Breathing Exercise: Flower Fresh & Mountain Solid by Thich Nhat Hanh

now we switch to the second exercise flower fresh breathing in I see myself as a flower breathing out I feel fresh humans are born as flowers when I look at a child I see her I see him as a flower very fresh very beautiful look our eyes are like flowers in the Sutra the eyes of the Buddha are described as lotus flowers our lips can be a beautiful flower especially when we smile and now how to smile and this is a flower that we can offer to anyone at any time just breathing in and breathing out and smile and you have one flower to open and you know something your eyes can smile too so when you look at someone and smile with your eyes you offer two flowers and if you smile with your mouth you offer three flowers and your hands are also like flowers and with my hands I can form a flower a lotus flower and when I bow to someone I say something like this a flower for you the Buddha to be and I bow to him not to her so my hands are flowers capable of making people happy and when I offer a lotus flower to that person I offer another flower with my mouth and two other flowers with my eyes we are born as flowers but if we don't know how to take care of our flowers our flower may be tired male world when you breathe in deeply you make every cell in your body smile like a flower become fresh again for your sake for your own happiness and for the happiness of those around us if you are not fresh if you are grocery if you are irritated and then people around you cannot be happy therefore practicing becoming a flower again practicing breathing in I see myself as a flower breathing out I feel fresh the Buddha practice refreshing himself and therefore when we look at him we see him like a flower he is described as sitting on a flower it means that anywhere he sit he sit with peace happiness freshness because he is a flower himself so when you sit on your cushion sit in such a way that you become a flower and suddenly your cushion become a lotus flower and practicing the way of the Buddha you should sit on a Lotus Flower and not on burning charcoals foreign if you have too much worries too much anger in yourself you cannot sit on a flower you sit on burning charcoal you have no peace as soon as you sit down you want to run again and therefore the Lotus is not available as a seat to you practice being a flower fresh that is the second exercise and if you practice like that three or four times you become fresh and you enjoy that now we switch to the third exercise which is Mountain solid in this position in the half Lotus position at the Lotus position you find yourself quite stable solid if you feel agitated not solid vulnerable breakable and then you practice this in order to get solid again the solidity the stability of the body will help bring about the stability of the Mind and therefore sit in a stable position and practice breathing in and out you become more stable in your mind breathing in I see myself as a mountain written out I feel salt from time to time a very strong emotion overwhelm us that emotion can be anger or despair of fear and when we are overwhelmed by a strong emotion we feel that we are very vulnerable we may die this is too bad because we are more than our emotion we are more solid than we may think and therefore practicing being solid like a mountain is very helpful when you look at the tree during a storm you see that the top of the tree is not solid you can only see the tiny branches and a number of leaves on the top of the tree swaying back and forth you have the impression that the tree is very vulnerable very fragile but if you see the tree is firmly rooted in the ground the impression that the tree is vulnerable will vanish you see that the tree is much more solid then it will look at the top we the human body the human person is like that too we have emotions on the top somewhere here but we have the trunk down here our trunk is somewhere on this level a little bit below your navel and with this sitting position if you bring your attention down to this level and process breathing in and out and follow the movement of your abdomen breathing in breathing out I see myself as a mountain I feel silent and if you practice like this one time two times three times your emotion will not be able to destroy you anymore you now know that you are more than your emotions therefore this exercise is very important we should practice it every day so that when we Face a strong emotion we know what to do in order to handle our emotions let us practice this exercise for a few times breathing in I see myself as a mountain written out I feel solid try to sit in a solid way to practice this you don't have to use all the words you just retain the word Mountain for inhalation and solid for your exhalation Mountain solid