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Introduction

Good day. It actually feels quite wonderful to be here with you all. Not only is there an opportunity to meditate and talk about the Dharma^[1], but it's also remarkable to feel the goodwill, the warmth, and the gratitude that comes through the chat, which I'm sure represents many other people who don't participate in the chat. For all of us to be sharing in this together is quite remarkable. It certainly adds to the richness of the meditation we do to feel like we're doing it in such a friendly community, so thank you very much.

When doing meditation, it's really best not to try to be a perfectionist. Any attempt at perfection probably goes in the opposite direction; it makes it harder, we strain more, and maybe it gets more brittle. I think the idea is to be at ease with how things are, not how we think they're supposed to be. To be at ease with how things are, not with what we think they're supposed to be, and to have that ease not be perfect. So, not looking for perfect ease.

What this means is that we're partly learning to hold ourselves and be mindful of ourselves without it needing to be all one way. We have an ease with holding things together that are maybe some good and some not so good, some pleasant and some not pleasant. What is happening is what we think is supposed to be happening, or what's happening is not what we think is supposed to be happening—all these things can coexist.

For example, people associate meditation with a quiet mind, not thinking so much, or not thinking at all. For some people trying to have that no-thinking state, I think it's better to be at ease with the mind that thinks. Certainly, it's nice to let go of thoughts and quiet the mind, and it's nice to come to a place where the mind is not thinking so much. But even better is not to be disturbed by your thoughts and to be at ease with them. In that way, it's possible to let some thinking just recede into the background. Rather than being preoccupied with the idea of having no thoughts at all, some thinking can just go on in the background, and we can kind of know what we're thinking, or maybe not, as long as in the foreground we're just staying with the breathing or staying with our present moment experience. So these two can coexist. When thinking comes into the foreground, then we learn to practice with it, but even then the idea is to be at ease with it.

The same applies to discomforts in the body. Some people have a homing instinct, maybe because of fear, to really tune into uncomfortable, painful sensations in the body, to be worried and concerned, expecting they're supposed to be completely comfortable all the time. But comfort and uncomfortability can coexist, and sometimes it's just fine to have a certain level of pain or discomfort also be kind of in the background or just be part of the overall environment, not needing to zero in on it and focus on it. That allows us to gently focus on what is onward leading, what is really supportive of us to develop the meditation further. It's supportive to focus on that part of our experience where we're not thinking a lot, where we're quietly, calmly feeling the experience, letting the thoughts be in the background.

At some point in meditation, it's onward leading to become aware of pleasant sensations. They're not there because we're getting some wonderful sensual experience, but rather, as we settle and feel more content here, we feel the meditative contentment, meditative comfort, and pleasantness of the experience. That is a useful thing to open to. In the background, there might be discomfort, but if it can just be in the background, don't worry about it too much. Gently open to the pleasant, to the meditative pleasure, joy, and contentment that might be there, or the feeling of rightness, the feeling of, "This is good to be here." There's a wide range of pleasant, enjoyable, or right feelings that might come as we meditate. Open to those and let them spread. I like the notion of just opening the body to them so they fill us more or expand more.

Guided Meditation: Joy that Includes All

So, taking a meditation posture and gently closing your eyes, settle into your posture. Here also, we don't want perfection with a posture. I like the expression, "just good enough." Just good enough for you to be here and settle in.

If you can, set yourself at ease. Set yourself at ease in your body. That can mean to be easy with what's happening in your body. Ease up a bit around the body. Then, as you exhale, settle and relax the body further.

Then set yourself at ease in your heart, in your emotional life. Let yourself be easy with whatever feelings and emotions you might have. Ease up on them a bit. Not to make them go away or make them different, but ease up. Be easy with it all. An easy relationship.

Then set yourself at ease in your mind with the things you're thinking about or concerned with. See if you can let yourself be easy with the activities of your mind, easing up the pressure, easing up the heaviness or the contraction around the concerns.

As you exhale, relax your emotional being. Relax and soften in your heart.

