Cultivating Stillness

You use your thumb and index finger to close one nostril. You breathe in through the open side for four counts, hold for four, and breathe out through that same nostril for four. Then you close the other side and repeat, alternating for several rounds before you carry on breathing quietly until his voice returns.

The teaching is that when your energy settles, the mind becomes still, and the reverse is true too: a still mind lets your energy rise. Hang describes us as an energetic system, so a busy, scattered mind means scattered energy. Stillness is how you let it flow more harmoniously.

He suggests the mind receives energy frequencies that express ideas, rather than generating thoughts itself. The point is practical: if a thought isn't you, you don't have to get involved, spin with it for minutes or hours, or attach to the feelings it brings. You simply notice it.

Picture yourself sitting somewhere busy, observing people walk by, noticing how they move and what they carry, but not joining in. Treat each thought the same way: it enters your mindstream and then leaves. If you find yourself drifting into a story, bring your attention back to the breath, which gives the mind a single point of focus.

You press your palms together at your heart and bow to your inner self, which is described as connected to every other inner self, so you're bowing to all of humanity. You then imagine bowing to everyone in the circle. It reminds you that you're turning inward, but not alone.

After the observing, you breathe deeply down into your abdomen, expand into your chest, and exhale through your mouth, two or three times or more. You breathe into stress in body and mind and let it go, because what you carry is assumed to be part of you but isn't. The session closes by watching your natural breath move in and out.