On Breathing 

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I didn't mention in this class that I request, if you know beforehand that you will not be
coming to the meeting, that you tell me, either in class or send me an email or call
me on the telephone and tell me that you're going to be missing.
I'd appreciate that if you would.
Nettie and Jeff told me last week that they weren't going to be here and they're not here.
And today at Green Gulch I saw two of our group and they're not here either because
they're staying at Green Gulch tonight, they're going to be up in the mountain, staying in
a cottage called Hope Cottage.
But they told me that they noticed the difference when they were walking up the mountain to
the cottage, if they paid attention to their breathing or not, and if they stood upright
or leaned forward.
They were practicing these practices as they were climbing the mountain at Green Gulch.
And they were happy to make discoveries about posture and breathing in walking uphill.
They did not mention walking downhill.
And other people have also told me, outside of class, how they're continuing to meditate
on breathing and body posture during the week.
Thank you for upholding the practice during the week.
I would like to share some daily life things related to our meditation on breathing.
One is that I met with somebody this week, a few days ago, in the early part of the week.
And this person related a story, a history, a herstory of some important realization she
had about her life.
And while she was telling this story, the words were coming out of her body, and the
words were kind of steady, almost you might say uninterrupted.
Word, after word, after word, after word, after word, after word, after word, after
word.
But I now have to stop talking.
And now I can talk again.
The reason why I had to stop talking was I ran out of air.
And now I'm talking again.
And since the last time I was talking to you, I was inhaling.
And now I'm exhaling, I'm talking to you again.
I want to talk to you.
I want to say things to you.
But I feel supported by you to have pauses in my speech.
Quite long pauses sometimes.
I'm pausing on inhales, and I'm also actually pausing on exhales.
I'm not using the whole exhale to speak sometimes.
Sometimes I just use the beginning of the exhale, like now.
Now I'm coming to the end of the exhale.
I feel that you allow me to talk to you like this.
Is that so?
And I allowed my friend to tell her story
without her taking any significant inhales.
I mean, they're all short.
If you take short inhales,
it's almost like there's no pause in your speech.
Also, if I take short inhales,
I will tend to make short exhales.
Short inhales, short exhales, short inhales, short exhales.
And in this way I keep talking almost indefinitely
with no perceivable pauses.
I breathe between the normal space between words.
I can do that. So can you, maybe.
This person could.
And she was telling me something really important, and I let her do it.
I allowed her to basically have almost really no pauses between the words
other than the amount of space necessary to stop the word and start another one.
You may not be surprised to hear
that I felt like she was speaking to me breathlessly.
She was breathing, but she wasn't paying attention to her breathing
other than just get enough air to say the next word.
I allowed her to talk to me that way
with no medium-sized pauses even between her words.
I felt she wanted to tell me this, so I let her.
She seemed breathless and she seemed afraid,
even though she was somewhat happy about what she was telling me.
When she was done, I thanked her and I said
that I was happy to hear what she had realized.
She had realized something, but the way she told me
was not very compatible with the realization.
The next day, I called her and asked her if I could come and talk to her,
so I went to see her.
And I asked her if she wanted some feedback from me
on the way she was talking to me the day before.
And she said, yes, please.
And I said, I felt that you were talking to me
and breathing very shallowly and very quickly,
very short inhales,
and I felt you were rushing in telling me your story.
And she said, yeah, you're right.
I said, I request when you're talking to me,
and I allow you when you're talking to me,
when you need air,
to feel free to stop talking while you inhale.
And then even as you start to exhale,
you can wait a while before you start talking.
It's fine with me if there's big pauses when you're talking to me.
I would like you actually to not rush when you're talking to me.
And she received this feedback very graciously,
and as we talked she practiced it.
So I don't mean to make you nervous,
but I do sort of try to watch myself
when I'm talking,
and watch my breathing while I'm talking.
I'm trying to do that,
and I'm happy to do that,
and I feel blessed that I'm allowed to do that,
that people allow me to do that,
so that when I'm talking,
and in spaces like that that you just saw,
people don't say, what, very often.
Do you understand?
The space which you just observed,
some people say, what, what, say something.
Can you imagine that?
Does that make sense?
