It means, first of all, you bring your mind back to your body and you feel that you are truly there. You are not being pulled either by the past or the future or your projects or your thinking because your thinking causes you to lose yourself. Mindful breathing can unify body and mind, and we can find ourselves established in the here and the now. Mindful breathing helps us to calm down and to be truly there and aware of what is going on.
Going home is like shutting the doors and windows so that the wind will not penetrate. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are windows and we shut these windows. We don’t look anymore, we don’t listen anymore, we don’t think any more. We just follow our inbreath and outbreath, and we are comfortable in the house. That is what we should do every time we feel we are no longer ourselves, blown away by events. That is what the Buddha called going home to the island within. Close the six windows and stay inside with your breathing. You will be calm, you will see more clearly. When you feel safe and clear, you may like to open one window to see what is going on.
When you focus your attention on your inbreath and outbreath and pay attention to just that, the six senses’ doors will close by themselves. And we are safe and warm inside. We can come home to our island straightaway.
