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Happy Hour: Metta as Nourishing Air

Introduction

So for the theme for this evening, or morning, happy hour guided meditation, I'd like to continue with the theme of exploring the four elements with metta^[1]. We explored fire together, if you remember last week. For those who were present [Laughter] that was an unforgettable one with the fire alarm going off towards the end of it! Yes, that was a memorable one, perhaps one of the most memorable happy hours ever. And then after that we explored the water element: metta as healing waters. These are different attributes of being held by water. So for tonight, I was thinking of exploring the air element. And hi Liz, Tara, welcome.

As far as I know, I haven't seen the elements being connected to metta anywhere—it might have been in some commentary somewhere—but what is important to consider is that cultivating metta is really skillful means. We discover and explore ways that conjure up a sense of friendliness, goodwill, safety, health, happiness, and ease; these different aspects of metta.

So tonight, we'll explore yet another element: air, which is all around us. Air is offered freely to all of us and we breathe it. It connects us to the outside and to each other. So that's the heads up for where we're going to go tonight. Let's see what happens. Let's check it out. Let's be a scientist of our own minds.

Oh, and I realize I've forgotten to record! Let me turn on recording. Okay, here we go. I'll do some housekeeping here so that folks can't unmute themselves for now during the guided meditation. The chat is only to me just in case we get Zoom-bombed, to also provide some protection for everyone. So here we go.

Guided Meditation

I'd like to invite you to get into your meditation posture, getting yourself comfortable. If you need to move, if you need to sit maybe a little more upright or a little more relaxed, either way, see what's needed in this moment. What does this body need? Inviting yourself to relax, inviting this body to soften.

Allowing there, little by little, as if air was tension right now. Let's work with air as if you are an overinflated ball. Just relaxing, softening. Getting more malleable. Letting go of the extra tension, letting your body soften. Letting your feet soften. Also, the air element we're exploring, there's an aspect of movement, so you can invite this image of tension or stress moving down, moving and being released from your feet, from your lower legs and upper legs. Noticing the movement down from your seat, your groin area releasing.

Noticing the release in your abdomen. Release in your chest, your lower back, your upper back. Release movement of any tension outward from your neck and shoulders. Release from your arms, upper arms, lower arms, and hands, offered up, released. Giving up. You don't need to hold on to them. Offered up to the air around you.

Tension released, holding released from your forehead, your eyes, your jaw. Maybe even allowing your jaw to fall open just a little bit. Really connecting with the release, see what happens with the rest of your body if you let your jaw drop, fall open for a moment. Experiment, surprise yourself. And then allowing the jaw to move to whatever position is comfortable. Releasing any holding in the proverbial thinking muscle, your head, and what we associate with thinking. Offering up this moment, offering up the activity, letting yourself be simple.

Allowing yourself to feel that you're surrounded, you're held by friendly air. The composition of which is perfect for you to thrive. Not too much oxygen, not too much nitrogen, just the right amount. The air offered up to you, supporting you on this planet. And the atmospheric pressure supporting your body. Not too much pressure so you collapse, this body collapses. Not too little pressure so it expands, explodes. Just the right amount. Getting supported.

It's a feeling of metta, care, being held by the environment just so. It's taken for granted all the time, but there is a sense of goodwill, friendliness in it. A sense of friendliness, the opposite of unfriendliness. Supportive. The air around you is more friendly, supportive than we even give it thought. As if you were wrapped in this comfortable blanket, a soft, comfortable blanket in your favorite colors. The air is engulfing you, supporting you, felt all around you. And it's so subtle in its care that you hardly even feel it. Letting your body, every cell, open up to a sense of safety, of being held.

And the air nourishes you, nourishes your lungs, your whole body, every cell of your body. Letting your body feast, letting it partake as it does naturally with gratitude and appreciation from what is freely, kindly offered. The air that us humans, us beings, we all breathe on this planet, whether you're a plant, a fish, a bird, you have four legs or two legs. This care, this gift offered freely, allowing us to survive and thrive. To turn our perspective to just appreciate it. Appreciate it each and every breath. Feeling as your lungs get filled, your abdomen singing as it gets filled.

The same way when you are given a gift, you express your appreciation by how you hold it, how you open it, unwrap it, really pay attention to it every moment. Throughout every breath, this gift that's offered freely. Let yourself be present with appreciation throughout the in-breath, the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath, the entire out-breath, and the pause between the out-breath and the in-breath. As if you were touching this gift throughout with your attention, with your appreciative attention. See what happens when you try this.

Feeling the goodwill of the universe filling you through this breath, feeling held outside your body, the perfect atmosphere, and the breath filling you with care as if a message from beyond, from the whole universe, offering you metta wishes. The universe is wishing you safety: May you be safe. May you be safe from inner and outer harm. Let this wish in with your breath, permeating every cell of your body. May I feel safe, can I feel safe in this moment? Being held, stroked, soothed by this universal care. Nothing truly, really, deeply can happen to me, whoever this person is, this being. A deep sense, as if the universe is offering itself safety. A deep sense of safety. Beyond what our mind is able to conjure up. May I feel safe with each breath.

