Breakfast with Buddha

by Roland Merullo

“Now, we will sit here for two hours about. If your legs hurt, or if you have to, you get up and walk a little bit, but don’t get up at the first time you feel like it. You will be thinking about food. Every time you are thinking about food, now and tomorrow, I want that you think about the feeling that food gives you on your tongue. Think about exactly that feeling, the food on your tongue, in your mouth. Take one breath thinking about that feeling, and then let that feeling go away when the breath goes out. That is what meditation is: You see the thought and you let it float away, see the thought and let it float away. Maybe you say to yourself, That is only a thought. . . . After a while, listen again to the bird, to the refrigerator, feel again the sofa on your back and your legs, feel the pain in your legs. You will think about food again. Breathe in and breathe out. You will think about your family, your work, about me sitting beside you, about many, many things that are interesting to think about. This is like the bird knocking. You cannot make a home in those things. They are not bad, they are just not the right home for Otto. Do not get upset because your mind thinks about them. Do not push the thoughts away like they are bad things. Let them go away from you but do not push them, yes? But always come back to the feeling on your mouth, and breathe in and breathe out. Yes?”