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Happy Hour: A Body of Metta

Okay, so hello and welcome everyone. Ah, it's nice to be with you. The hellos and greetings that we do before I turn on the recording are always heartwarming to me, and really a nice way to just start landing with mettā^[1] for ourselves and each other. I see many of you also nodding and smiling. Yep, it's supportive coming together in community in this practice, in this international community across different time zones and countries.

For today's practice, I'd like to invite us to consider the importance of mindfulness of the body with mettā. Mindfulness of the body is a primary practice; it's actually a foundational practice in this practice of ours. If you have noticed, if you've been coming to Happy Hour for a while, we always start the first third of the time—usually a quarter to a third of the time of the guided meditation—grounding in the body with the breath. We always start there, and then we open up to the practice that we're doing for the day, whether it's mettā, compassion, gratitude, whatever it might be. As you've noticed, this practice of the body is really foundational.

Today, I want to bring it even more to the forefront in terms of how important it is for establishing mettā, but we'll actually approach it a little differently today. We'll use the body as the basis, the body being infused with mettā, permeating mettā, this sense of whole-bodiness. We're familiar with the term wholeheartedness, so whole-bodiness is sort of mindful, body-full. It's really bringing our awareness, infusing the body with mettā. This body, this being who is me, being infused with care, with affection, with friendliness, and also it permeating, shining out.

Again, many times I've talked about the statue of the Buddha where one mudra^[2] is touching the earth. The Buddha touching the earth as, "Earth be my witness, I belong here." This sense of embodiment, connecting with the body, is important in all practices, especially in mettā, to connect with the body as much as possible, as much as available, as much as it feels safe.

Having said this, for some people if there is a history of trauma, it might be more appropriate to connect with the hands and feet; that is the connection with the body. So if connecting with the whole body is not available, that's perfectly okay. Don't push it, please. No pushing, no struggling, no "should-ing." These are just invitations to consider as we come together in community.

That's the frame for our practice today. With that frame, I invite us to land in our bodies and notice what your body needs. If you need to move to shift as we start our formal meditation, if you need to move to a lying position, that's okay if that's what your body needs. See how your body can be particularly comfortable for mettā. It's really important for the body to be comfortable, so be kind to this body, especially today given that that is the theme. Kind to this body.

Guided Meditation

Greeting this body, this breath. Greeting this amazing body.

This amazing body that breathes, that knows how to take care of itself internally, digest. The heart knows how to beat, cuts know how to heal. It's amazing, that's amazing. Nature that is this body. Connecting with appreciation.

Devoting, as if you were giving a gift of your awareness, gifting your awareness to your body, the sensations, for this period of practice. Devoting as if you're honoring this precious, sacred body by giving your entire attention to it. With awe, with interest. Movement, the sensations of breathing.

And notice if there is any forcing or trying too hard. If you notice any of that, ah, shake it off. Let it go. Not needed. Relax.

When we give a gift to someone, we don't force or push the gift upon them. It's an offering. So offering your awareness gently, lovingly, relaxedly. As if your awareness is hanging out, chilling, spending time with a good friend, the body. "Hey body, how have you been? How are ya? Oh, how are your toes feeling? The bottom of your feet, dear friend."

Awareness, greeting the body. Sit bones. Your bottom on the cushion. All the areas of contact.

Let this greeting, awareness greeting the body internally, the sensations of the breath, different parts, let it be joyful. Two old good friends meeting, delighting in each other.

Even if there is pain or discomfort in the body, that's okay. Awareness is not phased. Awareness can be spacious, knowing the discomfort and all the space around it too. A patient, patient friend holding space and presence.

An awareness that is patient with the body. And patience is an expression of mettā, of love, of care. Awareness that doesn't want to rush away. Spaciously greets whatever is arising. The breath, sensations in the body, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

An awareness that infuses, infuses the whole body, permeates the whole body with kindness. Kind awareness that infuses the whole body. The body can relax and be held in it also. Awareness holding the body, gently cradling it.

