Translator: Tanya Cushman Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
Well, good afternoon.
(Audience) Good afternoon.
Okay, good. I still have a breathing audience.
That's always a good start.
First of all, I want to say
I'm so honored and happy to be here today with everyone.
I want to thank the TED organizers again
because their passion has really brought this possible for all of us,
the speakers and audience.
So thank you for that.
So I do want to talk about breath,
but I first want to start with this image of Katahdin
and a little quote by Henry David Thoreau upon his first glimpse.
He said, "Coming through the mist, the summit was partially veiled,
but the mountain appeared as an isthmus, bridging the heavens and the earth."
And I want to suggest that breath is also such a path,
that bridges the heavens with the earth
through the vehicle of our own presence and awareness of how to use breath.
The word "inspiration" has a really interesting double entendre in English.
It can mean both the intake of breath into the body
as well as the intake of the passion that moves us into action.
Today, we've heard and I've felt so much about passion,
inspiration, commitment, motivation
and really applying intention to bring about reality.
And I think behind all of these wonderful energies,
I have to drop the four-letter word that no one's used:
love.
I think TED is creating a paradigm worldwide
for all of us who have passionate, loving hearts
to show up and bring our A game,
to change the world
in all these directions that we need to change it in.
So I want to say thank you to everyone for that.
(Applause)
I learned so many new things today,
about many movements,
about all of this great energy that's going on
and about myself.
I didn't really know that I was a Luddite, but I am.
Because my technology that I want to introduce and really share with you
is really ancient technology.
It's using breath,
using stillness
for inspiration, for expansion and for active listening.
So, last year I started a project in Maine called the Maine Mindfulness Project,
and it's spelled M-A-I-N-E
because I know this "dirigo," and this quote as someone mentioned:
"As Maine goes, so the nation goes."
So I want it also to be a Maine mindfulness project - from our state -
but an M-A-I-N mindfulness project
for people to take further than what I can do on my own.
So in this last year,
I've been open to bringing the meditation practice
to pretty much anywhere people want to try it.
And I start with a very simple technique that's a breath meditation.
I happen to also be a practicing Buddhist,
so I enjoy that.
I've had the good fortune to go to the Himalayas
for three of the last five summers.
Unfortunately, I was there this summer for those cloud bursts -
that was very tragic.
But fortunately, because I have a practice that really calls out the best I can be -
each morning, getting up,
starting with prayer, starting with meditation,
starting with mindfulness -
I was able to really be able to be helpful
in a moment in a place that people were really suffering.
That's on a bad day.
On a good day,
my practice leads me to just show up places and offer this technique
for the benefit of all people
who can take it and use it and pass it along.
So some of those places in Maine
have included Bowdoin College.
As part of a classroom exercise,
I met a professor, who is a professor of teacher education,
at a conference in Cambridge last spring.
And we said, "Well, Brown and Yale are doing mindfulness labs.
Let's do a mindfulness lab
as part of the teacher education course at Bowdoin.
There's a beautiful, new meditation room there.
Let's have the students come in a couple of times a week,
like physics students go to physics lab, or the bio students go -
Let's do a meditation lab."
So that's one place that we're working with the younger students -
to learn mindfulness in the classroom.
Great concept; I think Zoe would like that.
The students are really responding.
Another place that I've gone is into the Long Creek Youth Development Center.
It used to be called the detention center
because it is actually Maine's adolescent prison.
They're doing great work there already.
They have only a 15 to 17% recidivism rate.
In the nation, the rate is closer to 70%.
So another place Maine is leading.
They welcomed a program in that I'm part of
that brings meditation, chant and yoga.
And the young women we started with love it.
Yarmouth High School.
I was talking to the kids.
Sometimes I like to talk about health benefits from meditation.
If you're in the public schools, that's better.
It often can lead into the spiritual conversations, the inner life,
but the health benefits.
So I say, "You know, a lot of people
start smoking because they just want to take a break.
They want to go out, and they want to relax.
They interrupt what they're doing; they just take a pause.
