesome seeds.
Two pillars support transformation:
• stopping (samatha) – stopping the mental running and bringing body and mind back to the here and now,
• deep looking (vipassanā) – contemplating the impermanent and non-self nature of every experience in order to dissolve suffering.
We apply this presence to every activity: sitting meditation, walking, eating, washing the dishes… and we take refuge in the Sangha to benefit from its collective energy of mindfulness: Sangham saranam gacchami.
