Guided Meditation: Being Available to Life and Aligning; Dharmette: Dhamma is Available and Relevant

This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Being Available to Life and Aligning; Dharmette: Dhamma is Available and Relevant. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

The following talk was given by Ying Chen, 陈颖 at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on March 25, 2026. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Being Available to Life and Aligning

All right, we'll get started. Thank you, everyone. I'm so happy to be here again in this early morning in the Bay Area, California, to share dharma, practicing dharma together. It's such a blessing, such a blessing. I'm happy to be accompanied by such a wonderful group of practitioners from all around the world, and enjoying getting the weather report from everywhere also.

This week we've been exploring the six qualities of the dharma. Today in this guided meditation, I will continue to unfold what I started out with yesterday called the arriving sequence, which maps to the dharma qualities quite well. Yesterday we did arriving—arriving into the present moment and establishing mindfulness front and center. I learned this arriving sequence from Phillip Moffitt^[1], and it has been quite supportive for meditative practice.

We also talked about the qualities of the dharma—that it is visible here and now. It's immediate, timeless. That was yesterday; we shared a little bit about those qualities. When we arrive into the present moment, establishing our presence, we are in resonance with these dharma qualities because they are visible here and now. They are immediate. Those are the qualities.

Today we will be adding yet another quality to this, called ehipassiko^[2]. The dharma has a quality that is inviting for us to come see for ourselves. In that way, the dharma is available to us. Are we available to the dharma, to the unfolding of the dharma?

So in this meditation, we'll be incorporating two more steps in this arriving sequence, which is one component of a broader, naturally unfolding way of practicing. That is becoming available and aligning our hearts and minds with the dharma, with the Buddha Dharma. That's a few words of orientation, and now let's begin.

Arriving. Arriving into this moment now. Arriving here, in this space. Arriving, arriving, arriving in order to be present for the aliveness of our lives.

Let yourself feel and sense Sati^[3], mindful, present. Gathering and centering around Sati, establishing mindfulness, heartfulness.

There is no need to hurry, because now is already here. Just now. Just now. Just now.

Gathered and collected inwardly. Not going outward to chase after something. In this beginning of our meditation, it's helpful to establish an inwardly oriented heart and mind.

The momentary mindfulness may become continuous, steady. There may be a felt sense of a presence. Nouns often capture a kind of stability, so the sense states contact, come to you, and we don't have to go out.

There may be a felt sense of becoming available. Available to the objects that are arising and passing in the mind stream, in the body. Let yourself savor the felt sense of being available. The dharma is directly visible here and now. It's immediate, inviting for us to come and see. Dharma is available to you. Are you available to Dharma?

Quietly feeling and sensing. The body may be more at ease, relaxed. The heart space is spacious, open. Mind is quiet, expansive. Being available feels like this. Drop out of the words. A felt sense doesn't have to speak English.

The sensations in the body may come online, more alive. You may feel the groundedness of this earthy body resting on earth. Earth element resting naturally on Earth. A breath flows freely.

Available. Available. Available. To allow what is to be known to be known. Softening the control. Letting loose project managing.

You may already feel a resonance with the dharma. You may choose to align with the dharma, with the Buddha who taught the dharma well, complete and accessible here and now. This aligning with the Buddha Dharma, with the Triple Gem^[4], may uplift the heart and mind and may calm the body. Available and aligned.

May you notice the goodness of the dharma. The dharma is said to be good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end. Wherever you are is good enough.

Being present, available, and aligned. You're resting on a wholesome ground to meet whatever arises and passes away.

Of course, the tendencies of our minds may come in: judging, evaluating your meditation practice, or trying to fix something here. The dharma invites us to see the tendencies clearly. We can see for ourselves: these are judgments. The fixing energy is dukkha^[5]. When you see clearly, they go away naturally. Choosing non-suffering naturally arises without us having to do it. The tendencies may characterize the moment, but they don't define us.

Being present, available, and aligned with the Buddha Dharma. Can you sense the deep connectedness with practitioners all around the world? We're in the refuge of the Sangha^[6], from the past to the present and moving into the future. All the practitioners mean the whole world.