But there's nothing in their break
that's giving them any kind of relaxation or enjoyment more than their breath -
they're inhaling (Inhales),
(Exhales)
exhaling.
They're breathing in a way they don't breathe,
and all the chemicals and nicotine - everything else they're getting -
that's not giving them a break.
That's giving them addiction and making them poor.
So one of the students raises his hands,
and he says, "So that's right, Miss Blake,
you mean, we need to take a breath break and not a butt break."
I said, "Yeah, that's exactly it."
So the kids are getting this.
And when I, especially, teach to the younger people,
they say, "How come no one has ever taught us this before?
If we can just use our breath,
by knowing how to take intentional breathing
down into a still, quiet place,
get very relaxed and present-moment aware,
and that we can become better students, better human beings,
why haven't we been taught this?"
And I said, "Well, unfortunately, most of your teachers or parents
maybe don't know this technique."
So this is what I'm trying to do
is reach out in the area of education as well as in health care.
So part of my other practice is I have a meditation practice in Falmouth
with the True North Center for functional health and healing.
True North looks at healing as mind-body-spirit healing;
it provides a container and a vessel
for one patient to come in
and have her or his practitioners all under the same roof,
allopathically-trained doctors as well as alternatively-trained healers,
who come together once a week in the circle process
to talk about what we're working on for which patient,
how other practitioners could come in to be supportive,
who else has ideas in terms of what their practice might support
in someone's healing journey.
So this way the practitioners are holding the vessel for the patient;
the patient isn't having to go to all these disparate places
and try to remember,
what did my massage therapist suggest?
what did my nutritionist suggest?
what did the doctor tell me to do?
We're able to really hold that in a very holistic sense of the word,
and we work in the process called circle process.
So these are examples of mindfulness and meditation practices.
And what I'd like to do today
is to do some old-school spiritual technology with you,
with my singing bowl,
have you do a little practice.
It might be a little too late, but here's the new rule.
This is from Rumi; he says,
"Break the wine glass and lean ever closer to the glassblower's breath."
So, indulge me - you don't have to break your beer glass or wine glass,
but let's just do a very simple breathing technique
that you can use anywhere,
and it's perfect to stay seated because this is how we sit.
We don't have to sit in lotus and like a pretzel, that's fine.
For people who can do it, it feels good; it took me over a decade to get there.
But just for what you're doing now,
like sitting and listening, or waiting in the doctor's office,
or sitting outside waiting for someone
or even just intentionally sitting down to eat dinner.
The first step for good meditation is to sit up straight.
So can I have everyone sit up nice and straight,
feet flat on the floor;
be really connected to the earth.
Great.
Now take your thumbs and your fingers to the tops of your ears -
this is unique on everyone's head -
and bring your fingers up to the top of your head to meet here
and press down a little bit.
Now, just envision, as you're sitting,
that there's a little thin, golden cord of light
that's going to help your head stay beautifully in alignment with your neck,
beautifully in alignment with your spine,
all the way down, just in a gentle way.
Once you have that,
you can put your arms down
and just enjoy relaxing into that posture.
That's the first step of this breath meditation.
The second step is that we're going to use our nose to breathe.
Most people I ask, "Are you a nose breather? a mouth breather?
do you know? are you just glad that you're still breathing?"
Okay, we don't have to put attention to the breath, but we can.
And when we do put the attention to the breath,
where attention goes, energy flows.
So if we need to get into a more spacious, relaxed, creative frame of mind,
we can use this technique.
If we need to calm ourselves down -
it's the old fight-or-flight.
After you run and you use your mouth for short, quick breaths,
once you stop,
you take a nice deep breath through the nose.
That's inducing the relaxation response already in the body.
So we're going to breathe in through the nose, out through the nose.
The object of our meditation is just the breath;
we're just going to follow it going in and out.
We can use other objects -
a beautiful lotus flower, a candle, some other image we love -
but the breath we have with us always,
so let's use the breath.
The third one is we're going to rest the tip of the tongue behind the top -
where the front of the teeth and the palate come together.
Just let the light tip of the tongue rest there gently.
