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Guided Meditation: Now

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our sitting. I'm happy to be back and happy to hear the appreciation of the other teachers who taught here while I was away. That was nice, Matthew and Andrea.

In the sitting today, I want to emphasize a three-letter word, and that is the word "now." If you want to add a letter so it's a little more sophisticated, you can add a "k" in front so that it's "know." Now then, "now"—that's to be known.

The task in mindfulness meditation is to develop greater confidence in "now," confidence in the present rather than the past, or in fantasy, commentary, and abstract thinking. It is to have confidence that being present, presencing "now," is valuable. It's not a dismissal or rejection of the past and future, but if we're going to be involved in the past and the future, to know that we're doing so now.

Always knowing what is happening and unfolding now serves as the foundation for our life. Life just unfolds so much more beautifully, remarkably, and wisely when we are centered here and now with what's unfolding, flowing, arising, passing, and occurring now.

In this sitting today, if you would like, you might use the word "now" as a guide, a support, or a reminder. Just periodically say "now." You might even say it at some point in the cycle of breathing: the beginning of the inhales, the beginning of the exhales, or the end of the exhale. Just anywhere it feels comfortable, very relaxed and easy. Let it be a regular reminder to be awake, to be present for "now," the experience of "now."

We do this with the idea that we are developing greater confidence in our ability to be present now, or we are learning that we actually have more confidence in other things. Perhaps the mind has more confidence in distraction, the hindrances^[1], conversations in one's head, thinking about the past, or planning the future. Is it really in your best interest in meditation to have confidence in these other things? Can you lovingly shift your attention, shift your confidence and your trust, to "now," to being with what is now, presencing what is now?

Assuming a posture for meditation that's appropriate for you, with the guideline that it helps you both to relax and to remain alert so you don't drift off into sleep or sleepiness. If it's nice for you, gently close your eyes. If you keep your eyes open because it feels better, you might want to cast your eyes downwards towards the floor at about 45 degrees. Whether the eyes are open or closed, see if you can relax the eyes, as if the eyeballs can rest in their sockets. It's as if the eyes are no longer searching, scanning the external world, or looking outward, but rather resting backwards and settling down.

Taking a few long, slow, deep breaths. Filling the rib cage as you inhale. Relaxing as you exhale. Allowing a settling in your body as you exhale.

Then, letting your breathing breathe normally. Relax your body on the exhale. Maybe the whole body can release and relax as you exhale, settling into the place where you're meditating.

As you exhale, relax the face. Sometimes relaxing the face can be a relaxing of our thinking. A tense face is almost like squeezing the thoughts, energizing thinking. Relaxing around the face, the jaw, and the forehead maybe also allows a calming of the thinking mind. The same is true with the shoulders; exhale, softening the shoulders, letting the thinking mind become calm.

Softening the belly, releasing the belly into "now," here. Perhaps there's some way you can relax the thinking mind or any physical tension associated with the thinking mind. If we're thinking a lot, there's a kind of disassociation that happens with the body, a separation from that which is able to settle in the heart.

Then, if it's comfortable for you, settle into the experience of the body breathing. Wherever you feel the breathing in your body, the sensations of the body breathing, can you relax more at their edges? Can you soften?

As you sit here, if it's nice for you, you can periodically say the word "now." Maybe say it with an inner voice that is calm and confident, so that you bring your confidence into the practice of being present to "now."

Maybe nothing needs to be different than what it is, except knowing more fully that whatever is happening is happening now. Thinking is happening now. Feeling is happening now. Sensations are happening now.

Now.

And the reason to be present for "now" is that each unique moment, each "now," is only here for brief moments.

Remembering to be here and now, especially that the "now" is there. Recognizing and being with what is occurring now.

As we come to the end of this sitting, consider that "now," the present moment, is the location for love, for care, for kindness, and for goodwill. All these wonderful, generous qualities of care and friendship are motivations, feelings, and attitudes that, when felt and known, are occurring in the present moment.

Perhaps you can bring your attention to the place within that you associate with goodwill, compassion, and kindness. Center yourself there. As you exhale, relax into that location. Even if you don't feel it right now, focus on the place that seems to be activated or energized when there is love, kindness, and goodwill. Breathe through that place. Breathe with it.

Knowing you're doing so from the present moment, reflect on what encounters with others you might have on this day, or if it's evening for you, tomorrow. Consider the people that you might encounter, known and unknown, strangers and friends. Think of the people you'll communicate with through technology, people you might talk to on the phone or meet with. Gaze upon them kindly. Gaze upon them with a calm sense of love, goodwill, or friendliness.

Consider how, in a way that has integrity and seems appropriate for you, you might live this day with greater care and kindness for the people you'll encounter. Consider ways you can offer more care or do things that improve the lives of others, even without them knowing that you're doing it. There may be simple ways of supporting others.

May it be that this meditation practice we do, and the mindfulness we develop, acts as a support for us to live in this world and make it a better place for others. Even in the smallest details, can we contribute to the welfare, happiness, and well-being of others?

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings be free. Free of oppression and hostility, free of suffering, despair, and stress. May all beings discover what it's like to have a heart that is at peace.

