Independent Happiness
November 27, 2023

We close our eyes so that we can see our breath more clearly. When you breathe in, know that you’re breathing in. When you breathe out, know that you’re breathing out. Where do you feel the breath in the body right now? Focus there. And then watch it for a while. If long breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change. Make it shorter, deeper, more shallow. Heavier, lighter. Faster, slower. See what rhythm of breathing feels good for the body right now.

Try not to put yourself to sleep. If you’re getting tired, or drifty, or drowsy, breathe in a way that’s more energetic. Breathe in a calming way if you’re feeling tense. Try to get a sense of just right, because this what the Buddha’s path is all about. He saw that beings are causing suffering for themselves because they don’t know how to act, they don’t know how to think, they don’t know how to speak. So he gives them instructions on how to act, how to speak, how to think.

One of the best things to think about first is to get the mind quiet so that you can observe—because he doesn’t want you to simply accept his teachings and say, Yes, they’re true. He wants you to try them out, so that you can get some results from them. And the best way to see your mind clearly is when you get it quiet.

So allow it to be here with just the breath. Any other thoughts that come in—they can come in, but you can let them go. You don’t have to get involved. Give the mind a chance to be with itself, by itself, for a while. Let the affairs of the world fall off to the side. When we live in this world, what do we find that it has to offer? There’s gain and there’s loss. There’s status; loss of status. There’s praise and criticism, and there’s pleasure and pain.

These things come back and forth, spinning around. If we take them as the big issues in our lives, then we’re going to suffer because we’re going to start spinning around, too. When we gain wealth and status, we tend to get proud and careless. When we lose those things, we get upset. You have to put the mind in a position where those things can come and go, and the mind can stay solid and secure inside, because it has good things inside itself that don’t have to depend on the world.

So nurture this state of well-being inside. That allows you to live in the world and not get damaged by the world. Then you can do good things for the world from here, because you’re coming from a position of strength. The world may go up and down, but your mind is solid. That’s the quality you want. From that solidity, you can see what needs to be done inside and out. You get more in control of your life this way.