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Guided Meditation: Non-Clinging and Non-Blockage

So good morning, good day, good evening. As an introduction to the meditation today, I want to mention a very famous or significant Buddhist quote from the time of the Buddha that goes something like, "Nothing whatsoever is worth clinging to."

On one hand, it can seem like a little bit of bad news, the idea that you're not supposed to cling. Maybe some of the things we cling to seem very important. But there are two reasons for the ending of clinging, for not clinging. One is that we don't experience the suffering that comes with clinging. The other is that we make room for the wonderful, significant, strong, beneficial, and beautiful emotions, states of mind, and qualities of mind that can flow more freely when there is no clinging. Clinging is kind of a block to the flow of the good, wholesome qualities within us.

So, to remove that blockage is a fantastic thing. It helps us to grow, to thrive. It's onward leading. It allows some of the seemingly natural ways in which humans develop to the point of thriving to unfold more freely.

In terms of emotions, we can certainly cling to emotions. Some emotions arise with clinging or because of clinging. But one way of looking at this—and this is the point of the meditation—is that there are emotions which are a little bit more closing down, a little bit more limiting of ourselves, and there is a way of being that opens more fully. Clinging closes, and liberation opens. And to have that movement, whether it's to open up the emotions that involve closing down, or whether it involves opening up any ways in which emotions, even when they're difficult, open up so that they have some freedom to course through us, to allow and see what inner growth, development, and freedom comes. I like the idea that there's a biological movement towards freedom and our job is to get out of the way. Mindfulness supports that by helping us see where we close and where we open.

So, take a relaxed, open posture for the meditation. Breathing in deeply and exhaling fully. This breathing in deeply can be felt as an opening of what is closed, an expanding of the torso, the chest, the body, to symbolically make lots of room within for our emotional life. And to exhale a little longer than usual is a way of relaxing around whatever we're feeling, however we are. I sometimes think of the exhale as being equivalent to saying, "It's okay." And then letting your breathing return to normal.

If you could open up widely to whatever emotions are within you, what do you think might come flowing? What do you think might come through? And whatever it might be, use the exhales to settle. "It's okay." And on the inhale, open wide, as if you're making lots of room for how you are. On the exhale, "It's okay." And otherwise, letting your thoughts become quieter, as if the thinking mind is reassured and is reminded it doesn't have to work so much.

Okay. And this opening up to what's within and letting it flow... remember as you do so, the meditation posture is meant to offer you grounding and stability. So be grounded in the present moment in your body, allowing whatever is there to flow, to express itself, to be felt as embodied experience. Letting go of stories, judgments, commentary, predictions, and meaning to what's happening. The simplicity of opening the body so what's within is given freedom. Freedom within the quiet of sitting here.

And to allow for an opening to experience has benefits. It might be possible to be aware that in the openness to experience, giving room to experience, there are some wholesome qualities of mind that are available, wholesome qualities of heart. In opening up to experience, there is awareness. It's almost as if opening makes more awareness so things can arise in awareness in mindfulness.

In the opening, there can be clarity, or interest, even curiosity. Not to lean towards anything, but to let it register more clearly: "Ah, this is what it is." Within the feeling or sense of being open or opening, there is some kind of nice energy or effort. In the opening, there's some quality of joy or well-being, perhaps represented by the word "yes"—open and yes, yes to this.

And in opening up rather than closing down, there might also be some quality of calm or tranquility, a quietude, as if opening up creates the space which is quiet, spaciousness which is calm. And within the opening, there might be a concentration or a stability, or a unification of being centered and holding all things. And if opening is not just opening up but also allowing for the opening for a little bit, that open awareness can have qualities of equanimity, of non-reactivity, of non-agitation with what is happening. Part of the value of open awareness is to allow these good qualities to also flow through us, to recognize them and allow them to fill us.

Letting go of thoughts can be equivalent to opening up awareness, letting go into a quiet openness to some of the wholesome qualities that live within you. Wholesome qualities^[1] that might grow if you do a little half-smile with the corners of your lips, allowing yourself to feel the pleasure and delight that allows what's wholesome to show itself a little bit more.

And then, coming to the end of the sitting, see if you can touch into whatever wholesomeness there is within you. Whatever place within where there might reside some goodness, some capacity for goodwill, care, generosity. Someplace where there's maybe some degree of happiness or well-being.

Imagine that your goodness, your wholesome qualities, as fleeting as they might be, can touch others. Others can feel touched, kind of like the Midas touch. We touch the world with our kindness, our goodness, our care, our love, when we're not closed down or preoccupied, but have learned to open up and trust. Be brave enough to let what is good within us come forth out into the world.

May it be that in direct and indirect ways, the wholesomeness, the goodness, the love, the kindness, the generosity that you're capable of—may it be a bit like the Midas touch, that directly or indirectly you bring that to bless the world, to benefit the world. May it be that whatever goodness comes from this practice, you bring it into the world, to those near and those far, so that all beings may benefit from your practice.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be really happy. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings discover how to live without being closed down from clinging. May they discover the joy of opening up to freedom. May all beings be free.