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Happy Hour: Meeting This Moment As If An Angel of Grace and Possibility

Introduction

Hello everyone. Hello and welcome to Happy Hour. Hi! If you can hear me okay, give me a thumbs up. Terrific. Fantastic. So hi, I'm Nikki in Mountain View, California, on unceded Ohlone land, welcoming you to Happy Hour. And as always, we begin with saying hello from wherever we are, welcoming ourselves, welcoming each other. So who wants to warm up the space with their goodwill, saying hello? Take it away.

[Various attendees say hello: Bill in Dallas, Leslie in Santa Cruz, Preeti in San Jose, Jesse and Padma, Gus.]

Welcome, welcome to Happy Hour. We have lots of hellos in chat: Amy says aloha from Oahu. Yaman, you have to remind me how to say your name again. I seem to have forgotten. Yaman or Yamin? Alan from Connecticut says hi. Hello Leslie from Santa Cruz in the sunshine. Yay! Neil in New Hampshire. Terence from Sequim. Yaman says that's good, the first one. Yamin, right? Okay, good, thanks. And Hugh says hi from San Diego. That is so great. Also welcoming our friends on YouTube who are joining us at the same time. I think the space has been warmed. I feel warmed up. And hi Pat from Sausalito.

Thank you, Neil, for posting information about the Happy Hour Google Group. If you are new to Happy Hour, please know we have a low-traffic mailing list where information and references are shared. It's a way to keep in touch with the community as well. I like to say it's low in traffic but high in heart.

At this time, as we transition from warming up the space and saying our hellos to each other, I've changed some of the settings so that unmuting will not be possible. We keep the space quiet during the meditation. Also, I changed the settings so that chats will only come to me, but I ask you to please not send me chats when I'm teaching because they can be quite distracting. I will open it up afterwards for comments and reflections. Last but not least, I'm going to turn on recording for the sake of Audiodharma.

Guided Meditation

Hi everyone. Lovely to be with you, to practice with you, to hear your hellos from different places in the country and the world—our international sangha.

For today's practice, I'd like to invite us to meditate together, and I will drop in gentle reflections as we practice.

Let's begin. Let's arrive in our bodies. Let's take our seats. We take our seats on this earth in this moment in time. Let's connect to ourselves, to this body. Taking refuge in this moment, in the wholesome intention of our heart. Turning away from the busyness of the day, all the demands. Not now. Turning towards the seclusion of our heart. This delicious seclusion. Quiet, restful, connecting.

Setting our intention at the beginning. Again, it's a gentle intention. It's not hard, it's not harsh. It's a gentle releasing. The demands are what they are. We'll return to them, of course, we'll return to them. But now we say, "Not now. We're going to take a little break." A little respite to connect and nourish. Nourishing, calming, soothing. This gesture of taking refuge.

Letting the breath move through the body. Receiving the breath. This receptive stance. No need to control the breath, let it be just as it is. Simply receiving. Welcoming. Let it be soothing, like a lullaby calming the entirety of the breath.

When thoughts come to entertain you, to warn you, to do what they usually do, say, "Thank you so much. Thank you, thoughts. Please come back later. I'll be waiting for you. Right now, I'm taking refuge in the ease and the nourishment, the rest that is afforded." The simplicity of this moment spent with the breath.

Enjoy the breath. Well, enjoy sitting in this moment. How lovely that this is what I get to do right now as my practice. I get to do this. Yay! It's not just celebration.

There is nothing to accomplish, but to just be relishing the sweetness of just sitting and being breathed, right here, right now.

Embracing this moment of our life. The grace of this moment of our life. Being alive right here, right now. Opening our heart to it with a smile. Whatever this moment is. There might be pleasantness of sitting, being breathed. It might be challenges in the body and the heart. There's so much grace being aware, being alive, being present right here, meeting this moment.

I want to invite you to explore something and see how you can make this work for you. Try bringing personification to the present moment. The present moment personified as an angel, a graceful angel that meets us. Be fully open to meet, greet with a smile. We may not quite understand all the gifts, all the grace that this angel has.

If the word "angel" doesn't work for you, try something else that works for you. In Buddhism, we have devas^[1], which are the angels, or a good friend, a dear friend. I like the angel because it's an abstract grace of goodness that we can just meet.

Imagine every moment you're meeting with an open heart, with a smile. Ah, the grace of this moment of your life. With all the gifts that it has, and challenges too. The challenges are gifts as well. They help us learn, help us grow, help us expand ourselves. So meeting the goodness, the angel of this moment of our life, with a smile, with goodwill, with kindness, open-heartedness. Opening our senses. Appreciation.

A silent, gentle angel of this moment comes and greets you, sits next to you. The two of you together gaze at your life in this moment. Open your hearts, embracing whatever is here. Presence and goodwill. The angel shows you how it's done.

Relate as well as you can. Embracing, opening up. This moment of your life rising, meeting you, being met. Full of possibilities. More spaciousness. Witness, and you realize this angel is your life. The moments of your life. Greet them kindly, wholeheartedly.

If your mind was thinking, wandering, being distracted—no problem. Smilingly let go. Reconnect with the angel of this moment of your life. She's waiting for you. Embrace and fully open up to sit with so much goodness. Really present.

With kindness, goodwill, open-heartedness, wishing ourselves well in this moment in time. May we meet this moment in time, this moment of our lives, this angel, the grace of this moment, with open-heartedness, with presence. May I meet this moment as a friend, as an angel. An angel of goodness.