And if they do,
if they want to, I will adjust my breathing,
and have smaller spaces between my words,
if that makes them more comfortable, I can do that.
But usually people let me have spaces between my words,
or between the sentences which I speak.
And I allow them the same space.
I support that.
Another story is that several years ago,
I was on the radio,
a program called Forum,
and the moderator's name is Michael Krasny,
and I think we were talking about monasticism,
or some topic related to
spiritual discipline.
And in the breaks, when other people are talking,
about KQED or whatever,
the people who were on the program
could chat with each other,
unaudited by the radio audience.
And he said,
I didn't think he was necessarily speaking to me,
but he said, we were talking about silence, right?
And he said, but of course silence is deadly on the radio.
And you can imagine the reason,
because if you're listening to the radio and it has silence,
you think, well maybe the radio isn't working.
Maybe I lost the signal. Yikes!
Or if you're on the radio,
you think, if I stop, people will panic.
Or they might change the channel.
I've got to keep it going so they'll stay with me.
So when I was talking, and not talking,
maybe a lot of people turned to another channel.
It is a different way of living
to be mindful of your breathing while you're talking
and be mindful of the length of your inhales and exhales
when you're talking
and to notice how you feel
when you make short inhales,
short exhales, short inhale, short exhale,
how that feels
and how the talking goes when you talk that way
and then to observe
what kind of conversation it is
when you
you could say breathe more deeply
or breathe with awareness of your posture
and when you actually
maybe exhale
more fully
and then not only do you need to inhale,
you don't need to inhale deeply
if you exhale deeply.
But you can.
If you exhale deeply, you can inhale deeply.
But you can also exhale deeply
and inhale shallowly
and then shallowly again and again and again
or you can exhale deeply, inhale shallowly,
exhale shallowly, inhale shallowly.
Lots of possibilities.
But it's pretty hard to inhale deeply
if you don't exhale deeply.
Try it and see if I'm right or not.
Try it.
Try it.
I have not noticed myself any problems
in the practice of watching my breathing
in relationship to my speaking.
It hasn't caused any trouble.
The main problem I have is remembering to notice.
That's hard.
But when I pay attention
things seem to go quite well.
And also if I watch my breathing
and posture when other people are talking
even if they're not giving themselves space
to breathe
between their sentences.
That's my...
Those are my daily life,
some daily life
reports
from me to you.
While we were sitting
I was thinking of telling you
a story
an encouragement
from one of the ancestors of this tradition.
His name is Korun Eijo.
He's the second ancestor
in the Japanese transmission of this lineage.
And he said one time
trust everything...
He didn't say this actually.
He said it in Chinese.
This is an English translation of what he said.
I'm pretty sure he didn't speak English.
This is an English translation.
Trust everything
to inhaling
and exhaling.
Leap into
the treasury of light
and don't look back.
I thought of that while we were sitting
and I didn't say it because I thought
it was too dramatic and powerful.
I didn't want to disturb your sitting.
But now I've told you.
I hope it's okay that I told you.
Now that I've told you
you might be able to remember this
and think of it when you're sitting.
Trust everything
to inhaling
and exhaling.
You could add a then
or an and
or not.
Trust everything to inhaling and exhaling
and leap into the
treasury of light
or the treasure house
or the storehouse of light.
Leap into wisdom
and don't look back.
Don't look back.
Look forward?
Look forward maybe?
Or just don't look back, don't look forward.
Just trust everything
to inhaling and exhaling
and leap into the treasury of light
and don't look back
and then trust everything to inhaling and exhaling
and leap and don't look back
and trust everything to inhaling and exhaling
and leap and don't look back.
Why would anybody look back?
Well, before you go you might think
well, after I leap I might want to check
to see if everything is ok
or, you know, can I get home
or whatever.
You don't jump into the treasury of light
and stay there
and you don't try to go back
from where you went
you just continue the practice
and if there is going to be more breathing
trust everything to the breathing again
and leap again.
So I think it is possible
that we could be walking around
in our life
breathing
and trusting our body to breathing
and trusting breathing to our body
and we are actually like living here together
with the body that is breathing
and with the breathing body
and completely being with that
and then leap into the light
and then breathe again.
This light could be integrated
into our normal breathing process.
