February 08th, 2016

Breathing

When we practice just sitting, our mind should just follow our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We begin to understand that the outer world and the inner world are not separate.  They are two halves of the one limitless world.
 
In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, ‘I breathe,’ the ‘I’ is extra. There is no you to say ‘I.’ What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no ‘I,’ no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door. 
 
You are already enlightened. The real you is, has always been at peace.  When we allow our mind to follow the stream of worldly thoughts –work, money, possessions, relationships, this peace is covered in clouds, so we cannot recognize it. No words can accurately explain this. Only when we sit and only follow our breathing do we understand for ourselves and in this state, however brief it may be at first, we experience the peace of our true nature; the bliss of Nirvana.
 
Do not try to force the clouds of thought to leave. Allow them to come, but pay them no attention. They will vanish on their own accord, allowing you
to remain quiet, calm, and in an easy peace.
 
*Based on the teaching of Shinyru Suzuki