The natural joy of breathing ~ 17th Karmapa
Once I was going around the monastery and the weather was nice. I relaxed my mind and noticed that I was just breathing. I thought that’s not special, we always breathe, yet spontaneously, I thought how satisfactory this experience was—there was a natural joy in it. Taking one breath is a rather complex process; it depends on oxygen from trees, an elaborate system of exchange within the body, and so forth. And yet my experience of that one breath came without any effort, and I just thought, “It’s amazing that I’m alive now and can breathe so easily.” If I had had to think about creating oxygen, for example, it would have been very complicated. But I was simply happy because I could breathe. It all depends on how we think.
(From “Gyalwang Karmapa’s Teaching on ‘Three Primary Elements of the Path’. Where to find happiness”, http://www.kagyumonlam.org/English/News/Report/Report_20121223_2.html)