This leaping could be integrated
so that we go
we are in the realm of having a body
and breath that appear
we totally engage it
we leap beyond it
and then we re-engage it
fully and leap beyond it
into wisdom and then re-engage it
and you can do this while you are sitting
I say you can
and I say you may
and I say please excuse me
for talking like that
if it shocks you
Now I want to just tell you
another little poem
I don't know if that was a poem
that I just said
I will try to look it up
to see if it was a poem
but
Koen Ajo did write a poem
a poem which I think of quite frequently
and it goes something like this
most
something like
this
I don't know
something like
this lump of flesh
or
this lump of flesh
how much most bestial of humans am I
most bestial of humans am I
this lump of flesh
walking 40 years
in Chinese fashion
walking in Chinese fashion
means walking like we are doing
during the walking meditation
walking like this
walking with the breathing
walking with the posture and the breathing
the breathing posture, walking
doing that for 40 years
this lump of flesh
today I touch my nose anew
he wrote that poem, something like that
I would say
he didn't say it but I would say
walking in Chinese fashion
attending to this breathing walking body
I leap into the light
and from the light
I touch my nose
anew
with this practice I live in the light of wisdom
and then I touch my nose anew
and I also inhale anew
and exhale anew
our life is refreshed
it's starting over
because we wholeheartedly
walked and breathed
sat and breathed
stood and breathed
so this wholehearted
presence
this ardent awareness
of posture, breathing
sets the stage for leaping into
wisdom
and we don't stay there
and we don't go back from there
and our life goes on
and we breath again
and we keep breathing until
it's lunch time
or dinner time or breakfast or whatever
we keep breathing
after we leap into the light
we keep breathing, we breath again
we breath freshly, we have a body again
and it's breathing
and the breathing has a body
and we do that until the bell rings for lunch
and then we have lunch
and we have lunch freshly
because we're trusting everything
to this body breathing
we're trusting everything to taking care of this body
and other bodies
to take care of this breathing and other breathing
giving everything to this
which includes
being aware of all the subtleties of this
all the subtleties of the different
lengths of breaths and the different postures
this is our thing
and it's not that we had to go some place
to have this be our thing, it always was
we're just waking up to it, we're just taking care of it
we're just taking care of it
or what we've been doing all along
but we had to train for quite a while
to trust everything to breathing
in and breathing out
and some of us haven't quite got there yet
we haven't quite got to
trusting everything to this
and if we haven't got there
part of getting there is being patient
with not completely trusting everything
to this breathing body
to the body's breathing
not trusting everything to this
relationship
but maybe remembering
can you remember the instruction?
Do you remember it now?
Trust everything to inhalation and exhalation
leap into the
realm of light
and don't look back
trust everything
to inhalation and exhalation
leap into the realm of light
the womb of light, the treasury of light
and don't look back, again and again
again and again
live in this body breathing completely
learn to live here completely
learn to appreciate the whole
opportunity of the moment
and watch the leaping
that will naturally happen
and then don't look back
and see what comes next
which I don't know if it will be inhale or exhale
or, like I said, a bell
a cry for help
I don't know what it will be
the Buddha
said that this kind of meditation
sets the stage for the path to nirvana
the path to peace
and in the Zen tradition
we're not primarily focused on
doing what will take us to nirvana
we're more concerned with
what will take us to nirvana
that we don't grasp
we know how to get to nirvana
this is how
but we don't stay there
we're ready for lunch
so we actually can go to nirvana
very easily this way
it's always right there
inseparable from our breathing in and breathing out
it's always right there
it's not the slightest bit separate or different
from our breathing in and breathing out
it's not the slightest bit different from
birth and death
where we breathe in and out
so we realize that
when we totally trust the breathing in and breathing out
we realize nirvana
and we don't look back to birth and death
and we don't look back to nirvana
we give up and move forward into
when we're in nirvana we move forward
into samsara to realize nirvana again
to perform
that they're the same
we perform that they're the same
we perform that peace and freedom
are the same as agitation and bondage
we perform that they're the same
how?
by trusting everything to our breathing life
we have a chance here to enact the identity
the non-duality
of freedom and bondage
by taking care of our breathing
so fully that we
leap into nirvana
without grasping it
and we're also to
have conversations with other human beings
and to listen to them
and listen to ourselves
while we breathe
one could say that I just
said a lot of words
and I invite you to
offer anything you'd like to offer now
I mean, you've been offering things
all this time but
if there's anything else you'd like to offer
besides what you have offered
you're welcome to continue offering
you're welcome to continue offering
Sarah and Stephen
Sarah
no, I wasn't
watch me
I inhaled at the same time
it worked really well
no, just a second
I can't do it
well, I can do it, watch
I just made bubbles in the water
fortunately no water came in
some splashed up on my nose
that's what I found out
how about you?