There may be an uplift and delight to feel into this possibility that the practitioner sangha embodies the Buddha's teachings, imbibing the Buddha's teachings, imbibing dharma.^[7] And may the goodness of the dharma spread out from one person to another and to another. As David mentioned, this is the foundation of skillful actions, skillful living, a wholesome way of living.

May all beings everywhere be happy. May all beings everywhere know deepest well-being. And may all beings everywhere be free.

Dharmette: Dhamma is Available and Relevant

Thank you everyone for practicing together. I'm feeling the collectedness or connectedness, and collectively... there is such goodness here.

I'd like to say a few more words today, including the next quality of the dharma called ehipassiko. This flows from the earlier qualities, and that is that the dharma is well proclaimed, well taught by the Buddha, and it's directly visible here and now, immediate, timeless, inviting us to inspect, inviting one to come and see. When we're more wholeheartedly being with the rawness and the aliveness of what's in our lived experience in the dharma—kind of in the sense that we're in the unfolding of the dharma—then the nature of things begins to reveal itself.

I sometimes like to use this phrase for myself, that things become increasingly clear as we stay connected with our presence and we are open and available to our lived experience. Things can get naturally clarified and we don't have to do so much. You know, it has a lot to do with softening, relaxing the "doing" energy, and things will begin to clarify for themselves.

How many of us begin to recognize that at some point, our ongoing judgment and evaluations about our practice or about some parts of ourselves—you know, something should happen, something should not happen—are really just adding thoughts on top of wounds? Not at all helpful, right? I loved that in the Sutta Nipata^[8], there was this phrase that the Buddha brought in: "Standing in judgment, measuring by their own standard, they dispute with the world more and more. A person who has given up all judgments creates no conflict in the world." I take that both in our inner world as well as the external world.

We often have standard in our own mind about how things should be. But when we see it clearly, well, this is really getting in the way of me being present for what is. This clear seeing begins to offer a moment of choice. It's empowering. We have this capacity in us that allows us to see these things clearly. And so this choice begins to become available to us.

Other forces are like a comparing mind. I know this very well, and often it can have this flavor of, "Oh no, this is not good enough. You know, something else has to happen." And as we begin to be present for this, we can notice it. I know for myself, it's in this one moment when I notice this kind of thought come up—not good enough—I realize I have no basis to make that assessment. I don't know what all the other conditions are like to allow what is experienced to be what it is. There is no basis for me to do this comparison. My mind just softens. Wow. Okay.

This dukkha naturally falls away. This is what the Buddha discovered. When this kind of force is seen clearly, we understand the nature of dukkha in this way, and it naturally falls away. We don't have to hold on to the hot water. [Laughter] Even though the tendencies can be strong and maybe deeply rooted, little by little, moment by moment, we can begin to engage in wholesome joy. In this way, this ehipassiko dharma invites us to come and see, to come and see clearly.

These patterns are to be seen carefully, to be seen through, so they don't have power over us. Otherwise, these kind of tendencies that we all have choose us, instead of us. The dharma choice becomes available to us.

I use this phrase "being available" in our meditation. To me, "being available" captures a felt sense quality of this word ehipassiko. The dharma is available and it's inviting. What is asked of us is: are we available to the unfolding of the dharma? And when we're available, this third thing I brought in in the arriving sequence—aligning—aligning our hearts with something that is skillful and wholesome, that becomes natural as well.

In this unfolding of the six qualities, we already have that directional kind of aligning by recollecting the goodness of the Buddha and his teachings. How the Buddha is a realized individual and his dharma is complete and accessible to each of us. We can feel that resonance when we are available and aligned in this way, and it uplifts us, and there is a natural unfolding from this point.

I remember I was given this phrase by my teacher: "You be available." It was quite a profound koan^[9] for me. Often in the middle of the day, I would pause and ask myself, "Ying, are you available?"^[10] And this has an immediate effect. Often I would pause for some moments and know that if I'm present, and this presence has a kind of spaciousness to it, it gives me a moment to reconnect with these qualities of the dharma. Being present in the here and now, we reorient ourselves in a wholesome way.

All of us know that we can be in a mode of trying to get something done, driven by our tasks or duties. We can lose our contact with this present, available, and aligned place. And so as you go about the day today, maybe you pause and ask yourself, "Are you available?" The dharma is available to us. Are you available to the dharma?

We'll continue from there tomorrow. Thank you for being here.