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Happy Hour: Peace Is The Highest Bliss

Hello and welcome, everyone, to Happy Hour. Lovely to be together in this space and to practice together in community.

For today's practice, given what has been happening on the international stage the past few weeks, I have been dedicating the sessions of Happy Hour to different practices to support us in this new world that we find ourselves in with the war zones and different challenges. For tonight, I think the practice that I'd like to bring in and support us with is a practice of equanimity^[1]. Equanimity as a support for compassion, and equanimity again with a sense of peace. A sense of abiding in equanimity, arriving to it through the calming of the body.

The energy body we've worked with in the past couple of times, and in a way continuing that, I think calming, centering, and arriving is really what can be helpful and supportive. Because on top of that, then the practice of compassion can be more stable, instead of veering into empathetic distress, grief, and overwhelm. We really need a basis of calm, a basis of stability, a basis of groundedness, especially when times get rough in the world.

That's what I would love to invite us to practice together, both for our own sake—whatever is happening in our own lives, our challenges, our bodies, or whatever is going on. That doesn't stop. When there's more suffering in the world, maybe it even intensifies our own suffering, our own individual situations. For all of this, we need the basis for happiness, which is peace.

The Buddha said peace is the highest bliss. Peace is the highest form of happiness. When we first hear that, maybe it's a little quizzical because peace perhaps seems so settled, you know? There's not a lot of happiness or bliss to it. We think of peace as, "Oh, just peace." Whereas happy is like, "Whoa, I want that. I want to be happy. I want to be yay, that's where the juice is!" Happiness is good. It's great. Bliss is great. And yet, there is a deep-seated, sated joy to peace that includes and subsumes joy. Bliss is really the highest bliss, and we can see that for ourselves experientially.

If we think about it, maybe we don't get it because we might have a concept that actually does not correspond to the true exploration. I'll share with you from myself, having explored this meditative path for decades now: yes, states of joy, states of bliss are delicious, yummy, wonderful, yay! And states of deep peace—ah, the most blissful, the happiest state of all.

Given that this is Happy Hour, the states of peace are the epitome, I would claim, of happiness. Of course, they serve as the basis for equanimity, for compassion practice, for metta^[2]—all the beautiful gifts of the heart come from peace. Of course, they can lead to peace also, but they come out of peace. All of these practices are related. They connect to each other. It's like a cloth: you take a thread, you pull it, and the whole cloth is one thread, even though you might think, "Oh, this is this part of the cloth, this is that part." But it's just one thread.

So with that, let's practice together. Let's practice being peace. Let's practice being peace together.

Guided Meditation

Arriving. Arriving in your seat. Whether you need to move or shift right now to be more comfortable, this is the perfect time to do it. Moving, shifting, perhaps even lying down if that's what your body needs. And then arriving. Arriving in this body. Landing in this body. Here. Here.

Can we invite this body, this living, breathing body, to soften? To let go of any tightness or holding. And also releasing. Releasing preoccupations and thoughts, worries, entanglements.

Of course, we all have lives, full, complex lives. And in this moment, bowing to all the complexity, perhaps smiling at it all, saying thank you. I'm taking a moment of refuge right now. Entering this temple of my heart. Entering this temple. Entering a temple, taking refuge in peace for the sake of stability, for the sake of groundedness. For the sake of myself and all beings whose lives mine touches directly and indirectly.

Release. Release with each breath. Release, landing more deeply with each out-breath especially. Letting the breath relax and massage. An internal massage. Any area of the body that is tight or tense. This expert therapist, this breath, massaging the neck and shoulders.

Moving to any other part of the body that is tense. The attention moving with the breath, internally massaging, releasing. Let the breath be nourishing, calming, soothing to the body, to the heart. Allowing yourself to feel, really feel the entirety of the breath. The beginning, the middle, the end of the breath, in the abdomen, in the chest, wherever it's felt as a soothing balm.