I'm going to try it
I'm scared to hold my breath
I don't think it's a good idea for me to hold my breath
when I swallow the water
I can hold it before the water gets in my mouth
but when I swallowed it
I had to let some air come in
I could hold my breath and pour the water in the mouth
and just hold it there
but when I let it come in
I started to let some air in with it
when I'm putting into my breathing
I'm not able to be someone else
at the exact same time
it seems like some of the things
either drop away
or are radically changed
by that presence with the breathing
in the presence in this body
here, now
it does seem to be that way
very good
that's what I find
and I think that's fine
I don't try to stop people from crying
it's fine with me if people cry
in my presence
I feel very welcoming of crying
it's ok with me if they're crying
but sometimes
while they're crying
sometimes I ask them questions
while they're crying
sometimes, like I say
what would happen if you sat up?
sometimes people are crying, they're bent over
so what would happen if you sat up?
I'm not trying to get them to stop
but they sit up and the crying changes quite a bit
have you noticed what it's like to cry sitting up straight
with your head like this?
it's possible, but it's actually like
it's much more like
broadcasting it if you sit up like this
you don't muffle it if you sit up straight
babies sometimes
don't bend over when they have their head up
and they bawl
try it that way
not that it's better or worse
but sometimes it's so
different that people just stop instantly
they just go
anyway, I sometimes ask that
and then what about the breathing with the crying
check it out
crying is a great opportunity
to meditate on breathing
and also to meditate on breathing
when you're watching other people cry
it's really great
great
and it doesn't take you away from them at all
I think it helps you be there with them
if you're doing this
and helps them be with themselves too
check it out
please check all these things out
let me know what you find out
one more thing
about the
inhaling and exhaling
I noticed that I have a pause
after I exhale
a lot of the time
you mean before the inhale
there's a pause between the end of the exhale and the beginning of the inhale
I think a lot of people have that
yeah
yeah, a lot of people find that place really restful
that space at the end of the exhale before the inhale
she told it
you heard her
she finds it peaceful
and restful
I hesitate to tell you
to go there and find that peaceful and restful thing
but she said it, not me
I wasn't trying to get you to go to that peaceful place
at the end of the exhale and enjoy that peace
but she told you about it
so now you know that there might be such a place
I'm more like
I'm more like
trust everything to the inhalation and exhalation school
which you might find yourself
in this peaceful place at the end of the exhale
but
I'm not trying to get you to go to that place
and have that peaceful thing
but if you go there and you have it, that's fine
I want you to be
wholehearted as you go
and wholehearted when you get there
and if you don't get there, be wholehearted not getting there
that's what I'm trying to emphasize
so I would hesitate to tell you to do something
to find that peaceful place
I'm more like trust everything to inhalation and exhalation
and trust everything
to that means that
if you find yourself in a pause
in the breathing process
that you trust everything to the breathing process
so you don't dwell there
but you may discover like Sarah
all kinds of little wonderful treasures
in the breathing process
all kinds of revelations about things you discover about it
and I've been sharing some things with you too
but I'm not trying to get you to have those things
I'm just saying these are things I found out
and I'm not trying to find them again
see the difference?
these things happen, but we're not trying to get them
Steven?
When we were sitting
you mentioned breathing body
and posture body
yeah
a bell
what kind of bell?
this kind of bell?
hanging bell
the breathing body is the bell
the breathing body is the bell
yeah
we're talking about here
images
we're working with images here
yes
yes Betsy
Betsy
blood pressure
laughing
laughing
It was real, it was breathing, it was breathing,
that's what I needed to be doing.
And so I just started practicing the breathing.
And I would get to a place where I would stop.
Before I started the course, I used to stop in the morning.
