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Guided Meditation: The Body Supports the Mind

So good morning, or day, or evening. It's nice to see everyone coming on. It's a good time to start sitting together. So just settling in once again and finding your meditation posture for today.

Bringing the attention gently into the body. Maybe just taking a moment to check in internally: how are you right now? How's the body? How's the mind? Just knowing that you're here, letting go of whatever you were doing before or whatever activities were needed before getting to the screen. And just knowing that you're taking this time for meditation.

So inviting some ease throughout the body. Maybe softening some of the usual tight places. Maybe the face, letting that soften. The jaw. Letting the shoulders release. Just soften. Softening the belly. And the arms and legs. Shifting the body slightly if needed in order to have a balanced and natural posture. Encouraging a sense of aliveness in the body, alertness, and also relaxation.

And then similarly in the mind, inviting some ease. So there may be thoughts or feelings, which is all fine and normal, but can we find some part of the mind that can be at ease with that? Somehow, by knowing that, by just being aware of what's going on, often the mind can relax. And to help the mind orient, we can feel the sensations of the breath, the in and out rhythm of however the breath is right now.

And then expanding the awareness to include the whole sense of the body. So not necessarily the details of each little sensation, but the general sense of the sitting posture, or if you're lying down, the lying down posture. Even if the breath remains the primary object, it's very helpful to have a general sense of the body sitting.

So in today's sit, I would like to offer three ways that the sense of the body is useful in being with the changes that happen in the mind, being with the thoughts and emotions that can distract the mind. So the ways that the body can support the mind. And they're only if you're interested; if you prefer to just stay with your meditation, that is fine.

These are supports that we can bring in at a time when we notice that the mind is easily getting caught up. So as you're sitting resting with the breath of the body, if the mind is getting—going down rabbit holes, shall we say—we can firm up our sense of the body. So instead of getting drawn down into anxiety, or sadness, or envy—one of the heavy emotions—we can rest in the sense of substantiality in the body. Somehow that strength of the material body can sometimes keep the mind from getting overwhelmed by an emotion. So it's useful to get familiar with feeling that substantiality of the body.

Another way that the body can support the mind is to tune in to the stillness of the body, to emphasize the non-moving part of the posture, and to imagine that as a calming or a dampening effect. So this is useful when the mind is engaged with the flames of irritation or discontent—the various ways that the mind can flare up. And then we can have a sense of the stillness of the body like a calm lake, cooling down the tirade of the mind. The contrast between the still body and the movement of the mind is obvious, so we can help to reel the mind back in.

And then the third option for how the body can support the mind works particularly well with the meditation on the breath, simply to increase the continuity of the mindfulness, the extent of it. So we can allow mindfulness to pervade more of the body, really feeling the fullness of the breath in the body, and also extend the continuity in time to feel the full duration of the breath. Committing to stay with all the little sensations throughout the body throughout the length of the breath. And we may find that there's something satisfying about that in a certain way, because it's simple just to be with these various breath sensations. And then there's no room for long thoughts or complex emotions. There's some satisfaction with that.

So we can imagine that the mind gains strength through its association with the body. Together they can prevent various thoughts and emotions from taking hold and dragging the mind and heart around. And it's not that we don't need to attend to those things, but it's often helpful in meditation to say, "Not now. We will think about these things, but later."

So we have the substantiality of the body. And the sense of stillness; it can cool the mind down. And the continuity; the close connection between mind and body. So noticing how the mind and the body work together. Even in meditation, which may seem like it's mostly about the mind, there's this interaction going on. They support each other.

Perhaps there are ways during your day today when you could find ways to benefit from this support between the body and the mind. The body is always in the present moment, so we can always drop into our awareness of the body throughout the day, whether we're on the computer, or talking with someone, or shopping, whatever we need to do. Maybe there's a way to connect with the material substance of the body, its robustness, its strength—even if we're not physically strong, the sense of substantiality—to help the mind be more grounded.

Or maybe we can use the relative slowness of the body to slow the mind down, to dampen down any flames that arise in the mind. Or maybe just deliberately tying the mind to the body for a stretch of time will provide less opportunity for the mind to wander off or to get caught up. The body is so available to us, and there are many ways that it can support our mind throughout the day. And then that supports our relationships and our ability to be present, and to do what we can to serve this world that so much needs our presence.

Mindfulness as Protection (4 of 5): The Strength of Mindfulness

So we're talking this week about mindfulness as a protection, and different dimensions of that image. We talked earlier about mindfulness as safety and non-mindfulness as danger. And kind of along similar lines, but with a different facet of that, sometimes the Buddha talked about mindfulness as a strength and lack of mindfulness as weakness. So today we'll talk about protection in the form of strength.

