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Guided Meditation: How We are Aware

Hello and welcome to this meditation session. Welcome to yourself. May you welcome yourself here in the meditation we're doing.

Perhaps this expression of welcoming yourself is relatively novel in the context of meditation. It represents a reframing, a little switch in the mind—something a little different than business as usual, the activity of the mind as usual. A very different perspective.

In doing meditation, it's often useful to put a question mark after any common way or perspective in which we see our lives, and to see things in a new way.

One interesting analogy for this is the experience of driving a car, maybe driving long distance. You are so focused on the road that you don't notice that the windshield is steadily getting dirtier and dirtier. Then, finally, something happens—maybe a passenger points it out to you—and you shift your gaze from the road out there to the windshield itself and see, sure enough, it's quite dusty and quite dirty. Then you clean it, and lo and behold, it's amazingly clear.

In the same way, in meditation, we can be so concerned with our concerns that we don't see how we're concerned. We don't see the windshield through which we are looking, the filter through which we're looking at our concerns, our challenges, and what's happening for us in our lives.

That can be internal with ourselves—we could be sick, or have pain, some kind of inner distress, or emotional difficulty. It could also be things externally. In no way to diminish the value and importance of these challenges, but maybe because they're important, it's valuable to really be clear and understand the nature of the filter through which we're seeing. Driving safely is phenomenally important, and if the windshield is really all fogged up and dirty, maybe driving becomes dangerous.

There's a simple, but maybe not easy, way of looking at this—how we are. It has to do with the way in which we are concerned about anything. Are we harder or softer? Are we more contracted or more open? Are we more assertive, involved, entangled, or are we more receptive, available, soft, and ready?

This is something that we can feel and sense in the mind. In the mind's eye, or the mind's way of perceiving, we can see if we're perceiving through a kind of hardness, or if the perception is soft. Whether we're asserting or receptive, closed down or open. Whether there's an ouch in how we're aware, or there's an ah.

So today's meditation, I'll guide you into a little bit of this attention to how we're aware, not just what we're aware of. It begins almost immediately. All of meditation, in a sense, can be understood as a settling and opening of the how we are.

Assuming a meditation posture, ensure that the posture itself manifests a certain degree of embodied alertness. Even if you're laying down, there's a way of adjusting the shoulder blades in the upper back. Maybe letting the shoulder blades come down the back, and the chest to come out a little bit. If the legs are laid straight, pull the feet up so your knees are bent and pointing closer to the ceiling. Then gently closing the eyes.

Spend some good time at the beginning relaxing the body. The more relaxed we can become, the clearer we can see how we are aware, how we're concerned, and how we attend.

Taking a few long, slow, deep breaths, and relaxing on the exhale. Relaxing the whole body. Relaxing the mind as you exhale. Then let your breathing return to normal. Relaxing the muscles of your face, almost as if the muscles gently fall away from the skull.

Softening around the shoulders, releasing the shoulders. Maybe making a small adjustment in the hands. Their position can support the softening of the shoulders. Softening the belly.

And then, in the most matter-of-fact, simple way, as if nothing is wrong, notice if your body is bracing itself, or pulled in tight anywhere, or activated in an upward direction. If it is, on the exhale, soften all that.

Then taking a look at your mind, the mental activity, your thinking mind. Is that activating? Is it energetic and busy with passing thinking? Is it tight or narrow? And riding on the exhale, can you let the thinking mind soften and expand? Relaxing the source from which thinking arises.

Now calmly become more fully aware of the body breathing. Notice how you're aware. Is how you're aware simple and relaxed, or is there any strain, tightness, or resistance? Is there any way in which you're aware—any attitude with which you're aware—which has some form of ouch in it, something unpleasant? Or is there anything in how you're aware that has an ah, that is pleasant or has a good feeling? Maybe awareness feels receptive, open, soft. Maybe there's a gentleness.

How you're aware is like the windshield. Any way you're aware that has any ouch in it, any stress or strain in it—that's the dust on the windshield. Relax, soften how you're aware. See if you can feel the ah in being aware. This is not dependent on being able to stay present continuously, but rather, whenever you come back to being aware, that you do so in an easy, relaxed way, as often as you can.

How would you characterize the way that you're aware? Is it more on the ouch side or the ah side? Are you aware in a way that you enjoy? If not, how can you shift how you're aware to be more enjoyable? One way to do that is to shift your attention away from your concerns, away from your attitudes, to the simplicity of relaxed, soft, receptive awareness.

As we come to the end of this meditation, check in with yourself again as to how you're aware. Are you aware through any filters of tension, strain, or resistance? Any fear or desires? And if that has to be for now, can you relax around those ways? It's okay. It's okay to be how you are. Maybe that okayness is its own perspective, its own way of gazing upon yourself.

And then, in the same way, gaze upon the world. It's okay. Whatever attitude or reaction you have to the world, it's okay. Within that okayness, is there a softer, more receptive way of being present for the world and others? What can you learn from meditation about a way of perceiving the world, a way of being present for the world, that is beneficial, that is generous, that allows you to see things more clearly as they are? Perhaps that way of seeing can be a channel for your goodwill, for your kindness, your care, your love.

Maybe these words can carry your goodwill and love out into the world: May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

Dharmette: Challenge Check-In (4 of 5) Entangled or Disentagled

Hello everyone. It's kind of nice to begin speaking after having meditated a little bit with all of you. Thank you.

The topic today—this week—is called the Challenge Check-In. The suggestion is to take the time, maybe pause, and go through this checklist to find out how you are and what's going on.

