Snorkel Life & Innate Gratitude

From Day 320 of our Daily Practice Group

As we get towards the end of 1 year of daily practice, we're now looking at the deep level of mind that is about maintaining your life itself. This level lives down below the brainline (above which are your more familiar and accessible body, emotional, intellectual and observing minds). Because of the relative intangibility and lack of self, working down here is often called a 'spiritual practice', but it is just as real as anything you observe above the brainline -- it just takes some practice to be able to build insight down here.

As you get more in touch with your living mind, you will begin to experience a natural sense of wonder and gratitude. Coming in from this angle of merely observing what is already going on, this gratitude will require no effort on your part. You are experiencing life as a gift that you keep receiving. We are all receiving this gift -- not just humans, but all life -- and the only criteria was being born. We are all equally deserving of this profound gift. This level of mind connects us to all life on the planet, and so our thinking and behaviour changes accordingly.

Today we're looking at our own life through our breathing, and the snorkel nature of how it structurally works. Our snorkels (mouth, nose, trachea) are inside us, but the principle is the same. Seeing it this way, the fragility and wonder (that it keeps working!) of the whole thing becomes apparent.