In | Out

4 Wonderment and Gratitude

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How Can Mindful Breathing Fill Me with Joyful and Grateful Wonderment?

Objective: To be gratefully filled with wonderment for the life that is within me.

Why this is Important

• A smile.  An offered and received smile is always full of goodness.  Our true home is filled with happiness and peace and one's smile is a wonderful expression of being home.  So from the beginning of your practice, cultivate a smile.  It'll be a natural barometer affirming you're home while in the moment.

• Wonderment is what you'll find as you let go so can see more of your reality.  How amazing it is to be alive.  How incredible it is to be fully embraced, supported and intrinsically connected to the life around you.  This is both an affirming barometer and a motivation to sit again and be in the moment.

• Gratitude naturally flows from happiness' smile from observing the wonders of life within and around you.  Resting and walking in gratitude keeps you rooted in the moment as you live your day.

• Looking deeply is a very loving and caring act we can offer ourselves.  As this practice grows within us, our self compassion and offered compassion for another grows deeply and broadly spilling into every conversation and moment we breath into.

How Do We Get There?

• • Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing

Steps 1 and 2:   In - Out *1

• • Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight - Looking Deeply *1

  • Wonderment *1

  • Gratitude *1

  • Smiles *1

Sangha Sharing

What joy, insights, wonderment, questions and moments would you like to share?

Dharma Talk

Siddhartha: “But suffering is only one face of life. Life has another face, the face of wonder. If we can see that face of life, we will have happiness, peace, and joy. When our hearts are unfettered, we can make direct contact with the wonders of life.” *4 

Wonderment and Gratitude are two ways to see the happiness that is right here, in the now. We're very accustomed to waiting for our happiness in an event to come or remembering happiness from the past. But what about right now?  We don't have to wait.  We can just breathe in and be aware of ourselves and exhale with a smile.

Wonderment of life and being alive can initially seem like a limited source of happiness.  We all have had moments of appreciation being alive but then we move on.  Can that really be such a large source of happiness?  Yes, it can and the difference is our paradigm.  In the moment, we become aware of life's abundance and our relationship with the abundance.  It is fully around us and within us.  This creates Wonderment and Gratefulness which easily places a happy, grateful smile upon our faces.  

A Thich Nhat Hahn talk

Every Step Can Help Us Touch The Wonders Of Life ♡ Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh, 9:13 mins

Collective observations and reflections

We all share and listen.

Smiling is an important part of one's practice.  Like In-Out calms your breath, smiling relaxes your facial muscles and puts them to ease.  Plan on many many smiles during your practices and your daily moments of mindfully breathing.

Thich Nhat Hahn quotes on smiling.

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”  - Thich Nhat Hahn

"Why should I smile when there is no joy in me?  The answer to that is: Smiling is a practice.  There are over three hundred muscles in your face.  When you are angry or fearful, these muscles tense up.  The tension in these muscles creates a feeling of hardness.  If you know how to breathe in and produce a smile, however, the tension will disappear.  It is what I call 'mouth yoga'.  Make smiling an exercise.  Just breathe in and smile.  The tension will disappear and you will feel much better." - Thich Nhat Hahn

“A smile is an ambassador of goodwill.” *3

A Thich Nhat Hahn talk

Practice Smiling... And The Whole World Benefits ♡ Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh, 9:30 mins

Let's Joyfully Explore with Curiosity and Wonderment

We will use this convention for the gatha to help us make the connection between wonderment, gratitude and happiness.  Breathing in - Wonderment     Breathing out - Gratefulness

Mediation's Audio

16 mins with bells at 2 minutes

I am aware I am breathing in.  -  I am aware I am breathing out.  

In  -  Out

I kindly smile to everything in my awareness.  -  I release all tensions in my body and mind

Smile  -  Release

My body calms as I rest in the present moment.  -  This is a wonderful moment

Calming present moment  -  Wonderful moment

I am aware of being alive, a lovely wonderment  -  Gratefully I smile

I'm alive  -  Smile

I am aware of how smoothly and beautifully my breathe flows  -  My breathe brings me peace

Smoothly Breath Flows  -  Peace

I am aware of how my breath gives me life  -   I gratefully smile to my breath

Breaths give me life  -  Smile

This moment is always available here and now for me  -  Gratefully I smile to this moment

Moment always available  -  Gratefully smile

I am aware of my happiness  -  My happiness blooms into my smile

Happiness  -  Blooming Smile

Collective observations and reflections

We all share and listen.

Exceptions and Citations

* None of this section is included in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing nor from Thick Nhat Hahn's book, Breathe, You are Alive. 

*1 Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight are not included in either the Buddha's Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing nor in Breathe, You  are Alive! Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing.

This introduction and description was used to establish a foundation to understand ones self.

*3 Thich Nhat Hanh, Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children

*4 Hạnh, N. (1987). Old Path White Clouds (pp. 346). essay, Parallax Press.