WEBVTT

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There is a text called
'Mindfulness of Breathing'

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in which the Buddha proposes
16 exercises on mindful breathing.

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It's very practical.

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And everyone can do it.
Not complicated.

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You can already notice the effect
of the practice after one or two hours.

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The first exercise is so simple.

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To be aware of your in-breath
and out-breath.

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This is what we practiced this morning.

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Breathing in,
I know this is an in-breath.

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To identify the in-breath as in-breath,

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and to identify the out-breath
as an out-breath.

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Breathing in, I know
I am breathing in. So simple.

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And yet the effect can be great.

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Aware of...

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Aware of in-breath and out-breath.

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[1. aware of I + O]

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As you breathe in, you pay attention
to your in-breath only.

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Your in-breath becomes
the only object of your mind.

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And if you are truly focused,
mindful of your in-breath,

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you release everything else.

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You release the past, you release
the future, your projects, your fear,

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your anger, because the mind
has only one object at a time.

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And the object of the mind now
is the in-breath.

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Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

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So you focus your mind on your in-breath
and you release everything else

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and you become free.

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There is regret concerning the past,
sorrow concerning the past.

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There is fear and uncertainty
concerning the future.

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All of that you release in just 1 or 2
seconds because you are focusing

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all your mind into your in-breath.

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So breathing in mindfully sets you free.
You have freedom.

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If you are to make a decision, it's better
you have enough freedom to make it.

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You are not under the influence
of anger or fear,

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and your decision is much better
than if you are not free.

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So just breathing in makes you free.

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And it is pleasant also,
it's pleasant to breathe in.

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So the exercise is so simple
but the effect can be great.

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The second exercise is to follow
your in-breath all the way through

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and to follow your out-breath
all the way through.

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And you may enjoy these two exercises
at any time and anywhere.

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Breathing in, I follow my in-breath
from the beginning to the end.

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Suppose this marker represents
my in-breath.

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It begins here
and this finger is my mind.

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Breathing in, I follow my in-breath
all the way through.

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There is no interruption at all,
not a millisecond of interruption.

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So during the time you breathe in mindfully,
you cultivate concentration.

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You are not only mindful of your in-breath
but you concentrate on your in-breath.

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The energy of mindfulness carries
within herself the energy of concentration.

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And it is also pleasant,

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because to be mindful and to concentrate
on your in-breath can be very pleasant.

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You don't have to suffer.

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In fact you can feel wonderful,
just breathing in,

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especially when the air is fresh
and if the nose is free.

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So the second exercise is...

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[2. follow I + O]

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to follow your in-breath and
your out-breath all the way through.

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We know we can do these two exercises

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anytime we like.

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The third exercise is
to be aware of your body.

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[3. aware of body]

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Breathing in, I'm aware of my body.
You bring your mind home to your body.

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And your mind becomes an embodied mind.

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That will help you to be established
in the here and the now,

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you are fully present,
you are fully alive.

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And you can live that moment
of your daily life more deeply

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if body and mind are together.

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The oneness of body and mind is
what you realize with the third exercise.

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When you spend 2 hours with your computer,

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you forget entirely that you have a body.

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You are not truly alive in that moment.

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You are truly alive only
when the mind is with the body.

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You are fully in the here and the now
and you touch the wonders of life

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in you and around you.

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Many of our brothers
and sisters in Plum Village

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program a bell of mindfulness
in their computer.

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And every fifteen minutes,
they hear the bell, they stop working,

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they go back and enjoy
their in-breath and out-breath,

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smile and enjoy their body.

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And release the tension in their body.

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That is what the Buddha recommended
2600 years ago.

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There's the fourth exercise.

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Breathing in, I calm my body,
I release the tension...

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in my body.

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[4. calm body]

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When you come back to your body,

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you may notice that
there is a lot of tension in your body.

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Then you may like to do something
to help your body to have more peace,

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to suffer less, and with your out-breath
you allow the tension to be released.

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That's the first four exercises of mindful breathing

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recommended by the Buddha

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so that we can take good care of our body.

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And with the fifth exercise
we go to the realm of the feelings.

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The fifth exercise is to generate
a feeling of joy. Generating joy.

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[5. Generating Joy]

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A good practitioner knows
how to generate a feeling of joy,

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because she knows that
mindfulness allows her to recognize

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all the conditions of happiness
that are already available.

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We can remind ourselves and we can remind
our beloved ones that we are very lucky.

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We can be happy right here and right now,

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we don't have to run into the future
to look for happiness.

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There is a teaching given by the Buddha.

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That is the teaching of
"living happily in the present moment."

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Life is available only
in the present moment.

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And if you go back to the present moment

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you will notice that there are
so many conditions of happiness

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already available.

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That is why joy and happiness
can be born right away.

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The expression living happily
in the present moment

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was found in a sutra...

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five times.

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The Buddha was teaching Anathapindika,

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a businessman, in the city of Sravasti.

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That day Anathapindika, the businessman,

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came with many hundreds
of businessmen to visit the Buddha.

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And the Buddha gave them that teaching.

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"Gentlemen", he said, "you can be happy
right here and right now.

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You don't have to run into the future,

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you don't have to look for success
in the future in order to be happy."

