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 Growing
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Balanced Relationships
The Brahmacariya Community
The Breath of Life
Freedom and Independence
Freedom and Oppression
Making Desicions
Dhamma 101 Tutorial
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The
Breath of Life
Ven. Sativihari
A
good teacher is concerned about the wellbeing of his students.
When he is with them, he can support and encourage and teach and
strengthen them. There comes
a time, though, when the teacher has to leave, and the students have to
take care of themselves. A
wise teacher, knowing that one day he will leave, gives the students a few
“jewels”, things to remember, that
will help them live well on their own.
I imagine the teacher would think, “what could I give them that
would help them in difficult times?”
A wise teacher would want to give them something that they could never
lose, something that no matter how bad their situation became, no matter
how confused or sad or troubled they became, they would always have with
them. A wise teacher
would want to give his students something that would remain,
even if they lost everything else. Even
if all their loved ones were gone, even if they lost their home, even if
they became very sick. A
wise teacher would want to give his students something that they could
always find, even at times when their minds were so troubled that they
could not think one good thought.
Lord Buddha was this kind of teacher.
It
was in this spirit, I think, that Lord Buddha gave us the teaching about
the significance of the breath
for healing our minds, in the practice of anapanasati.
He wanted to give us something that we could never lose, something
that would guide us, like a compass, back to the mind of the Buddha,
back to the Dhamma. That’s
the one thing that you never lose until you die, so we always have it when
we need it. It’s always there.
You
can experience this simple thing, the breath, even now, just by turning
your attention toward it.
This
simple breath, continuously going in and out, contains
truths about the nature of life.
It contains the Dhamma. It
contains a map that leads us to the Buddha.
The
more we watch the breath, the
more we understand that we have no real control over it.
It has a life of its own. Even
if we hold our breath, we can’t control it – we just faint, lose
consciousness, and begin breathing again.
This
is the great blessing of the breath:
it is not ours. We
don’t control it. It has a
life of its own. It is life
itself. The breath, the life energy moving through me is the same
energy moving through my brother here;
the same energy moving through my sister here;
it’s the same, this is not “my” life energy. That is not “his” life energy.
It’s the same. It’s
connected. . It
is the same energy that moves the ocean back and forth; the same energy
that makes the moon rise and fall, the same rythm that makes trees grow
tall, blossom, wither, and turn again into the earth.
The
breath is our connection to the spiritual realm, the realm of the Buddha.
Simply observe the breath. Get
into harmony with it. Just
watching it, following it, not pushing it, not holding it, not forcing it,
not controlling it, just letting it flow.
As we get into harmony with the breath, we get into harmony with
everything, because everything is there in the breath.
The ocean is there. The
rising moon is there. Our
brothers and sisters are there. The
true nature of love is there. It
is all in the breath. That is
the Lord Buddha’s gift to us.
The
more we watch this simple thing, the breath, the more we will learn about
ourselves, about life, about love.
The more we watch the breath, the more we will appreciate this gift
of the Lord Buddha to us in anapanasati.
Often
we say “Panatipata veramani sikkha padam samadiyami”
That’s
about respecting life. But
where does it begin? (Panatipata
in Pali comes from the word “Pana” which means the breath of life). We have to respect this
life, this breath of life within us.
It begins right here, right below our nose.
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