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Israeli Retreat No1
Mindfulness is the energy of being alive and present in the here and the now. It brings the body and the mind together as one entity, preventing us from losing ourselves in the past, the future, or our worries. Mindful breathing serves as a bridge linking these two sides of our being. By practicing the simple exercise of knowing when we are breathing in and breathing out, we produce our true presence and become available to life and to those we love. The basic condition for true love is to be there for the person you love. Two specific mantras transform relationships:
- Darling, I am here for you
- Darling, I know you are there, and I am very happy
Life is available only in the present moment. We can cultivate mindfulness through daily activities:
- Walking meditation: enjoying every step without thinking of arriving.
- Mindful eating: investing one hundred percent of ourselves in a single piece of food, such as a string bean, to see the whole cosmos within it.
- Telephone meditation: using the ring of a phone as a bell of mindfulness to return to our breathing.
- Sitting meditation: finding a stable position to enjoy doing nothing, allowing the mind to settle like particles in a glass of orange juice. Nelson Mandela once declared, “What I want the most, what I need the most is to be able to sit down, doing nothing.”
- Mindful drinking and washing: enjoying tea or coffee and dwelling in the present moment while doing dishes or driving.
By looking deeply, we discover that conditions for our happiness are already more than sufficient. We can be mindful of our eyes, which see the paradise of forms and colors, or our heart and liver, which function normally. Mindfulness allows us to embrace and transform toxins like anger and fear into compassion. This practice was essential during the war in Vietnam, where Engaged Buddhism was born to keep compassion alive. We can profit from the refreshing, healing, and nourishing elements around us, such as the blue sky, beautiful vegetation, clean air, and pure water. This energy of the Buddha is the capacity to generate peace and joy, allowing us to see the way out of suffering and restore our sanity.