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Guided Meditation: Putting Down What's not Needed

Greetings, greetings friends wherever you are in the world. What a privilege it is to be able to practice together. I know the marvel it really is that we get to sit together, we get to practice together in this global, amazing sangha^[1]. My name is Nikki Mirghafori, and I'm delighted to be with you this week practicing together, supporting you while he is taking his vacation and backpacking in nature. So, practice the deliciousness of practice.

So for today, and for this week, I'd like to invite us to explore some ways to calm, settle, invite the mind to be more available. More available for calming, settling, for what's called samadhi^[2] or translated as concentration. Of course, I'll say much more about it later, but the invitation for today, for the theme of our practice, is to put down what is not necessary.

What is wind drag? An image I would like you to consider is if you were riding a bicycle. If you imagine, for example, the professional bikers in the Tour de France reducing wind drag. Reducing wind drag is so important—putting down what is not necessary, what sticks out, so that one can be in the flow. Be in the flow of movement. In this case, movement of the breath upon the body^[3], movement of this moment.

Putting down what's wind drag. What's wind drag for us is whatever is not necessary: ill will, judgment, "I can't do this, I'm terrible at this." Wind drag. Put it down, not necessary. Putting down what is not needed, coming back with a sense of intention, resoluteness. Just here, just this. Thinking about plans, future, past regrets in this moment: not necessary. Wind drag. Ah, releasing. Just sit. Just be in this moment, giving our hearts to this practice, being alive in this body in this moment, for the benefit of ourselves, others, and the world.

Let's begin. Let's begin with that frame. Let's begin adjusting our posture to whatever is called for in this moment, whatever is necessary. Listening to the body, what does the body need? Does it need to sit up a little more straight with integrity? Spine aligned, vertebrae, sense of alignment as if there was a vertical point of reference internally. Sitting, or lying down, or standing with integrity. And then inviting the body to relax all the soft tissue. All the soft tissue to relax.

Setting the intention with wholeheartedness to give ourselves, to give our hearts, our minds fully, completely to simply sitting, being here in this moment. Filling our hearts, our bodies, our minds with the goodness, the sacredness of renunciation, of what is extra, what is wind drag.

Settling into the sit bones. Letting our weight drop internally into the sit bones, held by the earth. Letting go of the weight of the legs and feet, offering it to the earth. Ah, softening, relaxing, no need to hold on for it to be tight.

Inviting the abdomen, the lower abdomen, to release any tightness or holding. For the chest to soften, for the heart, the proverbial heart center, center of the chest, place of emotions. Letting it be safe, feel safe for whatever is present right now. Softening around it, breathing around it.

Inviting the neck and shoulders, the arms, the hands to put down, to relax, to release their weight. Similarly for the forehead, for it to soften. Any tightness, any holding in the forehead is wind drag. Not needed. Inviting the eyes, their sockets to rest. The jaw, the chin, all the muscles behind the face, they can relax.

Inviting the breath to breathe you just as it has been doing for all these minutes and years, just naturally. Simply being aware, intimately connecting with the flow. And the abdomen, lower part of the body to settle.

And if judgments arise: "I can't do this, my mind is distracted." Wind drag. Not needed. Put down the self-criticism. "I don't like this, this is not good," etc. Wind drag. Relinquishing, putting it down. Giving your heart to itself, not to these strangers. Any type of conflict with reality: extra.

And if thoughts arise, lots of entanglement in thinking: past, future, present. There isn't a problem in thinking per se, and yet giving our hearts to this practice of simplicity in this moment, relinquishing. Putting them down for just this, not needed in this moment. Later. Resolving ourselves in seclusion of the mind.

And for the last moments of this practice, if there are any criticisms externally, internally, judgments, self-judgments that arose during this period: "Oh, my mind was distracted," etc. "It's too noisy around," whatever. No need, it's all extra. It's all wind drag for the mind, for the heart. And with resolve, putting them down, bowing to them with gentleness, with kindness, putting them down: "Thank you, you're not needed."

And appreciating that we have showed up, we've done our best for the benefit of self, others, and the world. That is enough. Dedicating our goodness, our shared goodness freely, generously with all beings everywhere. Even if we may judge our practice to be shoddy, trusting there is goodness generated. May all beings be well. May all beings everywhere, including this being that is me, be free.

Thank you for your practice.

Samadhi (1 of 5): Relinquishing the Unhelpful

So greetings everyone. Greetings friends, friends in the dharma. Hmm, how nice to sit together dispersed in space and maybe time. So powerful to realize, to consider for a moment really the beauty, the grace, the wonder of us sitting together in this moment in time all around the world. This profoundly touches me.

So if it may be of support for your practice, I'd like to share some reflections about calming, quieting, settling the mind and heart. Landing the mind and heart, citta^[4], translated as mind-heart. Because when our minds settle, it's really our hearts that settle also. Also, our body settles. True, they're all related: the body is unsettled, the mind is unsettled, and when the mind is unsettled, the body is unsettled. So settling, calm abiding, unifying, arriving—so many different words we can use for the same concept.

