The Sixteen Steps of Mindful Breathing with Thich Nhat Hanh

In his talk “Sixteen Steps of Mindful Breathing,” Thích Nhất Hạnh emphasizes nurturing positive seeds of mindfulness, concentration, insight, and love within consciousness to cultivate happiness.

He discusses the importance of preventing negative seeds like anger and fear from growing, advocating for conscious choices to promote mental well-being.

Thich Nhat Hanh explores mindful breathing’s transformative power on negative mental formations, introducing the third and fourth objects of mindfulness.

The sixteen steps of mindful breathing are:

1. Being aware of the in-breath and the out-breath.
2. Following the in-breath and the out-breath all the way through.
3. Being aware of the body as a whole during the in-breath and the out-breath.
4. Releasing tension in the body during the out-breath.
5. Calming the bodily formation during the in-breath.
6. Calming the mental formation during the out-breath.
7. Being aware of the mental formations arising during the in-breath.
8. Smiling to the mental formations during the out-breath.
9. Recognizing mental formations during the in-breath.
10. Embracing mental formations during the out-breath.
11. Concentrating the mind during the in-breath.
12. Liberating the mind during the out-breath.
13. Contemplating impermanence.
14. Contemplating non-craving.
15. Contemplating no birth and no death.
16. Reflecting, letting go, and releasing attachments to ideas of self and otherness.

Lastly, he delves into the concentrated exercises that liberate, including contemplation of impermanence and releasing attachments to self.

Through these practices, Thich offers a pathway to liberation from suffering and afflictions.

His teachings intertwine ancient wisdom with modern scientific understanding, emphasizing interconnectedness and the transformative potential of mindfulness in daily life.

References

• Sixteen Steps of Mindful Breathing | Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh