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Practice #1:
Watching the Breath
The first is the very simple practice of taking a
breath -- taking a breath every single day. You can do it every hour
on the hour -- a deep breath. You can take 15 minutes in the evening
to take breaths. It doesn’t matter, but we need to take the time to
be able to look deeply inside and to see how we are operating
outside in light of that.
Practice #2:
"Marinating in Gratitude"
And the second practice is really a gratefulness
practice. Gratitude is probably the most important emotion in
developing the spiritual experience. When you are grateful in the
world, you are much more open. And who among us doesn’t have a
reason to be grateful? Think about it – no matter what our life is
like – the fact that we are alive gives us reason for gratitude –
just the fact that we are alive. I have a teacher who said [that]
consciousness is like tofu. What does tofu taste like? Tofu
doesn’t taste like anything until you marinate it in something. And
he said: “If you marinate the tofu in something bitter, you will
have a bitter consciousness and you will exude bitterness, and if
you marinate your consciousness in something sweet, you will have a
sweeter life because your consciousness looks out at the world and
determines how you are going to feel about things.” So marinate
your consciousness in gratefulness – marinate your consciousness in
gratitude. And here’s the easiest way to do it. When morning comes
and you wake up, the very first thought – and it will take you one
month to train yourself to think it and then you’ll do it for your
whole life -- the very first thought needs to be “I thank you” or “I
am thankful” – the very first thought. You know, sometimes you get
up and the first thought is : “Oh, I have a meeting that I can’t
believe I’m not prepared for.” Or “I can’t believe I have to go out
of town.” Or “I have to resolve that fight.” And you start your
day with a consciousness, marinated in oy vey. Well, don’t
imprison yourself that way. Start by marinating that consciousness
in gratefulness. Sometimes it could be – you get out of bed and you
open the shades or you open the drapes and the first thing you see
is morning light. For most of human history, night time was a great
source of fear because it was such darkness and now we can have
light 24 hours, but still there is nothing like morning light. You
open that shade – you look at that morning light – and you say:
“Wow, light overcomes darkness. My life is hopeful. Gratefulness
is the key.”
Now you do these two practices and you think about
not all the techniques – not all the searching – but [about] who you
are – and I promise you that you’ll feel this every single day: This
is the day that was made for me to feel joyous and glad and that’s
“Simple Wisdom.”
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