Meditating Anytime

When we focus on the breath, we close our eyes, so that we can sense the breath more clearly, without distractions. But when you go out in the world, you have to open your eyes—but you can still be with the breath. This is an important principle of the meditation when the Buddha teaches you how to focus on the breath, how to focus in a way that you’re aware of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out—with a sense of ease, with a sense of fullness. Your mind can calm down.

That’s not meant just for when you’re sitting here with your eyes closed. You take it into the world. You may not be quite as sensitive to the breathing then, but still try to be anchored inside. That’s your safe place inside.

If you have a sense of well-being inside, then you don’t have the tendency to feed off of other people’s words, actions. It’s when we’re feeling depleted inside, feeling lacking inside—that’s when we want something from other people. And then when they don’t provide it, we’re upset.

We have to realize that we can prepare our own food here inside. It’s like having your own fields. If you leave your fields to grow up into weeds and then you go trying to steal food from other people’s fields, there’s going to be trouble. If you go around asking for nice food, they say, “Why can’t you fix your own?”

So. Come back inside. Create a sense of well-being inside. It’s pretty simple. Just figure out how to breathe in a way that feels good. Not too long, not too short. Not too fast, not too slow. Not too heavy, not too light. Just right. Then try to maintain that.

You may say, “I have so many things I already have to take care of in the course of the day. Why are you adding one more thing?” Think of it as having different balls you have to keep in the air as you’re juggling, as you go through the day. What you need is a good, solid place to stand. The breath provides you with that. Otherwise, you’re running around on shifting sands, juggling balls at the same time. You’re bound to miss some. But if you’re standing still on solid ground, then you can juggle more balls and not be distracted by them, not be overwhelmed by the number of things you have to keep in the air.

In this way, your meditation is a gift not only to yourself but also to the people around you.

So as you’re sitting here with your eyes closed, try to be really sensitive to how the breathing feels. Get a sense of the breath energy not only where you most obviously feel it, but also in other parts of the body. Because the word “breath,” here, means energy. This energy can flow through the nerves; it can flow through the blood vessels, out to every pore. Try to have that sense of the breath in the body. Maintain that as you go through the day. And everything you do, and say, and think will be much more solidly grounded.