Life and Death: October 1 - 7

Our life here on earth begins with our first breath and ends with the last. All the days in between are a series of one breath after another. In a sense, this is the pattern of our entire lives. We receive, we let go. We expand, we contract. Each inhalation brings a gift. Each exhalation is a loss. In the same way, birth and death repeatedly follow one another in the daily dance of life.

The natural cycle of creation

comes in endless forms:

in breath and out breath,

coming and going,

day and night,

light and dark,

ebb and flow,

sound and silence,

joy and sorrow.

And finally there is just

life and death.

Practice

Pay attention to the in breath as if it were the very first breath. Pay attention to the out breath as if it were the very last. Now follow the full cycle of the breath. Notice the in breath as the stomach rises, the slight pause as the breath changes direction, the out breath as the belly falls, the slight pause, and the cycle repeats for an entire life. Be with the breath.