Breath Awareness Suffering

What causes suffering? An ancient question with an ancient answer, and surprisingly, it’s not the hard things in life. It’s the way we think about them. It's all that wanting, that desire; the exhaustion, at least for me, of wanting things to be different than they are. Not in the systemic or political sense – to me, it’s good to want change in that sense – but in the moment. In the moment – in this breath – when, really, I know: right now, things can only be just as they are.

Transcript

So finding your posture for stillness right now and settling in,

Finding your home base,

Your refuge,

Whether that's the breath or whether that's the sound in your environment.

And just beginning to invite the mind to settle,

Following the breath or following the arising and passing of sounds.

And you can play with this second noble truth.

You can see whether there's any kind of grasping happening,

Wanting this moment to be different,

Wanting the mind to be more settled than it is,

Wanting the body to be more comfortable than it is,

Wanting the meditation to be finished or to go on longer.

Anything that might be taking you away from just being present with whatever is here,

Just to get a kind of felt sense,

Oh,

This is what desire and grasping and clinging feel like.

And if the mind wanders,

Just coming back to your home base,

Your refuge,

And continuing this investigation.

And one more component,

If you turn the corners of the mouth up into a smile,

And really just enjoy this investigation,

Enjoy the practice.

No striving,

No goal,

Just being here and noticing.

And the gladness of getting to do that with each other.

And then just before the bell,

Maybe finding some intention to take that gladness with you into your day,

That gladness of being able to be present and mindful and notice when desire is happening and decide whether that's a wholesome thing to have right in that moment or whether to let it go.