And there are a whole bouquet of wonderful similes about this in the discourse that is on mindfulness of the body. That's Majjhima Nikāya 119^[1] for those of you who want to look it up. And I just want to read a little bit about some of these images; they're really great.

So, when someone has not developed and cultivated mindfulness of the body, Mara^[2]—that is, the forces of distraction—finds an opportunity and a support in that person. Suppose someone were to throw a heavy stone ball upon a mound of wet clay. And then he asks, "What do you think? Would that heavy ball find entry into that mound of wet clay?" And the monks say, "Oh yes, yes, venerable sir." And so if someone has not cultivated mindfulness of the body, Mara can get in.

And then later he says the opposite of that. Suppose that someone has developed and cultivated mindfulness of the body. In that case, Mara cannot find an opportunity or support. And the image is, suppose a person were to throw a light ball of string at a door panel made entirely of heartwood. What do you think? Would that light ball of string find entry through the door panel of heartwood? And of course the monks say, "No, no, it wouldn't." So we have these two powerful contrasting images of a heavy stone ball thrown into wet clay, and a light ball of string thrown against a door of heartwood.

And so as I reflect on this, I know that there are times when the emotional state is kind of one of collapse, right? The mind has just kind of collapsed, and so it's easy for even small things to push their way into our psyche at times like that. And so this image of a stone ball kind of points toward heaviness and burden. And then, in contrast, a door that's made of heartwood feels upright, and strong, and solid. It has a clear shape and clear boundaries. So I think that's the contrast being made here.

I know I've had sittings where my mind was repeatedly overrun by certain emotions or thought trains, and then when I look back after regaining mindfulness, it's as if I had no firmness along that dimension where the thought or emotion was coming in. Even if I was vaguely aware that those thoughts were starting to emerge, I had no real resistance to their just pushing into my whole consciousness, like the wet clay doesn't resist the entry of a stone ball.

So then, what's the remedy for this when we realize? Sometimes it can help to just be a bit firmer in our resolution to sit in meditation. Or we can use, as I mentioned in the guided meditation, this feeling of substantiality in the body to bolster the strength of the mind. So the door image nicely conveys that we're kind of closing the door on certain inputs, so that they don't gain entry into the mind, and just say, "No thank you, this is not the time for that." And in that way, we bolster our healthy boundaries in mind, if you will.

So then there's a second image. We're going to do three images, all from this sutta^[3] today. The second image says, again, suppose that somebody were not to cultivate mindfulness of the body. He says, suppose there were a dry, sapless piece of wood, and a person came with an upper fire stick thinking, "I shall light a fire, I shall produce heat." What do you think, monks? Could that person light a fire and produce heat by rubbing the dry, sapless piece of wood with an upper fire stick? And they say, "Oh yes, that would work well." And similarly, he says, Mara can find an opportunity or support in someone who hasn't cultivated mindfulness of the body.

And then the opposite image is, suppose there were a wet, sappy piece of wood and a person came along with an upper fire stick and wanted to light a fire, but they would not be able to do that, you know, because of the wet, sappy piece of wood that they were striking it against.

This image, I think, relates especially to irritation or aversion, but it could also apply to greedy or deluded thoughts. When the mind is weak and it's not connected well to the body, the mind can easily pick up a small input, like a pain in the body or a subtle thought of frustration or dislike, and then keep rubbing away at it until it catches fire; it becomes a huge conflagration in the mind. But with mindfulness of the body, that repeated irritation can't build up and cause the fire. Have you ever had sittings like this? I certainly have.

I remember one time having a conversation with a nun who was talking about how her mind sometimes felt like it was on fire and she was struggling to put it out during meditation. And she said that often when she would investigate more carefully around the edges of that fire—maybe the parts that weren't so much in the foreground of her consciousness—she would discover that some part of her own mind was throwing kindling on the flames, you know, kind of on the side where she wasn't looking so carefully.

And this is really the case. Maybe the image from the sutta would be that over on the side we're rubbing the fire stick and just generating more and more sparks to build up the flame. We think that what we need to deal with is our irritation and our frustration, because that thing is so irritating, and I have to manage my irritation of it. But in fact, there are many supports in our own mind that inflame irritation or frustration. The image of the two fire sticks is pretty apt in that we're supplying half of the stimulus, right? Or maybe we're supplying both halves. Often we have views and beliefs that we aren't quite aware of, or expectations; that's very common.