Now for the second wish, second metta phrase. As if the universe is offering you with each breath that enters your body, nourishes you: May you be happy. May you be truly happy and feel joy in your heart. And as you breathe, if there's a sense of happiness and joy that the breath enlivens. This mystery of being alive in this body, and to breathe, electrifying, marvelous, happy-making, pretty wild. Happy for no reason. With each breath, each breath offered to you can be a cause for happiness, for celebration. Just this. Nothing more needed in this moment. What if nothing else is needed in this moment? Nourishing in its simplicity, joy moving through your body with the breath. So much so that maybe you would want to get up and dance in this moment. So much movement, the air element moving through you. A gift of happiness from the universe.

And receiving now the third wish of metta. The universe offering, you receiving: May you be healthy. May you be healthy and strong. Receiving with your breath, with the air element, how each breath fills your body with air, with oxygen, with a sense of vitality and health. This message of goodwill from the universe: Oh dear child of the universe, oh dear child of mine, may you be healthy. Letting yourself receive it.

And the last wish of metta, last of the metta phrases offered by the universe and received by you: May you be safe... Sorry, that was the first one! We can do that one again, safety is always good. May you have ease. May you have ease. May you take care of yourself happily. May your life flow with ease. May you have ease in your body, mind, heart, in your life. Offered to you, held, as if you're held in this blanket of ease. This perfect atmospheric pressure accepting the gift of the universe offering you ease in this body, nourishing ease.

Now you can go through the four wishes receiving them, the air with the breath, or linger with any one that's particularly resonant for you tonight. For safety, or happiness, or health, or ease, receiving, relishing with each breath.

Now realizing, acknowledging, in the same way that you are held, you are offered this air element to nourish you, soothe you as a gift of goodwill from the universe, so is every living being on this planet. Every human being, whatever their background, their race, their nationality, their religion, their color, however they identify or they have been born into this planet, they are held in the same love and care. The same gift, the freely offered gift of the universe, this breath, this air, without any distinction, no difference whatsoever.

And as you have been nourished, or acknowledged being nourished through this meditation, with the offering of the metta through the air, letting that move through you. Turning out whatever you've received and taking it from the universe, turning it around and sharing your goodwill with all beings who share this universe with you. As if the in-breath brings in the gift of the metta, let your out-breath be imbued with your care, with your love, with your friendliness, with your service. Spread through the universe, all the molecules of the air and your breath imbued with your care, with your love, your goodwill dispersed far and wide. And time as we know it happens both in space and time; just because you have lived and you've breathed, the universe being imbued with tokens of your care, your love, your goodwill, your friendliness towards all beings.

Reflections

Welcome back everyone. It would be lovely to hear one-word reflections or one phrase. You're welcome to type them in chat, what might be coming up for you. For me, there is a sense of spaciousness and being nurtured by this invisible air that I breathe and that I take for granted all the time. There's just a sense of buoyancy both in my body and in my heart. I feel happier. It's happy hour!

Thank you Nancy: Release of anxiety. Nice. Anyone else would like to share? Oh, here. Bhupal: Light, metta dance. So I love it. Dance, yes. Kathleen: Access. Liz: Peace. Lovely. Susan: Gratitude and delight. Nice. Charlene: Released the holding. Nice, I like that there is a sense of release with the air. It has come up with multiple people. Lovely, thank you all for bringing those and sharing them, putting them in the room.

So this is the time you are invited, in the same way that you're holding yourself, the goodwill, feeling this air being held, what happens if you engage with a couple of people who have gone through this journey with you? Just to connect now and for all of you to be held in the kindness of the universe. How did that interaction show up? Especially if you will be in different time zones, in different countries. Just for a few minutes, this meeting place, this miraculous meeting place. And if this evening or morning is not the right time for you to engage for six minutes with fellow practitioners, that's perfectly okay. It's all right, you can bow out now. So here I go, about to make the rooms.

[Breakout rooms occur]

Welcome back everyone, and if you'd like to share about what's coming up for you, about the practice, either the first part of the practice or the second part, we'd love to hear some reflections. How's it going?

Kathleen, I see you're unmuted, is that intentional? Would you like to say something?

Kathleen: No, I know that it was just fine to continue on from what you said without a group.

Nikki: Okay, thank you. Thanks for sharing that.

Jasna: Hi Nikki, this is Jasna. You know, I had again a hard time following the instructions. I was dealing with a situation that's preoccupying my mind and certain things kind of crystallized, but I didn't know whether I should be grateful for the thing that it crystallized, or should I be annoyed that I didn't get to meditate?