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I think the Buddha knew very well
that businessmen,

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they think a little bit too much
about the future and their successes.

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And that is why
the expression living deeply,

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"living happily in the present moment"
was used by the Buddha five times

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in the same sutra, the same scripture.

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Drstādharmasukhavihara.

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[drstādharmasukhavihara]

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"Vihara" means to dwell or to live,
"sukha" means happily,

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and "drstā-dharma"
is the present moment.

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(Chinese: 現法樂住)

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So a good practitioner
does not look for happiness in the future.

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He knows how to go home
to the present moment

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and recognize all the conditions
for happiness that are available

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and make joy and happiness
available right away.

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And she does that for herself
and she does that for the other person.

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Creating happiness is an art.
The art of happiness.

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So the fifth exercise is to generate joy
and the sixth is to generate happiness.

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[6. Generating Happiness]

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The seventh is...

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to be aware
of a painful feeling or emotion.

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Breathing in, I know there is
a painful feeling, a painful emotion

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that is coming up in me.

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[7. Aware of Pain]

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The practitioner does not try to fight
the pain, to cover up the pain inside

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or to try to run away from the pain.

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In fact, because she is a practitioner

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she knows how to generate
the energy of mindfulness.

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With that energy she recognizes the pain
and she embraces the pain tenderly.

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'Hello my little pain. I know you are
there. I will take good care of you.'

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Whether that is anger or fear
or jealousy or despair.

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We have to be there for our pain.

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There is no fighting.

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There is no violence
done to our suffering.

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Yesterday we spoke about a mother
holding the crying baby.

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Our pain, our suffering is our baby

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and the energy of mindfulness generated
by our practice is the loving mother.

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And the mother has to recognize
that the baby suffers.

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She takes the baby up and holds
the baby tenderly into her arms.

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That is exactly
what a good practitioner will do

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when a painful feeling arises.

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You have to be there
for your painful feeling or emotion.

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You continue to breathe
and to walk in such a way,

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that the energy of mindfulness
continues to be produced.

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With that energy of mindfulness
you recognize the pain

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and you embrace the pain tenderly.

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In Buddhism we speak of consciousness
in terms of "store" and "mind."

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There are at least
two layers of consciousness.

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The lower layer
is called "store consciousness."

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Our fear, our anger, our despair are
there in the bottom of our consciousness

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in the form of seeds.

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There is a seed of anger here

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and if the seed of anger
accepts to sleep quietly down there,

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we are okay.

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We can laugh, we can have a good time.

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But if someone comes and says something
or does something

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and touches off that seed of anger,
it will come up as a source of energy.

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Down here it is called a seed.

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[seed]

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(Chinese: 種子)

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Bija.

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[bija]

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And when it comes up here
on the level of "mind consciousness,"

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it will become a kind of energy
called mental formation.

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[mental formation]

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And this is the mental formation
called anger.

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[M.F.]

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So when the practitioner notices
when anger is coming up,

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she, right away, breathes

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and invites the seed of mindfulness
to come up as energy.

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Mindfulness is another seed that is here.

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If we are a good practitioner,
the seed of mindfulness in us has grown

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to become a very important seed.

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It needs a touch lightly,

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then there will be a lot of that energy
coming up for us to use.

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If we are not a practitioner, the seed
of mindfulness is there but very tiny.

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If you practice mindful breathing,
mindful walking everyday,

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the seed continues to grow.

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Whenever you need that energy,
you just touch it,

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and you have a powerful source of energy

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to help you to deal with
whatever is happening up there.

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So the practitioner begins
to breathe or to walk mindfully.

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The second mental formation
is manifested on this level.

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Another mental formation...
And this one is mindfulness.

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So it is the energy of mindfulness that
will take care of the energy of anger.

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There is no fighting.

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Mindfulness does at least two things.
First of all to recognize,

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a simple recognition of the pain.

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And that is the seventh exercise.
Breathing in, I know anger is in me.

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Or despair is in me or jealousy is in me.

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Recognize simply, not fighting.

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The second thing mindfulness will do
is to embrace.

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And that is seen in the eighth exercise
is to calm down the pain

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[Calm Pain]

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like a mother holding the baby.

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The mother does not know
what is wrong with the baby.

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But the fact that
she's holding the baby gently

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can help the baby suffer less right away.

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The same thing is true
with the practitioner.

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She does not know what is the cause
of that kind of anger or fear.

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But the fact that she is recognizing
and holding that energy of fear and anger

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can help her suffer less right away,
after one or two minutes.

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So this is...

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the art of suffering.

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This is the art of happiness.

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How to generate a feeling
of joy and happiness.

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How to take care
of a painful feeling and emotion.

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How to calm it down, how to get a relief.

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And with the exercises that follow
you can go further

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and you can transform pain, sorrow, fear
into something more positive,

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like making good use of the mud
in order to grow lotus flowers.

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So a good practitioner
is not afraid of pain.

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She does not try
to run away from the pain.

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In fact, she tries to be with the pain.

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She knows how to handle
a feeling of pain,

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a strong emotion.

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And she knows how to make
good use of that mud

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in order to create
understanding and compassion

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which are factors of true happiness.