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Happy Hour: Practice as Service, Practice as Joy

Hi everyone, a warm welcome to Happy Hour. So nice to be with you.

For today's practice together, I'd like to consider the theme of our practice as a service. What if our practice is service to ourselves, to the world? This Happy Hour practice is a practice of celebration, cultivating joy, cultivating metta^[1], cultivating kindness, and cultivating goodness.

I want to share a poem as inspiration. This poem is called Service is Joy. It's by Rabindranath Tagore^[2]. It's a very short poem; I've even memorized it:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Isn't that a great poem? It gives me a lot of joy. I'll read it one more time:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

With that as the theme and inspiration, what if our practice—this offering—is joy? What if our practice is service? Service to ourselves, service to others. Practice as joy, practice as service; exploring the equivalence of these. Here, in particular, the practice of metta, the cultivation of kindness and goodwill for ourselves and for others, is a service. This cultivation of joy and service—service is joy, practice is joy.

So that's the invitation for tonight, for this afternoon, or for this moment in time wherever you are for our practice together. Having set the frame, let's begin formally.

Guided Meditation

Let's land in our bodies, landing in this moment in time. Arriving in this body in this moment, whatever the circumstances. Connecting with the felt sense of the sit bones on the cushion. Our bottom kissing the earth. Our feet kissing the earth. Our body softening, relaxing into the earth, kissing the earth.

Connecting with the breath. Maybe slowing down the breath. Slowing down the in-breath, slowing down the out-breath. Just here, relaxing, slowing down the body into this moment. Unwinding slowly, giving yourself space. Slowing down your body, your heart, your mind, your breath. Maybe breathing to the count of five, and breathing out to the count of five. Letting go of the counting, slowing down even more.

If you wake up to the mind having wandered: Ah, dear mind, oh sweetheart, it's okay. It is of the nature of awareness, of knowing, of the mind to think. It's okay. Seeing clearly what is arising in this moment, what's caught^[3]. Smiling at it. Hello, thought^[4]. Friendly, lighthearted, and landing back. Landing back without any judgment, no need. Smilingly landing back in the body with the breath. Enjoying this process of sitting and being breathed.

If we don't judge ourselves, if we don't reprimand ourselves, force ourselves, or expect things to go a certain tight way in our practice—to have aspiration^[5], but not expectation—things become easy. Practice becomes joyous. Practice as joy. See if you can give yourself space to relax, to soften down, and enjoy this moment of quiet, of solitude, of turning inward, sitting and being breathed.

Now, can there be a sense of breathing in well-being? Breathing in goodness, gladness, good wishes for yourself. Breathing it in as if it's offered to you on each breath, filling your body, filling your lungs. And then breathing it out, radiating it out to the whole world.

May I be safe. On the in-breath^[6], and on the out-breath: may all beings be safe. In-breath: may I be happy. Out-breath: may all beings be happy. In-breath: may I be healthy. Out-breath: may all beings be healthy. In-breath: may I have ease. And then turning and sharing expansively with the whole world, just as I wish for myself: may the whole world, all beings, have ease.

This might be reduced to just one word if you synchronize it with the breath. Breathing in safety: safe. Breathing out: safe. Happy, breathing out: happy, as a wish to all. Breathing in health, goodness. Breathing out: health to all beings. Breathing in: ease. Out: ease.

Just simply breathing in goodwill, gladness, well-being, whatever single word works for you, and breathing out the same for the whole world. Maybe just simply that, if it's starting to feel complicated.

Can we consider our practice—breathing in goodness, breathing out, shining out goodness unto the world—a service? Practice as service to ourselves. Breathing in goodwill, friendliness. Breathing out goodwill, metta, loving-kindness, friendliness.

Trust that you are needed. Your service, your participation in life in the unique way that you show up, is needed. Trusting your participation, your noble service, is needed.

Breathing in love, breathing in metta^[7]. Letting goodwill, letting metta be breathed—not yours, simply offered. Trusting that love is offered, compassion is offered. You are held in it by the universe, and your participation matters. Your cultivation is a service to this goodness.

Receiving goodwill, care, and love with each breath into every cell of your body. Letting yourself be nourished by it, held by it, trusting its goodness. Breathing out, letting your heart shine with goodwill and friendliness for others. May all beings be well.

And if any thoughts or judgments come up—I can't do this, this is hard, my mind's a mess, I'm a failure, I can't do this practice—you don't have to believe any of these thoughts. Smile. Breathe with them. Take them along as you breathe in care and breathe out care. Let these judgments be transformed, if any, through the breathing in and out of love, care, and friendliness. Invite them to breathe with you. See what happens when you invite the judgments to breathe in goodness and breathe out goodness with you. Do it lightheartedly. See if anything gets transformed or shifts.

For the last minutes of this practice, reconnecting with the framework. Sitting and offering our practice, bowing and offering our practice as service, as joyous service. Putting it on the altar, the universal altar of goodness. Service to ourselves in the deepest sense, service to all beings in a joyful way. We offer out of generosity our heart's gifts.

There's a joy that comes: Here, please have the best of me, the best I have to offer in this moment. Regardless of how I judge it to have been, if my mind was distracted, if I was sleepy or in pain, or anything else—this is the best way I could show up. I did my best. Letting go of any judgments, putting your intentions, your beauty, your goodness, your cultivation, your service on the altar. Letting your heart be uplifted with your unique contribution. You are needed. You are needed.

May all beings everywhere be well. May all beings be free, including ourselves.

