This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: This Too

So I'll say good morning again and welcome. Happy to be here with all of you and appreciate the chance you've given me to sit with you and to teach. Thank you.

What are the characteristics of this practice? Meditation practice is that it moves towards the direction of becoming whole or becoming integrated. The ancient language^[1] uses the kind of words that imply a gathering together, and I interpret that as a unification process. And there's a wonderful little saying from a Japanese poem that says, "no part left out." So there's nothing left out. Everything has a place, and everything gathers together and becomes settled here.

And so we're not working at cross-purposes with ourselves, but we're actually finding a way to get this included: this too. We gather together, and maybe the word for this meditation session or the idea that can be in the background for it is this too. As we practice mindfulness, whatever happens, there's an attitude of "this too gets included." And not to keep doing it, not to be involved in those things, but to not fight anything, or challenge anything, or make anything a problem. And some things, where they've been included, can just recede to the background as we settle ourselves on the breathing, or whatever primary object you have for the practice of mindfulness. With the idea that that's the center of gravity at the bottom of the hill, the direction the water flows, everything gathers at the bottom. Everything's gathering around the breathing, and we become unified and whole here.

So, to take a meditation posture. And the posture itself is the beginning of an expression of wholeness if we take some care with our posture and with the idea that we're including our body. Our body is an important part of this whole process. Some of you might find it useful with the idea that you're inviting your body to participate with the meditation, or that your body is inviting you to participate in the meditation. And to gently close your eyes.

And to take some long, deep breaths so you really feel your body as you breathe. And this invitation to be with your body, for your body to be with you, can be represented by this deep, gentle breathing in and a little bit longer exhale, perhaps, than you normally would, just to accentuate the settling in, letting go.

Breathing in, and breathing out. And then letting your breathing return to normal.

In order to begin this process of being inclusive, being whole, what is it that's happening for you in the present moment in your direct experience that maybe you wouldn't have occurred to include, or you're trying to avoid? And perhaps gently, without being preoccupied by it, you might say, "This too has a place here. This too is part of the whole." And whatever it is that needs to be included, breathe with it, breathe through it.

Allow there to be a soft, simple recognition: "This too is here."

And then perhaps it's okay, now that it's recognized, to let it recede a little bit into the background. So that this wonderful ability we have to engage our attention, we engage our attention now on the breathing in the body, where we enter into the experience of the body breathing.

And for a while, allow your exhale to soften and relax tension in the body. Tension in the body is a way to be fragmented. In softening, relaxing the shoulders, the face, the muscles, the belly, our movement is towards being whole, to be more inclusive.

And then also, as you exhale, to relax in the mind. That whatever tensions or pressures that might be associated with thinking or having a concern, it isn't so much you let go of the concern as it is you relax the pressure or tension associated with it.

And in a sense, as we relax, there's maybe an aspect of "this too is okay; this too has a place in the whole."

Then, as if the center of the integrated, whole being that you are is breathing. It isn't so much you have to work to focus on breathing as it is you keep letting go into the breathing, as if breathing is the bottom of the hill in which the water flows.

Perhaps as you exhale, letting go of your thoughts and letting go into the body breathing.

And whatever takes you away from the breathing, this too is included. It's okay. Just recognize it and let that also incline back to your breathing. So that everything leans, inclines to your breathing.

An attitude of this too lets something relax and settle the tension or the pressure to be involved or be preoccupied, the kind of tension that divides parts of ourselves from other parts. This too allows a settling, a sense of inclusion. No need for tension; all things are allowed to be here.

All things settle to the center. All things flow to the center of our being, perhaps to the breathing.

And the awareness is an awareness that is inclusive. Then it itself inclines towards the breathing, while at the same time making room so that everything else can incline to the middle as well.

To meditate with the attitude of "this too is included" is not to condone anything or prioritize anything, but rather to allow us to be whole. And in becoming whole, to allow our care, our love, to see things clearly so we can be wise. Wise and caring.

And as we come to the end of the sitting, this too can include the world around us. The world of our home where we live, the world of our community, the world of the world. This too we make space for in our hearts. This too we make space for in our care. This too is part of the whole.

And to be able to be unified with it, be whole with it, is the possibility for us to have greater love or care for this world of ours.

And to bring the meditation practice into the world can be a way of bringing our care and love into the world. To have the presence of mind, the openness of heart, that we're ever ready to have a profound, mature, kind of serious love for this difficult world we have.

May it be that this practice that we do allows us to have a heart that's so wide and big and expansive that there's room for all things in it. All things have a chance to fit into the alchemy of love and care and kindness—an alchemy which hopefully can transform all hate and anger and fear.

May it be that our practice and our openness and our wholeness is, in fact, enabling us to be in this world in a way that supports all beings. May all beings know that they're whole and therefore can be at peace.