An old lady was telling her granddaughter about a fight that was going on inside herself. She said it was between two wolves. One is Evil : “ Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, inferiority, false pride and ego.” The Other is Good : “Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The granddaughter thought for a minute and then asked her grandmother, “ Which wolf wins?” The old lady simply replied, “ The One I Feed.” The moral of the story is that happiness and unhappiness depends on our own choice of the Evil or the Good.
By Zile Singh
An old lady was telling her granddaughter about a fight that was going on inside herself. She said it was between two wolves. One is Evil : “ Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, inferiority, false pride and ego.” The Other is Good : “Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The granddaughter thought for a minute and then asked her grandmother, “ Which wolf wins?”
The old lady simply replied, “ The One I Feed.” The moral of the story is that happiness and unhappiness depends on our own choice of the Evil or the Good.
During these times of personal upheaval, the phrase “ Sigh of Relief “ is very important and essential in our lives. Because when we heave a sigh of relief, we feel relaxed and happy. As such this relaxation and happiness is in our own hands. We can do it wherever and whenever we like. The best things in life are the nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes.
Normally we say that there are three things that are basic in life: clothes, food and shelter. But we have forgotten the most important element for survival and that is ‘Breath’ We can live for some time in the absence of the three basic requirements mentioned above, but in the absence of breath we cannot live more than one or two minutes. In fact, breath is life and is the bridge between the body and the mind.
Ordinary human beings breathe ten to fifteen times per minute. A healthy person breathes a little less and a yogi or a practitioner of meditation breathes seven to nine times per minute. An elephant breathes three to four times and a tortoise only one or two times per minute. The life span of an elephant and a tortoise is three to four times more than that of a human being. In normal situation a dog takes approximately 25 to 30 breaths per minutes and a cat about 20-25 breaths. Their life span is about 14 years and 5-6 years respectively.
Have you ever seen an infant breathe? When at rest, the baby breathes in a natural way. His little belly moves out and in as he inhales and exhales. Babies are perfect breathers and no one teaches them how to breathe. We were born knowing how to do this. It is really a matter of some dusting off. A conscious breathing connects us to our body and mind.
From the breathing point of view, our body can be divided into three levels: lower, middle and upper. In normal way the breath is very short because we are not using the full capacity of our lungs, perhaps only 15 to 20 per cent. Lungs breathing is just the middle level breathing. When you breathe, let the whole body breathe and you will notice a big difference in your feeling. Let the inhalation
pass through the nostril, head, neck, chest, navel and up to the end of the spinal cord. And similarly the exhalation in the reverse order. An ideal method is: Inhale up to 3-4 seconds; hold the breath for a second- then exhale up to 3-4 seconds and wait for 2 seconds before the next inhalation.
For a healthy person the right nostril breathes more clearly than the left nostril during day time and during night time the left nostril breathes more clearly than the right. This is due to solar (sun) and lunar(moon) phenomenon.
“Your breathing should flow gracefully, like a river flowing in the plain land, like a water snake crossing the water, and not like a chain of rugged mountains or the gallop of a horse. To master our breath is to be in control of our body and mind. Each time we find ourselves depressed or in abnormal situation and find it difficult to gain control of ourselves by different means, the method of watching the breath should always be used.” – Thich Nhat Hanh – a Buddhist meditation practitioner.
From the time we have come into this world we have been breathing and with our last exhalation we will depart from this world. Learning to breathe correctly can lower blood pressure, boost immune system, clear your mind, fight the ill effect of stress and even help you sleep better. And in difficult times, it is particularly useful to keep yourself calm and quiet.
With the inhalation, we draw into our own center, our own being.
With the exhalation, we expand outward into the world.
Zile Singh is a former Ambassador(Retd.) of India and a Vipassana Meditator. He can be reached at [email protected] .
