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Guided Meditation: Knowing without Baggage

Well, it's quite wonderful to see all the greetings. I know the chat today and all the different ways it said in different languages, and even different ways of saying it in English, different areas. So thank you. It's so wonderful to feel the richness and the variety, and I think every language, every ethnicity, every person is a gift, and it's nice to kind of feel the giftness of it all in one place.

I didn't see it in my native language, which is Norwegian, so god morgen. And other languages that I've spoken through my life so far is Italian, which is buon mattino for good morning, and French, bon matin, and Japanese, ohayo gozaimasu. And I don't speak sign language, but good morning in sign language as you say, the gesture for the sign for good, like that, and then the sign for morning. So here we are.

So, we continue here on this adventure with attention. I think the whole area of Buddhist practice, Buddhist meditation, is—I think of it as an adventure, a wonderful journey to discover, ever keep discovering aspects of our ability to be conscious, ability to be attentive. And it's such a rich, multifaceted domain. And it gets richer when we start appreciating the potential for awareness, for attention to bring us freedom, to bring us peace, and how to unhook attention from our reactivity, unhook our awareness from our judgments and our preferences, and to free mindfulness from a certain kind of self-referencing, a certain kind of self-preoccupation.

And so, these are some of the things we're discovering in this process. And one of the ways that this text we're looking at talks about it in the end is to abide not clinging to anything, but to abide consciously aware.

So for now, I'd like to emphasize that it's a discovery process to discover how knowing—the simple capacity to recognize something—can be done in a radically simple way. And that's one of the stepping stones for this Satipaṭṭhāna^[1] mindfulness path, is to begin discovering how knowing can become simpler and simpler, and just know without the baggage that comes along, without the entanglement with being for or against the experience.

It can at first begin to feel kind of plain and boring and dull just to know something. But as that sense of knowing gets stronger and gets developed, it begins filling out and becoming broader or more expansive, more freeing, more peaceful, more happiness producing.

So to begin with a little exercise, and that is to close your eyes and bring your attention to some part of your body that feels neutral. Someplace in your body where you have sensations, but the sensations are not particularly pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable. If they're a little bit, that's fine. And it could be something your hands are touching, could be the contact of your lips against each other. Just find a sensation in your body that's relatively neutral.

And then in the simplest way, be aware of it. If you're observing it, imagine that you are looking at it from above, from below, from the sides. Just kind of scanning it to feel it more fully. And then have a few moments of recognition. Maybe it's pressure, maybe it's warmth, coolness, tingling, vibration, whatever it might be. And if you're not sure what it is, just maybe recognize it as sensation.

And then continue with this little act of recognition of what it is. And see if you can experiment with having that recognition be very simple, almost as if it creates space around the experience. So you're recognizing whatever the sensation is in and of itself, in terms of itself, without a past or a future, without meaning and purpose to the sensation, maybe even without self-reference. Just a sensation.

And then you can also continue to know it gently, simply. And if you use a little act, a moment of recognition for naming it for what it is, let that recognition be like dropping a pebble in a still pond. And then be there to feel the ripples, to feel more fully. It's like you're opening a door, a window. Recognize, and then feel and experience the sensation more fully in a peaceful mind, an open mind, open awareness to the sensation.

And now with the same attention, have your awareness become aware of breathing. Wherever in your body you usually experience your breathing, see if you can have the same simple awareness of the sensations of breathing. Being aware of breathing on its own terms, the sensations as they are. Not taught, not how you want them to be, not what you're trying to accomplish, as if the sensations of breathing have permission to be there just as they are; they can be themselves. And you know it, know the sensations of breathing.

Knowing an inhale as an inhale. Knowing the sensations of exhale as exhale.

And then also becoming aware of the quality or the characteristics of the knowing in knowing your breathing. Are you in a hurry? Is there strain? Are you trying to make something happen? Is there some concern that something special is supposed to happen?

How simple can you let your knowing be of the knowing of breathing? And can you appreciate that knowing: simple, open, peaceful, where there's a joining of knowing and breathing, one inhalation at a time, one exhalation at a time.

Instead of thinking about things, know what's happening with your breathing. Is your breathing loose or tight? Are they long or short? Shallow or deep?

Without any judgment or need for it to be any particular way, let your breathing be itself, and you simply know it. As if you're going along accompanying the breathing, listening deeply as you would with a friend who you're listening to, accompanying your breathing with your capacity to know it.

And then as we come to the end of the sitting, considering how attention is a gift that we can give to others. When we listen to them carefully, it's a gift. When we see them clearly in a world where people are often not seen, it's a gift. If we are present for others, it's a gift in a world where people often don't take the time to be present for each other.

And may we, at the end of this meditation, dedicate the cultivation of attention that we do here to bringing a richer, more valuable attention to the world around us, to the people in our lives. And with that attention, may it promote the welfare and happiness of others. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (3) The Journey of Mindfulness

So probably this will be the last more introductory talk for the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[1:1], the discourse on the four foundations for awareness, the foundations upon which we can grow a particularly valuable form of awareness.

