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.

Happy Hour: Practicing with Awe

Introduction

A deep and warm welcome to every single one of you. In this moment in time, I am feeling your presence as I sit here in Mountain View, California, and feeling your presence all over the world. It is very heartwarming. I invite you to feel both your own presence wherever you are, and to feel everybody else's presence all over the world joining you in this moment in time. My eyes get teary feeling some people in their morning, others in their afternoon in Australia, late at night on the East Coast, or earlier in the afternoon in Hawaii. A sense of warmheartedness really comes up for me.

A sense of awe really comes up for me. I get goosebumps as I feel into what this technology allows us to do, to practice together and to be together. That is the segue to the topic that I wanted to invite us to practice with tonight: the topic of awe.

Awe is a topic we often don't directly practice with, and yet it is a wholesome invocation on the path of practice. Often, when we are mindful, we are mindful of something—we are mindful of sounds, emotions, the breath, or body sensations—but not so much of what is being aware. We don't often turn awareness onto itself.

Turning awareness onto itself actually invites a realization: Wow, there's consciousness here, there's awareness, there's life. We often don't make that turn because we're so busy in the middle of our daily lives. When the mind is quiet and settled in meditation, turning awareness onto itself and appreciating this being, this consciousness, this awareness that feels and senses and hears, is ineffable. It's amazing to be alive. It's amazing to be conscious. Consciousness is something that none of us really understand. No scientist, no philosopher truly understands it. People have wondered what consciousness is over the ages, and we still don't know. We have no clue, and it's magnificent. When we turn awareness to itself, it's magnificent.

What good is awe? There is some research on this. Specifically, at the Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, Dr. Dacher Keltner^[1] has conducted many research studies trying to define what awe is and the value of it in secular practice. It has been suggested that people who experience a sense of awe, and swim in it, sense that they have more time available. They have increased feelings of connectedness. It increases their critical thinking and positive mood, and it decreases materialism. Other studies have shown that people tend to become more kind and generous when they experience awe. So, there is a lot of goodness that can be generated from allowing ourselves to experience awe.

Spiritually, it has a deep significance for our awakening. When we really see clearly, there's a sense of awe that arises and can be very helpful and supportive. Let's just delve into it. Without taking my word for how beneficial it can be for our awakening, to our true nature, and to having more freedom, let's just experience it. Let's practice together.

Whatever happens for you, if awe arises or doesn't arise, it's okay. These are just invitations. You are planting seeds. Awe might not arise tonight, but later, when you're brushing your teeth, you might be looking at yourself in the mirror and see this human being looking back at you, and you go, Oh my goodness. Who knows when these moments of awe might arise. You're just planting seeds and being content with whatever arises, or doesn't.

Reflections

Thank you everyone for your practice. Awe is a support for practice, for waking up to our humanity. Waking up to this tender, amazing, awe-inspiring human being. Stepping out of the ordinary daily concerns and ruminations, and into the sense of the vastness that we're a part of. A sense of interconnection and inter-being.

I'd love to invite you if you wish to share your reflections on this practice. How did it show up for you? Questions and reports from the field are welcome.

Michael: I really love the practice of awe. I think it's really heartwarming and a wonderful complement to our mettā^[2], karuṇā^[3], and other brahmavihārā^[4] practices. I'm very grateful that you chose to do it this evening.

Nikki: Thank you for sharing, Michael. It's an intense and deep practice. In some ways, it does belong with the other brahmavihārās and these practices of the heart that buoy us and lift us up. This is a heavenly abode; it's a heavenly place to hang out, in awe.

Forrest: Is awe a similar feeling to pīti^[5]?

Nikki: Pīti can be translated as either joy or rapture, but really a sense of rapture and energetic joy. Awe is actually different; it feels different than pīti. Pīti can have an energetic gladness and can be experienced in many different ways, but awe is more expansive. Interestingly, awe has some similarity to pīti, but it also has similarity to equanimity, because in equanimity we have this bird's-eye view seeing our interconnection with all beings. Awe has some taste of that. So, it's not exactly the same as pīti. It shares some similarities, but it's not exactly the same.

Marie Christine: For me, it's a little bit complex. I think of awe, and at the moment it's kind of combined with gratitude. By chance, it so happens that I live in Australia, and we're doing so well when it comes to COVID. But how can I feel this when there are so many people around the world dying and suffering so much? I'm torn between the awe of where I am and, at the same time, thinking, can I feel that when so many people are suffering?

Nikki: I'm glad you raised that, Marie Christine. Yes, you can feel that when there is suffering present in the world. Both are important. It's important to have both. In this practice, you hold 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. If you just make 10,000 sorrows the focus of your attention, practice just becomes really painful, and life becomes very painful. And if it's just 10,000 joys, ignoring all the 10,000 sorrows, then you're kind of lost.

It's the ability of holding both. Yes, people are dying, there are challenges and sadness in the world and in our lives, there is difficulty. And there is joy, there is beauty, there is awe, there is grace. It's all of that together. Awe, gratitude, and these various practices are not a way of pushing away the challenges; they are a way of making more space in our heart to be with the difficulty. Otherwise, it's hard to be with the difficulty 24/7. These practices can actually really resource us in that way.

(Breakout rooms session)

Neil: In the small group, someone mentioned how having a lack of humility makes it difficult to feel awe, and I was wondering what your thoughts are on that, and how do you deal with this?

Nikki: I think there is some truth to that. I was looking at some research that has been done, and it does seem there is some correlation. If I remember correctly, the study suggested that people who were more affluent had a harder time feeling awe than people who were less affluent. So, what to do about that if it's hard to have a sense of awe?

For me, it feels the same as the other brahmavihārā practices that we do. A lot of times, it's hard to have self-compassion. "I'm hurting, but I'm kicking myself and I can't have self-compassion." So what do you do? You find your way in gently. You try this way or that way. Does it work if I see myself as a little kid? Oh yeah, look at that, that works. What if I see myself as a little kid who was hurting at the time? Oh yeah, that works. You find your way.

With awe, I would say the same thing. If it's challenging, find a way in. Maybe starting with the body doesn't work. Maybe it's remembering the birth of a child, or when you were in a cathedral and there was a sense of, Wow, this is amazing. Or a beautiful piece of music you heard that just made you weep. Find a way in, and keep honing and expanding on that. In terms of neuroscience, you find a path that works and then you try to expand that groove, those connections. In terms of spiritual practice, you just see what works.

I was also thinking more about the question that Forrest asked earlier about whether awe is similar to pīti. I was remembering how many times on meditation retreats I've had a sense of awe when I've had insight. I've had experiences where I've seen things that I didn't see before about the nature of mind, about the world, and just internally seeing. There's a sense of, Wow, I want to drop and kiss the ground. Just a sense of awe. I think pīti is a part of it, because pīti greases the wheels, and there's also a sense of perspective that is similar to equanimity. Awe shares a lot of different aspects with these different brahmavihārās—this sense of expansiveness of heart and buoyancy.

Kyla: There's a connection for me between gratitude and awe.

Nikki: Yes, exactly. Gratitude absolutely comes up. Kataññutā^[6] in Pali. I think there's a lot more to explore here. My heart feels lifted. A lot of times when we are stuck in the nitty-gritty of our lives, having a sense of awe for what is can expand our perspective and allow us to work more skillfully with what's arising.

We have spent a perfectly good hour practicing and cultivating awe together, dear ones, and it just makes me so happy. It fills my heart to practice with you. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to all of you for showing up and practicing together. May you be safe, happy, healthy, and well. May you have ease and have awe for your magnificence as a human being. May you wake up and support the waking up of all beings everywhere.