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Guided Meditation: Clinging/Freedom

Good day on this Friday, and delighted to be here with all of you.

One of the themes for this week has been the way that certain states can exist together. Sometimes they exist in a spectrum where the degree to which one or the other is present depends on where we are in the spectrum. Sometimes, maybe we don't necessarily see it as a spectrum, we see it as being quite distinct, but those things can coexist.

Happily, one of the things that can coexist is that we can cling—we can be attached, we can be holding on, we can be heavily resisting something—and at the same time, be aware of that in a way that is free, that is not clinging. It's possible to have a very clear sense of knowing, or an open kind of awareness, within which we know there is clinging, but the knowing is free. The knowing feels light. It has no weight.

The knowing feels allowing or accepting—I don't know if allowing or accepting is the right word, but the knowing is equanimous. The knowing is not a hostage or caught in what is known.

This ability to do both is actually very significant for doing this practice. Some of us will have a very strong tendency to identify, to lock into different states. Especially if there are things we're critical about ourselves, or strong impulses of attachment, we could get so preoccupied and so caught in it that it's almost like we become it. Or it's inconceivable being without it, or it feels like we have to struggle with it or fight it.

But when we have a clear sense of this knowing, this awareness, this way of recognizing that is not caught or entangled with it, it just simply knows the simplicity of it without identifying with it. Without making it a problem, without making the knowing of it a problem. Maybe some things need to be addressed and have issues, but the knowing is independent of the problem; it just knows.

That is a phenomenally useful reference point for finding our way. Then we're not beholden to the attachment or the clinging. We're not under its influence, which, paradoxically, we are if we're fighting it, criticizing it, or upset about it. The fact that we can hold both—be attached and know it in an unattached way—will be the orientation for this meditation.

Assume your meditation posture, gently close your eyes, and straight off here, what is the most obvious thing that you're aware of for yourself right now?

Whatever is obvious right now for you, see if you can experiment with recognizing that's how it is in a relaxed recognition. As if you're sitting back and gazing upon it. Even if you are upset with it or have reactions to it, perhaps that which knows doesn't have to react—just know it. For some people, the idea of gazing upon it can provide a little bit of healthy distance where the mind's eye is not caught in it, but just sees what's there.

So then, maybe with a reference point of just knowing's unentangled awareness, become aware of your body and let there be a few long, slow, deep breaths.

If any of you have ever gone scuba diving, were you aware of the vastness of the water around you, very attentive to it, and also how precious each breath is? Here, it's so wonderful—the vastness of awareness, of consciousness, of knowing—and within it, the preciousness of breathing. Breathing deeply and relaxing.

Letting your breathing return to normal. Maybe, with relaxing on every exhale, see if there can be the breathing, the relaxation, while at the same time knowing it with ease. Knowing it lightly, openly, not needing it to be anything, or not a source of judgment. Just knowing.

Breathing, simply resting in the knowing that allows things to be as they are. The knowing that's not confined by what is known. Practice that first and foremost with the breathing. Staying connected to the breathing with a lightness, like a feather touch. Maintaining that feather touch, breath after breath after breath, lightly staying in the unencumbered knowing.

Remember to come back to knowing, being aware. But as you come back to it, enter into it. Appreciate whatever degree of freedom you find in knowing. Knowing is free from what is known. No clinging.

Hopefully, you feel a delightful attraction to this present-moment capacity to know without being entangled. It's not so important what you know, so let yourself know whatever is happening in the present, but take refuge in the knowing that's unentangled.

There's a strong tendency to identify with what we cling to, what we're preoccupied with. When we know it, that knowing can be influenced by that clinging. Relax and maybe know from the back of the skull, to know somewhat removed from where the clinging is, to know peacefully, lightly, the clinging itself.

Perhaps you can know with more freedom if you have a small smile on your face. It's just a teeny turning up of the corners of the mouth. Maybe that brightens the awareness enough for a stronger sense of unconstricted knowing.

As we come to the end of the sitting, again maybe make a smile on your face, because a smile on the face can make it harder to be grim. Harder to be attached. Harder to resist.

Do not resist your capacity to gaze upon the world kindly. To gaze upon the world in a friendly way. What would it be like if you were a friend to all that lives? Maybe there's hope that with warm and kind enough friendliness, you'll befriend even your enemies, even the people you used to have animosity towards. To have a smile on your face, to disarm your hostility and animosity, and to take the risk to gaze upon all that lives in a friendly way.

May it be that these 360 people sitting here—may it be that that becomes a force of kindness or friendliness that we carry out into the world today. May whatever benefit and merit we have from this meditation together spread from each of us in all directions out into the world, so we contribute to the welfare and happiness of others. May it be our wish that this meditation is for the happiness, the safety, the peace, and the freedom of those upon whom we gaze today. May we gaze upon them in a friendly way.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Conditioned Consciousness (5 of 5) Aware Without Clinging

We come to the last talk on the topic of conditioned consciousness. Our connection to being aware, to being conscious, is quite variable. Sometimes we have no connection at all. We could be so caught up in something, so preoccupied, so beside ourselves that we lose ourselves in what we're doing. We can end up saying, "I don't know what I was thinking or what I was doing," or, "I didn't even know what I was saying when I said it." We can be so wrapped up in something that the very idea that we can be aware and conscious is far from the mind, far from what we're preoccupied with.

