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Breathing to Heal
This title has been reviewed for accuracy.
Freedom is possible with our mindful breathing and mindful walking. Breathe in and focus your attention on your in-breath. Your in-breath becomes the only object of your mind, you are concentrated on your in-breath, you are mindful of your in-breath. You release the past, the future, and your worries and you become a free person. If you want to keep that freedom, you can breathe out mindfully. Breathing out, you focus your concentration on your out-breath. One breath can bring you home to the here and the now. One step can also bring you home to the here and the now. From the parking lot to the office, you may like to walk in such a way that every step releases the tension in your body. Every step brings you home to the here and the now so you can touch the wonders of life available in you and around you.
The seventh exercise of mindful breathing is to recognize the painful feeling in us. Breathing in, I am aware of the painful feeling in me. Breathing out, I smile to the painful feeling in me. The eighth exercise is to calm down the painful feeling. Mindfulness is like a mother holding the child of suffering. The first thing you do is to use the energy of mindfulness to recognize the painful feeling. The second thing is to use mindfulness to embrace the painful feeling tenderly. Exercise five is to generate a feeling of joy. Exercise six is to generate happiness. A good practitioner can always generate a feeling of joy and happiness whenever he or she wants.
When you breathe in, you bring your mind home to your body. A lot of time, your mind is not with your body. But when they are together, you are truly in the here and the now for your transformation and healing. It is wonderful to be present and your breath becomes the object of your mind and you can become a free person. You can cultivate freedom. You don’t need to be influenced by your fear and anger. We can make good decisions. The bell of mindfulness can call you back to the present moment. Walking can also bring us to the present moment. Every step. This is the basic practice to touch the wonders of life. At Plum Village, we should learn to breathe and to walk in the present moment.
The first four exercises are about the body and the next four are about the feelings. The third is the awareness of body. When you go home to your body, you may notice pain and stress in your body. This makes you suffer. The fourth is to release the tension in your body. Calming your body. This takes care of our body. We then review the first two exercises. One week at Plum Village is enough time to learn the art.
When we have the energy of mindfulness and concentration we can look deeply into the nature of our own suffering. Understanding our own suffering lets us understand the suffering of our parents and our ancestors. We need mindfulness and concentration so we are not overwhelmed by the suffering of ourselves and others. This is the practice. Understanding brings about compassion. Everyone should learn to cultivate compassion. The practice of deep listening and loving speech can always restore communication and bring about reconciliation. What is loving speech? We practice mindfulness of compassion. Thay shares the story of bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together at Plum Village.
Thay then shares a story of a woman in America who wanted to commit suicide and how she was able to transform her suffering. The way out is in.
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