Reflections

Thank you all for your practice, for your participation. You are needed. Can you take a moment to take that to heart? You are needed. Your participation is needed. Your practice as service to yourself and all beings, and practice as joy, not forced.

So we have time for reflections, questions, or comments. Especially if you haven't shared in a while, or if you're new, I would love to hear from you. If you type in the chat to me privately, I won't read your name. If it's typed to everyone, I will read your name and the reflection. You can also raise your Zoom hand. I would love to hear your vocal reflections, questions, or comments.

One reflection says: "Breathing in loving care for myself, breathing out loving care for others." Ah, lovely. Beautiful. Thank you for that, so powerful.

Alison says, "Showing up tonight was an extreme act of loving-kindness towards myself." Oh, yay! Thank you for showing up, and it's also an act of loving-kindness towards all of us and all beings everywhere—an act of service. Marie Christine says, "Lovely words, thank you for that, Alison," and I see hearts lit up by others.

One more reflection before we go to Diana's raised hand: "I sometimes have such an urge to bring goodness into the world. It's nourishing to think my practice is this gift." Oh, yay! That makes my heart light up to no end. That's so beautiful—the urge to bring goodness into the world. It's nourishing to think my practice is this gift. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for that. My heart lights up resonating with that reflection. Thank you.

And again, I'm honoring when you send a message directly to me, I won't read your name, and if it's sent to everyone, then I read the name. So Diana, please.

Diana: I just wanted to say that I was watching you a little bit during the meditation, and it was inspiring because I kept thinking you seemed to be having such a good time. You just seemed to be having fun, and I really mean that. Doing this, I didn't have a sense that you were thinking about dinner tonight or anything. You seemed to be there, enjoying yourself truly. That was fun for me to see, and it kind of spreads. So, thank you.

Nikki: Thank you, Diana. Thank you for sharing that. It gives me great joy. You know, in the past, it would be just audio. Don't get me wrong, AudioDharma is fantastic, and it's great to be able to listen, but I think it is nice to have the visual, right? It delights me to know that you noticed. Yes, I was having a great time! I was delighting in this practice. Absolutely delighting in this practice of breathing in. All the aspects that I was sharing with you, I was practicing myself, which gives me so much joy to be practicing with you. Thank you, Diana. I'm delighted that it inspires and supports you. Thanks for saying that.

Small Group Practice

Any other reflections? We have some appreciation from YouTube. Thank you all on YouTube for joining. Thank you, Cedric, and others.

I see a thumbs up—is that a raised hand? Cedric, do you want to share? Oops, I think you're muted again. I wasn't sure if you wanted to raise your hand or if that was just a thumbs up. I think we're having some technical difficulties.

Tell you what, given the time, we'll go to small group practice. When we come back, we'll reserve a couple of minutes at the end for reflections. Raise your hand again if you would, Cedric. Ah, okay, got your message on YouTube.

So, let's turn to practicing in small groups together. Consider that you are needed. Your participation is needed. Support yourself and support each other, knowing that your practice, the unique way you express yourself in this world, is a gift. It is a service. The way you show up for yourself and for others—we serve each other in this practice.

I will create the breakout rooms now. Let's take the first fifteen seconds as usual to just care for yourself and care for others in silence. Send metta for yourselves and for others, and then share as little or as much as you wish. Here are the rooms, and they are open. Take care of yourselves; take care of each other.

Final Reflections

Welcome back, everyone. We have a few minutes for reflections, questions, or comments. Feel free to type them in chat or raise your hand. Don't be shy. What did you discover?

Great, Cedric, I see your hand. Fantastic. By the way, we had a bit of confusion because there's another Cedric on YouTube—oh, that is you! Okay, I got confused. Lovely to have you with us, Cedric.

Cedric: Thank you very much. This is my first time here, and it's a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed the meditation and the group that I was in. What I shared was my experience with metta. If I'm out running errands and I'm not able to stop and give assistance to an automobile accident, or say hello to a homeless person, I send them metta. Using metta practice, I feel it on an emotional level, and I feel that that's when it's most effective for me.

Nikki: Beautiful, thank you so much for sharing this, Cedric, and welcome to Happy Hour! Lovely to have you with us. I really appreciate what you shared. I want to highlight it because there are times in the world when it's not possible for us to physically act out of compassion. Sometimes we just avert our eyes and avoid looking at people because it's painful—that avoidance of, "Oh, I can't, I'm in a rush^[8]."

But what you are highlighting is this sense of goodwill and kindness: "I care for you, may you be well. I see you in my heart, I see your suffering, and I care for you. And I care for me, because in this moment I can't help or support you, but I see you and I wish you well." It's so much better than avoiding or distracting ourselves. It's sharing goodwill. It's along the lines of training our hearts, because if you are moving with metta, maybe next time you realize, "Well, actually, maybe I can stop to help." Who knows? That turn can actually happen, which is very different from averting one's gaze altogether. So thank you for bringing that in. A beautiful practice of compassion in real time in the world.

A couple of other reflections: Laurel says, "Lovely meditation, lovely sharing, lovely people." Yes, I agree! Lovely sharing, lovely people. What a beautiful sangha^[9] you are, beautiful people. Alice says, "I'm not the only one who struggles with meditation and awareness. It isn't always perfect and that's okay." Yes, absolutely. It's lovely that that becomes clear, especially when we talk in small groups and we realize we're not defective. This is just part of the practice; the mind just gets distracted.

So, dear ones, namaste to you. I offer my heart to you. Offering our hearts as service, cultivating goodness for ourselves and for others. Thank you all for showing up for your practice, for your service to yourself and to the world.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be free, including ourselves. Thank you.