And I would make myself breathe.
And that was a short inhale, and an exhale was short,
and just out, well done.
And so I started just meditation,
and whatever my natural rhythm was,
no matter if it was hyper or relaxed, just have patience.
And so with her in the room, me worrying about trying
to get that one lower for the second breathing,
I have a lot to prepare.
But I just trusted my natural rhythm.
I didn't know what I was going to do with this course.
It's the second time.
But she doesn't believe it's the last.
I didn't know.
I had a lot of hard videos looking back at the last 20,
30 years.
It's hard to, I think most people would have a hard time
being aware of their posture with 26,
27-year-olds, and especially if you feel some responsibility.
If you're just watching them from another room
through a one-way mirror, you might be able to calm down.
But if you're actually in the room with them,
and you feel some responsibility to take care of them,
and help them find the way to a wholesome life and happiness,
it's hard to be aware of your posture.
But you might be aware of their posture.
Being aware of their posture might
help you become aware of your own posture.
So you're so aware of taking care of them.
But if you watch their posture, when you say,
oh, I'm watching their posture, what about my posture?
Oh.
But again, the next moment, and then the breathing.
How about the breathing?
It's hard, but wouldn't it be great if you could?
Wouldn't it be great if you could?
Yes?
At dinner tonight, I was remembering
being in about the second grade.
And it seems that, I don't know how this came about,
but I think people talk a lot about posture in the second grade.
And I just remember being in the second grade,
remembering some of the people that I knew,
that I hadn't seen for 30 years.
And just like the way second graders just
sit at a desk, and just straighten their backs.
Did they ever do that?
They didn't do that.
But you know, you give them a suggestion to see
how their posture is.
And you remember, it seems like they're just
a little shits, just like.
And that posture, just like uninhibited,
to express their posture.
Whereas, you know, it might be difficult
to adhere to a good posture,
to not think of themselves as a whole.
To try and blame, or try and do it
for your life's good posture.
But just that invention,
what it takes to do that.
Can I ask a question?
What do you think I consider,
in this context, this class,
what do you think I consider to be good posture?
Being aware of it.
A posture that I'm aware of is a good posture.
A posture that I'm unaware of is a missed opportunity.
And also, the relationship between
the breathing and the posture, I think,
helps the optimal relationship
between those two is the good posture.
When those two are cooking,
that's a good posture.
When the posture is not listening to the breath,
and the breath isn't,
when the posture is not appreciating
what the breath is doing to it,
then in some sense, it's a posture
that's not being appreciated.
And it needs appreciation to be fully
what it can be, to realize its potential.
It's dynamic, and
the good posture is a related posture.
It's a posture that's
dancing with the breath,
and realizing the dance with the breath.
That's a posture that's realizing
the relationship with the breath.
It's a posture that realizes the way
the breath influences the posture,
and the posture influences the breath.
That's a good posture.
Good in the sense of,
that's a posture that brings happiness,
and peace, and courage.
And I would say that when that's
total, it also brings non-attachment
to body and breath.
I noticed when walking last week,
that at the beginning of Kinniman,
it seemed so slow,
like, wow, only one step per breath,
and then I noticed by the end of
even the short time, it changed,
and it's like, wow, every single step,
I mean, every single step I'm taking a breath,
and it's one, you know, every single breath
I'm taking a step, and it's one breath after another,
and there's so much going on, and it was really
interesting the way time, the pace,
the pace was the same, but the experience of it
was so different.
You know, when you first start doing it,
it seems so slow,
and then at one point,
you step after another, this is fast.
Yeah, thank you, yeah.
It's vital.
It's fresh.
But at first, it's like, whoa,
how did I get in this situation?
How long is this going to last?
Probably more than one more step.
Some people compliment me by saying
that I'm not easily bored.
Yeah, that you actually would think,
oh, washing the relationship
between walking and breathing?
Like, okay.
Not even like, well, this is interesting,
more like, okay.
You just do it until the bell rings, you know.
But when you first start,
maybe there's a flicker of boredom,
like, whoa,
I have better things to do in my life
than walk slowly.
I have better things to do than this.
Whatever it is.
That's called boredom.
This is not what I should be doing.
It's not that this is bad,
it's not that this is evil,
it's just a waste of time, this.
