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Guides Meditation: Trust

Hello everyone. This is the last meditation of the year. Thank you to all of you being part of it, however long you have.

To just jump right into the meditation: one of the interesting perspectives for meditation is to consider what you trust and what you don't trust. Where is your mind involved? What are your thoughts, your preoccupations, what you're involved with with your mind? Is it based on trust, or is it based on some mistrust? And of course, there might be something in between where you are neutral, where you're thinking about things that you can either trust or don't trust; it's not an issue.

But for meditation, you want to stay on that side of trust. For these minutes of the meditation, trust being present, trust mindfulness, trust the meditation. Be sensitive to when you are not in the present moment—is it because you're mistrusting something, in the broader sense of the term? Is there some kind of mistrust, or nothing at all, no trust involved? If so, a better place to be is with your trust. The trust that helps you feel the goodness, the rightness of being awake, of being aware, being here. The trust of being mindful of breathing.

The operating word is mindfulness: mindful of the breathing, aware of the breathing, trusting being aware of it. Maybe it's not a strong trust, but maybe what takes you away from it all—what is stronger for you—could be understood as being mistrusting. Or are you putting trust in the wrong places? Maybe you trust planning, but maybe planning is based on fear, which is mistrust. Maybe you put your trust in remembering something, ruminating over something that happened. Maybe it's nice to remember, but maybe also it's driven by a kind of betrayal or loss of trust that happened.

Maybe you don't trust the present moment. Maybe you don't trust being aware of the present. Stay close to that, so that you can see through the other side of it where there is trust for the present moment, trust for mindfulness awareness. Stay close to trust. And maybe after this week of considering the readiness of mind, the malleability of mind, a mind free of the hindrances, an inspired mind... maybe today, stay close to trust.

So, without taking a posture, maybe assume a posture that for you represents a strong trust, a trust which has strength to it, a confidence, a faith, a certainty. Gently closing your eyes. And gently become aware of the body breathing, with no special breathing. Just notice. Be aware of your body breathing.

Most of the time, for most of us, we have an implicit trust that will keep breathing—except for maybe when we bring our attention to it. But maybe there is the body's trust, a kind of willingness and ability for the body just to breathe. That's been going on for a long time. Allowing the body to be receptive to the experience of breathing. And awareness riding on the body's receptivity. A second level of receptivity, and being aware through the body.

And whatever attention preoccupations you might have, body and mind, let it be okay to be that way. Trust it's okay, as long as you're aware of it. Aware with it, breathing with it.

Trusting being aware of the present for these minutes. Trusting it is the central place to be. Trusting it with a receptivity that has softness. A simple awareness that's free of the hindrances. A kind of simple inspiration. Here, now, aware. Trusting awareness so you linger with it. A kind of resting in experience, because you trust being present for whatever your experience is. Breathing with it all, in and out.

Whatever you're involved in, is there trust? What are you trusting? Are you trusting something unwholesome or something wholesome? Are you trusting mistrust? Stay close to trusting the present moment. Trusting being aware here.

Trusting the present moment allows us to be close to the coming and going of all things in the moment. When we're in our thoughts, the thinking kind of lingers with things to make them more permanent, more outlasting, as if that takes us out of the river of constant change. Trust the present, and rest in the river of things coming and going. Trust without clinging to anything. Receptive, trusting, non-clinging to the comings and goings of the present moment.

Whatever is part of the world of suffering, your suffering, the experience of suffering, has a nature of appearing and disappearing, coming and going. The direct experience of suffering is part of the river of change. Trust floating on that river, not holding on to any of it. Stay close to being aware of the changing nature of the present.

And to be close to the changing nature of reality, how things change through the day, through the hours, through the minutes. To have a receptive mind, a ready mind for whatever change might come. To have a soft mind, soft heart for whatever change is coming. To be free of hindrances. To be inspired by the value of staying present, receptive, soft, free of hindrances. To trust.