Nikki: Well let's see. It seems like what perhaps was needed... I mean, there are so many interpretations, so many you can choose, right? You can choose to be upset. You can choose to be upset that you didn't get to meditate, sure, you're welcome to choose to be upset, Jasna, that's a choice, right? There's a choice. And the other choice is the perspective of, actually, this is what was needed right now. This was the preoccupation, and this is what was happening, and as much or as little as you were able to follow the instructions—which I trust you were to some extent, otherwise this crystallization wouldn't have been offered to you. Consider that a gift that it has been crystallized. Yeah, that's exactly what was needed right now.

So in a way, it's not like practice is elsewhere. It's not like, Oh, I just want to get rid of all these things so that I can practice. Practice is as such. So it sounds to me like you were practicing with what was happening for you, and it was practicing with you. You know, there was enough calm, enough stability, enough spaciousness with the metta for some alchemical change to happen, and for things to crystallize. So to me it sounds wonderful. And of course, you have the choice, you can take any perspective you wish, but that's what it sounds like to me, and it sounds lovely.

Jasna: I really like your answer. I was kind of leaning that way, but I just want to check with you.

Nikki: Yeah, that's great. Thank you Jasna, thanks for bringing that up.

And Nancy offers in chat: Synchronicity that the subject was air, it was a hard day breathing for me today. So this was a beautiful relaxation and release of tension and anxiety around it. And lovely to see my fellow practitioners. Always such a great few moments. Oh, that's lovely Nancy, thank you so much for offering that. Anything you'd like to add in your own voice, my dear?

Nancy: It's just hard for me to talk because I'm having a thyroid problem and so there's a lot of compression there.

Nikki: Oh, okay. All good. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure you had the invitation. Thank you so much for sharing.

I see a person on the phone whose name I don't know, their hand is up, so I'm going to unmute you. Here you go, please.

Michael: Hey Nikki, this is Michael, and I felt really grateful because you did safety at the beginning and the end. I surf big waves and mostly ride a bicycle, so safety for myself and all beings is very prominent in my metta practice. So deep bows, and I was really grateful for your sweet guidance, thank you.

Nikki: Thank you Michael, thank you so much, it was lovely to hear your voice and have you join us. You know, the aspect of safety is so important as the first metta wish, especially for people who do sports and adventure, but even if you don't, safety is key. A few weeks ago teaching, I think I mentioned this many times, that I really grokked the importance of this first wish, May you be safe, may I be safe, when I did a long one-month retreat just doing metta. Just doing metta, and I really grokked how important safety is, because I had always wondered why safety first and then happiness. That's where the juice is, happiness and health! But oh, if you don't have a sense of safety in your heart and your bones, the rest doesn't quite land. You don't quite connect with the happiness and health. Yeah, thank you so much, Michael. Anything else you'd like to add? I muted you because there was feedback. Anything else you'd like to say?

Michael: Going to the breakout, though, it was really sweet, thank you. The only weird thing was when I went into the breakout, I went on mute, and when I unmuted, I don't think the other person could hear me, but I could hear her. So something got stuck in Zoom land, but I was really calm. Still calm, peaceful, and full of equanimity.

Nikki: Okay, so what happened? This is good to know technically for the future for me to learn. When you are on the phone, it seems like there's a funky thing about muting and unmuting. But what I heard you say is, when you went to the group, you could hear the other person, but she couldn't hear you.

Michael: Right. And even though I unmuted myself—because when I went to the group it said 'you are muted', so I hit pound-six and started speaking to say, Good evening, this is Michael—I could hear her but she couldn't hear me. But it was interesting.

Nikki: I think that explains it. Kathleen came out and I'm loving how the two of you were totally chill, like, Yeah, we just went along with this thing not working. It was just a sense of metta in the room. How wonderful if everybody dealt with technical glitches with so much ease in our lives, it would be wonderful. Thank you Michael, thanks for adding that. And also, I wonder if there's something I can do in the future before making the rooms just to make it a little easier, maybe unmute people who are on the phone first. I'll think about that if I can remember that. Thank you for that feedback. So now I will mute you again for the future. Thanks, Michael.

So great, well this has been joyous. And Bhupal says: Nice to connect with so many from around the world and share the space. Yeah, very sweet. Thank you Bhupal. Thanks to everyone who's joined near and far, from Japan—I see you guys on, lovely to see you, Yuka—from Singapore, from Canada, from the East Coast. I think Charlie is on the East Coast, or maybe I'm confusing that. Anyway, various people near and far. Just, and whomever I've forgotten, my apologies. Lovely to practice together and share the space, this nourishing air.

May you be safe. May you be happy, healthy, and well, and sharing your goodwill, your good fortune with all humans and all beings everywhere. May you all be safe and free. Thank you all, take good care.