And that thought,
you could say is a waste of time,
but even that doesn't have to be a waste of time.
Even when boredom comes
and says this is a waste of time,
then you can welcome that demon,
the demon of ennui.
It's a big one.
One could find this class really boring.
The whole class is just about breathing.
So what?
Are you going to tell us something about it?
Someone
listened to one of the recordings
and she's a student of Baba Haridas
who in times in the past
he taught a lot,
he gave lots of teachings on pranayama
and
there are lots of teachings
about breathing.
And I
think some of these teachings
might be kind of not boring.
I mean some of these practices are not boring.
And fortunately
I don't know any interesting practices to do
with the breathing.
How can we be wholehearted about something
that's not being
worked up into being interesting
but just happens to be what we're doing?
That's a great challenge.
How to be wholehearted about
our posture and breathing.
So I'm trying to encourage myself
together with you
to really be wholehearted about this
without pumping it up at all.
Because we can't keep pumping it.
It's not the way to go.
We don't have to make it less interesting than it is either.
Just be enthusiastic.
We need to be enthusiastic about this.
Enthusiastic but not because it's interesting.
Enthusiastic because
enthusiasm is necessary
in order to
benefit beings.
We need enthusiasm about beings
and what do beings do?
They make postures and they breathe and they think.
Can we be interested in things
even if they're boring?
Can we be interested in people
who are boring?
And sometimes when I'm talking to someone
I find myself bored
and I'm quite interested that I'm bored
and I often share the boredom with the person
and I've learned to do that without insulting people.
Why?
I'm having this strange sensation of boredom.
Do you have any idea what that's about?
I don't say you're boring.
I don't say that to people because I don't think people are boring.
But I sometimes get bored
when people are...
well, you know, when people are what?
What do I find boring?
What do I find boring?
What do you think I find boring?
Yeah.
Huh?
Maybe they want themselves to be different.
I find that boring.
Huh?
Maybe you want them to be wholehearted.
You're bored with their unwholeheartedness.
Maybe I want them to be
wholehearted
and I'm bored with their
unwholeheartedness.
Then I've got boredom to take care of.
Huh?
I can take care of this boredom.
Not try to get rid of the boredom.
But deal with the fact that I get bored
when people aren't being wholehearted.
And not to get them to be wholehearted
so I stop being bored,
but for me to be wholehearted with the boredom.
Yeah?
So you find that boring if you express your boredom?
Yeah.
As soon as I start talking about it
the situation becomes considerably more wholehearted.
But I think it becomes more wholehearted
if I really am exploring the boredom
rather than blaming it on them.
I don't blame it on them
because I'm also participating in this.
But I do think that I have to
yeah,
I have to deal with it.
And be awake with it.
I want to be awake with it.
So I want to get plenty of rest
so I can be awake when I'm bored.
Yeah?
I've noticed when I'm bored
I listen to music.
And for a while there's this
louder nostril, bigger, stronger
and it causes me more entertainment
until you realize there's quiet, silence.
Can we listen to repetition, a bell,
or chanting, or even harmony
while you take a deep breath?
Can I have that little cushion please?
Yeah, thank you.
Well,
you brought up music there
and I've often told you that when I'm driving over to Berkeley
to this class
I might want to listen to some music on the way over.
But I check to see
what am I turning the music on for?
Am I trying to distract myself
from how I am?
So,
I study on the way over here
I'm studying
when I'm driving over here I'm studying for the class.
Whatever the class is, I'm almost always studying for the class
when I'm driving over.
So this class
I work on my posture and breathing
when I'm driving over.
And if I'm going to turn the radio on
what's the reason for turning it on?
Am I turning it on to help the meditation on posture and breathing?
If so, fine.
But am I actually
trying to do something more interesting
than study the breathing body?
Then I usually don't turn the radio on.
I think it's kind of like
yeah.
And I don't want to be uptight
about my meditation on posture and breathing.
I just want to take care of my posture and breathing
for all of you. I want to do that for you.
I want to do the practice for you.
And if the music
can aid that and go with that
and not be a distraction, then fine.
But if I check and see it's actually just a nervous reaction
that's why I want to turn the radio on.
Or the news.
