Breathe! You Are Alive: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing

The ninth method helps us identify the functions of the mind (other than the feelings, which were treated in methods seven and eight), such as perception, thinking, reasoning, discriminating, imagining, and all the activities of the subconscious as well. As soon as one of these psychological phenomena arises, we should identify it while breathing w

The eighth method aims at the transformation of the energy of feelings. By observing the true nature of any feeling, we can transform its energy into the energy of peace and joy. When we understand someone, we can accept and love him. Once we have accepted him, there is no longer any feeling of reproach or irritation against him. The energy of the

“I am breathing out, and I am aware my hands are carrying a pot of boiling water,” or “I am breathing in, and I am aware that my right hand is holding an electric wire,” or even “I am breathing in, and I am aware that I am passing another car. I am breathing out and-I know that the situation is under control.” We can practice like this.

“When the practitioner can abide in meditative stability without being distracted and can investigate every dharma, every object of mind that arises, then the second Factor of Awakening will be born and developed in him, the factor of investigating dharmas. When this factor is developed, it will come to perfection. “When the practitioner can observ

The initial joy of meditation is like leaving the city, with its hyperactivity and all its disturbing encounters, going off to the countryside to sit beneath a tree, alone. We feel totally at ease, peaceful and joyful. What a joy, what a relief, like when you complete a difficult examination and feel that you have laid aside all anxiety forevermore

Concentration of the mind is stopping it from running around from one object to another in order to stay with just one object. We stay with one object in order to observe it and to look deeply into it. In this way, stopping and observing become one.

Life in this world is both painful and miraculous. The Buddhist traditions of the Southern schools stress the painful side, while the Buddhist traditions of the Northern schools help us realize and appreciate the marvels of life.

Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation can be transformed into an energy which nourishes.

When a feeling of irritation or fear is present, we can be aware of it, nourishing this awareness through breathing. Fully aware of our breathing, with patience, we come to see more deeply into the true nature of this feeling. In seeing, we come to understand. With understanding, there is freedom.