Mindfulness of the Body | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

The third:

"Breathing in,
I'm aware of my body."

So this is "awareness of body."

In a state of distraction

mind and body are 
not together.

Our body is here
but our mind is elsewhere -

in the past, in the future, in our projects,
caught by anger, by fear.

So mind and body are not together.
We are not truly there.

We are not living our life truly.

So this exercise is to bring
the mind home to the body

and to restore your oneness
of body and mind.

Mind becomes the "embodied" mind
and makes you alive.

And it can help you
to get in touch with your body.

Your body is a wonder.

and when your mind
is back to your body

and recognizes your body,
you are truly there.

and you can begin to live truly
your life.

Many of us...

live in virtual life.

Suppose you work...
you are with your computer.

You may get lost completely 
in the virtual world of the computer.

You forget that you have a body.

You forget that the planet Earth is there
with all the wonders.

You do not live in reality.

And many of us have to spend 
so many hours in that world.

On the 14th of September

Our sangha went to Northern California

and practice one day with the people
at the Google center.

All the "Googlers" came together

and we practiced guided meditation,

sitting meditation, walking meditation,

mindful eating and so on.
Total relaxation also.

and many Googlers
tried for the first time...

to live deeply with the body,
with the breath

and become aware of every breath,
every step.

Most of them work more than
15 hours a day with their computer.

And they don't have a lot of chance
to go back to their body

to be with the body

and to feel the presence of the body

and the presence of the environment
around them.

So the third exercise is
to come home to the body

and feel the presence of the body

and to become truly alive.

You cannot be truly alive without your body.

So this is a kind of reconciliation
between the mind and the body.

You go home and be with your body
and take good care of your body.

And when you come home to your body,
you might notice that your body suffers.

There may be a lot of tension and pain
in your body.

in fact many of us have a loud 
tension to be accumulated into our body and

the pain continue to grow to become chronic pain 
and that is why the Buddha proposed the fourth

exercise written in I release the tension from my 
body release tension in body so this teaching this

practice is still very relevant to our time 
reading or now in breath we come home to our

body we feel the presence of our body and really 
release we allow our body to release the tension

and when tension can be released we can reduce 
the amount of pain in our body because pain in

the body is in function of attention and when 
the body is relaxed it it has the capacity of

healing itself the body has a natural capacity 
to himself if we allow our body to rest and to

release the tension many of us count only on 
medicines and we don't know that the basic

practice to you is to allow our body to relax 
let us think about the animals living in the

mountain they still have that wisdom when 
an animal is deeply wounded she knows how

to what to do there anymore look for a white 
place and lay down does not think of getting

something to eat there's nothing of running 
after another animal that is the wisdom placed

you have the loop for a hot place and sit down 
and later and then know that that's the only

way to you they don't have a doctor they don't 
have a pharmacist and they know that's the best

way and three four days later they get here 
and they begin to stand up and go and look

for some food we humans we used to have that 
kind of wisdom also but now we have lost them

we now only count our medicines we don't know 
that helping the body to relax and to rest is

giving the body the capacity to yourself even 
if you have vacation holidays we don't know

how to rest anymore and after the vacation 
after the holidays you get more tired so we

have to relearn how to rest and this practice 
helped us we should learn how to rest again

there's a text the contemplation of the 
body in a body its sutra the contemplation

of the body and the Buddha even gave an 
example a farmer goes up to the attic

and bring down a bed of seeds they open one 
end of the bed and allowed all the seats in

the back to flow on the floor on the wooden 
floor and if I still in good condition he

recognized every kind of seat it is his 
kidney beans this is gone this is mung

beans etc so the practitioner does exactly 
like that she may lay down and she began to

breathe in and recognize eyes nose tongue 
body lungs heart kidneys liver feet answer

so you practice mindfulness of breathing 
and you revisit all part of your body

Britain in I'm aware of my eyes retinal 
eyes I recognize the presence of my eyes

written in my fully I generate the energy of 
mindfulness and with that energy I recognize my

eyes as existing I embrace my eyes with the energy 
of mindfulness and my I'm I get the insight that

my eyes to conditions of happiness and I might 
notice that my eyes are still in good conditions

and I get inside that I need only to open my eyes 
in order to get in touch with them a paradise of

forms and colors that is available in the internal 
because because of the fact that my eyes are still

in good condition the kingdom of God is available 
the paradise of forms and colors is available

and I recognize one of the many conditions of 
happiness that I am having so breathing in I'm

aware of my eyes missing out I smiled my eyes and 
you would you become aware of your ears your nose

your tank and you visit all part of your body 
with the practice of mindful breathing is less

like a scanning the body not with a scanner x-rays 
but with the ray of mindfulness you recognize the

presence of every part of your body written in 
and you smiled it with compassion you might have

not been you might have not been very kind to that 
part of your body listen in I'm aware of my heart

but now I smiled my heart and compassion might 
arise from that kind of exercise compassion and

great gratitude because my heart she functions 
named night non-stop to nourish all the cells

in my body and yet I have not supported her 
smoking drinking alcohol staying late in the

night things that are not very friendly to our 
heart and when you recognize your heart and you

smile to your heart compassion understanding my 
or eyes and you know how to behave you know the

not to give your heart a hard time and you might 
notice that your heart still functions normally

and there is something great because there are 
those of us who do not have a heart like that

and our deepest desire is to have a normal heart 
and yet we have a heart like that but we don't

enjoy we don't appreciate you giving our heart 
a difficult time by smoking by drinking alcohol

and the same thing is true with our liver within 
in I'm aware of my liver without I smart my liver

my liver might be sending me a message s o s s 
o s but I continue to drink alcohol I continue

to eat a lot of fat so listening to your body 
with compassion visiting a part of your body

that is the practice recommended by the Buddha 
and when you come to a place to an organ that

is ailing you may like to stay longer with it 
I'm gracing it tenderly with your brittle in

a now mindfully you will help their part to heal 
more quickly let us not count only our medicines

with this practice recommended by the Buddha we 
can help even allowed our body to heal itself

we hold that alien part of the 
body like holding a wooded cat

the compassion and that will help with the healing