Another word that's used often is the word concentration. To concentrate the mind. Though that translation of the word samadhi, the practice of samatha^[5], brings some tightness. Concentration—I feel like whenever I hear that word I remember doing math problems. I want to concentrate and my forehead gets tight, which by the way I've seen for many practitioners. Their forehead gets tight as if they're trying to concentrate, whereas actually samadhi—collecting, landing, settling—is more of a relaxed endeavor, which we'll talk more about tomorrow: relaxation. So the theme for this week is settling the mind.

The word samadhi is derived from the Pali prefix sam, which means together, and the root dha, which means to put, to place. So basically samadhi means to put together, to bring together, to concentrate in that way. So it entails unifying the mind, steadying the mind with undistracted awareness. Many other words, as I mentioned, are used for this idea: composure, gathering, collectedness, non-distractedness, stabilizing, calming. I especially like calming, steady, malleable are some of the other words used. Stillness, that's another word also used. Stillness where hindrances and distractions are at bay and the mind is protected.

So samadhi can support us. This settling of the mind, this calming of the mind, this undistractedness of the mind can be so supportive through our path of practice for insight, for seeing things clearly about ourselves, about others, inside the arising. And also it's tremendously helpful in life, in our daily life.

For example, having a mind that can become settled, unified, composed, undistracted, still, is very helpful when you want to go to sleep. And we know that in terms of health impact, sleep has the number one health impact, more than anything else that we can do for ourselves. More and more research is showing that sleep is really number one, numero uno. And have you noticed at night, if your mind is distracted here and there and everywhere, it's hard to settle, it's hard to sleep, it's hard to be nourished. So developing a mind that's undistracted, that can settle, that can calm, knows how to do that, has been trained how to do that, is a huge gift that we can give to ourselves. Again, not just for practice, but for our daily lives, for sleeping, for doing what is needed to be done, etc.

And for practice, I once did a survey and looked at the Majjhima Nikaya^[6], and the number one and two words that were repeated the most were Buddha and Dharma, and number three, there were a few words tied for the third position. One in that position was states of jhāna^[7], absorption, samadhi. So states of mind being calm and undistracted. So it is so important for this practice, for us to know, for us to learn, for our heart-minds to learn how to settle, be unified, be undistracted.

There are many different ways, many different tools that are supportive, that help this distractibility of the mind, as we'll discuss together this week. The first one I'd like to discuss today, as actually we've been practicing with, is resolve. It is a sense of resolve for seclusion, resolve for non-distractedness, or what I called wind drag: to put down. To put down what is not needed in this moment, put down what's not needed.

And often when we think of seclusion or if we think of relinquishment, we think, "Oh, relinquishment sounds so heavy," and "Oh, relinquishing what's good," and it sounds pretty bare, whereas it's actually the other way around. We're relinquishing, giving up, we're renouncing. Renunciation of what is extra, what is too much, what is distracting, what is not wholesome.

And renunciation, this relinquishment, requires right intention. It requires a sense of resolve so that when the mind goes off in thought and worry or self-judgment, or ill will—you name your top 10 list—the heart-mind doesn't revel in it like, "Oh yeah, juicy, fun, more ill will, more self-judgment." No, there is a right intention. There is a resolve: "No, no, come back. I've done this so many times, not helpful. This is not helpful. Dear mind, beloved mind, come back." Come back again with loving-kindness, with gentleness, and yet with a sense of resolve knowing that this is not helpful for your benefit, for others, and the world.

And the Buddha talks about this, and I'd like to share briefly from Majjhima Nikaya 19: "As I remained thus heedful^[8], ardent, and resolute, thinking imbued with ill will arose in me. I discerned that thinking imbued with ill will has arisen in me, and that leads to my own affliction or to the affliction of others or to the affliction of both. It obstructs discernment, promotes vexation, and does not lead to unbinding." Unbinding being freedom, Nibbana^[9]. "It subsided. Whenever thinking imbued with ill will had arisen, I simply abandoned it, dispelled it, wiped it out of existence."

Now that is pretty direct guidance. Noticing what is not helpful, where the mind has gone before, and with heedfulness, ardency, urgency, and resolution, abandoning it.

So my invitation for today is to notice in your daily life what is extra, what is wind drag. What doesn't lead to benefit for yourself, for others, and the world, and in fact the other way—it leads to your own affliction, the affliction of others, or both, as the Buddha says. What needs to be put down? And just doing what you're doing. If you're washing the dishes, just wash the dishes. Put down the extra wind drag. Put down the extra afflictions. Just be, just simple, undistracted.

Wishing you all the best, sangha, and may our practice be of benefit to ourselves, others, and the world. May you be well. Take good care.