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Guided Meditation

Good morning everyone, or good morning here on the West Coast, and good day everywhere wherever you are. Thank you to those of you who are joining the Zoom page. Somehow, I find it easier to talk when I see faces in front of me. I haven't quite mastered the art of being animated just looking at a screen that doesn't have a human response. So thank you to those who joined the Zoom. I haven't quite mastered having a Zoom and a YouTube channel both open at the same time. I hope to soon, but I haven't yet.

Yesterday I was offering the notion that our practice, in a variety of ways, is an expression of wisdom and compassion. I think of them as the yang and the yin. The wisdom being: it is what it is. Each moment, each experience, pleasant or unpleasant. Each interaction, pleasant or unpleasant. It is what it is. And the is, each one of us navigating our life, each one of us exploring what it is to flourish, what it is to bring forth the qualities of being that make a life enriching, rewarding, and vibrant—alive.

These two interplay. Together, as we connect to them, they bring an extraordinary quality to our human experience. They enliven it. They give it depth. They create within us a capacity to be each moment. They create within us a capacity to trust the human process. It's not an affliction; it's a great gift.

Of course, when we're just holding that as an admonition or a transformative notion, it can inspire us. But when we taste it, when we become it, something in us is deeply nourished.

So as we start to sit, if you can just remind yourself of what it is to be aware in the midst of the human condition. Usually, what's most dominant for us is some state of mind, maybe with a persistent contact, or maybe just a disposition. In the midst of that disposition, remind ourselves: this is about meditation. It's about calling forth the qualities of presence that enhance and support the human experience, rather than some [unintelligible] quality of taking this time to nurture our being.

Discovering how the very process of being aware as our singular activity can be benevolent. It can be supportive as we engage our body. Can we find within our relationship to it, within our posture, within our somatic being, can we find that benevolence? An expression of physical aliveness. Maybe just tuning in to the physical sensations in the body, giving them an expression of aliveness.

As you tune in, can you let the body teach you through its physical sensations what it is to inhabit it fully? What it is that helps it to open? What it is that helps it find a quality of uprightness, a quality of balance? What it is that helps the chest open and soften? Quite literally, what is it to be heartful?

And almost as if you didn't know how to breathe, just noticing the inhale and the exhale, how they move through our body. The physical movement of breathing in, the physical opening to what's happening in the moment. Taking it in. Taking in the physical sensations, taking in the thoughts. Taking in any ambient sounds. Taking in any mental dispositions, emotions. It is what it is.

Let the eyebrows release. Everything changes, it's dynamic. It's a constant flow.

The exhale. Maybe if your experience feels a little tumultuous, the exhale can have a quality of a sigh. Not dismissing or rejecting, but just finding a way to be with, to not grasp. And then attending to the stream of consciousness that flows with this body in this breath. This constant engagement in living this life. This amazingly complex event that's happening in our being all the time. Creating emotions, creating memories. Creating thoughts. Creating openness, creating contractions. Can all that be embodied and breathed through?

And when you notice that your awareness has wandered, just pause. Let the moment rediscover itself, the body rediscover itself. Remembering we don't make the moment happen; it's always happening.

And as we move towards the end of our sitting, imagine the bell has already rung. Whatever doing has been happening can be allowed to fall away. Just being, without any agenda, without imposing consequences.

Dharmette: Cultivating Acceptance and Benevolence

Martin Luther King said the challenging experience can be educational and transformative. Each of us is attempting to navigate our life with all its challenges, internal and external. Or chagrin as we read and hear certain pieces of news about our world. The task of balancing all the things in your life, how to take care of them, how to decipher the most important thing at any particular moment—that they may be educational and transformative, that they may embody wisdom and compassion.

The marvelous thing about mindfulness is that it draws us into an activity, a process. It allows the very things that we would normally grasp or push away to just be moments of experiencing, moments of discovery. Sometimes as simple as, "Oh, my shoulders are tight. Can I listen to that tightness and be educated? Can I listen to the tightness in my shoulders and discover how to shift into letting something be more open, something be more accepting of just what is?" Can I find within that moment a benevolence, a compassion? Whether that's a completely internal process or whether that's how we're relating to another person, a group of people. And can we track that through our day?

Yesterday, I offered the notion in an intentional way, just a single notion of: it is what it is, and it's asking for compassion. Can we continue mindfulness through all the things that the day presents? When we can frame mindfulness as a benevolent act, as something enriching, something nurturing, then it's like we're attracted to it. And as we can act on that attraction and rediscover how to shift, situation by situation, interaction by interaction, to shift into a benevolence. It's not that our grasping and aversion disappear. It's more like they're not the only thing that's happening. We bring to the moment a compassion for even our grasping and aversion. This is me doing my best effort at being alive, discovering happiness and suffering less. This is this other person making their best effort at being alive, discovering happiness. And that benevolence, as we explore it, is an experiential learning. It's educational in an experiential learning way.

Experiential learning is somewhat supported by mental learning, conceptual learning, but in some ways, it's radically different. It has a tangible engagement to it. It's palpable; we feel it in our body, our emotions. So as we engage mindfulness through the day, can we keep checking in with what state of mind it is creating? What emotions are coming up along with it? And can we remind ourselves to be benevolent?

This person that I'm annoyed with is just making their best effort at making their life work, finding happiness and freedom from restrictions. Can I remind myself of that? Can I check in to this experiential learning process? Can I notice when the mind is contracting, or the attitude is hardening, or the emotions are becoming more negative or judgmental in what's being evoked? And as we do it, moment by moment, we're introducing a transformation.

Just think of how many conversations you've had in your life where they felt combative, and then when something in you, and hopefully the other person, lets go, and there's like a sigh, an exhale. And then something simpler: just listening to who this person is. You're just hearing them express the truth of what they are in that moment, and you express your truth in that moment. Something quite different from combativeness can happen. This is the transformative quality of awareness, of mindfulness.

So maybe today you can explore in the world that happens for you, in the self that happens. You can explore it and see: can there be an experiential learning? Ah, what is it to be present like this? What is it to be skillful with the mind and the heart when it's contracted, when it's separate, when it sees the other as a difficulty or an opposition? What is it to practice with that? Is it helpful to feel it in the body? What is the impact of that? Is it helpful to acknowledge and note the emotions that are strong for you, or the attitudes with which you're addressing yourself or someone else?

Our practice in seated meditation and our practice in the interaction of life, they balance each other. They teach each other. In this capacity, this opportunity to let it shift from its usual patterns, can something in us remember the benevolence? That this is a gift, this is not a burden. This is not the "should" that's demanding and burdensome. This is the gift that opens up possibility.

So maybe you can reflect for a few moments on what helps you remember that. It helps me to remember the teachings that have touched my heart. The quality of sati^[1], the root of the word is remembering, coming back.

So thank you. I got a chat message that the sound was a little low, and I will endeavor to either speak louder or find a way to put on my lapel mic. Have a great day, thank you.