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UC Santa Barbara Vietnamese Retreat
When practicing mindful breathing, simply let the breath come and go naturally, without effort or interference. Each time you breathe in, silently note, “Breathing in, I know this is my in-breath,” and embrace it with the energy of mindfulness—just as you would hold and soothe a baby with all your tenderness. Breathing out is the same: “Breathing out, I know this is my out-breath,” and embrace it to generate compassion for yourself, helping the breath to become deeper, slower, and more gentle after just a few minutes.
The inner strength of mindfulness can also be used to embrace and transform any negative energy (anger, fear, suffering) such as:
- Recognizing when anger arises: “Breathing in, I know anger is present”;
- Breathing out, smiling and embracing the anger with your mindful breath and mindful steps;
- Applying the technique of abdominal breathing (breathing with the lower belly, the dantian) to avoid being swept away by the “eye of the storm” of strong emotions.
All phenomena (samskara, “formations”)—from a flower to the body, from anger to love—are composed of many elements (clouds, sunshine, earth, compost…), and they are impermanent. If we know how to look deeply, we discover that within every “garbage” (fear, craving, anger) lies the potential to be transformed into love, forgiveness, and understanding when there is enough faith and practice. Gradually, we learn to stop (śamatha) in order to have mindfulness; from mindfulness arises concentration, from concentration arises insight—and step by step, we restore peace and happiness to ourselves, our families, and our community.
