By just sitting quietly, breathing in and out, being silent within, and releasing our tension and worry — we become more solid, more focussed, and more intelligent, says THICH NHAT HANH
We tend to be busy all day, and when we come home, we continue to be busy. We cook; we clean; we potter around. Or we are so tired of being busy that we want to do something mindless and easy, like watching a television show, or taking a nap. Then we go back to being busy again.
There is a way to feel refreshed and alert without being busy. All we need is a gentle reminder — a location, an image or a sound — to help us return home to ourselves and pay attention to what is inside us and around us. We can touch the present moment in all its fullness and joy if we simply have a place and a way to stop. Stopping the random progression of thoughts is the first step in our meditation practice.
The key to creating a home meditation practice is to create a space where the busyness stops. When we stop and bring our mind back to our body, we can pay full attention to all that is happening in the present moment.
We call this ‘mindfulness’. To be mindful means to be here, fully present, and fully alive, unencumbered by thoughts of the past or the future, our worries, or our projects. It is only when we stop that we can encounter life. When we stop, body and mind can reunite and then we can experience their oneness. By stopping the activities of our minds and bodies — by just sitting quietly, breathing in and out, being silent within, and releasing our tension and worry — we become more solid, more concentrated, and more intelligent.
Now we can look deeply at what is happening inside and around us. Releasing our tension and worry allows us to focus on the happiness available to us right now, by allowing us to see that the conditions for our happiness are already present.
The foundation of happiness is mindfulness. The basic condition for being happy is our awareness. If we’re not aware that we are happy, we are not really happy. When we’re having a toothache, we know that not having a toothache is a wonderful thing. Yet when we don’t have a toothache, we’re still not happy. A non-toothache is very pleasant. There are so many things that are enjoyable, but when we don’t practise mindfulness, we don’t appreciate them. When we practise mindfulness, we come to cherish these things and we learn how to protect them. By taking good care of the present moment, we take good care of the future. Working for peace in the future means finding peace in the present moment.
It is our tendency in daily life to become goal-oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very focussed on getting there. At times, this may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the way. Apranihita is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘wishlessness’ or ‘aimlessness’. We don’t need to keep running after something, because everything is already here, within. Often we tell ourselves, ‘Don’t just sit there, do something.
But when we practise awareness, we discover that the opposite may be more helpful: ‘Don’t just do something, sit there.’ We can train ourselves to stop from time to time throughout the day, to come back to the present and let go of our worries and preoccupations. When our minds and bodies are calm, we can see our situation more clearly and we know better what to do and what not to do. This is a good habit to develop. At first, ‘stopping’ may seem like a kind of resistance to modern life, but it isn’t that. It’s not a reaction; it’s a way of life. The survival of humankind depends on our ability to stop rushing. Stopping is the first aspect of meditation. ■
Ahimsa Trust represents Thich Nhat Hanh in India. It offers talks, retreats and mindfulness meditation sessions; www.ahimsatrust.org, ahimsa.trust@gmail.com
COMMENT