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Guided Meditation: Knowing This Is Enough

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today. Whatever time of day it is for you, welcome to your intended sit, your intended meditation. Whether you're sitting, walking, standing—whatever posture you're in—welcome to this moment. Please settle in. Settle into this time that we're going to share together. Be aware of that posture. Here you are in this place, and you're breathing.

Take a deep breath and let it out to mark the beginning of another time. This time that we're together, relax yourself. Relax your head on your neck. Let it feel loose and confident. Let your shoulders relax; lower them. Let your elbows settle into your body. Let your hands come to rest where they are. Know where they are, and allow them to just be.

Note the gentle breathing that moves the parts of your torso up and down, in and out. Let that torso settle too. Let it come to rest. Feel where your hips are, where your bottom is, where your legs are. Know them. Allow them to just rest. Come to some stillness. Let your feet meet the surface that they're on and rest there.

We're here. We've arrived. We can scan for sounds and let them go. Feel the breath entering your body and leaving. There's only this at this time, at this place. Allow your mind to settle just here in the room, in this space. Notice how it feels. Be aware of your heart-mind. Just rest. Allow the soothing feeling of just being here. It's enough. It is enough to know this breath.

Recall your intention to just be here. No ideas about what that means. No ideas about who I am or why I am. Just here, aware of just this. It's enough.

Is your mind at rest? Is your heart at rest? Can you use the intention of peacefulness to just be aware of how it is? Be aware of what is here, not why. No stories, no need to be other. It's enough to be here, to be aware of being here. It's enough just to hear, just to breathe. No need to be otherwise. This is enough to be here.

Maybe your body feels not quite right. The hand wants to move. The itch wants to be scratched. It'd be better if I shifted just this way. Just notice, and see what happens if you don't do anything. Don't change anything deliberately. Just allow it to be there. Pleasant, unpleasant, whatever arises—to just be here. Be aware. This is enough. Practice knowing that whatever is arising is enough. I don't have to be in control. I can just let it be as it is and know it.

Aware of the body, aware of thinking, aware of feeling. I'm never lost. I'm here. Resting in the now. Lightly being just here. No need to be otherwise. For now, let thoughts come and go. Oh, that one. Oh, that one. Let feelings arise. Feel them in the body. It's enough to be here, to watch them come, to watch them leave—like sounds entering and leaving. The safety, the friendliness of just being here. It's enough.

Whatever is arising, can you sense stillness? Not in the thoughts, maybe in the heart, maybe in the body. The hands that refuse to move but simply rest here. Can you be aware of that kind of stillness? Not complete stillness. Stillness of intention, the intention for peacefulness. Whatever arises, there is always some stillness, and that's enough. If only the stillness of intention, know it.

Dharmette: Wisdom and Views (1 of 5) Understanding View

Hello, everyone. Welcome. Welcome to Monday. I was reminded by our wonderful volunteer recorders that today is International Day of Peace, the UN celebration. This is its 45th year, and it is a day that marks the everyday architects of peace. May we be the everyday architects of peace.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the truth of suffering and how suffering arises. Particularly, I talked about the effect of view on the rise of suffering, the pervasive effects of how what we believe and what we carry in our hearts create the experiences that we have. Well, it's still with me, so you're with me. It fills me both with sadness and optimism when I watch how views affect everything that happens—what we believe, what we think. But this week, instead of talking about what is giving rise to it, I want to talk about the wisdom section of the Eightfold Path^[1]. I want to talk about wise view and wise intention, and how they help us rise up out of what causes suffering. How they help us to distinguish what is wise. How do we know wise? How do we distinguish between judgment and discernment?

I choose to call it wise view because I want to make this distinction: sometimes when you hear "right view," you think there's a right way and a wrong way, that this is good and that's bad. I want to leave it a little open. So, I'm going to refer to it as wise view and wise intention. What wisdom do we bring to these?

An important thing about wise view is that it encompasses both what we see and an intentional way of seeing or experiencing. It's not about adopting the right things to believe. It's not about creating greater knowledge. It's really about clear awareness of what's happening and discernment about it. It isn't, "I must be thinking these things." It's seeing, "What are the beliefs? What happens when I follow that belief? What happens if I just sit here with that? How do I see suffering arising and choose otherwise? How do I see goodness arising and say, 'Ah, that's what I want'?"

Wise view is not closed-ended. It's more closely allied with space, with openness. Wise view has space for allowing, for seeing, for the changes that are inevitable. And then when we see it, we say, "Ah, this is what's happening. This has goodness in it. This feels icky." It is that space that leads to wisdom. It's the space for greater awareness, flexibility, and understanding. Wise view leaves room for understanding. It doesn't have the attitude of fixedness, but rather evolution, curiosity, and expansion—that opening up.

I'm going to give you some ideas about what I'm thinking. Let's take the case of misunderstanding. Somebody says something to you and you think, How could they even think that? Now, when we have judgment about them, we immediately condemn that way of thinking. We attribute ignorance to them, or qualities that reflect total dismissal and total rejection. How could they think that? They must be crazy. They were brought up wrong. All of these thoughts arise. But another way of looking at it is to say, "What am I missing about your point of view? I don't understand why you think that. Can I understand why you think that?"

There's an opening up of attitude that happens if I don't just reject what, to me, does not agree with my values or does not agree with my experience. Do I negate the other person's experience? Whether they've thought about what they believe or not isn't the point. The point is, how am I meeting this moment? What can I see? Am I looking at it from the point of view of having to decide if this is good or bad, or am I leaving it open to possibilities? It's in leaving it open to possibilities that we find wisdom. Sometimes that takes space: a pause, a stop.