It might feel a little odd at first, but it serves a few purposes.
One is because you're not going to have to worry about salivating and swallowing.
Two is that there's another little meridian point there
that frees up the body
and frees up the breath to move freely through it.
Four - we're going to hold our hands in a comfortable position.
This is called a mudra.
You want to put the left hand under the right
and bring the thumbs together as a circle.
This is called the universal mudra.
Often if you see some kind of a depiction of the Buddha,
you might see this position.
In meditation, holding the arms like this is helpful
because if you get too relaxed and you start to wilt,
the thumbs will collapse.
So this way, you can remember: oh!
You've got to keep a relaxed, alert attention.
Relaxed, alert attention.
And now the final piece, the fifth piece, is how we're going to hold the eyes.
I'm going to encourage you not to close your eyes,
but if you have insomnia,
definitely do this before bedtime and close your eyes.
I've had a 17-year-old fall asleep in my office in full lotus,
dreaming back and forth even after I rang the bell.
It really works as a natural cure for insomnia.
The eyes are going to be three-quarters closed,
a little bit soft gaze,
just enough to remember that you're still in waking consciousness.
So what we're using is the beta state of mind
that we're always in once we're awake and active -
thinking logically, analyzing, problem solving -
and we will intentionally use the breath
to start to shift over into the alpha side, the right side -
intuitive, creative, listening, feeling.
So just try that out.
Take a few nice deep breaths down into the diaphragm, down here,
and expand like there's a balloon as you breathe in.
Fill the body with clean, fresh oxygen.
As you breathe out, feel it sink and relax.
And do this again, filling,
going a little deeper this time if you can, down into the diaphragm,
really bringing in beautiful, clear, clean oxygen,
filling the body, energizing the blood with that fresh oxygen,
breathing out anything you don't need,
letting the body relax,
let the shoulders come down and soften.
And after your exhalation, notice -
don't take the next breath, let the body breathe you.
Notice that there's a natural pause that comes in
that's like a transitional pause.
It's almost like a slack tide.
The inhalation, the tide's coming up;
exhalation, the tide's going out,
and in between there's a slack tide.
There's nothing much happening there; there's just a rest.
So I'm going to give you a few words now - continue this -
and I'm going to give you the Common Ground special meditation
that I taught two weekends ago at the Common Ground Fair
as a lead-in to Russell Libby.
As you breathe in, breathe in love.
Really feel love, your whole body.
Feel this exciting experience we've been part of today
of TED, creativity, passion, inspiration, purpose,
wonderful beings on this planet that we're with in this moment in time.
Feel love.
As you breathe out, breathe out gratitude,
deep gratitude that we have this precious human life;
it will not last forever,
but we will do what we can with it, and we'll enjoy it
and give gratitude to all those we're traveling with right now,
in this moment of time on the planet.
And in between, just rest in peace.
Yes, you can rest in peace before you're in the ground.
Rest in peace now, just in between the breath.
So in,
love,
out,
gratitude,
and then resting in peace.
Now gently close your eyes,
(Singing bowl sounds)
and when you're ready, open them and come back to the room.
(Singing bowl sounds)
Is there anyone who really did not like that exercise?
Please, tell me, I'm searching for you.
No, not yet?
Everyone benefited in some way.
You felt some peace; you felt some present moment comfort.
That was a two-minute meditation.
I'll leave you with this thought:
Two minutes into the morning - to start your day that way -
will qualitatively enhance your day tremendously.
My teacher likes to say -
he's a Tibetan lama from Northern India, from Ladakh -
he likes to say, "You Americans, you're so concerned.
You get out of bed, you jump into the shower,
you might even shower again later in the day,
you're very concerned with cleaning the external body.
The meditation - you need to clean the inside.
That's almost more important than the outside."
So this little practice,
clearing the inside,
creating this space,
being here and now.
So on this, yes, I would say, auspicious date of 10-10-10,
what comes to my mind of the "zero" is the all
and the "one" is all of us together.
All for one, one for all.
Thank you.
(Applause)