One Step at a Time
September 08, 2003
Try to stay with each breath. If it’s too much to think about staying here for the full hour, stay with this breath, and then this breath. In fact, if you start thinking too far ahead, you’re going to miss this breath, and you’re going to miss the point where the mind slips off. But if you keep things small, keep things manageable, you do a lot better job. So: this breath, this breath, this breath. And as for your past breaths — well, for one thing, they’re not here anymore, and whether you were able to stay with them or not doesn’t matter any more. What matters right now is this breath. Similarly, breaths in the future are not here for you to look at, either. You can’t be responsible now for whether you’re going to stay with them then. You will be responsible then if you learn how to be responsible now. So take it one step at a time.