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Guided Meditation: Aware and Supported

So good morning, good day, everyone. Welcome to our meditation session.

We're also considering this week the topic of Dharma (dhamma). It's a common enough word in the world of etymology to say that Dharma comes from a root word meaning to hold, to bear, or to support something. Sometimes it's said to come from an even earlier etymology of something that is in order, organized, and coherent. So the idea of Dharma is being what holds us up. And what holds us up is maybe how reality coordinates and cooperates with itself to create all that we have that makes it possible for us to be here. For us personally, the closest and clearest example of this support, this coordination and cooperation that allows us to be here, is our own body. That's the closest at hand for us.

Allow the Dharma of the body to support us—the coordinated processes, the natural order of the body that we interfere with if we are too actively fixing, changing, or wanting it to be different than what it is. There are times when that's a fine thing to do, but there are times when we want to be supported and trust the support. Trust this coordinated, cooperative support that this body gives, meaning that the body often knows how to move to homeostasis, move to health, and move to healing. A lot of the Dharma practice is being very present for our experience. That's really key to emphasize: be very present, be aware here, and get out of the way, not interfering.

That can be counterintuitive for people who have a habit of always interfering, fixing, and thinking it shouldn't be the way it is. It's a remarkable thing to sit quietly in a meditative posture, being very present, not interfering, and watch how things unfold. Even something as simple as sitting quietly and feeling the body begin to relax, to settle a little bit. The heart begins to be more subtle and relaxed, and agitation dissipates. Maybe even the quality and characteristics of your thinking changes, becoming slower, calmer, or quieter. This quieter way of being settled comes from a little bit of trusting that the body will support us. It also comes with making space for the coordinated processes, the cooperative processes of our body to show themselves, to be themselves.

Assume a meditation posture. I find delight in the idea that the body supports the body. All the different parts of the body support what's above it, holding the weight, holding it together. Gently close the eyes. One of the functions of closing the eyes is to let the other senses we have, especially the sense of physical touch and physical sensations, come into greater focus. Many people are focused on what they see, what they look at. By closing our eyes, we can be body-focused, feeling the body from the inside out.

Begin a process of trusting the body, trusting being present for it as it is. Gently, in a way that's relaxing for you, take some deeper breaths. As you exhale, relax into the support the body provides.

Let the breathing return to normal. On the inhale, let your attention fall or come to different places in your body where there's tension or tightness. On the exhale, soften and relax those parts of the body. Release it from the tension.

Settle into your breathing. Sometimes in the breathing itself, we can sense and feel the support, the naturalness of breathing. Sometimes it's possible to see how we're controlling it, holding it, resisting, or limiting it. With this awareness practice we do, be okay with all of it. Don't try to fix anything, even the control. Make room for it in your awareness—non-interfering awareness. Trust something will find its way with non-interfering awareness that stays aware and makes room for what's here as you breathe in and breathe out.

A good percentage of our thinking probably could be understood as being supported by mistrust, or supported by an absence of real trust and care. Caring for the Dharma here in us, the support, the coordinated, cooperative, amazing world of our body and mind operating here in this space of awareness.

Then, coming to the end of the meditation, the Dharma of support, of coordination and cooperation, is not just with our body, but in a sense with the whole world. The earth, plants, and the animals of the earth, the oceans, the clouds, the air, and other people. Our life depends on this wider world. Our life lives in support and in coordination with this wider world, and we live in relationship to this wider world. It's possible for us to be supported by the wider world and at the same time to offer our support for it, to care for it, to cooperate and coordinate with the wider world.

With attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions of goodwill, wishing for support, wishing the best for everyone. May it be that this meditation supports us, supports the goodness of our hearts to flow to the surface. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free. And in that freedom that we offer, may we receive it in return. May we live in a cooperative universe, supporting each other to be free.

Dharmette: What is the Dharma? (3 of 5) Dharma as Truth

This is the third talk on the topic of what is the Dharma. This is a very multivalent word in Buddhism and in India in general. In Buddhism, there are many different meanings attributed to this word, and it's used in all kinds of ways. Some of the traditional classical commentaries have long lists of all the different meanings of the word Dharma.

I started this week by talking about how Dharma has to do with the relatedness between things, how things exist dependent on or in support of other things. Things arise in relationship to other things being present, and so the Dharma has to do with that relatedness. It's nice to begin talking about Dharma by really emphasizing relatedness and relationships first and foremost, as opposed to "me, myself, and mine" existing independently of the world and anything else.

Then yesterday, I talked about how Dharma sometimes means different variations of the word action or conduct. Often it refers to good conduct, but sometimes it refers to bad conduct too. For example, when monastics transgress their monastic rules, it is sometimes called the dhamma or the Dharma. The emphasis here is on action and activity, highlighting that in so many different ways this early tradition focuses on the dynamic quality of life. Maybe "activity" is a better word than "action"—the activity of life, the activity of phenomena. Everything is in motion. Everything is moving.

