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Be Fresh, Be Beautiful

Thich Nhat Hanh · April 14, 2013 · Thailand
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Most of us are too busy, allowing tension and pain to accumulate, losing our beauty and freshness. It is possible to restore this beauty through mindfulness in daily activities like breathing, drinking tea, cooking, driving, and washing dishes. We do not need to set aside time for meditation; we can meditate while walking to release tension and touch Mother Earth. The practice is illustrated by four pebbles:

  1. The flower represents freshness and beauty.
  2. The mountain symbolizes solidity and stability, essential for happiness and reliability.
  3. Still water reflects things as they truly are, helping to restore peace and avoid wrong perceptions.
  4. Space represents freedom from the past, future, and projects, allowing us to touch the wonders of life in the present moment.

Self-love is the foundation for the love of another person. The first four exercises of mindful breathing help us take care of our body:

  1. Aware of in-breath and out-breath: Identifying the breath stops thinking and brings the insight that we are alive, the greatest of all miracles.
  2. Following the in-breath: Focusing attention all the way through improves the quality of mindfulness and concentration.
  3. Aware of the body: Bringing the mind home to the body establishes us in the here and the now.
  4. Release tension in the body: An act of reconciliation between mind and body.

The next exercises focus on the art of happiness and suffering:

  1. Generating joy.
  2. Generating happiness: Recognizing that conditions for happiness, such as having eyes in good condition or a normal heart, are already available in the here and now (drista Dharma sukha vihara).
  3. Aware of pain: Recognizing and embracing painful feelings tenderly without suppression.
  4. Calming the painful feeling.
    A good practitioner knows how to suffer and how to generate joy. By taking care of ourselves first, we become a source of peace and happiness, capable of offering Metta (joy) and Karuna (removing pain) to others.
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