Being receptive and soft, free of hindrances, and inspired. So that when people come into your awareness—people do the surprising, unexpected things that people do—you receive them in this field of awareness, field of softness. Non-resistance, non-clinging. To be able to see and know others in a deeper way than if we react. To, with greater wisdom and clarity, know ourselves better. And so be able to remember kindness, friendliness. Basic human care of others, goodwill.

May it be that in the freedom of our hearts, we can meet everyone with goodwill. May those people that I encounter, may I wish them well. May I wish them to be happy. May I wish them to be safe. May I wish them to be peaceful. May I wish them to be free. And with those wishes, may I be friendly, kind, supportive of others.

May the practice that we do, for all of us as a community, be a phenomenal contribution to the welfare and happiness of this world. May it spread from each of us, and collectively we will make a difference for this world.

Dharmette: Ready to Change (5 of 5) Clear, Happy, and Trusting

Thank you. So, we come to the last of the talks that are titled "Ready to Change". It could also be titled "Ready for Change", but I think that first we want to think about it for ourselves: to be ready to change, ready to be changed for the better. And as that happens to us, then we're more ready for change in the world. We're able to receive and be part of that change without unhealthy resistance, and unhealthy fear, and projections, and desires, and despair, and all kinds of things that contribute to our sense of discomfort in this world. They contribute to a deep distrust in this world, that those things have to be different, things shouldn't be this way, and maybe trusting anger, trusting greed, trusting fear, trusting mistrust.

So, the Buddha, when he was teaching, was orienting his teachings towards cultivating these really wholesome states of mind in people so they'd be ready to hear profound teachings that could liberate them, or, in the language of it, to open their Dharma eye^[1]. That they would see in a new way. And that's a powerful teaching, the idea that we're not looking for a new experience, like a better experience; we're looking to see our experience in a new way that's liberating. Some people are so focused on change, making some change, fixing something, solving something, but rather, to open and see it in a new way.

The Buddha would be giving these talks that would inspire people, and in that inspiration, their minds would become receptive, ready to hear something deep. Their minds would become malleable and soft. Their resistance, for example, and their stubbornness, and their laziness, and their greed, or whatever it was, would soften, would settle, and they'd be really right there. There's a kind of softness and willingness to hear and take it in, and kind of lower their guard in a healthy way, an appropriate way, perhaps. And then their minds would be free of hindrances^[2] for the time giving those talks. They'd be so connected to it that they wouldn't be caught up in greed, anger, and delusion; they would be inspired.

And the last thing that would happen—pasāda^[3] is the Pali word, and this is a wonderful word that we don't have a particular meaning in English for. The different meanings of it that we can make out of it is a range that we have very different English words for. And so, I think the delightful task is to consider how they all are one thing. Somehow, in that ancient Indian world, they saw this as its own thing. Maybe like they had a different emotion than we have because they divide up the human experience in a different way or hold it together in a different way than we do in English. So you have to use your imagination a little bit to hold these different meanings together into one. Maybe you'll come up with an English word that might hold them all, but so far I haven't. Maybe some of you will, or maybe in a non-English language.

The first meaning is clear or bright. So luminosity, a clarity. Like you turn on the light and there's this wonderful clarity. The fog and the smog has cleared and it's clear, and there's a brightness and clarity to the mind, to the heart. The second meaning is that it's a heart that is happy. It has just delighted and happy. And the third meaning is that it's a mind that has trust in it, that is reconciled with all things, that is pleased or satisfied with what's here. But that word trust is one that people often fall on, or confidence. So clarity, happiness, and trust.

Is there a single English word that captures all three of those? Or can you somehow fold them in to somehow recognize all of them? If we have different qualities at the same time, are they different qualities, or is there a gestalt whole that they're part of in the present? So this idea of receptivity, readiness, softness, malleability, free of hindrances, inspired, elated, clear, happy, trusting. And for now, I'll settle on the word trust.

