Body And Mind Together

Each of us has a body, but we aren’t always in touch with it. Maybe our
body needs us, our body is calling us, but we don’t hear it. We’re so
caught up in our job, our computer, our phone, or in our conversation,
we can forget we even have a body.
If we can get in touch with our body, then we can also get in touch
with our feelings. There are many feelings calling to us. Every feeling
is like our child. Suffering is a hurt child crying out to us. But we ignore
the voice of the child within.
The process of healing begins when we mindfully breathe in. In
daily life, very often our body is here but our mind is off in the past,
in the future, or in our projects. The mind is not with the body. When
we breathe in and focus our attention on our in-breath, we reunite
body and mind. We become aware of what is going on in the present
moment, in our body, in our perceptions, and around us.
When we bring our mind home to our body, something wonderful
happens; our mental discourse stops its chattering. Thinking can be
productive, but the reality is that most of our thinking is unproductive.
When we think, it may be easy for us to be lost in our thinking.
But when we use our breath to bring our mind home to the body, we can
stop the thinking.
When you come back to yourself and breathe mindfully, your
mind’s attention has only one object, your breath. If you continue to
breathe in and out mindfully, you maintain that state of presence and
freedom. Your mind will be clearer and you will make better decisions.
It’s much better to make a decision when your mind is clear and free
rather than in the sway of fear, anger, and worries.
When I was a young monk, I believed that it took a long time to get any kind of insight. The truth is, there are insights that can come
right away. When you practice mindfulness of breathing, you know
right away that you are alive, and that to be alive is a wonder. If you can
be aware that you have a living body, and notice when there’s tension in
your body, that’s already an important insight. With that insight, you
have already begun to diagnose the situation. You don’t need to practice
eight years or twenty years in order to wake up.
Breathing mindfully isn’t something hard to do. You don’t have to
suffer while breathing. You’re already doing it all day long. You don’t
need to struggle to control your breathing. In fact, breathing in can
become a real pleasure. You just allow yourself to breathe in naturally
while focusing your attention on your in-breath. It’s like the morning
sunshine on a flower that has closed overnight. The sunshine doen’t
interfere with the flower. The sunshine just embraces and subtly permeates
the flower. Embraced by the energy of the sunshine, the flower
begins to bloom.