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Happy Hour: Calming the Energy Body

So hello and welcome, everyone. Happy to be with you, lovely to be with you. For today's practice, I'd like to invite us to practice equanimity, resilience, and quiet stillness for the benefit of compassion with what is going on in the world. It's time, we need more stability, we need more resilience, we need more peace and calm so that we can be available. We can be available both internally for ourselves—not to be completely toppled over into sorrow and grief—but also available for others. How can we help, how can we support, how can we serve? And maybe one way we can serve is through our availability of space, of kindness, space of stability.

I also like to bring in some practice with metta^[1] and compassion for all who are suffering in the world, which in some ways includes all of us human beings, and especially for those who are suffering in really, really difficult situations right now in Ukraine and in Russia. People who didn't choose the political situation, but they're being severely impacted and hurt by it in so many ways.

So maybe there's not much more I want to say, but to say that we'll start with a lot of silence tonight, just settling with the breath and with the body in order to build stability and spaciousness. Then I'll have invitations for us to both include ourselves in our metta and our compassion, because even when difficult challenges are happening in the world and in war zones, our own personal suffering and dukkha^[2] does not end. It does not cease. So we will bring our own dear selves to mind, to heart, to care for this being who's me, and also share our care and our goodwill for other beings in the world who are suffering. That's the framing.

Guided Meditation

So without further ado, let's practice together. Let's arrive.

Find your meditation posture, sitting or lying down, whatever is nourishing or supportive in this moment. Oh dear heart, taking refuge in the heart space. With each breath settling more into the body, into the lower abdomen. Feet releasing, letting go of any tension. Being embodied with the breath.

The entirety of the in-breath, breathing in. Counting slowly up to four, then pausing for a moment, holding the breath briefly, and then exhaling for a count of five. We'll do it together first a couple of times, and then you can do it in your own time just to help settle and arrive.

Breathing in, one, two, three, four. Pausing the breath. Exhaling, one, two, three, four, five. Briefly pausing, and again. Inhaling four. Exhaling count of five, pause. Letting the exhale be longer than the inhale can help settle the body, the mind. We'll do that just a little bit before we let the breath be natural.

If the mind is particularly unsettled tonight, you can continue this counting with the breath longer to help support, arrive, and land.

If you are still using the counting device with the breath, let it be gentle. And again, breathing in at the count of four, pause, breathing out gently, releasing to the count of five. You can change the count and make your breath longer, both the in-breath and the out-breath. That might happen naturally as you settle in and arrive more deeply.

And imagine the breath, gentle, the body relaxed as much as possible. That each in-breath and out-breath is like fluffing a feather bed. Fluffing, making it soft, ready your body, as if your body is a feather bed and I'm fluffing it. Gentleness, kindness. Your body is the soft, gentle, welcoming, nourishing home that's holding your tired heart and mind. With each breath gently being fluffed.

Let the breath fluffing be nourishing, fluffing the energy body. Let it be nourishing, healing, soft, supple, kind.

Maybe the image that works better for some is a mane of a horse, soft, being mentally combed. Same idea, the breath doing that with the body energetically. Is there any proverbial dirt? Oh, it's gently fluffed, combed out of the body. Kindness, gentleness, holding this tired heart and mind. Resting, resting.

Each breath combing, fluffing the energy body. The heart can rest in the kindness of the space. Relax, feel safe with each breath. Creating a safe, comfortable, kind, loving space for ourselves is an expression of metta, of care.

Let the breath be breathed and the energy body fluffed, just as if the mane of a horse was soft, gently brushed, or a feather bed is fluffed. Let it be nourishing, healing for you.

If you've had a particularly challenging day or time in your body, your heart, and mind, you can stay with yourself if you like. Otherwise, if there is space, capacity to open up further, here are the invitations.

Continuing the same metaphor of fluffing comfortable feather beds, or brushing the hair, the mane of a horse gently, as tightnesses, maybe pieces of dirt are released to smooth it out. And there's just a harmonious flowing mane afterwards. As if symbolically, you had a big brush, combing all beings, just gently fluffing. As if all the ills, all the sorrow, all the challenges, brushing them through. Bringing healing, succor, comfort because you care. Sharing your care.

Or as if you are fluffing pillows, a feather bed for beings around the world, many beings, many humans, especially those in challenging situations out there. Offering your care as if you're laying a comfortable bed for them, covering them with your love, with your care in a blanket of metta.

May you be free. May you be free from sorrow, from suffering. May you have ease. May there be as much ease and comfort and well-being for you in this difficult time. Those in places of war, famine, the orphans of the world.

As Ryōkan^[3] said, Oh, if only my monk's robes were wide enough to protect all the suffering beings in this entire world. The same spirit of generosity and care. It's an aspiration, aspirationally of course. Our robes can never avoid them, but we offer. We offer our kindness, our goodness, our compassion as a training, as service. Imagining that your care brings comfort.

And if you fall into distress and grief, come back to yourself. Come back to yourself, holding yourself with care and compassion. Remember, if you fall into empathic distress, come back to yourself with compassion and care.

And for the last few minutes, returning back to yourself. With each breath letting the energy body be fluffed, naturally. Place of comfort, ease, succor.