The body can release itself into this kind awareness. Release any holding, any tightness, any pain, sorrow, for this kind awareness. Holding, simply knowing, caringly knowing.

The body infused with this kind, non-judgmental, caring, warm-hearted knowing. As if a golden light, or whatever imagery or felt sense works for you. Sitting in kindness, breathing kindness.

Kindness knowing itself. Awareness knowing itself through the body, sensations of the body.

Kind awareness infusing the body with care. The body can relax. Ah, feeling held.

If you feel like you can continue with mettā for the body, for the self, if you wish, you can also allow this sense of goodwill, this kindness, kind awareness that's infusing the body, to permeate, to shine out. This bright golden light, not pushing, not trying to let it shine, not trying to make it shine, but allowing this kindness to just gently permeate out.

Embracing this light, embracing those who are near and dear to you first. Your dear beings. This light shining upon their bodies with goodwill, with care.

And if phrases help, you're welcome to use the phrases: May I be well, or May you be well, or any variations thereof.

May I be infused with well-being. May I feel infused, held in well-being.

May you be held, may you be infused with well-being. May we both be infused.

Holding, being held in well-being.

If your visual may be the golden light is permeating you and your dear being or beings with care and goodwill.

And for the last moments of this practice period, letting your goodness of mettā, bright light shine brightly. Trusting there is goodness, and goodness cultivated, generated from our practice together.

May this goodness, or attempt, our effort towards cultivation—even if mindful or mettā-filled for a split second, and the rest was distracted or sleepy, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You showed up, you tried. Letting go of self-judgment if any, appreciating that you've showed up. You've tried, you've practiced, you've planted seeds.

And sharing, offering this goodness to all beings everywhere generously. May the efforts of my life, may my life, my work, my efforts serve others, be of service in ways I may not be able to imagine. Serve others in goodness. May all beings be well. May all beings be free.

Thank you for your practice, everyone.

Reflections

Ah, so we have some time for reflections, for thoughts, for questions. And I changed the settings in chat. You're welcome to type your questions or reflections in chat. If it's typed to everyone, I'll read your name; if it's just to me, I'll only read the reflection, not your name, it'll be private. You can also raise your hand to share your questions or reflections. And please know that when you share what you discovered, whether something was challenging or a new insight showed up or something opened up, you're offering this gift to serve other practitioners; it's of service to others. So you're welcome. I'll pause for a moment.

[Reading from chat:] "There wasn't much warmth, but space for me."

Great, great. And sometimes there may not be warmth, warmth may not be sensed, it's okay. But if there is space for things to be held, a patient space for things to be held, that is as good as mettā. You know, when we're patient, like it can be it's okay, this pain doesn't need to go away, be pushed away, there's space for it to be held.

Monica says, "There came a point where sensations of the body arose, seemed to be manifestations of kindness, inseparable from kind awareness, just another form."

Lovely, thank you for sharing that reflection, that's beautiful. Yeah, and any of you are welcome to raise your hands.

Claire says, "Thanks for a very healing experience." Thank you, Claire. I see Abraham's hand is up. Please, Abraham.

"Thanks. It was so nice to offer my body loving-kindness. My body has been the basis for me having so many rich experiences of meditation, and just to turn it around and say, 'Thank you body.' The body is such a refuge, so I appreciate it."

Thank you, Abraham. I so appreciate your rich and beautiful reflection. Indeed, the body is such a refuge, and to turn it around is beautiful, thank you.

Deborah says, "It was nice to just be kindly with my body this way." Beautiful, beautiful.

Larry says, "I saw clearly the part of me that is frightened to speak in a setting like this, and gave it some love. Ah, not quite ready to talk, but it felt like a movement."

Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Yeah, and so wonderful to see those parts of ourselves that are frightened and hold them with love. And I see others are choosing the love emoticon here, Larry, really appreciating what you shared. Really appreciating giving love to those parts of ourselves that are afraid, which we often take a little whip and whip them up, right? Like, "Oh, you shouldn't be here." So thank you so much, that's beautiful, thank you so much for sharing that. To be with you, Mark.