It's a fascinating concept or state to orient ourselves to. Kind of the exercise of: what is my mind doing right now? Does it express some kind of trust or mistrust? If it's trust, what am I trusting? Am I trusting anger? Am I trusting fear? Am I trusting mistrust? Where do I put my trust? In a sense, whatever the mind is doing most, there is a kind of trust there. And sometimes what we're trusting is not healthy for us to trust. Trust something healthy, to trust the wholesome, not the unwholesome. To trust more than mistrust. To trust really being here, fine. And what does that do for us? To settle us, relax us. The confidence, the faith, something about really being here.

So the Buddha prepared people with a mind like that, and then he would offer his deepest teachings, and it would open people's Dharma eye. And it's said that when people's Dharma eye opened, they would exclaim, they would say a particular thing. It might not seem very interesting or very profound just hearing it, but it's really a significant, you know, this comes with an experience of awakening, so it's not to be treated lightly and dismissed because it sounds like it's not much. They would say, "Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing."^[4]

The Dharma eye would show them something very profound about the comings and goings, the arising and passing of phenomena. And what is possible when we see that? What's possible is to see how much the mind doesn't allow us to stay and be there because we climb on, we grab, we hold on, we have thoughts. When the Buddha was very specific, when he gave his profound teaching, he was saying that suffering has the nature of arising and passing. And to understand that, we have to understand that it's the experience of suffering.

If we've had a profound loss, the loss is not coming and going, it's permanent now. Or if we have some kind of permanent medical condition that debilitates us, that's not going to change. What do they mean, right, coming and going? It's the psychological experience of suffering, of how we relate to that, has a nature of coming and going. It's not permanent, it's not solid. And if we trust the present moment enough, trust just being present for the river of comings and goings, we discover that place where all our psychological suffering belongs to that river, belongs to the comings and goings of phenomena.

When we see that, when we wake up to that, then we realize it's possible to let it just be the river of change. We don't have to cling to it and hold on to it. Whatever has a nature to appear, has the nature of disappearing. Let's allow it to come and go. Let's not stop the disappearing. Let's not latch onto it. Let's not think about it in such a way that it becomes kind of continuous. Just let the thoughts arise and go.

Someone might protest and say, "What do you mean? My body is not coming and going, my body is just here." The body is constantly coming and going! The experience of it, the psychological experience of the body, the thoughts, the concepts, the feelings, sensations. The body doesn't come and go, but when we're into the direct experience, is what we're talking about here. That's where the Dharma eye opens: to the direct experience here and now. And here, our psychological suffering comes and goes.

So this idea that the Buddha has of teaching people to create the context of a heart and mind that's ready for teaching is not to be Pollyannaish about life and to just make it all nice and sweet. It's really to prepare us for the existential difficulties of this life of ours. The places of suffering and stress and challenges that we have. And what a wonderful thing, what a wonderful thing to cultivate the wholesome, to cultivate these wonderful capacities of our mind for wholesome states. Not to be blind to what's going on in this world, but to be able to see it and be present for it in a way that we are able to bring the best of ourselves out. We're able to stay awake and present and non-reactive so that the best of us can meet and respond to the world.

And I hope that this practice we've done over this last year really does make us better able to contribute to the welfare and happiness of this world. May we really do this practice not only for our own sake, but even more than for our own sake, let's do it for the sake of the world after all. As we settle and have this open attention, this ability to be free and aware, in that openness and awareness maybe it doesn't matter so much "me, myself, and mine". What's important is what that awareness meets and encounters, and how we care for it.

May we care for this world. And let's care for it better, because we've gotten to the bottom of our suffering and learned not to cling to anything. So thank you all for this year, for this week, for this day. Very glad to have shared with you this time and this teaching and this practice. I certainly look forward to doing it again starting in the future, in the far future next year in 2023. So when that time comes, then I look forward to being with you next Monday. Thank you.