Now, one further element as we work with the breath and allow the breathing is that at

some time, in its own sweet time, there can come a growing sense of calm and pleasure and

joy in the breathing, not right away, not if you're in the middle of something you sit

and what you feel is what you're in the middle of, but in the training of the breath over

weeks and months of really learning to be with one's breath.

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Over the course of a number of weeks and evenings together, the various talks and discussions

have ranged on a kind of variety of spiritual topics.

Tonight, I'd like to speak more formally directed to the sitting meditation that we do, and

particularly to speak about the breath.

I'm a bit tired tonight, I'm just sitting here and feeling that I got back late last

night from a men's retreat the last five days, and it was a wonderful retreat.

And I realize what a pleasure it is just to sit down and sit, and I'm also extremely

happy about Sarajevo, you know, that somehow there's some connection for me, the piece

that they're not shelling Sarajevo, which doesn't mean there isn't a lot of the same

horrible warfare going on, not many miles from there and the rest of Bosnia.

But just have that sense of peace and those images of peace, kind of a reminder of how

precious it is just to be a piece in oneself.

As Thomas Merton said, to allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting

concerns to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to

...