Be Free Where You Are

In this sitting or lying position, just stick to your breathing the way that someone on the ocean would stick to a life vest. After some time the emotion will pass.

Suppose you hear noises in your surroundings. You can use noise as the object of mindfulness. “Breathing in, I can hear a lot of noise. Breathing out, I smile at this noise. I know that people making noise are not always peaceful, and I feel compassion toward them.”

Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something, and I chew my food in such a way that life, joy, solidity, and non-fear become possible. After twenty minutes of eating, I feel nourished—not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. This is a very, very deep practice.

Just saying a few words that make another person suffer less can give our lives meaning. And it is something we can do anywhere.

A bodhisattva is someone who has compassion within himself or herself and who is able to make another person smile or help someone suffer less. Every one of us is capable of this.

Our lives should have meaning, and that meaning is to help people suffer less, help people touch the joys of life. When we have compassion in our hearts, when we know that we are able to help a person suffer less, life begins to have more meaning.

When a storm comes, it stays for some time, and then it goes.

Q: Would you explain something about your poetry? A: My poetry is something that happens throughout the day. When I water the vegetables or wash dishes, poetry is born in me. When I sit down at the writing table, all I do is deliver the poems. Poetry comes as an inspiration and is the fruit of my mindful living. After a poem is born, I may realize

We are there for the food because the food is there for us; it is only fair. Eat in mindfulness and you will be worthy of the Earth and the sky.