This I have heard:

When I breathe in, I know that I am breathing in

When I breathe out, I know that I am breathing out

When I breathe in, I know that I am alive

This is enlightenment, a little enlightenment

I heard this in one of Thay‘s dharma talks at Nottingham in April 2012 and it has stayed with me. The idea of a dharma talk is just to listen, to let the words sink into you, not to take notes – you will hear what you need to hear, which will be different for different people.

So, this bit has stayed with me. Clearly ‘know’ here is not know as in I can regurgitate for the examiner, it is something much deeper. Like the psalmist’s ‘know’ in ‘be still and know that I am God‘. When I truly know, I won’t be aware of my knowing, I will just be.

So, I just sit with it and, maybe, let it sink into me a bit deeper.