Exercise 04: Calming

"Breathing in, I calm my body. 

Breathing out, I calm my body"

This exercise, a continuation of the third, uses the breath to realize peace and calm in our whole body. When our body is not at peace, it is hard for our mind to be at peace. Therefore, we should use our breathing to help the functions of our body be smooth and peaceful. If we are gasping for breath or if our breath is irregular, we cannot calm the functions of our body. So the first thing is to harmonize our breathing. Our in-breaths and out-breaths should flow smoothly and lightly. When our breath is harmonious, our body is also. Our breath needs to be light and even and not audible. It should flow smoothly, like a small stream of water running down fine sand into the ocean. The more subtle our breath is, the more peaceful will be our body and mind. When we breathe in, we can feel the breath entering our body and calming all the cells of our body. When we breathe out, we feel the exhalation taking with it all our tiredness, irritation, and anxiety.

As we breathe, we can recite the following gatha to ourselves:

Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment,

I know this is a wonderful moment.

We know that when we are meditating, body and mind are one, so we only need to calm our body to calm our mind. When we smile, we demonstrate the peace and joy of body and mind. Feelings of peace and joy are the nourishment of the practitioner and help the practitioner go far on the path of practice. To learn more about this, the reader is encouraged to practice the fifth and sixth exercises of the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Anapanasati Sutta). These two exercises are designed to help the practitioner nourish herself with the joy of meditational concentration. The essence of meditation practice is to come back to and dwell in the present moment and to observe what is happening in the present moment. "A wonderful moment" means that the practitioner can see the wonders of life in her body, mind, and breathing and can make the feelings of peace and happiness stable and strong.

Although we are now discussing the part of the sutra that teaches full awareness of the body in the body, because there are very close links between the body and the feelings, we should not hesitate to cross freely the boundary between the Establishment of the body and the Establishment of the feelings. As we already know, the peace of the body is the peace of the mind.

In exercises three and four, the practitioner follows the breath while returning to be one with the body and calming the whole of the body. Obviously while practicing these breathing exercises, all your organs of sense perception - eyes, ears, nose, and tongue - are closed off so that the images of the world around do not come in and agitate the peace within. To return to the body in this way is also to return to the mind.

From time to time, you feel tired, and everything you do or say seems to come out wrong and create misunderstanding. You may think. "Today is not my day." At times like this, it is best simply to return to your body, cut off all contact, and close the doors of the senses. Following your breathing, you can collect your mind, body, and breath, and they will become one. You will have a feeling of warmth, like someone sitting inside by a fireplace while the wind and rain are raging outside. This method can be practiced anywhere at any time, not just in the meditation hall. You come back to be in contact with yourself and make yourself whole again. We should not think that to close the doors of the sense perceptions is to close ourselves off from life and the world, to sever our contact with life. When we are not truly ourselves, when we are divided and dispersed, we are not really in contact with life. The contact is profound only when we are really ourselves. If we are not ourselves in the present moment, when we look at the blue sky, we do not really see the blue sky. When we hold the hand of a child we are not really holding the hand of a child. When we drink tea, we are not really drinking tea. Therefore, the wholeness of ourselves is the basis of any meaningful contact. We can realize the wholeness of ourselves by means of conscious breathing, which brings us back to our body and mind. Realizing the wholeness of ourselves is also to renew ourselves in every moment. We become fresh, and others enjoy being with us. When we renew ourselves we see everything else as new. The Bamboo Forest Zen Master once said: "Everything I touch becomes new."

~From Transformation and Healing by Thich Nhat Hanh