Calming, abiding in peace. The breath peaceful, creating a space internally that undulates as if waves. Letting the body relax. Ah, as if the body is held in this peaceful, loving space internally, externally. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go but just to be breathed. Undulating each breath.

If thoughts arise, discussions in the mind, let the peace hold them. Let the peace inside and outside hug them. They don't have to be pushed away or squashed. Let them be held in this undulating ocean, inside, outside. There's plenty of space. Expansive. There's plenty of space. No need to be perturbed. Plenty of space.

The breath healing, soothing through the heart center, through the abdomen, through the whole body. At some point, maybe the mind, maybe awareness meets more peace, clicks with, "Yeah, there is peace. There is calm in the middle of the storm." It's here. It's always been here. Awareness clicks, connects, and settles more deeply into the still point. However small it might be, it's here. It's always been here and always will be.

If at any point it feels lost, it's okay. Trust it's here. Trust it's here. Let the body and mind relax. The breath—ah—be the guide. A gentle, loving guide. The entirety of the breath to reconnect.

The still point, inside, outside, expansive. Still point, so expansive. Space of peace, whether or not we're aware of it or connect to it in this moment, or as much as we're able to connect with it. A womb. The space of peace is a womb of equipoise, equanimity. The risings and passings, the comings and goings to ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows. Being breathed. Being breathed.

Realizing there is so much more you can contain than you've realized. Being peace. The strength, the power of peace.

And as we bring this practice period to a close, knowing that our peace, our peace is the biggest gift to ourselves, to those in our lives, and all beings everywhere. Offering peace. Peace. Starting from within, not hatred, not ill will, but peace, love. Offering our peace, this cultivation, as our gift to ourselves, to others expansively. May all beings everywhere have peace. May they be free.

Thank you for your practice, everyone.

Reflections and Q&A

I'd love to invite you, if you would like to share some reflections, you can put them in chat. If they're typed publicly, I will read your name. If they're just typed to me, I will only read your reflection. You can also raise your Zoom hand if you'd like to share reflections. I also understand if you're rather quiet tonight, it's okay. What arose? What did you discover? What worked? What didn't? Again, offering any insights for the benefit of others. It could be questions or aha moments.

One reflection here privately: "The meditation this evening is supporting my focus on anattā^[3], impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self, the Three Marks of Existence^[4]."

Thank you for that reflection, and yes, thank you for saying that this is supporting that. Beautiful.

Scott says, "Very grateful for the space."

Another reflection: "Peace means non-violence."

Yes, exactly.

Larry asks, "Wondering if peace and open awareness are the same?"

No, they are not. This practice I was leading you in was not a practice of open awareness; it was a practice of actually bringing the breath into awareness as the energy body, calming, calming, and then to actually bring peace into your awareness. So it is directed. It was not open awareness because open awareness is open, spacious, undirected. Wherever awareness goes, it goes. So these two practices are different, and their objective is different also. Thank you for that question.

Catherine says, "I was sitting in the garden being with the sunset, and when I was done, I felt the flowers as my friends."

Oh, that's sweet. I love that the flowers are your friends. The flowers are all of our friends. Thanks for bringing the flowers in, Catherine. I feel them in the space. Yeah, sweet.

Another reflection privately: "Relieving anguish."

Relieving anguish. Yeah, may it be so. Anguish doesn't serve anyone in the world, ourselves or anyone else for that matter. I'm glad it's being relieved through this practice.

Small Groups Instructions

So, we're feeling pretty quiet. Before I set up the groups tonight, I wanted to say a few words about engaging in the small groups, especially as there have been some requests to give more guidance, more instructions.

Please consider the breakout groups a sacred space. A sacred space both for yourself and especially for others. It is a way to really respect each person's experience. First of all, be embodied. It's not a place to talk from your head and just blah, blah, blah. Maybe you actually don't say anything, and you just hold kind, compassionate witness for others. That's perfectly okay. If you choose to share, as you choose to speak, please speak from your own experience. "I, me, my experience." It's a way of not trying to impress others, not trying to educate others. You're just sharing what feels safe and comfortable for you in order for others to hold you witness.

