Highlights
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The key to creating a home meditation practice is to create a space where the busyness stops.
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By stopping the activities of our minds and bodies—by just sitting quietly, breathing in and out, being silent within, and releasing our tension and worry—we become more solid, more concentrated, and more intelligent.
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The foundation of happiness is mindfulness. The basic condition for being happy is our awareness.
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When we practice mindfulness, we come to cherish these things and we learn how to protect them.
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Apranihita is a Sanskrit word meaning “wishlessness” or “aimlessness.” We don’t need to keep running after something,
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Often we tell ourselves, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” But when we practice awareness, we discover that the opposite may be more helpful: “Don’t just do something, sit there!
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Stopping is the first aspect of meditation. The second aspect is looking deeply.
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We are so used to running around, even at home, that stopping is a hard habit to develop. Visual cues placed throughout the house can serve as gentle reminders that now is the perfect time to stop and be aware of the present moment.
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Your mindful breath is like a bridge, connecting body and mind. The moment when you breathe in, and are aware that you’re breathing in, you have begun to breathe mindfully.
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Even though you’re paying attention to your breath, don’t labor it or try too hard. Allow your breath to flow easily and inaudibly. Breathing can and should be enjoyable! Paying attention to your breathing is a way for your body to relax.
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If we sit in the same place each day, it takes us less and less time to remember to stop and return to our breath.
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Sit just to enjoy your sitting; you don’t need to attain any goal. Each moment of sitting meditation brings you back to life.
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While sitting, I make almost no use of my intellect. I don’t try to analyze things or solve complex problems by thinking about them. Thinking requires strenuous mental work and makes us tired. This is not the case while resting in awareness, or recognizing thoughts and emotions that appear, or even when taking the time to look deeply into them. We have a tendency to think that meditation demands a great mobilization of gray matter, but that’s not really the case. Meditation is not hard labor. On the contrary, meditation rests the mind.
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The sights and sounds of the world are not your enemies. They don’t have to be perceived as distractions. They can be part of the field of your awareness, or like birdsong in the background. Distraction only comes with forgetfulness, the absence of mindfulness.
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When you feel uneasy, sad, or angry, you can go into the breathing room, close the door, sit down, invite a sound of the bell—in the Zen tradition, we don’t say that we ring or strike the bell, instead we “invite” the bell with the “inviter” (usually a wooden stick)—and practice breathing mindfully.
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Once you’ve gone into the breathing room, you’re protected from the frustration and anger inside you and around you. There’s no talking, no arguing or figuring things out in the breathing room. You just sit and breathe.
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Putting pictures of our blood and spiritual ancestors on our altars helps us feel rooted. If we can find ways to cherish and develop our spiritual heritage, we feel more whole. Learning to touch deeply the jewels of our own tradition allows us to understand and appreciate the values of other traditions, and this benefits everyone.
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The intention to love is not yet love. Looking deeply at ourselves and at another person or group, our aspiration to love will become a deep intention. Love will enter our thoughts, words, and actions, and we’ll become more peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
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If you’re eating alone, promise yourself just to eat and to be with the food, and not to read or listen to the radio during the meal. If you’re eating with others, take the time to really look at each of them and smile.
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After breathing and smiling, look down at the food in a way that allows it to become real. This food reveals your connection with the Earth. Each bite contains the life of the sun and the Earth. The extent to which your food reveals itself depends on you. You can see and taste the whole universe in a piece of bread!
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When you’re cleaning the kitchen or washing dishes, do it as if you’re washing a baby, and you can feel joy and peace radiate within and around you.
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With a recording, we can just press the stop button to create silence. But with our thinking, we don’t have a button. We may think and worry so much that we can’t sleep,
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Using the imaginary ray of your mindfulness, scan your body, bringing attention to each part, embracing it, and sending love and care as you breathe in and out. If any part of the body needs healing, you can spend more time embracing and caring for that part with your loving awareness.
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Breathing in and out, your whole body feels light, like duckweed floating
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Breathing in and out, your whole body feels light, like duckweed floating on the water. You have nowhere to go, nothing to do. You are free as a cloud floating in the sky.
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When we can rest, everything becomes easier. If our home is a place of rest, it becomes a sanctuary. I think, given all of the busyness around us, we need to practice deep relaxation every day.