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.

Guided Meditation: The Call of Sensations

Hello and welcome. The topic this week is the characteristics of the Dharma—not the teachings of the Buddha, but what those teachings point to. The Dharma that he's pointing to in each of us. The idea of being here and now in meditation is very common; the idea of being present, being mindful of what's happening as it's happening. But it's less understood why we're doing this. There are many reasons, but one reason is so we can get close to the place where there's a deep intelligence within us. This is an intelligence where there's information, and a response to that information, deep within us that we can't exactly appropriate or make claims that it's the conscious "you" doing the intellectual work, the mental work, or the understanding. It's the pre-verbal understanding and the pre-verbal responding that is sometimes almost innate, almost biological, that goes on. That is functioning all the time in subtle ways, background ways.

In meditation, we come into the present moment because then we make space for this deeper intelligence to operate. It isn't so much that we have to do the work of meditation as it is that we have to make space, the space of awareness, breathing room for this deeper place where sensations, knowing, recognition, and being present connect, allowing for the meeting of sense data and this deeper intelligence.

I'll give you one example. Say you're quite tense and your shoulders are up high, and a friend of yours comes along and simply puts their hands on your shoulders to reassure you. Only then do you realize your shoulders are tense. And in realizing they're tense, without even thinking about it, inherent in that tension is the release, letting go. That's what wants to happen there. If there's awareness of that tension, the tension wants to let go. It is almost like it is not even necessary to choose to relax and let go. It's built right into the whole package of awareness of the tension.

Or if there's a feeling of joy, or delight, or pleasure, or love as we're meditating, we make room for that. We recognize, "Ah, this is good." Rather than going back into our distracted stories, we acknowledge, "Ah, this is good. This is wonderful. This is satisfying." Or we just are present for this. That glow of love, the warmth can grow, can be there, can have an influence on us. "This is good. This is healthy." And it isn't so much that we're choosing that it's good, or healthy, or helpful. Something in us knows that, ah, this is where we should go. This is better than repeating the same distracted thought I've had a few hundred times now that undermines me, that is critical of something or someone, maybe myself.

So, the idea is to get really close to the present moment so that some deeper knowing that is not your usual knowing—something deep in your system—can know and find its way with the present moment information that's becoming revealed because we're quiet and mindful.

First is the task of settling in. Settling in, becoming quieter, and awakening a deeper sensitivity to the present moment. And then beginning to give ourselves over to this deeper knowing that guides us.

Assume a meditation posture. Ideally, a posture where you can hold your body comfortably still for the length of meditation, because a still body can promote a quieting of the inner life. And gently close your eyes.

In a small, comfortable, and slow way, take a longer inhale. Just long enough that it stays comfortable for you. And then slowly exhale as long as you can, as long as it's comfortable. As you exhale, let the body relax, as if the relaxing is following the exhale.

Then let your breathing return to normal. As you exhale, continue to soften and relax different parts of your body. You might see if pausing at the end of the exhale can allow for a deeper relaxation into that pause.

As you exhale, relax the thinking mind, the thinking muscle. Settle into just being with the body in a still, quiet way. Be sensitive to the sensations of breathing in your body.

Be sensitive to how breathing wants to breathe. That breathing can breathe itself. Be sensitive to how your attention is drawn, is invited to experience the body breathing in different ways at different times, in different places in the body, and through different aspects of breathing.

Rather than being the director or the controller of the practice, be sensitive to how the breathing body shows itself to you.

Is there anything in the sensations of breathing that wants to relax or soften? Not that it needs to, or is able to easily, but is there a signal? A sensation associated with a desire for softening, quieting, relaxing the breathing.

Rather than focusing on thoughts, leave your thoughts alone. Bring your attention deeper, underneath your thoughts, to sense and feel the body breathing.

While you attend to your breathing, see if you can notice the way—or almost the way—breathing invites you to sense and feel the sensations of breathing in different ways at different moments, discovering how breathing reveals itself.

There are the sensations of breathing, and there is the awareness, your mindfulness of breathing. Between the two, there's the Dharma. Sometimes appearing as a call, an invitation: "Come here. This is what breathing wants you to feel and sense." Listen to the call of breathing. To what it is in breathing that calls for attention. In the cycle of breathing in and breathing out. Don't force anything. Don't strain. Stay aware so you can simply feel that call, that revelation.

And is there a way that the tension and activation of the thinking mind—that which keeps you away from centering on breathing—wants to relax, wants to soften, like the shoulders? That being distracted takes work. There's a way of relaxing, letting go of the energy of distraction, the pressure, the tightness, where there's a relaxing into a sensitivity to the body's experience of breathing.

As we come to the end of this sitting, see if you can drop below your thinking mind to the place where there is a non-verbal knowing, a non-verbal sensing of the body's experience of breathing. In that sensing of breathing, what is it that's known non-verbally that can guide you to a life without tension?

And then consider and feel whatever calm, goodness, well-being, or benefit that's come from this meditation, and how it can be converted, directed, or tapped into to consider the welfare of others. That others too, may they be happy, free, and calm. May they not be agitated, tense, or distracted. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. May all beings be peaceful. And may we, in our speech, our actions, and our ways of thinking, contribute to the welfare of others. May all beings be happy.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Qualities of the Dharma (3 of 5) Inviting Inspection

So, the characteristics of the Dharma. On Monday, I talked about Sanditthiko^[1], that the Dharma is visible with what's visible. Sandi usually means "with," and diṭṭhi^[2] is the seeing or the view. It's meant to describe what is immediately seen here and now, in this lived world. The Dharma is found in or with what is visible and perceivable. When? Right now, immediately. There's something about the immediacy of it. It doesn't take time; it's not a slow process. There's something we can see here and now.