You're speaking for your own benefit. I'll say it again: you're speaking for your own benefit, not the benefit of anyone else. It's a very different way of relating. You're speaking for your own benefit. It's quite revolutionary. You're speaking for your own benefit. I'm going to say it one more time: you're speaking for your own benefit. And you only speak from your own experience. Not asking questions of others, probing others, commenting on their experience. Please don't. You're not here to facilitate in small groups, or especially if you act as a therapist or in other helping professions, please leave that profession outside here. You're only speaking from your own experience. If you wish, maybe you're just being silent; that's okay, but do not reflect, do not give advice to one another. Be very careful in this sacred space.

It's a very beautiful, sacred space of relating to one another. We really learn how we can be different with friends and family and others. This is a precious sandbox. Don't take it as, "Oh yes, small groups, all right, here we go chatting." Please don't. In fact, also be very aware of the time. The format I'd like to suggest from now on is that you don't do a monologue for two or three minutes and then pass on. No, each person just says one nugget. Just one nugget, and then the next person will say a nugget about their experience, and then the next person says something about their experience. And then again the first person, and then you go around. It's a spiral format. You go round and round just sharing, or when it comes to you, you can say, "Pass, I'm holding witness tonight and just holding others." That's okay. Just relating in this way, a very different way. It's not just "go chat amongst yourselves."

I really want to take time tonight... again, you're speaking for your own benefit. Please do not manage or facilitate. Just be spiritual friends^[5]. A space of spiritual friends, and entering with respect. Entering this temple with two other human beings whose lives are as complex and dear to them as yours are to you.

Having said all of that, I'm going to create the groups. I'll take a moment here to do a bit of rearranging. Okay, wait, one more thing. I have the groups... okay, so, all set. I'm going to open the rooms. Oh no, I need to recreate them. Hold on, this always happens, numbers change as people left. Meditate with peace. Meditate with peace as the counts keep changing! Okay. All right. So, opening the rooms. Take care of yourselves and each other. Here we go.

Post-Group Reflections

Everybody's back. Any reflections you'd like to share from this breakout group, and what it was like, especially today with extensive invitations on how to be in the group? Was it different, I wonder, in terms of the reflections? You're welcome to raise your Zoom hand if you want, or type in chat. Raise your Zoom hand, because if it's your physical hand I may not see it. Any reflections about the practice, about what you discussed? A short one, 30 seconds.

Nancy says, "We were all appreciating the silence between sharing."

Beautiful. Oh, I'm so glad there was a lot of silence. Nice.

Esther, please.

Esther: Hi. I appreciated the instructions. It helped me to relax, actually. It helped me to feel safer, and I appreciated the framework. I felt that I could open up within that framework.

Nikki Mirghafori: Beautiful, thank you. Thank you for that reflection. I appreciate it. Feeling safer so you can open up, great. Thank you. Barbara?

Barbara: I also appreciated the instruction. I think my tendency would be to ask a question, and I refrained, so there was much more quiet reflection. It had a different feel to it.

Nikki Mirghafori: Great, beautiful. Thank you for that. And Meredith, please?

Meredith: Hi, thank you. Yeah, I also am an over-talker, and I found the silence comforting. I also found a tiny tad of dialogue with someone extremely helpful.

Nikki Mirghafori: Nice, great. And I appreciate that it seems like the dialogue came out of the silence, which is a different way to have a dialogue. Beautiful, thank you for that reflection. Thanks to all of you for the reflections that you share, this is very, very helpful. I think maybe moving forward, always giving more instructions about going into the group.

We're out of time now. One last reflection. Catherine says, "Love the flow and connection created by sharing small jewels one by one." Beautiful.

Thank you all. Thank you for your practice. Being peace for yourself, for each other, for the whole world. May all beings know true peace and be happy. May all beings, including ourselves, be free. Thanks everyone, be well. Thank you. See you on Friday. Bye.