The Breath

I watch the IN breath and I say in my mind, "arising". I watch the OUT breath, saying in my mind, "passing". I watch each IN breath and I watch each OUT breath. (Seems pretty boring, I know.) I keep watching. I notice there is something at the end of my OUT breath -- no breath. Just nothing. But I don't die or anything. I'm just not breathing in or out, either one. I keep watching each breath. Usually, the IN breath seems kinda short. The out breath seems very long, and then it is trailed by this long "no breath" thing. Then I see something I don't know how to describe without sounding weird, but I don't care if I sound weird: I see that the IN breath and the OUT breath, are not separate. They are one breath. They are like a circle. And somehow I see that this circle is like the very life I am living each moment. One minute I may be happy (IN breath), the next instant I am angry (OUT breath) and usually I am angry because the thing that made me happy is absent. Or one day I am in the midst of funk -- life is the worst ever. The next day, my life is a pinnacle, very pleasant. The instant I am happy, I can look at that happiness and know that it will pass. And, too, one moment I can be very angry, and I can look at anger and know that the next instant or two later, the anger will be replaced with some other thought or grasping desire or planning. All arising and passing phenomenon. All thoughts in the mind.