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Guided Meditation: Sensations Without a Self

Greetings, greetings, friends. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever the time is from all the various places you're joining. Wonderful to see your hellos, your greetings, these expressions of metta^[1] for each other, for the sangha^[2]. Greetings, greetings. So lovely to join you this moment in time to practice together.

So this week, we're exploring the mind's body. Today we continue to explore that. Without further ado, let's practice together and explore this mind's body, this body's mind, this mind's body.

Arriving. Arriving wholeheartedly in this body. Inhabiting this body. Allowing, inviting this body to sit tall with a sense of integrity, like a mountain. Upright. Well rooted like a well-rooted tree connected to the earth through our sit bones, our bottom, our legs, our feet. Well rooted, connected to the earth. All the while, the top of this tree reaches tall up to the sky. And let the branches, the leaves, the limbs, be relaxed, offering themselves to gravity.

Letting our awareness trace the body, the outline of the body, as a three-dimensional drawing. Brushing our entire body to the edges with our awareness. This whole body sitting. And then letting it be filled out, letting the breath be like watercolors filling out the whole body. Not effortfully, but let it just happen on its own.

There's very little doing here, if any. It's just to turn our awareness, our attention, to a particular perception, a way of seeing in this body right now. And as the breath is received by the body, the entire body, the whole body breathing, bellowing. Turning awareness to the entire body bellowing, the breath entering, leaving. Letting the body be relaxed.

Let the body be an organ of perception. So that we're not noticing the body from the top of our head, from the control tower, but as if our mind is in the body, in the perceptions, the sensations of the body itself. You're noticing your breath in your belly right now, say. The belly is sensing itself, the mind is in the abdomen. As if your abdomen has eyes, ears. Trusting that the body knows how to sense, how to breathe, how to perceive. Relaxing. It's not hard. Trust your body. Your body knows how to sense.

The body as an organ of perception. Perceiving, receiving the breath from within. The body knows, senses, simply sensing the sensations. Whatever, wherever is most prominent, use the abdomen for this example. Sensations sensed on their own. In the sensed, only the sensed. In the felt, only the felt. No distance, no separation. It's just a sensation.

No need for commentary. From the inside of the abdomen, of the sensations themselves being sensed. Pressure, tightness, movement, vibration. Maybe even warmth and coolness.

Everything we need to awaken is presented to us in the body, in this fathom-long body^[3]. We just need to pay attention in a particular way. So today, let the body have its own mind. The locus of perception, of sensation, in the sensation itself. The knowing in the known itself. Not from afar, not from a distance.

So as a sensation presents itself in the body, whether the breath or something else, let the mind relax into that sensation. Be drenched in that sensation from the inside. And hang in there, it will become clear on its own. If the thought arises, "I can't do this, what does it mean?" and you believe that and you go with it, it will take a long time to click, or it might never. Hang in there. Trust that the body knows how to sense and perceive, without the need for analysis and commentary.

If this particular way of perceiving is not quite clicking yet, I invite you to imagine that you, whoever you are, or if there is a you, you are in the abdomen, in the sensations. And stay. Stay with perceiving in this way. Whole body perceiving sensations from the inside. Just points of sensation. No need for a you. Just points of sensation. The self can drop out. Just points of sensation.

And as we bring this sit to a close together, holding ourselves with kindness for whatever arose or did not arise. We've showed up, we've done our best. Whether distraction arose, or sleepiness, or whatever else, it's okay. We've done our best. Even if there was one moment of awareness, clarity, mindfulness, that's infinitely more than zero moments.

So appreciating that we are planting seeds of cultivation towards clarity, awareness, knowing, awakening, kindness, goodness. And offering this goodness, ours, and collectively wholeheartedly trusting there is goodness here co-created. Offering generously to all beings everywhere. It's not for us to keep. Nothing is for us to keep in this impermanent life. Nothing. So sharing our goodness, our heart, our wholesome actions, for the benefit of all beings everywhere, including ourselves. May all beings everywhere know their own goodness. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free.

Dharmette: Mind's Body (3/5) Not-Self Insight through the Body (Bahiya Sutta)

Greetings, greetings, dear sangha, dear international sangha all around the world. So we are continuing to explore the mind's body this week. For today's guided meditation, just a few words on what we did and what the basis for these invitations were.

We tend to pay attention in a regular way, in what we're used to in the world going around as a human being. And most of us kind of consider that our mind, whatever our mind is—and of course, philosophers and scientists have many treatises on the mind and consciousness, we still don't know what it is and where it is and all that—but we have this perception that our mind is somewhere in our head. And we perceive somewhere in our head, behind our eyes, there's the self here that perceives the world.

And when we are noticing, say, the body, sensations in the body, the breath, pain, it's always this dualistic relationship. There is the self, there is this me, there is this awareness, consciousness, whatever it is, it's up here. And, "Oh yeah, there is the abdomen, there is my foot, there's pain in the foot, itch there." There's this dualistic relationship, subject and object.

