be extremely gentle. Let the whole thing be soft.
Breathing out, the instruction is to touch your breath
as it goes, to be with your breath. Let that be like re-
laxing out. Sense the breath going out into big space
and dissolving into space. You’re not trying to clutch
it, not trying to furrow your brow and catch that
breath as if you won’t be a good person unless you
grab that breath. You’re simply relaxing outward with
your breath.
Labeling our thoughts is a powerful support for
lightening up, a very helpful way to reconnect with
shunyata—this open dimension of our being, this
fresh, unbiased dimension of our mind. When we
come to that place where we say, “Thinking,” we can
just say it with an unbiased attitude and with tremen-
dous gentleness. Regard the thoughts as bubbles and
the labeling like touching them with a feather.
There’s just this light touch—”Thinking”—and they
dissolve back into the space.
Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about
perfection. Just be there each moment as best you
can. When you realize you’ve wandered off again,
simply very lightly acknowledge that. This light touch
is the golden key to reuniting with our openness.
The slogan says to regard all dharmas—that is, re-
gard everything—as a dream. In this case, we could
say, “Regard all thoughts as a dream,” and just touch
them and let them go. When you notice you’re mak-
ing a really big deal, just notice that with a lot of gen-
18 No Big Deal