This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Pleasure

So good day everyone. The topic this week is—we could call it just pleasure. But this pleasure doesn't quite work as the exact opposite in the pleasure and pain play. So we usually say pleasant and unpleasant, but for this meditation, I'd like to focus a bit on pleasure.

There is the wise use of pleasure in meditation. Just as there is the growth of wisdom in regard to both pleasure and pain, the pleasant and the unpleasant, for now let's do the wisdom of pleasure in meditation.

Let's assume that you will not become attached to pleasure. Assume that you won't be chasing after pleasure or holding on, clinging to the pleasure that might be there. Let's start with the idea that with a very relaxed, open-handed, open-minded way, we appreciate the pleasure that's here as part of meditation. Particularly those forms of meditative pleasure that make it easier for the mind to be present. I think the mind is happier being present for things which are pleasant than unpleasant. And so if we can find things that are pleasant in the meditation, that support the mind's enthusiasm for being present, then it will show up more in this present moment.

So as we're meditating, I'll guide you a little bit to experience pleasure. And I know that some of you will already have physical discomfort; you're dealing with physical pains. I'm not trying to say that you won't have those or it's wrong to have those. But it might be that even with the presence of those, you can loosen up a little bit the focus on them or concern with them. Just a little, just enough so that you could also take in that which is pleasant.

So, taking an alert meditation posture. And if there's already some pleasure just in the posture, which can be the case for people who have been meditating for long enough that there's a kind of a visceral memory of the goodness of the posture, allow yourself to feel the pleasure of the posture.

And then gently, maybe very gently, so it's kind of enjoyable, take some deeper breaths. Just deep enough that it remains enjoyable. And is there a way that you can exhale that you enjoy as well? Maybe almost as if the enjoyment of ah as you exhale. And the joy of an inhale, which is like a fresh breath of air filling the lungs. It's almost like you're smelling the freshness and taking a delightful inhale, and a relaxing exhale. And then letting your breathing return to normal.

And if you can now, as you exhale, relax different parts of the body. Notice any pleasantness or pleasure that comes with relaxation, with a relief. Maybe beginning with the muscles of the face, releasing around the eyes, releasing around the cheeks and the jaws. Releasing the shoulders, softening the shoulders. Softening and relaxing in the belly. And is there some way you can relax the whole body, releasing any ways in which you're bracing yourself against life? And appreciating the way that there is some pleasure, enjoyment in any degree of relaxation or calm there is in the body.

And then letting the attention settle on the body breathing. Familiarizing yourself with the experience of the body breathing. What moves in the body as you breathe? What expands and contracts? What sensations are activated and appear and disappear?

And then, as you experience your breathing, is there any pleasure, pleasantness in any of the sensations of breathing? Maybe the pleasure is more on the inhale. Maybe it's more on the exhale. Maybe it's in the release of the chest as you exhale, or the belly. Maybe it's the speed and flow of the inhale. Allow yourself to feel any pleasure that's present in breathing. Even if some of the breathing is uncomfortable, is there any part of it that is pleasant? Maybe the air going down through the nostrils. Maybe the subtle expansion and contraction of the back ribcage. If there's a gap between the exhale and inhale, maybe the pleasure is in that pause.

And if there are very simple ways you can adjust your breathing, adjusting it so it still feels like a natural breath. Maybe adjusting by slowing the breathing down, or a little bit faster. Relaxing the belly and more belly breathing. Maybe a momentary pause at the end of the exhale where all things become still and peaceful.

And if there's any pleasure in the breathing, be sure to feel that each time it appears. Stay close to the pleasure of breathing. Let the thinking mind become quieter so that you can better register the pleasantness, the pleasure. Register it with your body.

Let the mind be pulled into the pleasure of breathing. Pulled into whatever meditative pleasure is occurring for you. Gently allow yourself to be filled by it. Awareness to be filled. Let it be a support for present moment mindfulness. Letting there be the kind of stillness that highlights the pleasure of meditation. And let the pleasure of meditation be a support for staying present.

Feeling whatever there is to enjoy about being physically present in your meditation. Any pleasure, pleasant sensations in your body breathing. If you're more settled and calm in your body, maybe that is pleasant, enjoyable. As you breathe, breathe with pleasure. Breathe in and out with the enjoyment of sitting here. And see if there's something you can learn about letting go by resting in the enjoyment of the moment.

