focus on the breath when you are doing certain tasks, such as driving on the expressway. At these times, just follow the main principle of mindfulness of the breathing, which is to be conscious of the present moment and perform each duty as best you can.
Food is necessary in both quantity and quality. A poor person tends to seek quantity ﬁrst in order to satisfy his hunger. But quantity alone is not enough — the quality of the food is also crucial. We need to eat nutritious food so that we get all the necessary minerals and vitamins. A well-balanced diet will make us healthy and able to carry out important missions in life. The practice of mindfulness of the breathing is equivalent to food for the mind. And the mind needs both quantity and quality. Quantity in mindfulness of the breathing means having mindfulness supervise and control our mind by focusing continuously on the in-breath and out-breath in every posture, whether it be standing, walking, sitting or lying down. Make your breath your intimate friend. When you are annoyed, turn your attention to the breath in order to eliminate the annoyance. By doing this you will be able to continually maintain a calm mind.mindfulness of the breathing will result in the perfection of calm and insight, the four bases for mindfulness , the seven enlightenment factors (bojjhanga) and eventually liberation or Nibbana.
As long as you are still breathing, live with mindfulness of the breathing. Whether you are standing, walking, sitting, sleeping, drinking, eating, cooking, cleaning the house, riding in a car, working, strolling or relaxing, in fact in every posture, try consistently to sustain mindfulness with your breath. Regardless of what you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, do not let the mind become pleased or displeased, just focus on the breath. This is the way to keep the mind at peace, the way to nurture the health of our mind. Plainly speaking, live your whole life with mindfulness of the breathing.
It may not be convenient to
The present is most important. Forget about the past. Do not think about the future. Turn your attention towards examining yourself. The most important thing is to ensure that you yourself are always doing the right thing. Forget about other people’s faults.
If you are driving, drive carefully so that you don’t have an accident. It does not matter how other people are driving, or whether they observe the trafﬁc laws. Do not get angry at those who drive badly or cut in front of you. Your present responsibility is to drive cautiously to avoid any accident.
If we practice mindfulness of the breathing regularly, mindfulness will be with us all the time and we will be able to handle several urgent‘ matters at the
same time. This is because whenever we feel disturbed, mindfulness will automatically bring us back to our breath. Our mind will become calm, wisdom will arise and we will see things the way they really are. Under this state of mind, we will be able to successfully complete each task. And when we have ﬁnished our task, mindfulness will again lead us back to our breath, a good way for us to rest.
To sum up, living our lives with mindfulness of the breathing is simply to continue doing our present duties to the best of our ability, with a serene and contented mind.