Thay has offered a most wonderful training to help us with the conflicts we face in ourselves and in the world. It is a simple practice that has been handed down from the Buddha. It is the practice of mindful breathing. Whenever you are tired, you are sad from things you hear on the news or read in the paper, whenever you feel stressed in relationships, you feel angry and irritable, you are invited to return to your breathing. The simple practice is:
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
Breathing in, I feel calm.
Breathing out, I feel at ease.
Breathing in, I smile.
Breathing out, I release all worries, tension and anxiety.
I have underestimated the power of this simple practice. You know those times when someone says something or does something and you just want them to shut up, and you feel guilty and ashamed for thinking such things? Or those times when you hear really terrible news, and your energy suddenly drops, you feel depressed and you don't know what to do? These are the times to put into practice this short meditation.
No matter where you are, what you are doing, this will help you return. We don't need another depressed person, another anxious, worried face. We need compassion. Compassion is the courage to be ourselves in any situation, and to meet ourselves, even through trials, with the conviction that love and peace and centeredness is the most important thing. If we lose our peace, our love, our calm, we lose touch with the ultimate and the impermanence of things. And the hells in which we are working to save people from will become our reality. Then we are hungry ghosts in need of recovery, in need of helping arms to rescue us from suffering. All of us can practice this peace, this love. We don't need to suffer to help relieve the suffering in others. Our own freedom from suffering is the best gift we can offer those who are in need. Practice peace, love and equanimity.
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