Thich Nhat Hanh, Breathe, You Are Alive!: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2008) ("In the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, also known as the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha shows us how to transform our fears despairs, anger, and craving.... This sutra is so basic and so wonderful. There are many great sutras, but approaching them without this sutra is like trying to reach the top of a mountain without a path to go on." Id at 3. "We can begin to enter the present moment by becoming aware of our breath. Breathing in and breathing out, we know we are breathing in and out, and we can smile to affirm that we are in control of ourselves. Through Awareness of Breathing, we can be awake in, and to, the present moment. Being attentive, we already establish 'stopping' and concentrating the mind. Full Awareness of our Breathing helps our mind stop wandering in confused, never ending thoughts." Id. at 39. "We need to organize our daily lives so that the positive seeds are watered every day and the negative seeds are not watered. We all have seeds of suspicion, despair, and anger, In one person, they are stronger; in another person, they are weaker, We do not want the people who live around us to water our negative seeds. Every time a negative seed is touched and watered, we suffer." "But we can do better than simply not watering our negative seeds; we can water our positive seeds of happiness, loving kindness, forgiveness, and joy. We call this the practice of selective watering. We water the flowers, not the weeds, so that the flowers will bloom in the other person. When we make the other person smile, we benefit as well, It does not take long to see the result of our practice." Id. at 77-78.).
Jim Pym, You Don't Have to Sit on the Floor: Making Buddhism Part of Your Everyday Life (Berkeley: Seastone/ Ulysses Press, 2002) ('The Buddha's teaching of simple mindfulness or awareness as a way of enlightenment is particularly suitable for people of today. The whole secret of mindfulness can be summed up in the two words: 'Remember!' and 'Awareness.' 'Remember to be aware of your breath. / Remember to be aware of where you are. / Remember to be aware of what you are doing. / Remember to be aware of what you say. / Remember to be aware of what you feel. / Remember to be aware of what you think.' Try it for a little while. Do you see why it is simple to say, but hard to do?" "The key to mindfulness as a form of meditation lies with the breath.... [T]he breath is used as a vehicle to calm the mind...." "Awareness of the breath leads to other avenues of awareness. When you stand, sit, walk or lie down, know what you are doing. When you are eating, drinking, bending or stretching and even going to sleep, know what you are doing. In other words, whatever you are doing be fully aware of it.... Id at 57-58.).
