..续本文上一页f fantastic experience of marvellous light descending on us, zapping us or whatever.

　　Now just contemplate the ordinary breathing of your body. You notice when you”re inhaling that it”s easy to concentrate. When you”re filling your lungs you feel a sense of growth and development and strength. When you say somebody”s "puffed up" then they”re probably inhaling. It”s hard to feel puffed up while you”re exhaling. Expand your chest and you have a sense of being somebody big and powerful. However, when I first started paying attention to exhaling, my mind would wander; exhaling didn”t seem as important as inhaling - you were just doing it so that you could get on to the next inhalation.

　　Now reflect: one can observe breathing, so what is it that can observe

　　 What is it that observes and knows the inhalation and the exhalation - that”s not the breathing, is it

　　 You can also observe the panic that comes if you want to catch a breath and you can”t; but the observer, that which knows, is not an emotion, not panic-stricken, is not an exhalation or an inhalation. So our refuge in Buddha is being that knowing; being the witness rather than the emotion or the breath or the body.

　　This way you begin to see a way of being mindful, of bringing mindfulness to the ordinary routine things and experiences of life. I have a nice little picture in my room that I”m very fond of - of this old man with a coffee mug in his hand, looking out of the window into an English garden with the rain coming down. The title of the picture is ”Waiting”. That”s how I think of myself; an old man with my coffee mug sitting there at the window, waiting, waiting.. watching the rain or the sun or whatever. I don”t find that a depressing image but rather a peaceful one. This life is just about waiting isn”t it

　　 We”re waiting all the time - this experience of waiting. So we notice that. We”re not waiting for anything, but we can be just waiting. And then we respond to the things of life, to the time of day, the duties, the way things move and change, the society we are in. That response isn”t from the force of habits of greed, hatred and delusion but it”s a response of wisdom and mindfulness.

　　Forest Sangha Newsletter: April 1992, Number 20

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