It's also possible to be in states where it's so obvious that we're conscious. It's like the main game in town is being aware and conscious. Maybe it's a relaxing, wonderful day off, laying under a tree in the park and looking up at the clouds and the sky. There's not much to see, but there's a clear sense of, "Wow, I'm aware, I'm present, I'm conscious, I'm alive. This is quite something." The sense of consciousness there is really strong.

Then, from that place of being in the park looking at the sky, something might happen. We might lose some of that openness, that lightness, that kind of awe, because we get caught in something. Maybe the ice cream truck goes by, and that's enough to bring up all kinds of memories from childhood, and you get absorbed in that. Then the fact that there are clouds and sky disappears. The fact that you have the capacity for consciousness disappears into the memories or the idea of wanting ice cream.

Or someone gets up on a soapbox not too far away in the park and starts pontificating loudly about political views that are abhorrent to you. You feel the contraction of the heart, the contraction of the mind, and irritation. With that, if you try to notice what's happened through that consciousness, you notice the conscious self might feel contracted or tight. There might even be a resistance in the mind to even notice that you're aware in consciousness because of the strong pull into the world of irritation, anger, or fear—whatever might be connected to that.

So our connection to consciousness, our connection to being aware, is quite variable. But saying it that way is a little bit off. It implies that consciousness is some stationary, static thing that we variably touch or know. Rather, consciousness is shaped by the state of the mind.

In the park looking at the sky, what we feel is consciousness or awareness has been expanded, created, imagined, and constructed to be broad. When we get preoccupied and tight, then that sense of awareness—what awareness is—has become tight and constricted. There isn't an awareness that somehow exists offline or outside that's broad and spacious. The consciousness has become that way. This is a theory, but it is just as valid as the theory that there is this thing called consciousness which is always broad and we lose touch with it. My suggestion is that we're still in touch with it, but we're in touch with something that has thus become contracted, tight, and narrow.

In this way, continuing this idea, our sense of what consciousness is, what awareness is, is variable and influenced by all kinds of things. It's influenced by the degree of agitation or the degree of peace and calm that we have. It's influenced by how much clinging we have and how much freedom we have.

We contribute to that creation of consciousness by the state of our mind. If particular states of mind are valuable and useful, then we want to create the conditions for them to be there. An open, expansive, free consciousness is invaluable because it's a protection from clinging, a protection from greed, hate, and delusion^[1]. It's a protection from fear. Oftentimes, it's a space within which some of the best qualities of who we are have a chance to surface. Love can come forward, for example, rather than anger or blame. It's almost like the more consciousness is made to be broad, open, and receptive, the more space there is for some of the deeper, beautiful workings of our hearts and minds.

Begin appreciating our contribution to how we experience consciousness and awareness. Use that awareness that's more light, open, and non-reactive to be aware of how we cling, how we tighten, how we resist. That's a fascinating alternative to collapsing into our clinging and getting sucked into it. Rather, we can know it. We can be clinging, and we can know it.

The image I like to have is a tight fist that doesn't want to release itself, and a hand comes from underneath it and just holds it gently. It gives it support, takes its weight, and as the fist feels the support, it begins to relax. This awareness that can know attachment, can know clinging, is kind of there to offer support, to hold it, to be its friend, to accompany it. The clinging is not condemned, fought with, denied, or pushed away. Instead, the clinging has a chance to un-cling, so that the ways we're entangled can be unentangled and disentangle themselves.

This way in which this broader, more equanimous knowing—that's independent of what is known, that's not entangled with what's known—can meet the clinging is one of the great powers of this Buddhist practice. It meets it, and if you're patient, you can discover that you don't have to do the un-clinging. You don't have to do the letting go. Just to know, to know with non-clinging, allows what's clung to^[2], allows the attachments we have to slowly thaw, to slowly unwind, to slowly release.

In this way, it becomes more and more important the further we go in Dharma^[3] practice. As we get more and more concentrated, more still, more mindful, and the mindfulness in meditation gets stronger, the more important it becomes not to be the one who lets go, not to be the one who un-clings. Rather, just allow the knowing to be the tenderizer, the dissolving agent. Just know without any reactivity.

That becomes more important as we keep practicing. Early in practice, like at the beginning of a sitting, please, by all means, relax. Relax your body, let go of what is easy to let go of. But over time, hopefully, you'll discover how wonderful, how smile-producing it is to know without attachment. To know without being caught in or glued to what is being known.

What is being known is allowed to be as it is, and you can settle back and know. Maybe that knowing will be smile-producing for you. How lucky we are to be able to know this way. How delightful to know this way. How wonderful to know in a way that can bring forth all kinds of gifts for the world.

May it be that you will discover something about a liberated awareness that allows you to be a gift, full of your full giftness for this world. Thank you very much, and I look forward to being back here on Monday.