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Guided Meditation: Knowing Traces

So good morning, good day, everyone. I was appreciating so much the chats that I was almost forgetting to start speaking. So thank you all for being here. I appreciate very much that we have this wide international community that comes together to practice, to meditate, to engage in these teachings, and I feel very fortunate to be able to offer these teachings still to such a receptive audience. So thank you.

There is a kind of current of teaching in Buddhism that one of the meanings^[1] of karma^[2], when we do something that has karmic consequences, is that it leaves traces. When we are doing something without any karmic residue, there are no traces. It is possible to do things that somehow leave no traces, leave no residue, therefore leaving us fresh, leaving us kind of new or able to meet the next moment without bringing with us the baggage and the influence of the past.

So when we sit to meditate, we can start recognizing that there are traces left. For example, if the mind wanders off in thought and then you bring your mind back, but you're not really successful or able to do that because the pull of the thinking is strong, that pull is the trace of momentum that was set in place. Somehow, there was a force operating in the way we were thinking, the way we were maybe attached, that remains even once we've kind of let go of the thoughts. We let go of them for a moment, but very quickly we're pulled back into that world. The force that keeps pulling us into our preoccupations, our thoughts, the past, the future, our fantasies—the force of that is part of this residue that's left over from a momentum set in place by what we've been doing in the past, what we've been thinking in the past, and what we've been feeding.

If we've been feeding in the past, just living our daily life unrestrained in our preoccupations, only thinking about what we want or only thinking about how we've been wronged, then sometimes, because of the involvement, the identification, the attachment, the resistance—the strength of that involvement with that preoccupation leaves a residue. That residue has a function of being ready to reappear in some way or another; it almost becomes a habit.

One of the functions of meditation is to try to be in the present moment the best we can, to be with the breath. It is to notice how much residue there is—the traces that are left over where we're automatically pulled away, preoccupied, and caught in things. Some of that residue we feel as tension in our body. All tension is a residue of some way in which we've been preoccupied. It's a marvelous thing to have the body relax enough that the residue, at least the surface residue, begins to dissipate. Certain emotions are left over; they're not just fresh and new, but there is residue that sometimes reappears, sometimes years later. The residue, the traces, have been left behind unresolved.

There's no need to feel bad about it, or feel bad about yourself that there are karmic traces like this, but it is invaluable to see it—to know that's what's happening. It can be a lot easier if we just see it that way: "Oh, that's what's happening. These are traces. This is the residue still having momentum." It might be easier to disidentify with it, not be so tricked by it, or think that it's so important to do. It might be easier just to recognize it in a simple way: "Oh, residue, traces," and then begin again^[3]. That clarity of residue and traces might make it easier just then to come back into the present moment.

So, assuming a meditation posture. I put a lot of value on the posture we assume in meditation. An intentional posture that establishes us here in a clear, definitive way, here in this place and this time. Partly because, on one hand, it's easier to then release the residue, and also because it's easier to see it if we have a posture that's karmically neutral, where the habits of attitudes and dispositions don't dictate the posture we have.

And so this upright posture, that of the Buddha statue, represents a posture free of karma, free of the momentum of past dispositions and attitudes.

Taking a long, deep inhale.

Releasing a long exhale.

Breathing in, breathing out.

Letting the breathing return to normal.

And the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out from the body, maybe it can be like waves washing up and down against the shore.

If there's been a disturbance on the beach, the waves just come and they go, and they smooth out the sand, bringing it back to the way it's been maybe for millennia—flat.

Or we have a coarse piece of wood, and we gently repeat over and over again the sanding of it back and forth; slowly, something gets smoother.

So that gentle staying with the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out, we might feel the karmic traces in our body and mind, but staying with the rhythm like waves washing across everything.

Slowly letting the karmic traces and tensions be smoothed out.

Without being tricked into thinking or reacting to anything.

Staying with the rhythm of breathing.

Waves smoothing out the beach.

What residue or traces are found in you now?

And instead of being involved in them or thinking about them, let breathing be the massage or the waves that soften the strength of the residue.

And then coming to the end of the sitting, taking a few long, deep breaths.

Relaxing as you exhale, maybe relaxing some of the residue of tension and traces.

And considering for a few moments how there can be love or care or kindness without any residue. Without leaving any traces behind in our hearts or minds.

Simple, straightforward, clean love.

And to gaze upon the world with such care.

Wishing well for everyone without any attachment, any fear, any hesitation.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free.

[Music]

Thank you.

Dharmette: Mindfulness of the Body (3 of 4) Daily Activities

So, continuing the topic of how mindfulness of the body can support us in challenges, the third exercise the Buddha gives in his famous teachings on mindfulness^[4]—the third teaching about the body—is to be mindful, to be aware, to know the activities we're doing with the body as we're doing them. So as we're moving, certainly as we're walking, as we're talking, as we are putting on our clothes, as we're going to the bathroom, as we're showering or bathing—each of these everyday activities is a meditation center in itself, is a monastery in itself, is a sacred dimension, a sacred place for the practice of mindfulness.

To see it as a meditation center, as a sacred location, is to put a lot of value on the presence, the attention, the care that we give in being with each everyday activity that we do. Eating, drinking, stretching out your hand to grab something, opening a door, turning a doorknob, closing the door, putting on your shoes, cooking in the kitchen, or cleaning. There are innumerable everyday activities, and the third exercise in developing mindfulness is to bring mindful attention into these activities as we do them.

This has a lot of benefits in the ordinary way of thinking about mindfulness. It's a way of being mindful in the present moment, and it's a way of building up the muscle of mindfulness, the muscle of attention to the present, so that we can begin abiding and living in the present more and more, thereby receiving the benefits from doing so.