Dharmette: Faith (1 of 5) What Calms and Clears the Heart

Good day on this Monday, the first day of the week. The theme that I would like to talk about is faith. I think the motivation to talk about faith is that I've been feeling quite inspired and heartened lately by this faith quality of Buddhist practice.

So, it's mostly to be able to share a little bit of something that's in my heart. There are different qualities of faith. In different times and in different ways, the Pali word saddhā^[2], which is often translated into English as faith, has different qualities and is therefore translated differently depending on the context. Sometimes it's trust, sometimes it's confidence, and sometimes it's devotion or love. If the associations we have in English for the word faith don't work for you, other words might work, or you might put those aside and just realize the provisional nature of the English translation of saddhā as faith.

But I like the word faith myself. To me—and it might not be for others—faith is not so much about a tenet of belief. It's not about a belief that we don't have any verification for. Rather, faith is to have some kind of trust or confidence in what can be called the Dharma, but not the Dharma that's out there that you read about, but the Dharma that's found in the heart.

One of the definitions of this faith in Buddhism that I like is that it is the attitude or the quality that calms the heart. Sometimes it's said it's what clears or clarifies the heart. The analogy for this in the ancient world is a muddy pond. If an animal has run through it and made it all muddy, there is apparently in ancient India a magical stone that, if you put it in the water, clears all the mud away. So, faith clears away the mud—the mud of our distractions, preoccupations, and the things we swirl around in.

The ancient texts say specifically that there is something about the power of faith, this kind of deep trust, that calms the heart and clears it of the hindrances. It clears it of grasping at desires and aversions, of being pulled into the world of restlessness, resistance, slothfulness, and doubt. We reach out and hold onto these things or get caught in them, but there's something about the deep trust that the Dharma can provide that settles those things. This is because the hindrances are an expression of mistrust.

They are expressions of not having faith in where the heart can settle, where the heart can be at home in itself. When we put faith in sensual desire, we put faith in something that keeps us a little bit dissociated from ourselves, a little bit reaching out beyond ourselves and wanting something. The same thing is true with ill will. Ill will is not a good place to have faith or trust in, and most people won't say they have faith or trust in ill will. But functionally, unconsciously, that's what is happening: "This is how I become safe. This is how I get what I want. This is how I protect myself or create myself as a person—by expressing my hostility, my anger, my criticism, and my complaints."

There can be a misguided confidence in that world of complaints and criticism. What we're doing in Dharma practice is finding some place to be at ease and at rest in our own hearts and our own being, a place that is not dissociating. It's not reaching out and relating to the outer world in the way that desire, ill will, and even doubt do. It's really a settling; it's what settles and clarifies the heart.

One of the classic purposes of faith in the Dharma is not faith for its own sake, but rather a faith that provides the resolve, dedication, intention, and motivation to practice and live a different way.

So it isn't a passive faith, where we just sit back and are taken care of in some magical way by what we have faith in. Rather, it's a faith of a certain kind of action, a certain kind of walking. It's walking the moment-by-moment steps of Dharma practice, of showing up and being mindful and present. As faith gets awakened, the action of practice, the engagement in practice, can have the same soothing, settling, or clearing quality as faith does because faith comes along with it and is part of the practice we do.

When we practice without faith, without this warm-heartedness, love, care, or trust, then the mindfulness itself can sometimes become a little bit dissociated and disembodied, as if it's just a technique that we're doing. But when it comes out of faith, out of deeper trust, then it's not dissociated. It can be more embodied, more presencing, and more inspiring, even inspiring for ourselves.

In these coming days, I'll talk about these different heart qualities that come into play in different ways around this word and concept of faith. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I thought I'd talk more about trust. Wednesday, about the quality of love in relationship to faith. Then on Thursday, confidence in relationship to faith. The question is, what do we have confidence in? There are many things—the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and other things—but on Thursday, I want to talk about faith and non-clinging. There's this wonderful holding together, like a left and right hand holding each other, of non-clinging and the warmth and goodness of faith. Then on Friday, I'll talk about faith as devotion that expresses itself in service and acting for the benefit of others. That act of service can be an expression of Dharma devotion; it's where the devotion of the practice can really find an expression in itself.

My hope in talking about faith is that I can talk about it in such a way that you can begin recognizing it in yourself. That is really where faith lives—in ourselves, in our hearts, and in our inner life. We all have the faculty of faith. In Buddhism, you wouldn't just say that you have faith in certain teachings, because that is a bit more like an intellectual exercise. Faith in Buddhism is considered to be a faculty, just like confidence or equanimity are capacities or faculties. Loving-kindness is a capacity or a faculty we have; we have an ability to have kindness, goodwill, and generosity.

In that sense, faith is a faculty, an ability, a capacity that we can develop and grow in. It is something that already lives in each of us, though it might be dormant or resting. Maybe the seeds of this Dharma faith are sitting, waiting to be watered, but it is there in everyone. I'm hoping these talks will have some resonance inside of you, helping you connect with something that you can recognize.

Faith, trust, confidence, love, inspiration, motivation, devotion, service—all those are in the sphere of what I'm calling faith, or saddhā. So thank you. I am very happy to be back here and look forward to this coming week. Thank you.