And then as we come to the end of the sitting, to whatever degree of enjoyment there is for you—pleasure, pleasantness—how might that inspire you to wish pleasure and enjoyment to others? That they can go through the world experiencing well-being, peace, pleasure, delight, happiness. Maybe your own enjoyment can be something you wish others to experience as well. Wouldn't it be great if everyone could enjoy this life? We would probably care for each other more.

May all beings be free of their afflictions and their pains, their sorrows. May all beings feel the pleasure and joy and happiness of life. May they be happy. May all beings be safe, so they can enjoy this life. May all beings be peaceful, so the simple pleasures of a life are available. May all beings be free so they can live a life that they enjoy and value and delight in. So we can live a life where we also delight and enjoy caring for each other. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings be free.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (35) Wise about Pleasure and Pain

So, there's this amazing quote from the Buddha. After he spent his time doing ascetic practices, he went back to meditating in a way that he knew from earlier in his life, where he experienced meditative joy. And he said to himself that there's no reason to be afraid of this kind of joy, this kind of pleasure. And so, the idea that there are joys and pleasures that we can experience that we shouldn't be afraid of or be hesitant to feel—that actually are an important part of the practice. The Buddha went on to say that what he was discovering then, in that pleasure and the joy of meditation, was... he said, This is the way to awakening. This is the way to freedom.

And so there is a path that opens up with pleasure and delight, joy in practice. And how to find that and use that wisely is one of the tasks that we're doing in meditation. Meditation is not supposed to be an endless series of grim pains. I've known people who have sat with a lot of physical pain in meditation, as I have, and benefited a lot from doing so. I've known people who sat with a lot of pain and discomfort in meditation and have not benefited from it, or have benefited for a while, but after a while it just becomes grueling. It goes on and on. And some people will end up sitting with unnecessary pain because they think they're supposed to sit in a cross-legged meditation posture, and they move to a chair and immediately they feel so much better. And now they're able to kind of give themselves over to the present moment rather than struggling with the pain of practice.

But we don't want to only avoid pain and discomfort, and we don't want to only pursue pleasure and delight and the pleasant, because the chances are then we stay close to our attachments. The idea is to become free. And the idea is to engage in the world of pleasure and pain in a way that is freeing for us, and that requires some wisdom. Like, how do I find my freedom here? One of my favorite quotes is the idea that if you're only free when things are pleasant, you're not really free. If you're only free when you're comfortable, you're not really free. You need to become free in this practice when things are uncomfortable, when there's also pain.

But it's not supposed to be stoic, and we're not just putting up with pain, pain, pain. It's not supposed to be all difficult. There is an art to opening up to pleasure and all that. But part of that art is to really understand our relationship to pleasure and pain. I think that without putting a spotlight, a magnifying glass to really study what our reactivity is, what our beliefs and attitudes are towards pleasure and pain, we probably won't find a wise way of being with pleasure and pain. Rather, we'll just kind of be driven by maybe the lack of wisdom we have, or the attachments we have, or the unhealthy beliefs that are weighing us down. So we need to spend some time looking and seeing: what do we believe?

Some people believe that life is only successful if there's pleasure. As soon as there's pain or discomfort—or emotional discomfort or mental discomfort—it's a sign that somehow we failed. We're not living up to that standard of a successful human being who is wealthy and is filled with joy and pleasure and is able to navigate life perfectly fine and drifts on a cloud. And if we can't do that, then there must be something deeply wrong about who we are. But this is just a delusion to believe something like that. Every human life will have its share of pains and pleasure. Both of them come with being a human being. And so, rather than having a belief that it has to be one way, in the Dharma^[1] we believe that we're practicing with whatever comes our way and finding a wise way through it. Not trying to avoid it, and not trying to hold ourselves to some high standard of perfection.

Sometimes people who feel discomfort or pain will be angry at it, hostile even to their pain and to themselves. Some people get restless, some people get bored very quickly. Some people have a lot of ideas about who they are that they're trying to live up to or trying to avoid, and they get triggered sometimes by the experiences of pleasure and pain. You know, I'm the victim, it's happening to me, and all this discomfort is me, me, me. So I'm the one who's... so much of it is all about me. And there's a way in which all the discomfort of life gets drawn into our identity or idea of who we are, the idea of my history and my. And it's not necessarily wrong exactly that there are a lot of challenges in life. But that it's a magnet, all the things that are difficult, to the concept of me, myself as the victim, as the person who's experiencing it. The experiencer just makes things so much more difficult.