The other day I was watching a video about a character who was deaf. He had been profoundly deaf since elementary school. He heard absolutely nothing. The video made this more obvious by occasionally taking away all the background noise—you know how there's always some music running in the back or people talking—and there would be nothing, to just emphasize this character hears nothing. He lives in a world of silence. There are countless misunderstandings that occur because he can't hear. People think he's rude. They think he's insulting them. They think he's exhibiting antisocial behavior because he simply doesn't hear them. He doesn't hear people yelling. He doesn't hear people speaking. He doesn't hear fire alarms. He's without sound.

There was an event where somebody was asking him to move on a bus and he didn't hear them. So, he just sat there, and whatever was going on was going on behind him. He couldn't see anything that was happening, and this person was getting angrier and angrier. Of course, that led to conflict. Later, when he was talking about it, he said, "Well, it's because I'm deaf. I can't interact with people. I can't do anything about it." And the person who was with him said, "No, no, the problem is not that you can't hear. That's not the problem. The problem is that everybody else thinks that everybody can hear. It isn't because you can't hear, it's because nobody expects you not to be able to hear." Those expectations cause him to have responses that may or may not be appropriate, but it isn't because there's something wrong with him. It's just because of how it is. [Laughter]

The ability to see that sometimes misunderstandings arise simply because people aren't seeing, because they don't look for that context, is key. You don't look for people who are deaf. A blind person may have a cane, giving you a clue that they can't see, but a deaf person is invisible. That limitation is invisible. We don't notice it. Deafness is a quality, not a source of blame.

A lot of things that happen reflect that same idea. It's not only what we believe; it's what we don't expect, what we don't know. It's the absence of knowing. To see clearly, we must be able to see with an open heart and an open mind. We are wise to place our attention on the condition of our heart, whether it is open—which can be quite frightening, actually! [Laughter] It leaves you quite vulnerable. Learning to understand when that's safe, when that's advisable, requires cultivating an open heart-mind. It is the balance of our willingness to be open, directed by our experience and intention.

Those are integral parts of wise view. So, we have the tools of reflective awareness, which can only be developed through encouragement. It doesn't just happen. We have to say, "I'm willing to look and reflect on what this response is. Why is this person behaving this way? Why am I behaving this way? Why do I have this reaction?" Notice it, encourage it. We develop that capacity through meditation. Because the default is that all of our beliefs and passions, which we hold so close, lead the mind simply because they speak the loudest.

When we look at wise view, normally people will think of all the Buddhist concepts like the Four Noble Truths^[2] and the precepts of Buddhist ethics, or the characteristics of existence like impermanence, suffering^[3], and not-self. There are endless lists in Buddhism. What we need to do is see them in action. Hearing them is not sufficient. Experiencing them is how we increase our wisdom. When we say, "Ah, I can see suffering arising and passing away," or "Oh, that's what karma^[4] means," we begin to learn. We may know all kinds of things intellectually, but until we literally experience them and say, "Oh," we can't really incorporate them as sources of wisdom.

Views are the home of our values. Where do your values come from? View is a mind state. It contains opinions and biases. Wisdom is our ability to evaluate mind states as they are directly felt in the present. It's not permanent. It's changing. View is changing. And if it doesn't support other virtues like generosity and kindness, it's not wisdom; it's really just an opinion.

Watch that. Even that statement suggests a point of view in itself! View is neither good nor bad. It is to be known. And our attitude of mind creates that view as well. If I'm consumed with aversion towards someone, I will only be aversive. If I am infused with an intention of kindness, I have a much greater likelihood of being kind, of having kindness arise even when it's least likely to be there. I have to cultivate those attitudes. Otherwise, I am the victim of my own tribalism: "My people believe this. I believe this. This is what we believe, and this is what's always true."

Test what is always true. Things may be pleasant or unpleasant. I may be skillful or unskillful. Know the difference between skillful and unskillful, and drop the judgment about good and bad. I'm not "bad" because in this moment I was unskillful. I can learn from that lack of skill and say, "Ooh, that did not work. I'm going to do something else next time. I'm going to be more careful next time." We don't have to be in a world of black and white. Wise view is not in the world of yes or no. Often, it's the way things happen that is the point. Mostly, if you want peace, you must be peaceful.

I'm going to close with a poem. Naomi Shihab Nye^[5] has just come out with a new book which I love, love, love. This poem is called Greenhouse.

To be given space, awakened to space, wider ways of being. Openings you hadn't realized were missing in mind or sight. A moment lifts everything you gripped. Relinquished.

Some houses say I'm bigger than I look. Invite a pause from any angle. Sheen of cabinet, surprising green wall. Some reckon with your issues. In some you forget your issues. Some buildings turn you inside out.

Keep one room empty for all we can't cure.

But read it again:

To be given space, awakened to space, wider ways of being. Openings you hadn't realized were missing in mind or sight. A moment lifts everything you gripped. Relinquished.

Some houses say I'm bigger than I look. Invite a pause from any angle. Sheen of cabinet, surprising green wall. Some reckon with your issues and some you forget your issues. Some buildings turn you inside out.

Keep one room empty for all we can't cure.

Wise view is not all-knowing. It's not perfect. It is openness with discernment. The willingness to see, a calling for space.

May you have peace on this International Day of Peace. May you be peaceful so that peace may arise. Thank you.