Exploring the Foundations of Meditation

Welcome to episode 61 of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives.

In this episode, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach/journalist Jo Confino are again joined by frequent guest Sister True Dedication (Sister Hien Nghiem). Together, they discuss the sixteen exercises of mindful breathing which are at the heart of the teachings offered by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community.

This episode, the first of a two-part special, explains and breaks down the practice of breathing exercises one to eight. It includes the exercises’ traditional texts, revised versions (plus the reasons for their revision), and variations and adaptations, with extensive explanations given by the two monastics about how to apply each one to our daily lives. 

In addition, stories are shared about Thich Nhat Hanh practicing meditation, as well as the concrete steps taken and challenges faced over time by both Brother Phap Huu and Sister True Dedication. 

And why is sitting meditation the hardest practice? Is it essential to meditate in order to be a good practitioner of mindfulness? How can one ease oneself into attention? What difference does paying attention to our breathing actually make? These and many other questions are answered in this installment of the podcast.

Enjoy.

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Co-produced by the Plum Village App:
https://plumvillage.app/

And Global Optimism:
https://globaloptimism.com/ 

With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:
https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/

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List of resources 

Sister True Dedication
https://plumvillage.org/people/dharma-teachers/sister-hien-nghiem/ 

Songs: ‘The 16 Exercises of Mindful Breathing’
https://plumvillage.org/library/songs/the-16-exercises-of-mindful-breathing

Dharma Talks: ‘The Noble Eightfold Path’
https://plumvillage.org/library/dharma-talks/the-noble-eightfold-path

The Five Contemplations Before Eating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjyQVYqr6-U 

Interbeing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbeing 

Breathe, You Are Alive!
https://plumvillage.org/books/breathe-you-are-alive 

Mahayana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana

Jo-ann Rosen
https://www.parallax.org/authors/jo-ann-rosen/ 

Sister Jina
https://plumvillage.org/people/dharma-teachers/sr-dieu-nghiem 

Dharma Talk: ‘Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing’
https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/article/dharma-talk-sutra-on-the-full-awareness-of-breathing-2/

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Quotes

“From a more Western background, there’s a goal we need to meet and then we’re done. And I think that has also been applied to meditation, mindfulness, or spirituality: we think that there is one aim and if we practice for this long, then we will feel successful and accomplished, and then we’re finished. But Thay didn’t stop practicing, even after being named a Zen Master. The Buddha himself never stopped practicing, even after his enlightenment. So we have to change our view of meditation, to see and understand it as a path of practice. And each step, each breath is a journey, is a continuation. And we will grow in our own understanding of the breath.”

“Our practice is also learning to befriend the breath, and seeing that the breath is our spiritual foundation, our spiritual home. And it’s mobile, because wherever we go, that breath is with us.” 

“Meditation in the sitting position offers a combination of stillness, alertness, and deep calm, and then deep looking can arise from that stopping and that stillness. And so, each of us may have to be quite creative to find the moment when we can have real stillness.”

“Meditation is not a fixed point in time or a fixed place; it’s a way to see the world.”

“In our deepest tradition, we learn there’s nothing to attain. There are fruits that may ripen, which we will get to in the later steps of these 16 exercises of mindful breathing, but ultimately there is no goal.”

“It was very important to Thay to bring meditation out of the meditation hall and to integrate it into our daily life; for it to be accessible to everyone. So there is a doorway, a pathway to touch peace and stillness in our day. We don’t need to be in a temple; we don’t need to be in a formal setting in front of an altar. But, even at home, that stillness, peace, and presence is available to us. And the doorway which allows each of us to reach it is the breathing and the simplicity around that moment. And that’s where we really have this direct authenticity of Zen, which is there in the present moment, whatever it contains.”

“There is no such thing as sitting for peace. We will sit in peace.”

“Sitting meditation is a cultivation of true presence; a practice of learning to be there for yourself.”

“In the sutra on the full awareness of breathing, the Buddha shows us how to transform our fear, despair, anger, and craving. I was so happy the day I discovered this sutra. I thought I had discovered the greatest treasure in the world. Before, I’d been content to simply gain knowledge, but I didn’t know how to enjoy the present moment, how to look deeply into my life, and how to enjoy the positive conditions that were all around me. This sutra is so basic and so wonderful. There are many great sutras, but approaching them without this one is like trying to reach the top of a mountain without a path to follow.”

“By being with our breathing and our breath, we’re opening up doors of experience that are not normally available to us in our daily life, especially in the West, where the particular paradigm we live in excludes other modes of perception and ways of being in an embodied, interrelated way in the world. And so, by establishing ourselves in the body – by opening up the door of our body, by opening up the door of our senses – we start to experience the embodied mind.”

“With this practice of mindful breathing, we’re establishing a real quality of presence and perception around ways of being in touch with ourselves in the present moment.” 

“To be a little bit more flexible and allow myself space to grow in the meditation is also very important, in the body as well as in the breath.” 

“One of the challenges with meditation is that our own ideas about it get in the way of doing it successfully, of having a fruitful time. We’re so convinced that there’s something to do, but that we’re doing it wrong, that we don’t allow ourselves to be as we are. And it’s simply the quality of our presence that is the meditation that is embracing, allowing us to be in the present moment in a deeply attentive, curious way.”

“It is a daily practice to live in such a way that we are awake to the joys in life. And it’s a training to actively identify them, and to balance that against our society telling us that we don’t have enough: ‘You can only be happy when you have this, when you have that, when you’ve done this or realized that.’ And so this is using our breathing, quietness, and stillness to cultivate, to activate, and to generate a feeling of joy as we’re sitting on the cushion, and then a feeling of happiness that has a little more peace in it.”