A Deep Dive Into Thay's Calm-Ease Meditation

Smiling Love | 4 of 6

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Smiling Love

The smile is a ubiquitous experience and a constant companion in one's journey of letting go.  

In - Out

Thich Nhat Hanh introduces the smile in the very beginning.  In the longer Calm-Ease version, Thay says, "In - Out.   Enjoy." at the 1 minute mark.

He is inviting us to look for an enjoyable experience and naturally, 'enjoyable' evokes a smile.  So somehow, In - Out has an enjoyable quality to it.  Each of us has the responsibility to find that enjoyment.  So take your time and simply BE.  The enjoyment is there waiting on you.  

To affirm we are doing it correctly, at 7:53 he says, 

"If you feel you enjoy your deep and slow breath, It means you are practicing correctly. "

Realize he isn't asking you to think about what is happening.  He states "if you feel you enjoy".  Feeling enjoyment is an experience, not a thought.  We are simply listening to our breathing.  Listening to how our body moves.  Listening to how it feels to breathe.  Listening to the full experience of breathing and in there, we will find the experience of joy.

Thay continues with,

 "Shall we try again?   Deep...  Slow...  And if you feel pleasant, smile."

The smile is connected with the experience of enjoyment and pleasantness in the very beginning  of the Calm-Ease meditation.

Calm - Ease

As you BE in your meditation, you will experinece your breath and your body and mind at the same time.  Your awareness fills with this experience and it will quiet your thinking mind.  Notice how breathing is still included here while BEING.  Since breathing is present, an enjoyable and pleasing experience is still happening.  It is now blended with the body and mind.  The smile continues here.

Smile - Release

If we are mindfully breathing and BEING with our breath within the whole body, the smile broadens with purpose.  The smile is now connected to enjoyment, pleasantness and relaxation.  

At 21:14, "Smiling means relaxing to all your muscles in your face.  Every time you smile, you relax all these muscles on your face.  And your nervous system becomes relaxed." 

At his point, the smile holds something really big and critical in one's journey of letting go, love. Thay continues with,

 "And smiling here is to yourself.  That is the practice of loving kindness directed to oneself.  Breathing in, I smile.  Breathing out, I release."

This is compassionate love for oneself.  

At 22:17 he says, "Breathing in I smile.  Nothing is as important as my peace. I smile to everything, even my suffering, to my difficulties."

Let's imagine we are sitting with a close friend or loved one and they tell us of a hurtful moment they've experience.  Think about how we would offer a smile.  Our loved one would need our compassionate smile, our patient smile, kindness smile, caring smile or our gentle smile of listening.  Our loved one would need our love and each of these smiles is of love.  There isn't judgement here, only our kindness of recognition of our suffering and our gentleness of simply listening.  This is the smile of love.

Thay invites us to offer love to ourselves delivered within our smile.  If you want, as you breath in and recognize a hurtful moment, you can wrap love around it.  Naturally, you'll find yourself smiling with the hug.  You breathe out and release the anxiety and tensions it is causing.  This soothes the hurt.

Notice this is not getting rid of the hurt.  You are not releasing the hurtful moment.  You are releasing the tension generated by it.  You don't want to get rid of the hurtful moment.  You want to continue mindfully breathing, kindly recognizing it and gently listening to it as you BE with it.  At this point, you'll be able to look deeply into it and touch its source.  Then you can offer it Love so it can transform into flowers that will always be with you.  

Lastly, Thay has given us another purpose for our smile, intrinsic motivation to sit and mindfully breathe again. 

"Nothing is as important as my peace. "

There will be times when you don't feel like sitting and breathing.  Remember, "Nothing is as important as my peace." and that's all the motivation you may need.  Maybe you feel off and you can't find your smile.  Returning to your sitting practice will bring your smile back.

At this point, Thay has wrapped: enjoyment, peace, relaxation, compassionate love and intrinsic motivation to the one's smile in their practice.

Whew!  

 Present Moment - Wonderful Moment

At 29:59 he says, "Breathing In, I establish myself in the present moment.  Breathing out, I realize this is a wonderful moment.  ...  If you have some concentration, that exercise will bring you a lot of joy."