But doing this also reveals what's going on otherwise. If we do our activities while we're attending to them and are really present for them, you might notice how the mind has other ideas. It's drifting off and thinking about tomorrow or yesterday, or a fantasy of some kind. The emotional life can follow the thoughts, or the emotions can be very much about something that's not present here and now and are being reinforced by the thoughts and stories about this other time or other place.

There are traces, this residue left over from other things where there are preoccupations, concerns, attachments, resistances, and fears that are operating, that sometimes have a life of their own, a momentum of their own. It isn't necessarily wrong to have that, but it's really helpful to see it. When we're present for our daily activities—standing over the stove, stirring a pot of soup—to really be there for that stirring, we notice, "Well, I'm not really there. I'm still thinking about the traffic ticket I got and how it's unfair and this and that." Something happened to us earlier in the day that's sticky, and we're kind of stuck with it, glued to it, or preoccupied with it. Seeing that as we are stirring the soup, we say, "Oh, look at that. Now I can see the power this has over me."

If we just go about our life and unconsciously let the mind think about its preoccupations and thoughts, it might seem like business as usual, and we might not even notice how much the mind is caught, how much the mind is preoccupied, and the influence that preoccupation has in our body, our emotions, our hearts. But if you're stirring the soup and you see that you're thinking about the traffic ticket, then, "Wow, that's really strong. Is this really the right thing to be thinking about, or do I need to attend to this in some way? Do I need to settle something deeper? Maybe I should turn the stove off and go sit down for five minutes and just really let the leftover agitation of the traffic ticket wash through me and kind of drain out by just sitting and breathing with it." That's what's needed; otherwise, the residue of that tension and agitation is going to be driving my thoughts.

The simple way of saying this is that as we bring our attention to the present moment and try to be with what's happening as we're doing it, we start noticing how much we're not there. That reveals something really important about ourselves, important information. What you do next is up to you, but at least you know something that you didn't know before in terms of some of the challenges we have in our life. With some challenges we get stuck in, the stronger the challenge, sometimes there's a stuckness. Some people freeze or go numb, some people hunker down, some people collapse, and some people do the opposite and get agitated and really spin out.

To go about our daily activities—the simple brushing of our teeth, washing our face—and to really be there in a simple, relaxed way is the middle way^[5] between collapsing, being numb or frozen, or being agitated. It's using the movements, the activities of the body to channel the energy, to give space for the energy to get movement, to get fluidity, to lubricate our system without it being too much or too little. Going about the daily activities as a way of loosening up, settling, grounding, and not being glued to our challenges and our concerns for them is very freeing and very helpful. It lubricates, it massages, it can be grounding so that we can be more wise about how we consider our challenges and how we address them.

The more caught up we are in our challenges, the more it has really grabbed us, sometimes the more useful it is to do some activity that frees us a little bit, loosens us up a little bit, or settles us a little bit. It could be going for a walk, and the walk is what allows the emotional energy of the challenge to start becoming a little more fluid and not so stuck. If we're collapsing into it or going numb, it can wake us up a little bit. If we go the opposite direction and get too agitated, the walk can actually be settling. The walking around, these daily activities—I like to think of them as the middle way that brings things into balance.

So you might try that. The next time you have some kind of real challenge that's hard for you to be with—maybe not the most challenging, but something moderately challenging that's difficult—don't just sit and do nothing. Don't just fret, and don't go kind of numb and do things on automatic pilot. Enter into the activity of what you're doing in the moment with mindfulness and presence, maybe even an embodied presence so you're really there. Imagine that you're a dancer or an actor who is embodying the part of your whole being stirring the soup, brushing the teeth, and see if that creates a little bit more space and lubrication for the challenges we have, making us more balanced. By the time we finish that, maybe we're a little bit more centered, a little bit more able to think clearly.

It's not that easy that just brushing your teeth is all it's going to take, but we have lots of different everyday activities through daily life, and to be really mindful of them, we have lots of little opportunities to reset, to ground, and to discover what is really going on. What is the residue? What's left over? What's the strength of that residue? What's the strength of the way we're glued to the preoccupation or the challenge we have? Not necessarily that the challenge goes away, but one of the things practice can do is maybe dissolve the glue that keeps us glued to it, or the stickiness can be washed away so that, unstuck, we can address the challenge or be with it or figure out what's best to do.

So we have many opportunities throughout the day for daily life practice, to be mindful of the activities of daily life. Maybe it's useful to think of the ordinary, regular, repeated activities that you do as your meditation center, your monastery, your sacred grove, your sacred spot. Not the place, but the activity is where it is so significant. And if you take a dozen or two dozen of the regular activities you do through the day and really make it a place to lubricate, to massage, to ground, to be present, to discover more clearly how there's so much residue, so many ways in which they're spinning out—I think it could be invaluable for helping us work with the challenges which happen every day of life.

To not do that, for some of us, might mean that we're actually feeding the preoccupation, repeating the stuckness, the emotional reactivity to the challenge. It is so easy to give into it or live in that all the time, but to have some kind of way to cut through the reactivity, cut through the stuckness that we have around challenges, is invaluable in our ability to address them more wisely.

And if you have no challenges, then it's a delight to give ourselves over fully to the physical activity of these daily activities that we do, to really enter into it in an embodied, absorbed way. Just this. Just washing the dishes, just stirring the soup, just brushing the teeth. And maybe that just is a source of rejuvenation.

May the activities of your daily life become a sacred dimension of your life.

Thank you.