Today, what I'd like to emphasize is a more common meaning for Dharma that's often called upon or highlighted: Dharma can mean truth. This requires some explanation of what truth means in this context. The primary truths that we're looking for, like the Four Noble Truths, are truths of what happens in the relationship, the impact our actions have on other things. We live in relatedness. Our actions are part of that relatedness, and our actions affect the quality of what transpires in the association, the connection, the support, and the impact of what comes as a result of the action.

So, Dharma as truth has to do with understanding the impact of action—the impact on others and the impact on ourselves. Seeing the truth of that is important because if you understand the impact of your actions, you can adjust your actions. You can take responsibility for them. If the impact is harmful, you would stop doing it; if it's beneficial, you would continue. If it's a combination of both, we have to use our best wisdom to figure out the wisest way forward. This care and sensitivity to impact is a very important part of Dharma as truth, seeing that what I do has consequences.

This is the simplest way of describing the Buddhist principle of karma^[1]. Karma is the teaching, the idea, the insight, or the truth that our actions have consequences, one way or the other, and we have some choice about what consequences we create in this world. To simplify the core truth around this focus on the consequence and impact of our actions, it's about really understanding what is harmful and what is not. It means avoiding harmful actions, avoiding causing harm in the world as best we can, and avoiding causing harm to ourselves.

This idea of Dharma as truth is a truth that we can see and know for ourselves. We can know if we're paying attention if what we're doing is harmful. If we're very attentive, we can feel the harm not only in the impact but also in the activity itself. If we do something with hostility that has a negative consequence for others, it might have a negative consequence for us in the future. But it also has negative consequences in the moment, because hostility itself involves stress, tension, and dukkha^[2], or pain. There's pain in the very activity of hostility.

The same way with greed. Yes, greed can cause problems in the world. Human greed is monumental, and we see the impact now on the planet of the greed and desire of many individuals—the accumulative effect. But in the very act of having greed, there's something very different from just open-handed desire. Greed itself is painful. It is an activity which has pain within it; it has dukkha within it.

So, we begin seeing the truth of consequence. We begin to see what we're doing that has this negative consequence. This is one of the reasons why mindfulness practice is so effective and so important in Buddhism. Mindfulness practice is not just to be in the present moment, to enjoy your tea and enjoy the sunrise. It's more important so that we can see this really carefully, maybe even minutely. We see the impact in this related world that we live in, how our actions have impact and consequences. We see that if I cling, any craving and clinging brings suffering at a minimum to oneself, and many times to others as well.

When we're doing this, we're also entering into this world where the etymological origin of the word Dharma refers to the coordinated, cooperative nature of reality—how it either supports us or undermines us. The word Dharma is often considered a very positive word. Not always, but it's almost synonymous with the actions which are healthy, wholesome, and supportive. Dharma is the support that's offered, the help that's offered, the benefit that's offered. When we talk about the Buddhist Dharma, a big part of it is that supportive, helpful, and beneficial action. Because all action is in relationship to other things, it then has beneficial consequences for these other things, whether it's within ourselves psychologically or out in the world. Dharma encompasses all of it.

A simple way of saying what I'm saying today is that if karma is the attention to the consequences of our actions, then karma is Dharma, and Dharma is karma. The two can't really be teased apart.

We have relatedness. We must be sensitive to the invisible relationships. You can't touch or see relatedness literally, but we can know it and recognize it in the impact that goes on and in the source in ourselves. Start being attuned to that relatedness in all things. Go out and look at a tree and appreciate the relatedness we have to the tree. The tree takes our carbon dioxide and converts it into oxygen again, and we live in dependence on it. One way or the other, we live in dependence on the clouds and the rain that bring the water we drink. Start looking at the relatedness, the mutual support, and the back and forth.

Appreciate how we live in this world and the actions that we do. Are they beautiful? "To walk in beauty" is a Native American expression. The term for "good karma" in Buddhism literally translates sometimes as "beautiful karma" or "beautiful actions." To live in a related world with actions that are beautiful. "Beautiful" also focuses on the beauty and wonderfulness of the impact of our actions.

I want to review all this because I would like to propose that this is a radically different way of understanding the world, looking at the world, and being in the world. It is different from an excessive focus on oneself as a static thing—thinking it's all about me and what I get for myself. Or an excessive focus on the world out there, thinking things have to be a certain way. More important than things is the relatedness. When we have the relatedness, then we have the ability to see the truth of how our actions impact that relatedness and spill over. For the path of freedom, this is the domain. This is the area of attention to go forward into freedom. Excessive focus on the self without understanding how things within us even relate to each other takes us away from freedom. The focus on relatedness takes it away a little bit from the sense of self-appropriation, where everything becomes about self and what it is.

For today, if you'd like to have an assignment to carry this forward and explore it for yourself in a quiet way—no one has to know you're doing this—as you go about your day, both with the inanimate world, the living world, and the human world around you, as you interact with them, give attention to the impact that you have. Notice the consequences of what you say, what you do, and what you think. What you say and what you do might be impactful for others. What you think might be impactful for you. See the truth of that impact. See the truth of the value of finding the way to non-harming, and maybe being beneficial.

I hope you're beginning to appreciate that Dharma is this powerful, multivalent, rich word that opens up the world in a wonderful way.

Thank you.