What the breath keeps teaching me

Twenty years into a daily practice, I still arrive at the cushion certain I know what will happen next. The breath disagrees.

This month I have been sitting with the difference between patience and waiting. Waiting has an object; patience has none. Waiting leans forward; patience settles back.

The breath is a teacher that never repeats a lesson, and never runs out of them.

When students ask me where to begin, I tell them: begin where you already are. You are already breathing.