One of the exercises we do around pain is to feel... I mean, you might try this right now if you want. Just close your eyes and see if you can look around in your body for some place where there's some discomfort. And probably, within reason, the more uncomfortable it is, the better for this exercise. And then just in your mind, tell yourself that this is my pleasure, my pain. My pain is this way, you know, my pain is my knee, my pain is in my ankle, my pain... And just keep at the word my or I'm having pain, I'm having pain. And then take a deep breath and let go. And then be aware of the pain or discomfort and just call it pain or discomfort, without the me or the I.

And perhaps there's a difference between these two ways. I don't know if on YouTube like this I can convey this adequately, but it's not uncommon for people to start realizing after a while that if they let discomfort just be discomfort, without the pronouns or the I or me or mine as part of it, that probably some micro-muscles around the pain don't contract. Some of the micro-emotions don't contract and get tight. The me, myself, and mine kind of brings along a lot of extra baggage, and to keep it so simple—just pain, just pleasure—is freeing. And then when pain does arise, there's an attitude towards it of being for or against, there are intentions, there are agendas, there are strategies we have about it. And one of them is to get rid of it if there's pain.

If there's pleasure, some people don't feel safe with pleasure. There are reasons why some people feel distrustful of pleasure, thinking it's going to go away, or I've been burned before, or I'll get attached if there's too much pleasure or something. And so, what is the intention you have? What's the attitude or the reaction to pleasure and pain? One of the remarkable things that's possible to learn is to have equanimity towards pleasure and pain. To be able to turn towards it with mindfulness and look upon it just as you would look upon, maybe, if you saw a bird. Maybe you can't identify the bird even, but it's high up in the blue sky, just moving through the sky, and has a certain grace to it perhaps, or whatever. You look up and you see it, and that bird high in the sky, you don't take it to be my bird. You don't take it to be, you know, that bird is probably flying... not flapping its wings just quite right. It should probably be soaring a little bit differently, and someone needs to give it flying instructions, or I'm gonna try to explain to it what it needs to do. We don't get involved with trying to fix it. We don't associate it with ourselves. It's just a bird flying in the sky. So there's a lot of equanimity, just letting it be in the same way you'd watch a bird fly through the sky without appropriating it in any way or needing to do something about it.

So it's possible to have that kind of equanimity towards pleasure and pain. And that's one of the... this is a very important part of the training in Vipassanā^[2], is to learn that kind of equanimity. But it's not a training then to be stoic with all pain and to be uninterested in all pleasure. We want to be... there's an appropriate interest both in pleasure and pain. Some pains we learn from. We learn how to take care of ourselves better by paying attention to the pain and adjusting things.

But pleasure... the pleasures of relaxation, the pleasures that arise from meditation itself are like someone who's saying, Hey, come here, come closer. This is the way, follow me. There's a way in which meditative joy and pleasure is a support for the practice. And it's a support for opening up, letting go, and relaxing more fully, rather than holding on to the pleasure. It is to kind of open to it, feel it more, so that there's a settling and opening into the present moment and a deepening connection, so the mind gets quieter and stiller.

So becoming wise about pleasure and pain helps us then become also wise about pleasure. Wisdom about both is really helpful, but for meditation both are helpful, and sooner or later in meditation you'll sit with pain. Sooner or later you'll sit with pleasure. And for most of us, it's sooner rather than later. So rather than turning away... this is part of the field of Satipaṭṭhāna^[3]—is to use the pleasure and pain of our experience as a support, as a foundation for learning to be aware. So pleasure and pain is not to be turned away from or grabbed onto, but we're developing a heightened awareness with this pleasure and pain, which is part of all experiences. And as we do that, we'll start making this remarkable transition—we'll talk about this tomorrow—from the worldly dimension of pleasure and pain to the spiritual dimension of it. And that distinction I'll talk about more in detail tomorrow, what that means and how it works.

This is part of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, to make this distinction and to be able to appreciate the difference between these two forms of pleasure and pain—the worldly pleasures and pain and the spiritual ones. So that's for tomorrow. And so for today, I hope that you will try to discover some more equanimity and spaciousness with pleasure and pain. And you might try freeing yourselves from appropriating pleasures and pains as part of me, myself, and mine. Just pleasure, just pain. And you're allowed to experience both and be at ease with both.

So thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to be with you this way. Thank you.