Clearly, a wonderful moment is going to include smiles, but here's my favorite part, "If you have some concentration."  He does not say perfect or excellent, he says some.  As you sit and BE, your thinking mind will quiet, but maybe it still can be heard.  Maybe at some moments it still is pretty loud.  It's okay because you have "some concentration" on experiencing the moment; hence, there is a "lot of joy" waiting on you to experience it.  How wonderful is that!

Thay continues with,

"Dear Friends, these exercises can be practiced everywhere, at any time.  When you sit on a bus ... when you are in the kitchen preparing a meal, ... you can practice while walking, ... when you line up to wait"

Mindful breathing doesn't have to end when you stand up from sitting.  It can continue as we live life.  AND the mindful breathing doesn't have to be as concentrated as when we are sitting.  Everyday life pulls us from the peaceful and happy mind.  It happens to everyone, but we can still return to mindful breathing in little moments throughout the day.  Will our concentration be long, sustained or deep in those little moments?  Probably not, but here's the cool part.  There will be "some concentration"; thus, there is "a lot of joy" waiting on us with just a little bit of effort.  : )  What a gift.

Just Be

In case you are wondering, how will I ensure I have all of these experiences while I sit and smile?  Well, you can let that thought go.  That is your thinking mind and when we sit, we want to become aware of our experience through listening.  That is BEING.  Each of these experiences are very natural reactions so you don't have to think 'where are they'.  AlI you need to do is gently listen for them.  "Oh, I'm smiling right now because I am experiencing this lovely peace." 

Remember, if you're BEING, you can't break the mediation.  If you're experiencing deep peace within Calm - Ease and the bell rings for Smile - Release, you can simply continue with Calm - Ease.  Let it soak into your awareness.  Stay and rest there.  That's healing.  Stay and BE there.  This is your true home.

You End Where You Began

When you sit and just BE, you ARE.  There isn't a need to pretend you are something you are not.  This is liberating and freeing.  A smile is the natural response.

While BEING you become aware of your suffering.  Offering yourself a kind and gentle smile recognizes your suffering and begins its loving transition into compassionate flowers.  A smile is a natural response to this change.

The flowers are shared with yourself and others, paving the way for more beautiful transitions.  A smile is a natural response in this experience too.

As the wildflower garden of knowledge and compassion grows in your awareness, you let go of more perceptions, beliefs, ideas and conclusions that have caused you suffering.  A happy smile blooms. 

Your mindful breathing continues beyond your sitting.  The meditation does not end and continues in your walk, your conversations and in your thoughts as you live your day.  You end the day with a sit and you realize your smile has been there all day with you and it greets you again with your first breath.  This is a lovely, all-day smile.

Letting go of more, you become more aware of the life within you, around you, within others, in the mountains and streams and beyond yet further.  You breathe in and BE the experience of all of it.  Your definitions of self become more clear.  The smile of freedom is experienced.

As your focus stays upon your experience of just BEING and letting your thoughts go, it becomes more and more apparent that life has been living emptiness, signlessness and aimlessness all along.  This is a  joyous and celebratory smile.  

It is the same smile that was with you in the very beginning and has always been with you.  It has supported you, expressed love with and for you and it has affirmed you at every step of letting go. 

Hello, my smile. I am glad you are here.

Let's Sit and Enjoy our Smile

I invite you to enjoy this meditation, to enjoy these moments, to enjoy your breathing, to enjoy listening to your body and mind,  to enjoy your offered kindness, gentleness and love offered to all of you and lastly to enjoy the wonderful moment.  When the last bell rings, do you remember all of your smiles?  As you stand up, remember, you are still breathing.  If this awareness brings you a sense of safety and absurdness, then please, enjoy your smile that just bloomed . 

12 minute meditation with bells at 2 mins.  Meditation's audio.

Listening to my In Breath - Out & Enjoy my Breath

Aware of In Breath & its gentleness - Listening to my Body

In Breath & Gentleness  -  Listening to Body

Aware of In Breath & its gentleness - Sharing my breath's gentleness with my Body

In Breath & Gentleness  -  Sharing Gentleness with Body

Gentleness -  Sharing Gentleness with Body

Gentleness - Sharing

As you are listening to the Gentleness and Sharing, let go a little more and let your mind experience more of you.  Then simply enjoy the listening.

Just mindfully breath and enjoy BEing.