Imagine there’s a country that doesn’t have a government, a king, a queen, or a president. There is nobody around to take care of the country. The country needs a government. It’s the same with ourselves. We need to be present in our territory, to take care of it, because our territory is large—it includes our body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. We need to be the king or queen and govern our territory. We need to know what is precious and beautiful so we can protect it. We need to know what things aren’t so beautiful so we can fix or transform them. We need to be a good queen or king and not run away from our country.
There are people who don’t want to be the king or queen, who just want to run away from the job because they think it’s so tiring. We run away by watching television, eating something, using social media, checking our email or the news, playing video games, listening to music, or socializing in various ways. We don’t want to return to our homeland. As kings and queens we need to become aware of our responsibility, to see that we need to be the sovereign, to return to our territory and take care of it. We can learn ways to do this. Practicing mindfulness and concentration, we know how to do it. All the essential methods are in the sixteen exercises of mindful breathing. [See the Practices section in the second part of the book.]
Be mindful of your breath and your steps so you can be truly present in every moment of your life and have sovereignty over your kingdom. Then when you want to speak or act, you’ll express yourself mindfully, and you’ll be able listen deeply and understand the difficulties and joys of another person.