Any other reflections before we turn to practice in small groups? I'll share one thing and I'll say that for me, this was quite a lovely practice too. Because as I guide the guided meditation, probably you know by now that I'm doing it myself, I'm not just a talking head. I'm actually guiding from where I am, from my own experience. And again, this is also to say that you know, we co-create this space together, this practice together. I am here because of you. Well, you may think you're here because of me, but I'm here because of you. So thank you for showing up and practicing. And to say that for me today, I was experiencing a lot of pain. Oh, it was just so lovely to hold all of the discomfort with just kind, kind ease. There's a sense of well-being for me that really bubbled up. The pain, this discomfort can be here, the well-being can be here too. The kindness holding both, kindness really holding both, doesn't have to push the discomfort away. So, yeah.

Thank you, Patricia. "Deeply grateful for sharing this beautiful practice with you all." Thank you, yeah, it's sweet.

And Hugh says, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." Yes, please, Hugh, by all means! That's great. So Hugh is joining on YouTube tonight.

So dear ones, yeah, I love that it's the sense of this light of mettā, this light of mettā, letting it shine both for ourselves, touching this body first as it's shining out, and then others. So with that, with this letting our light shine, the invitation now is to hold each other's light and shining it with small groups. Holding ourselves with kindness, holding each other with kindness. We all have bodies, we all have discomfort, we all have joys. As Abraham said, our bodies are nourishing sources of refuge for many meditative experiences that the body supports—not only physical experiences walking outside and feeding ourselves and all of that.

So we turn to small groups of size roughly three. For the first fifteen seconds, let's start with silent mettā for our bodies and other people's bodies, which may be hurting or not, who knows, we all have bodies. And then you can share as little or as much as you like about your practice, supporting each other. It's really about listening and sharing and supporting. So here we go, take care of yourselves, take care of each other in the small groups. Here we go.

[Small groups break]

And everyone's back. Welcome back, everyone.

So, we have a couple of minutes for any reflections that might have arisen from your group practice, small sangha^[3] practice. And you can raise your Zoom hand—if it's a physical hand I won't see you, but the Zoom hand I will see—or you can type in chat, please. Any reflections, anything you noticed about this particular way of practicing for you?

Violet says, "Someone in our group reflected at the end how easy it is now during practice to call to mind the faces and names of people in the sangha we've been with for a while."

Yeah, that is so sweet. Thanks for sharing that, Violet. Yeah, this sangha has been going strong for over a year now. We started last year, was it March? I think March or April, we went online when everything closed down in California. So, oh yeah, so sweet. So sweet, thanks for sharing that, Violet.

As I've said once, sometimes I think of—you know, some of you might be familiar with this old American series, it's called Cheers. And their tagline was, you know, it was about a bar where everybody knows your name. You go there because everybody knows your name, and that's really why you go. Anyway, but here we practice cultivating our hearts. What a beautiful thing to do together. What a beautiful thing to do together, dear sangha.

Mary, please.

"Hi. I've been away for a month and hoped that I would join in from the distances where I was, but that just wasn't possible. It just didn't seem possible. And here I am back, and it's just so wonderful, thank you. I kept it going while I was away, but it's so wonderful to see faces familiar and new. Thank you."

Yeah, thank you, Mary. Thanks, welcome back. And welcome to everyone, new and old. We love new folks coming and joining our sangha, this is absolutely lovely.

Deborah says, "This is my first visit to the Happy Hour live and I look forward to more. I attend Gil's^[4] morning sessions and we connect on the YouTube, but it's a much lighter connection."

Oh yes, absolutely. Welcome Deborah, lovely to have you here. Yeah, beautiful, wonderful to have you here.

So dear ones, we have come to the end of another Happy Hour together. Thank you for your practice. May our cultivation together be a cause and condition for goodness in the world. May all beings be happy, may all beings be free, including ourselves.

Thank you.