Now there are certain stations which really have bad music
and I didn't think of turning those ones on.
There I wouldn't be doing it as a distraction
but as an opportunity to be patient with it.
But I don't do that to myself.
I let the traffic do that.
So I do kind of check out
I do do that
but sometimes I turn the music on
to study the music
not as a distraction.
But usually I'm
kind of like
what's the word?
I'm already challenged
quite a bit to be aware of my posture and breathing.
I don't need to now also have the music
to deal with sort of also.
If I was really tuned into my posture and breathing
then I think okay, now turn the music on.
And see if I can continue.
That's the way I would do it.
When I'm walking around the house
I'm challenged to walk from the kitchen
to where I'm studying.
I'm challenged to meditate on posture and breathing
as I move around the house.
I don't need the music also.
I'm already challenged, I don't need more challenges.
If I turn the music on
to help me
I don't need any help.
All I need to do is my job.
I don't need help to do my job.
I need to do my job and when I'm doing it
then maybe I turn the music on.
I almost never get to the point where I feel like
I'm aware enough so that I'm now ready
to take on more responsibility myself
to turn the music on.
If somebody else comes in the room singing, that's different.
They're just giving me that gift or like
if there's a pause in the breath, that's different.
If stuff's given to me but I don't go to try to get
more when I'm barely able to do what I'm already
trying to do.
I'm already challenged to do this practice.
I'm already not completely consistent.
I don't need to take on more myself
but people do give me more
and I accept that those people do bring me music.
People do ask me to go over
to listen to the music.
So then I try to continue the practice
while I practice with them.
See the difference?
So then on the way home
there's another practice.
The class is over so now
what do I do then?
Is my responsibility different after the class?
It is different.
Am I planning for next week?
Should I start now, right after class?
I would say, well, yeah.
But there is a time to listen to music
and to work on your posture
and breathing while you're doing music,
listening to music.
See how that goes.
And it's hard, maybe.
Because it's hard without the music.
Yes?
How does it help to save beings?
How it helps to save beings?
It is the practice
of making your body
able to be of service,
of best service.
So again, I told you the story
of the acrobat, right?
So if you want to help people
it helps you if you actually know
where your feet are.
If you're dancing with somebody
it helps them if you know
which foot has more weight.
And also if you are aware
of which one of your legs
is carrying more weight
that would help you also realize
which one of their feet
is carrying more weight
or whether their feet
are carrying equal weight.
And if you find out
that their both feet
are carrying equal weight
then you probably shouldn't
try to move them.
Because you'd have to get them
to shift their weight a little
before they could take a step.
So being aware of your own
posture and breathing
will help you serve other beings.
And then if you were able
actually to leap into the womb
of light because you're so
wholeheartedly engaged
with your posture and breathing
now you would have confidence
in this practice and you could
convey this confidence to them.
Even though they're not ready yet
they're not going to jump yet
but you have confidence that this
practice will take them to wisdom.
And so now with that confidence
you can show them how wholeheartedly
you do the practice
and how joyful you are with their level
of participation with their breathing
and how devoted you can be to them
because you're coming from this light
which is given to you because you are
so wholeheartedly being the person you are
the breather and the body you are.
This is a story of how you can help
other people become liberated from
half-heartedness.
I heard two stories recently
that encouraged me in this practice
One this morning
I heard there's a congressman
I think in Ohio
and he was somehow involved
with a very large program
in his district
in the schools of
instructing the children
in mindfulness
and mindfulness of breath
and he talked quite a bit about
this program and
I could tell that he was talking
from his own experience
that this was his practice
and I could even tell by the way
he was talking on the radio
that there was some awareness of breath
and the interviewer asked him
how that went over in congress
and he talked about
the difficulties of that
that he practiced that
in the house of representatives
He tried.
I wonder if you can do a filibuster that way.
I don't know, does anybody know
if you're doing filibuster can you have pauses
between your words?
Between the words?
Huh?
But when you're not filibustering
maybe you could do it.
But it would be difficult.
The other story I heard
it was a short film
about a 30 minute film
that someone made interviewing
about 4 or 5 people who
have been involved in accidents
while they were texting
and have been responsible
in some cases for people dying
and in some cases for people
being severely changed in their lives
I don't know
maybe think about all of that.