A particular relationship arises when we pay attention in this usual, habitual way. Particular perceptions arise that are not exactly conducive to waking up, to awakening. So the invitation today was to really consider paying attention in a different way. Not from the control tower—you might have heard that before, maybe in brief pith instructions—but really land in the body as if the body is an organ of perception itself. It's perceiving in and of itself. I was giving invitations to imagine the you, or whoever you are, there's perception in your abdomen, you're perceiving the sensations, or in your whole body, wherever the sensations are arising. And you need to stay with this, because for most people with this instruction, you might think, "From the inside? I'm in my abdomen? I'm sensing the sensations from the inside of themselves, not from the control tower? Like, how does that even work? I don't know how to do this."

That is very normal that can arise. And yet, if you give into that way of thinking, it will never click. This perception can never shift, this new way can never open up. So what needs to happen if it didn't click for you, or even if it did click, you need to stay. If it comes up, "Oh, I don't know how to do this, wow this is unfamiliar, I always paid attention from the top, what does it even mean to sense the sensations from within themselves?" Stay, stay, stay. You need to stay and it will shift, it will make sense on its own. So just don't give in to the thoughts of "I don't know what this means," because of course it's a new way, I'm inviting you to try something completely different. It's like riding a bicycle. If you've never ridden a bicycle before, you need to stay with it.

And then what can arise is a sense of perception, perceiving the sensations in the body in and of itself. There is no commentary there, it's just the sensations being sensed. In the sensed, only the sensed. So these sensations being sensed in and of themselves without a point of reference. So these points of sensation all over "the body," become just points of sensations being sensed in space. And the body will drop out to just be points of sensations, and the self drops out as well.

This is one way to have insight into not-self, into anatta^[4]. There's so many different ways, this is one way to see that. I was guiding you this morning, and albeit it's a daily meditation, it's only 30 minutes, but yet some of your minds might be ready to have an insight here, to see it for a split second, or maybe take this practice into the future and sit with it. Maybe it will plant seeds for insights to open up.

This teaching... the Buddha gave a beautiful pith teaching to Bahiya. Let me tell you the story of Bahiya. So Bahiya the wanderer, in the time of the Buddha, was a dedicated practitioner. He was practicing very hard, but he was not a Buddhist, in some other tradition, and he thought he was awakened. The story goes that he's told, "Actually, you're not awakened yet. Go find the Buddha, he can really give you the true teachings and take you to the end." So he comes and finds the Buddha, and arrives when the Buddha is about to go for alms round to get his daily meal. He says, "Buddha, I have come all this way, please, please give me a teaching." And the Buddha says, "No, this is not a good time. I'm going for alms, come back later." He says, "Please, please, give me a teaching." And the Buddha says, "I'm going for alms." And he asks the third time. In Buddhist stories, whenever you ask the Buddha for a third time, he will give an answer. "Life is uncertain, who knows what might happen. Please, please give me a teaching."

And the Buddha, knowing the context—he's hungry, he's going for alms round—gives him the most pith teaching, and the most awakening pith teaching. And it's a beautiful teaching to keep practicing. There are so many levels, so many depths, so many layers of depth. And if you feel like you understand it, trust that there is more to this teaching. So I'm going to read the punchline for you. When Bahiya hears this, he becomes fully awakened. The Buddha goes for his alms round, and Bahiya, later that afternoon, gets killed by a cow, but he's fully awakened. So here we go:

"Bahiya, in the seen is merely what is seen, and the cognized is merely what is cognized," etc. Actually, it's summarized well here: "In the seen, will be merely what is seen. In the heard, will be merely what is heard. In the sensed, will be merely what is sensed. In the cognized, will be merely what is cognized. In this way you should train yourself."

So we were focusing in the sensed, merely what is sensed. That might be the easiest first way to understand this teaching. In the sensed, merely the sensed. And then the Buddha continues:

"When you practice in this way—in the sensed, only the sensed, etc.—then Bahiya, you will not be with that. When, Bahiya, you are not with that, then Bahiya, you will not be in that. When, Bahiya, you are not in that, then Bahiya, you will be neither here nor there, nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering."

Just this is the end of suffering. So this is in the Bahiya Sutta^[5], if you want to go and read it later yourself. A shift in perception, the mind's body, inviting ourselves to see things differently, leading to "just this is the end of suffering."

In the sensed, merely the sensed. So staying with it. And sensed could be the sensation is in the knowing itself, it's not separate. And the perception will shift in amazing ways. We're all capable of it. Give it time, give it time.

Speaking of time, we are out of time. So thank you all for your practice, for joining, either in real-time or practicing later. May you be well. May you be free. Take good care, and see you tomorrow.