So the mind is getting riled up, and if the mind is getting riled up repeatedly, it can be worth investigating to see what ideas or expectations in our own mind are contributing, and then bringing mindfulness to those. One support can be to feel the stillness and the relative coolness of the body, to imagine the body as a calm lake. At least having the awareness of the body as a calm lake, and then this conflagration in the mind is kind of on top of that and contrasts with it. We should be able to use that to investigate and see how it is that we're riling ourselves up.

Okay, and then the third image in the sutta is of a water jug. In the case of non-mindfulness of the body, suppose there were a hollow, empty water jug set out on a stand, and a person came with a supply of water. What do you think? Could the person pour water into the jug? "Oh yes, yes of course." And so similarly, for someone who has not developed and cultivated mindfulness of the body, Mara finds an opportunity and a support.

And then the contrast is that if there were a water jug that were full right up to the brim with water, and a person were to come along, could they pour water into that jug? And the monks say, "No, no, of course not." So if we've cultivated mindfulness of the body, then it's like trying to pour water into a full jug. We can't do it.

In this image, there's a sense of fullness as a strength, and in my own practice, I see this as relating to continuity of mindfulness. There are kind of two dimensions of continuity in relation to mindfulness of the body, and my use of the breath as an example in the meditation. We can be aware of the full spatial extent of the breath. It's not just in the lungs, but it kind of pervades the whole body as energy. Actually, even if we try to look for the boundaries of the body, sometimes they're not so clear, so it might be that the breath extends even out into space a bit. When we're full to the brim, we haven't left out any aspect of the breath in the bodily experience; there's a fullness to how we're experiencing that.

And then there's also the second dimension of continuity in time. We can be aware from the very beginning of the in-breath, to the end of the in-breath, the little gap, and the start of the out-breath, and then all the way to the very end, even as it gets very subtle before the next in-breath. And when mindfulness has this kind of fullness, then there's no opportunity for some distraction to slip in, any more than we could pour water into an already full pitcher.

So if we pay attention in our own mind, we can check, where in the cycle of the breath does mindfulness tend to be weak? That's where the thoughts can find entry. Or are there parts or regions of the body that we're not really aware of? If we have thoughts or emotions that are related to that part of the body, they would easily get into the mind and start growing.

So these are interesting images about mindfulness as a strength, and not succumbing to the weakness of being overpowered by these various things in the mind. And then the Buddha, after that, lists a bunch of benefits of mindfulness of the body. We don't have time for all the benefits, but I want to just mention a few of them.

One of them is that—and again it uses this strength metaphor—one becomes a conqueror of discontent and delight, and discontent does not conquer oneself; one abides overcoming discontent whenever it arises. One becomes a conqueror of fear and dread, and fear and dread do not conquer oneself; one abides overcoming fear and dread whenever they arise. So there's a sense of strength in being able to overcome various issues in the mind.

And then it goes on, there's another one about overcoming. One bears well with cold and heat, hunger and thirst, contacts with various physical things—wind, the sun, creeping things—and also one endures ill-spoken, unwelcome words and painful bodily feelings. So there's a way in which this mindfulness of the body gives strength for unpleasant physical and mental experiences, and our willingness to be present in our form helps us to overcome those things, to conquer those things.

And then I'll skip to the end of the list, which is where one realizes for oneself with direct knowledge and abides here and now in deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom, the destruction of the taints^[4]. So all of that is code for one reaches full awakening. Mindfulness of the body can take one all the way to freedom from greed, hatred, and delusion^[5].

All of this power or strength, I want to emphasize, is not the kind of power that is oppressive, or dictatorial, or aggressive. Instead, I will suggest that it comes from compassion. It's the strength of really caring about our own mind and heart, and also caring about other people.

When we're strong and mindful, we are protecting our own well-being from the various inputs that—as we've said many times—we're not going to be able to avoid. We're going to have to learn somehow to meet them with mindfulness. And this strength that's being pointed to here comes from caring about our well-being, caring that we are able to meet things well in life, everything from the irritation in our knee, to ill-spoken unwelcome words, to discontent because life is challenging and we can't get things the way we want it, all the way up to the moment of death.

So when we're strong and mindful we can protect not only our well-being, but we can extend that protection outward to care for others. And that's tomorrow's topic: mindfulness as protection for both ourself and others. I hope you'll appreciate these images of strength and be inspired that mindfulness is really a powerful force in our lives. May it bring you a lot of benefit today, and also spread to those around you.

All right, see you tomorrow.