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Mindfulness of Breathing
A 24-year-old businesswoman who had studied abroad in the United States, graduated from university, and started her own business early, participated in two Plum Village retreats: one and a half days in Hoi An in 2008 and a few weeks in Lower Hamlet (France). At first, she only listened with her intellect, but through the practice of mindful breathing and gardening with the sisters, she deeply experienced the presence of her parents in every cell of her body, cried for her old suffering, and transformed it into true love. Upon returning to France, she recognized her need to be loved, a sign of maturity in her emotional life. From that experience, Sena Studio initiated the project “16 Breaths to Save the World,” including two discs recording the press conference in Saigon and ten discs dedicated to different groups such as young people, parents, and businesspeople. Through the films and press conferences, many entrepreneurs, artists, and youth practiced mindful breathing to maintain peace, heal suffering, and spread mindfulness.
In the teaching on the Dharma door of mindful breathing, the practice of interbeing (or non-self) is demonstrated when each breath reveals that our parents, the Buddha, and our teacher are one with our body. Breathing in, we invite the World-Honored One; breathing out, we see Him sitting together with our back, so that there is no longer any separation between past, present, and future. Regarding ethics, three main tendencies are discussed:
- Utilitarianism: evaluating good and evil by the benefit, happiness, or suffering that actions bring
- Deontology: maintaining immutable principles regardless of consequences, for example, not killing, not lying
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Virtue ethics: cultivating compassion and equanimity within so that right action arises even when the outcome is not yet clear
In addition, there is ethical egoism—caring for one’s own happiness, and Confucian ethics with its five elements of humaneness (respect, tolerance, trustworthiness, diligence, generosity)—all, in the light of non-self, are oriented toward reducing suffering, sowing wholesome seeds, and liberation.