Tag Archives: breath

January 29 – The path we’ve travelled

Dear Friends, So now that we’ve zipped through four weeks of material, and we’re nearing the end of January, I thought we could take a step back and have a big picture of what we’ve been cultivating this month. 1 – What’s your why – setting an intention can help us stay oriented in our practice and life… Read More »

January 5 – Exhale and inhale

Dear Friends, This poem brings me a smile: One Attempt at Efficiency after an idea planted by Gabrielle Louise it never worksthis trying to exhale and inhaleat the same time ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommerhttps://ahundredfallingveils.com/2016/02/06/one-attempt-at-efficiency/ One of the most common ways to cultivate mindfulness is by turning attention towards the breath. This is something we can do any time,… Read More »

January 25 – Perception and the breath

Dear Friends, Body, feelings, thoughts, hindrances, aggregates… That’s a lot of things to think about. But it all starts simply. Bhante Gunaratana has this simple reminder about perception of breathing: When you breathe mindfully, you see the arising, existing, and passing away of the form of the breath, or breath-body, immediately as it happens. In the same way,… Read More »

January 2 – Take your breath to work

Dear Friends, I was quite moved by Bhante Gunaratana’s description of how mindfulness of breathing can connect us to all beings: But all living beings breath. Breathing does not differentiate among Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, and Zoroastraians. Nor does it distinguish between rich and poor, capitalists and socialists, or conservatives and liberals for that matter. When… Read More »

January 4 – Cue, routine, reward

Dear Friends, Just a short email today. 🙂 Feel free to keep working on mindfulness of breathing. Gil Frondsdal says that one of his teachers told him that mindfulness of breathing is enough, in and of itself, for a person to become enlightened. In the Search Inside Yourself capstone session, Brandon Rennels, one of the instructors of the in-person class I… Read More »

January 3 – How do you know that you’re breathing?

Dear Friends, I normally don’t meditate in the morning as I often feel rushed to get my dogs fed and get myself to work, but for this month, I’m going to try a simple 5-minute mindfulness of breathing exercise every morning, when the alarm first goes off. (I have back up alarms so I won’t fall back asleep.) Five minutes… Read More »