May I meet this angel with my heart open, knowing that this moment is precious. There will be a day there will be no more of this moment. May I meet it with kindness, appreciation, with humility. Kindness towards myself and others.

As we turn to bring our sit to a close, meeting this moment as a friend, without judgment, without self-criticism. Whatever happened or did not happen during this practice is okay. You showed up. You did your best. That's all that matters. Appreciate yourself for having showed up, without attachment to outcome. You've planted seeds; they're going to take time to flower.

Together, let us appreciate our goodness, their goodness. And with generosity, offering all the co-created goodness, our goodwill to all beings everywhere. May all beings everywhere be well, meet this moment of their lives with goodwill, with kindness, with open-heartedness. May all beings everywhere be well. May all beings everywhere be free, including ourselves.

Thank you for your practice, everyone.

Reflections

So what we explored today was a variation that we've never done. We always explore things in a different and new way. That's what's fun about practice, it's not always the same. Sometimes some practices work for you, sometimes they don't, sometimes you have to adapt and adjust them. It's all good. And sometimes, wow, something opens up that hadn't been accessible before. So you know, "Yes, this is my way in."

The invitation to explore today, after we got settled as we usually do with the breath and the body, was to explore this moment of our lives right here as a friend, as a good friend, or as an angel. Because the idea of an angel, for many people, has a sense of grace, a sense of goodness. Meeting the unknown, meeting the mystery, being open to the mystery, to the goodness. For those whom that doesn't work, you can use "good friend" or "deva," which again means angel in Buddhism, but there's a little difference.

Basically, it is this idea of appreciating the grace of this moment, opening up to it, meeting it with kindness, with goodwill. Which is really goodwill for ourselves. So it's basically practicing mettā^[2] and goodwill for ourselves, but in this indirect way. And also appreciating that this grace of this moment is finite. There's finitude. Can that bring more of an appreciation, more grace of, "Oh yes, let me appreciate this moment of being alive, not take it for granted"? But mostly turning with kindness, with gentleness, with mettā, with goodwill. Can I meet this moment with goodwill, no matter what is arising? Maybe the angel is bringing challenges for me to meet, but there is grace in that too.

Okay, the rooms are closed. Everybody's back. Welcome back, everyone. It's nice to see some smiles as you come back from connecting with one another. We have time for reflections, questions, comments, aha moments. Challenges too are welcome. Especially if you haven't spoken yet in community, I'd love to invite you to pull forward. If you have spoken recently, to pull back so that we hear from a variety of voices.

What did you notice with this practice? What arose for you? Anything you'd like to share, not just for yourself to be held witness, but for the benefit of the community. It really helps. Jamie?

Jamie: Hi, Nikki. That was extraordinary. Thank you so much. The angel I imagined being with me was an angel of death. You said something about the angel having beauty and possibilities that you didn't even know, and so that was my conception of the angel. I experienced really profound gratitude and acceptance and forgiveness.

Nikki: Thank you. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing your practice with everyone, Jamie. Profound and beautiful. Thank you so much. Wow. Beautiful angel of death, possibility, and beauty. Yeah, beautiful. Thank you.

Bill shares in chat: "I used to find smiling during meditation as artificial and forced. It has started to seem more natural now."

Yay, Bill! This is so great. This is so beautiful. The moment is smiling back at you, your meditation is smiling back at you as you've been hanging with it for more than three years now. Yay, that just makes my heart happy, Bill. Yay! And also, what you've shared is heartening to those who might find smiling during meditation forced, like, "Ugh, it's too much." But hearing that it can shift—here is Bill, it shifted for Bill, so it can happen for me too. How awesome is that? So that is inspiring. Thank you for sharing that.

Any other reflections? Questions, challenges too are welcome. Peggy, please.

Peggy: Hi everyone. Thank you, Nikki. I had trouble thinking of the present moment personified as an angel, but the angel part worked. And that sense of meeting, I know it was just a really warm, sweet presence. It was playful too, but I liked that.

Nikki: Beautiful, thanks for sharing that. Great! And I love how you say, "Okay, the present moment as an angel didn't quite work, but I made it work for me as this sweet meeting, and it was playful and fun and joyous." That's lovely. You made it work for you. That is fantastic. Thank you, Peggy, for sharing that. That's lovely. And the playfulness, I love. That's awesome. Thank you. Lovely, thank you.

Another person shares: "My angel was Jiminy Cricket. He represented everything that is wholesome, kind, and accepting in me." Oh, that is sweet. That is so sweet.

And here is a reflection anonymously sent: "Thank you for providing me with a solid moment of refuge and trust in myself in what was otherwise an agitated day."

Ah, thank you so much for sharing that. That's beautiful to witness and hold and celebrate.

And for me too, this practice brought so much joy and delight. My body was achy and fatigued, and just through this practice, there's so much more ease and heart with you. It's such a gift. And maybe I'll share with you a practice report from me as I was guiding. You know, I always guide you from the depth of it. I'm not just saying the words; I'm in there with you, practicing with you. That's how the guidance is coming up for me. And for me, meeting this angel of this present moment was so overwhelmingly beautiful, and at some moment I wanted to burst into tears. This grace of being alive, this grace of this angel that is this moment of my life. And I'm meeting it here. I have a privilege to meet this moment, even though it has challenges or whatever it is, but what a grace. And there will be a day where there will be no more of these moments, but wow. Wow. Amazing.

And how amazing it is to practice together. All of us in community. Thank you all. Thank you so much for showing up, supporting yourself, each other, all beings everywhere with your practice. May we all be well, may we all be free.

Thanks everyone. Thank you so, so much. Be well.