Today, the next of the five characteristics of the Dharma is a colloquial expression in the language that essentially says, "Look here. See here." Ehipassiko^[3]. Passiko comes from the same root passa as in Vipassanā^[4], so it means "to see." And ehi can mean a number of things. It can mean "here," "hey," or "come"—"come here, come look, come see."

This is where it starts getting very interesting: there are sense experiences that we have, there is awareness of sense experiences, and in between, there's something dynamic that goes on.

An example that occurred to me is riding a bicycle. Say it's a safe place with no traffic, and you're going somewhat fast, maybe coasting downhill a little bit, and you go into a curve. You don't just turn the handlebar. You turn the handlebar, and the tendency is to lean into the curve. How far do you lean? Do you get a calculator out to consider exactly the right angle to turn? No, there are sensations deep in the body—balance sensations, all kinds of sensations that come into play—that help us know almost exactly how far to lean over to stay balanced, to stay in that midpoint of balance so that we don't tip too far or not far enough.

That's not a calculation, it's not a thought, it's not a planned event. We're feeling our way. There are sensations, and there is the awareness of them, and between them, there's an understanding. Not only is it an understanding, but there's a pull, like, "Stay right here, feel this. Feel the balance, feel the degree, and feel very carefully what is too much, what is too little, and when it's important to adjust and straighten out."

It's almost as if, as we're bicycling, there's an inner pull to pay attention to the sensations of the body which are giving us the information we need so that we know how to be. Sometimes it becomes second nature and the body takes care of it itself. But that's because the body is aware of the sensations and can direct the show a little bit: "Now go this way, now lift up, back and forth." There's an intelligence there that knows what to do when you're riding a bicycle.

This is true for many sports, many arts, playing musical instruments, and many activities we do where we don't track every little movement, how much pressure, or how much looseness to apply. There's a deep knowing in the body that knows how to be, knows how to make adjustments. And there's a pull, an invitation to say, "When I'm riding the bicycle, pay attention to the pull of gravity, the balance, the angle." Something knows to follow that. It doesn't occur to you that what you should follow are the sensations in your elbow. The elbow can generally take care of itself. But it knows that, in order to ride the bicycle well, you must follow the pull, follow the invitation: "Here, this is where the attention should be."

When we sit to meditate, it can operate the same way. We sit down to meditate and ask, "Where does the attention go? What wants attention now?" When you first sit down, it might be the ways we're uncomfortable or not quite sitting right. And there's a pull: "Oh, here. Pay attention here. Come into balance here. Adjust this." Small adjustments go on, and they don't necessarily have to be something we think about. It's just inherent in having a body and taking a posture; if you're deeply sensitive, there's a call: "Pay attention here. This needs your attention. Adjust this."

Sometimes, of course, the body screams at us when it's in pain, or it says, "Hey there, I have a message for you, please listen to this message." But sometimes it's very subtle. As we practice, in that zone between a sensation and our awareness of the sensation, the more we can be aware of it, the more it's like we're giving it breathing room. Our sense body is saying, "Here. This is what needs attention."

In the course of meditation, there might be different parts of the body that call attention. Or it might be that the breathing shifts and changes where the center of sensations is, and we follow it. It might be where the breathing is tense, where there's a contraction, or the breathing is not full, it's tight. And it says, "Here. Here is where the sensations are. Here is where you should have your attention."

This is a fascinating idea: that the Dharma is not found by a willful, calculated idea of where our attention should be. As we get more and more sensitive, mindful, and present, things will call our attention. "Here, this is where we pay attention. Pay attention to this." And it tends to be very simple. Little movements of tension, little movements of release of tension. Little movements of tightness, release of tightness. Little movements of discomfort: "This doesn't feel good. This feels off. Something's off here." There are a whole bunch of very simple sensations that don't require a complicated analysis or a whole backstory of why they're there.

Just like on a bicycle, there are all kinds of little sensations that pull our attention to help us ride well. It doesn't need a big story. We don't have to go back into all the different ways we've ridden a bicycle before; it's really staying tuned in to what is going on, what is happening.

So this third characteristic of the Dharma, called Ehipassiko—come and see—the grammar of it is like someone inviting you: "Come here. Come and see for yourself." The question is, what is it that's calling your attention? What sensations, what inner direct experiences are saying, "Here, now, here's where your attention should be"?

I find this very significant because it's not the same thing as having a technique of meditation that overrides your wisdom, your deeper sensitivity, or what your natural system is calling us to pay attention to. With mindfulness practice, one of the ways we practice is we pay careful attention to what's calling for attention, to what is predominant. There's a deep wisdom inside that knows, "Now it's time to pay attention to this," in the world of direct sensations.

It can seem like a very simplistic way of living a life—to be limited to just the sensations. In a certain way it is, of course. It doesn't mean we forget the more complicated world of thoughts, ideas, stories, and things we have to figure out. It's just that if we want to connect to the Dharma deeply, we need to be able to go deeply into this world of sensations to learn how to pick up the wisdom, the teachings, the onward-leading nature of how we can get freer, how we can get wiser. We learn how to track this deep inner source of information that the body can provide, and then have that inform how we live in the more complicated, sophisticated world that we want to live in.

This Dharma is something marvelous, something that is in us, but we can't claim it is us. That's why the word Dharma is quite nice. The inner Dharma, the inner intelligence, is of us, but is not us.

May you discover something about this deep inner knowing by paying attention to what calls your attention in your body. What is it that really wants to be known? If you're quiet and sensitive, it might not be the loudest thing. Sometimes it's the quieter things that give the indication, "Oh, here. This is what's needed."

Thank you all very much, and I hope that you find this evokes your curiosity to look into this for yourself. Thank you.