May all beings everywhere, especially those in the war zones, may they be free from suffering, sorrow, pain, distress. May they have as much peace of being as possible in the midst of the challenge. May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, be safe, healthy, and have ease. May all beings be free.

Reflections and Q&A

Thank you for your practice, everyone.

You are invited, if there are any reflections, questions, and both for the benefit of the sangha^[4], to share your aha moment or challenge. Also for you to be a held witness, especially if you haven't spoken in a while. You can also type your reflections in chat. If they are typed to everyone I'll read your name, and if they're privately sent to me I won't read your name.

And also knowing that the practice tonight was very calm, there's a lot of emphasis on calming and soothing the energy body. There can be... it's completely understandable if that's happening for you.

Megan says, "I love all things fluffy, so that was absolutely delightful. It's great. I could see this meditation being very useful when encountering difficulty at work." Yay, delighted to hear that. The work that you do and the way that you serve others, may it be of support to you, this fluffy practice, fluffing the energy body basically. Yeah. One reflection on YouTube: "An inner^[5] and emotional practice, thank you." You are welcome. Yeah.

Nicholas, can you unmute? Yeah, there you go.

Nicholas: Can you hear me okay? Wonderful. I'll try to not make this too upsetting. I read an article that was about a unit of snipers in the Ukraine, and it was really on my heart just because the article kind of really portrayed them in balance as people who kind of celebrated their craft, which is killing people, and also people who are very brave and very much defending their homeland. And somehow this very calm space that we kind of held today was, I think, a very supportive space for just kind of sitting in that realm of like, you know, I don't really know. I don't really know the full picture here, you know, on both sides of people who are killed and being killed. And you know, I mean there's just so much. And yeah, somehow it was a very healthy space of just kind of holding that not knowing, and kind of just holding the bigness of what's happening. So thank you.

Nikki Mirghafori: Thank you, Nicholas. Thank you so much for bringing that in, that bigness that you mentioned, and how holding the space of spaciousness for all the suffering—so much suffering all around us, just the killer and the killed. The snipers and the... it's beyond imagination. All the suffering of everyone involved and everyone watching, holding witness. And also to know that humanity has gone through cycles of this, right? Humanity. I think we're hopefully better a little bit, but it just keeps happening. So just holding spaciousness. Oh, dear humanity, which I'm a part of, holding all of us with compassion. Thank you, Nicholas.

Mima, I see your hand, please.

Mima: I appreciated this because it feels so overwhelming sometimes, the amount of suffering that we hear about, and not feeling like there's nothing I can do about it. Knowing that being here with the sangha and meditating and contributing in that way, to me is very significant. It gives me peace.

Nikki Mirghafori: Thank you, Mima. It's important because it can be overwhelming, and when it's overwhelming we want to just turn away and completely tune out. And that's not helpful either, right? So having the space to actually hold witness and offer care. As the Buddha says, whatever you frequently think and reflect upon, that becomes the inclination of your mind. So the more we reflect upon kindness, care, compassion for others, that becomes the inclination of our mind and our actions too. So it's not just in the mind space, it's not just in the holding space, which is important too for our own equanimity, stability, and those of others, but it also leads to wholesome action in any way we can in our community.

Vicky says, "Thank you for the breathing reminder to arrive tonight. If anyone awakens in the night wide-eyed, thinking about the world, your recording of overwhelm was just the ticket to settle back down with more equanimity and compassion. Thank you Nikki, I had a better day because of your guidance." Oh thank you, Vicky. So appreciated to hear that it was supportive for you, especially in the middle of the night. I think it was last week, it was about practicing with equanimity when suffering of the world is overwhelming. So I think that's the one you're referring to, Vicky. I'm glad it was supportive for you in the middle of the night, may it be supportive to others.

And Dipper is bringing up the complexity of the pain of both the killer and the killed, and I think I'd rather not get entangled in that. It's a bigger topic, it's more than I want to spend time and talk about right now. But yeah, everyone suffers really, everyone suffers in that entanglement.

So I'd like to invite us now to hold the space, this fluffy energy body fluffed space, as if we're fluffing comfortable blankets and pillows for one another as we enter into the small sangha with another couple of practitioners. Can there be a sense of holding space? There may or may not be a lot of words said tonight, and that is okay, but can we hold space for each other and also ourselves with equanimity, with care, in this space? So let's start with maybe 10 seconds of silent metta and then you can share as much as you want or just hold witness, that's okay too. I've created the rooms, and I'm going to open them. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other.

[Break for small groups]

Welcome back everyone, the rooms are closed and we have just about a minute if there are any reflections you'd like to share. To be quick, okay.

I don't see any hands or anything typed in chat, so maybe we'll close. One announcement I wanted to make is that on Saturday I'm teaching a half day, I'll put information in the chat if anyone is on, through New York Insight Meditation. For anyone especially who missed the Befriending Mortality course, this is a half day, it's a crash course. We'd love to see you if you like this. If you need a way to bring fire into your practice...

Catherine says, "Those metaphors of fluffing and horses were delicious." Oh, that's so sweet. Thanks Catherine. That's a great note to end on. So thank you all, thank you so much for your practice, for your dedication. May you be well, safe, happy. May all beings everywhere be safe. Thank you.