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.

Introduction

Good evening, and welcome to Monday night. I'm happy to be here with you all. I can't see you with my own eyes—though I can see the chat here—but I'm happy to be sharing the Dharma^[1] with you wherever you are.

First, we will do a guided meditation, but I will quickly introduce the idea of what I want to talk about this evening. When I first started having practice discussions with individuals—or actually, when I first started sitting in while other teachers were giving practice discussions—I remember one of the teachers conducting the discussions saying, "Wow, isn't it quite something that there's such a broad range?" And I responded, "No, I thought it was quite something how so much of it is the same." People talk about a similar aspect of their experience and practice, and it just manifests in so many different ways.

So I will leave that as a little bit of a teaser for what I'll be talking about in the Dharma talk. But first, we will do a guided meditation. I will introduce some ideas in this meditation that will support the things I'm going to talk about later.

Guided Meditation: Feeling any sense of "should"

Okay, so we can begin by just arriving in some kind of way, whatever that means for you. For some, that will mean feeling into the body. For some, that will be feeling into the sensations of breathing. For some, that will be more about softening, letting go of ideas that you should be elsewhere or be doing something else. Just arriving.

And then bringing your awareness to the sensations in the body. Probably an obvious one that we are all experiencing is the pressure of the chair or the cushion against the body where we're seated. Just allowing ourselves to feel that experience, feel that pressure, feeling connected and grounded.

And then you might notice some more obvious sensations. There might be some places of discomfort, some tightness. Can you bring some awareness to those areas? Awareness that has a tone and attitude of kindness and softness. Not that we have to shove this experience away, but that we can give it some space, some warmth, and see if that creates the conditions in which it might shift.

And then sitting here, feeling the experiences of having a body. We can do just a little bit of a body scan to help us land in the body. Starting at the top, feeling the face, the head, the neck. Maybe we're doing this with a broad touch—like the touch of a feather or a broad brush, not a sledgehammer, not an ice pick. Just with a gentle sweeping of a feather, resting our awareness on these different areas of the body. Now moving into the shoulders, allowing them to fall away from the ears, and feeling into the upper back and lower back. The chest and the belly. Again, feeling connected to the chair or cushion with that pressure. The legs, and the feet. The arms, and hands.

We do this type of body scan not because we have to feel every single sensation in our body, but as a support for being embodied, a support for us to arrive and inhabit our bodily experience.

Now we can bring our attention to the sensations of breathing. The movement of the abdomen or chest, or the feeling of air going in and out of the nose. Can we bring a warm-hearted quality to our attention? I can't remember whom exactly, but I've heard Dharma teachers talk about "affectionate curiosity." What is the experience of breathing? Nothing in particular needs to be happening. Just resting our awareness on the sensations of breathing.

If you find yourself lost in thought, you don't have to make it a problem. We just begin again with the sensations of breathing.

Now you can notice or do a gentle inquiry. Notice if there is any sense of pressure that your experience should be a particular way. Maybe quietly, maybe not so quietly, there's this sense of, "I should be concentrated," or "My mind should not wander away," or "I should meditate more." Just notice if there's that pressure—that type of internal pressure.

If so, can you give that some of this affectionate curiosity? Some warm-hearted attention, allowing that pressure, from this feeling that things should be a certain way, to be there. Giving it space to be there. And notice if there is a sense of, "I should notice this 'should,'" or something like this. This is just a very gentle inquiry. We can just hang out with the sensations of breathing and not make any sense of, "You should find the sense of 'should.'" In a relaxed, easy way, just hang out with the in-breaths and out-breaths.

Just allowing any thoughts to go to the background, and the sensations of breathing to remain in the foreground.

And again, you might check in and see if there's a sense of "should"—that things ought to be a particular way—and the contraction or the pressure that goes with that. It might be there, it might not. We don't have to go digging for it. Just a gentle inquiry: is there a sense of "should" present?

We practice not just for ourselves, of course, but for all beings. To support a sense of ease, peacefulness, and clarity in ourselves, which can't help but affect others that we come in contact with. Maybe in very, very subtle ways, maybe in obvious ways. But may our practice together, our meditating together, help support some warm-heartedness not only for ourselves but for others.

Just as we can inquire about this sense of "should" in ourselves, we can see if we also have this sense leaking out of us in the way that we see the world or experience the world. This idea that things should be a particular way. And to feel the contraction, the limitation, the tightness around that, so that then we can soften. We can bring some wisdom.

So may our practice together support this growing wisdom, this growing self-awareness, this growing sensitivity, so that it's of benefit for all beings everywhere.