As you exhale, relax and soften in the thinking mind. Maybe the notion that you're making lots of space for your thinking mind, so you start feeling the peacefulness or the calmness of the space around it.

Then settling into your body and feeling your body globally in whatever easy way there is. Maybe a broad awareness, maybe awareness that gently, slowly roams around the body to touch into things, to be aware of the body.

As you exhale, softening the shoulders.

As you exhale, softening the belly.

As you exhale, settling into your body, your posture, your place here.

And then, if it's possible, if it's available, perhaps you can feel some modicum of contentment. Allow yourself to feel some degree of contentment to just be sitting here quietly, peacefully aware of whatever is here for you, whether it's comfortable or uncomfortable, pleasant or unpleasant.

It's very significant and valuable to be aware of how things are, and to be content with just this opportunity to be quiet enough to be aware of it all. Pleasant and unpleasant, difficult and easy—it's all okay, just to be here aware. Maybe letting go of perfection, that things have to be just so.

Then feeling your breathing more fully. Being at ease with whatever way you're breathing. Being easy with your breath, even if it's labored or tight. Be easy, ease up. Not needing the breathing to be perfect. It's okay for it to be unpleasant if you're feeling it. It's okay for it to be pleasant if you know it.

Maybe there's a little bit of both with breathing. As you go through the cycles of in-breath and out-breath, some of the experiences of breathing are a little bit more pleasant, some are a little more unpleasant. Offering yourself the gift of knowing, just knowing how it is. And just knowing is enough as you go through the cycle of in and out, expanding and contracting, inhaling and exhaling.

Settling into breathing. And in the breathing itself, as you exhale, relax and let go. Soften. Go with the releasing. Like you would let go at the top of a slide—just like to slide down—let go with the exhale, sliding down the length of the exhale. Let go.

And then as you inhale, receive the full inhale. Allow your body space to breathe in.

As you're breathing, breathe with whatever is pleasant, letting the unpleasant be there but not focusing on it so much. Any feelings of contentment, comfort, or pleasure. Delight or joy, happiness or well-being. Maybe a subtle glow, or a subtle warmth, or a brightness. Tingling or vibration. Or maybe a pleasant energy that seems to come along with breathing through the body.

Sliding down the exhale, allowing for the inhale. Sliding down what is pleasant, allowing for what is pleasant: the joy, the happiness, well-being.

Letting the thinking mind become quieter so you can better feel the goodness of just being here breathing. Allowing that goodness, the pleasure, to fill you, to spread throughout everywhere. Even the places that are uncomfortable, let those be touched and filled by whatever degree of well-being that might come meditating.

Reflections

As we sit here, remember that things don't have to be all one way. We don't have to focus on just one aspect of our experience. There's a way in which we can be at ease and inclusive of all of it, the pleasant and the unpleasant, but then open more to the pleasant side. Not at the exclusion of what's difficult, but to better, in a more balanced way^[2], hold it and be with it.

If we turn our attention now to the suffering of the world, the suffering of people you know, and the suffering of this COVID time, with so many people challenged, there can be a strong tendency to focus on the suffering exclusively. To feel the suffering, the pain of the world or of other people, and think that caring about it means you have to really focus on it exclusively.

I believe that compassion is richer, fuller, and more compassionate if it doesn't exclusively focus on the suffering, but realizes there's always more. There's always the pleasant, the non-suffering that's happening at the same time. To include what is good and what is healthy, and has a sense of well-being to it or goodness in it, and to have a broader field of attention so the suffering can be held together with or inside of a sense of well-being, subtleness, or ease.

Then we can better recognize that the people we're thinking about or focused on are more than just suffering people. And you are more than someone who just focuses on suffering. There's a wider context. In that wider context of well-being, wellness, and not-wellness, it allows compassion to be fuller, more penetrating, and more pointing to the end of suffering.

So as we end this meditation now, may it be that our ability to be inclusive of it all allows us to meet the suffering of the world with greater care, kindness, and compassion.

May it be that the meditation we do is a direct support for us to enter the world with compassion for all.

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