September 2025 Newsletter

This is a transcribed and edited excerpt from a recent Monday Night talk given by Kate Munding on Mindful Breathing.

Although meditation on the breath is not the only Buddhist practice, it is often taught as a foundational one. The breath has much to share with us. As a practitioner, you already know that when you bring mindful attention to it, the breath helps gather a scattered mind into a state of easeful concentration. It can also help ease the nervous system. Of course, no particular state is required for mindfulness. Yet when the body and mind are less agitated, it is easier to sustain attention and taste deeper concentration. Breath becomes a wise ally in cultivating balance. It steadies us, slows us down, and creates the conditions for clarity.

Breath also becomes a messenger of impermanence. Each inhalation arises and passes away, each exhalation, the same. Breath is constantly saying: I’m here, and now I’m gone. I am changing, always changing. Attending deeply, we notice the breath is not one continuous thing but many subtle sensations, shifting and dissolving. What seems simple becomes vast and mysterious when we look closely.

I remember visiting the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco with my son. They had an exhibit magnifying drops of water—ocean, pond, even tap water. Each drop teemed with colorful, moving life, interdependent and intricate. To the naked eye it was only water, but inside, a whole universe existed. Our breath is like that. What seems ordinary reveals mystery. As Kahlil Gibran wrote: In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans. In one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

As our relationship with breath deepens, we begin to sense its preciousness. Each breath is a reminder: we are alive. And one day, there will be a final breath. While this awareness may stir fear, it can also open us to wonder. Every breath can be received as if it were our last—an act of love for being alive. Brother David Steindl-Rast captures this beautifully: You bless us with breath in and out, ever renewing us, making us one with all who breathe the same air. May this blessing overflow into a shared gratefulness so that with one breath I may praise and celebrate life.

Breath is not only our connection to our own life—it is our connection to all life. In breathing, we become one with all who share the same air. We breathe with the planet, with the oceans, with the trees, and with one another. When we touch that reality, we feel at home. Breath returns us home.

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