Not only is it useful to really understand, feel, and discover how we are, but it's also a reframing. It's a changing of perspective from the usual way of checking in with ourselves or knowing ourselves to something that is dharmic. It is something that the Buddha recommended, and it's really productive and useful for becoming disentangled from our life and from ourselves.

Oftentimes, the common way of being in the world, of knowing ourselves, is through the filter of our desires, our fears, our aversions, our confusions, our strains, and our resistances.

We can take the whole package of who we are and subject it to generalized opinions and ideas about who I am and what's going on. Maybe one of the most general judgments we can have about ourselves—which we can live under, and which can be a real challenge—is all the things that go under the category of "I am bad" or "I am wrong."

Not so obvious, but all the ways in which we live under the category of "I am right" or "I am good" can also be limiting for who we are. One way it limits us is that it keeps us from seeing more deeply what's going on within us underneath those generalizations, and from seeing more directly and deeply.

What I'm calling the Buddha's checklist is a way of dropping below the generalizations, below the beliefs and judgments we have. This is a phenomenally generous thing to do to ourselves—to free ourselves from the generalizations, judgments, and ideas we struggle under, which represent being entangled, caught up, and excessively concerned.

When we take the time to stop and do this check-in, we're actually stepping out of the strong winds that are pushing us along. We're stepping off the moving walkway in some building, and we're not being carried along anymore. We're stopping to take a step back and see what's happening here, in a way that we can't see if we're being carried along, caught up in these generalizations or the feelings we have.

So to check in: How am I in my body? What's happening here? If you're tense and you didn't know it, maybe it's useful to relax. Check in with the feeling tones: Is this experience really unpleasant, or is it really pleasant? If you're caught up in the unpleasant, is that the full story? Is there pleasure here as well? Or is there some shift of orientation? Is the unpleasantness more a product of my own mind, my own mind's reactivity, than it is in the activity that I'm in?

Check in with the state of the mind: Is it contracted or is it expansive? And then, the fourth foundation of mindfulness^[1][2] is the mental processes in the mind, which in some ways overlap with the third foundation. What are the activities, processes, or operating principles that are driving or supporting the mind?

The Buddha gave a list of the Five Hindrances^[3], and he also gave a list of the Seven Factors of Awakening^[4]. The Five Hindrances are ways of being that are sticky, entangled, and knotted up with experience. The Buddha uses the word "knotted up" in terms of how we can get caught up in things. The Seven Factors of Awakening are how we loosen, how we untie, how we become clear. The Five Hindrances are considered things that hinder our ability to see clearly, while the Seven Factors of Awakening support us to see clearly.

Certainly, if you know these things, you can check in with yourself to see which of these are operating. For someone who does a lot of vipassanā^[5] practice, it should become second nature to notice when the hindrances are operating, and also the subtle ways in which the Seven Factors of Awakening operate for us.

But for day-to-day life, what I would like to say is to notice how we're involved in anything at all. When involved in thoughts, activities in the world, or conversations, do we feel entangled in them? Do we feel caught in them in a way that there's an ouch? Or do we feel expansive and open in it? Are we agitated, is the energy activated, or is the feeling of the energy one of being suffused?

This has something to do with the source. The source from which so much of our behavior arises—when it comes to the hindrances, it is a source that is very limited, tight, narrow, constricted, or entangled. What arises out of the Seven Factors of Awakening is also energetic, but it's an energy which is not entangled, agitated, or activated. Rather, it is a vitality in the body that feels like it suffuses us, it spreads more widely. It's the difference between being in a tornado versus being in a really relaxing pool of water. Both states can be energetic in a way, but the quality of the energy, the quality of the activation, or the quality of how we're engaged and attentive to our experience is radically different.

So, what are the mental processes involved? Are they the hindrances, or are they more the Seven Factors of Awakening? Does how we're involved feel unpleasant? The hindrances could be analyzed from the point of view of fight, flight, or freeze. Not completely, but a little bit. And the Seven Factors of Awakening can be more like relax, nurture, soothe, and approach.

The operating principles of the mind are the source of how we see the world and how we are in the world. This change of perspective, this check-in that we're doing, comes to the point where the check-in itself is contributing to a positive way of being present. It leans in the direction of the Seven Factors of Awakening.

Part of the value of this mindfulness check-in is that, on one hand, we're learning how we are. We're learning to see ourselves from a different point of view. On the other hand, we are bringing into the ecosystem a healthy way of being present, seeing, and checking in that is not entangled or caught up.

Both of these work together, and both of them are important. Changing the perspective of how we see ourselves when we're challenged, using the perspective of these four different areas of what's happening for us, is kind of like bringing an adult into a room of teenagers having a fight. It's like bringing a wise elder into the mix. Using the check-in is bringing a new way of being into the ecosystem, and the whole ecosystem can change by that introduction. Simply stopping, checking in, and maybe going through these four areas: How am I physically? How is my feeling tone? How is my mind state?^[6] What are the underlying processes of how I'm involved and concerned?

For today, I would like to suggest that periodically through the day—if you like schedules, you can schedule it once an hour or some other way—take some quality time. It doesn't have to be long; maybe it can be two minutes. Stop, maybe even close your eyes, and check in with yourself using these four different check-ins.

But notice as you do it, or when you have done it, if the check-in itself—the attention that we bring, looking at ourselves in this way—has in fact introduced something nice into the system. Is the check-in itself more like a wise elder entering the room, so everyone relaxes and feels, 'Oh good, there's someone here who's wise, someone here who helps me to be present'? See what the effect is on you of introducing this mindfulness check-in that we're talking about this week. So thank you very much, and I look forward to tomorrow.