And the text begins with this confident statement that there is a direct path, a direct way, a direct journey to—and the word is maybe more like a going—a direct going to freedom, to liberation. And "what is this direct way?" the text asks, and then the Buddha describes it. In shorthand, he first says to observe the body in its own terms, the body in terms of a body; to know feelings in terms of feelings, to know mental states in terms of mental states, and to know mental processes in terms of mental processes.

And this word "in terms of", if you really did a literal translation, it would say the body in the body, the feelings in the feelings, mind states in mind states, and mental processes in mental processes. But this grammatical form that gives us "in" can also mean "in terms of", "in regards to", "in respect to". And the usual interpretation for this is that the observation is meant to be very simple.

And the word "observe" here, such an important one. Our ability to kind of settle back in a nice, comfortable easy chair and just see what's happening without judging it or fixing it or doing anything with it. This kind of very spacious and peaceful way of just to watch, just to see. And to do so "the body in terms of the body", meaning not in terms of our judgments, in terms of our memories, in terms of the other mind states, in terms of mental processes. Just the same radical simplicity being with the body.

So to observe it, that's the way to do it. But I use the example of sitting in an easy armchair and just kind of watching it as a reference point for it. But the text actually says to do it ardently. And I love the word "ardent". To do it with a certain kind of engagement, like really there. And do it with awareness, and do it with a clear comprehension, clear recognition of what's happening, "having put aside covetousness and distress for the world".

Now suddenly it becomes a tall order, this whole thing. It's not easy to be able to observe without judging, fearing, thinking about things, reacting, let alone being in the present moment. It's not easy to apply a certain kind of healthy, peacemaking urgency. And it's not easy to maintain a continuity of awareness, a continuity of clear comprehension. And it's not easy to put aside the greeds we have, the covetousness, the wantings we have, or the distress we have.

But that's the way. So what this text is doing is saying there is a path to freedom, a way to go. This is the way to go to freedom. But maybe recognizing it's not easy to do that, then the text goes on and offers 13 exercises for how to get there. And the first one is this first tetrad of Anapanasati^[2], being attentive to breathing in a certain way, which we'll go through over the next few days.

And after that, as a person learns this exercise, then that exercise is onward leading. Things move, and you're part of this journey, this ongoing going, this movement. And the Buddha's teachings are full of movement. It's not only about going nowhere, being no one, doing nothing, which is a wonderful teaching in a limited way of understanding it, but it's not the full teaching. The Buddha's teachings have this kind of ongoing quality to it.

Now, if you went to the playground and there's a child on a slide at the top of the slide, and you said to the child, "Oh, let me give you some profound spiritual teaching: there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to be. Just sit and do nothing." The child would just be perplexed. Or a child might be wiser, that knows what they're there for; the child is there for the fun of the process of going down the slide, and they're up there to do that. And they're not greedy for it, they're not trying to prove themselves to anyone, they're not trying to accomplish any great thing like they'd be the best slide maker in the world. They're just going to go down the slide for the fun of the slide.

So I use that as a reference point for there is a kind of leaning into the slide, onto the slope of mindfulness, of this practice. It's not only about staying exactly where you are and nothing ever changes. The language of change, though, that the Buddha uses is bhavana^[3], which, as I understand it, means something like to cultivate or to develop. As a farmer or gardener would cultivate a plant, or a parent would help a child develop by feeding them and treating them well, so that in a healthy way they can physically and psychologically develop. The parent is not stretching the child so they grow faster; they're allowing a natural process to unfold. So the same way with this mindfulness practice. There's a radical simplicity: being aware of the body in and of itself, being aware of breathing, just a simplicity of breathing, knowing it. And allowing for the possibility that you're on a slide, or there's a growth or development that goes on here.

So the text begins with a promise, that there is a direct way to freedom. The way you do it is observing, in this very strong, mature place of mindfulness: to observe the body in and of itself, feelings, mental states, and mental processes. But the heart of the text is then the exercises that it gives, and we'll go through the 13 exercises. After each exercise, there's a refrain. It's usually called a refrain, and that's the part that gets repeated over and over again. For those of you here Monday when I read my synopsis of this whole process, the refrain was represented by the expression, "observing change in the body, abiding not clinging to anything in the world."

And the refrain itself continues a journey. It actually is a three or four-part journey that is describing an unfolding that goes through observing change in such a way that the awareness gets more and more clarified, purified, simplified, until awareness becomes kind of lucid. And it's so lucid that then we can relax into it. Then it's kind of like relaxing into a long, wonderful, comfortable slide down a hill. The process takes over. The process of deepening meditation takes over that leads to non-clinging, to freedom.

And so it's important not to be in a hurry to go through all this. It's important not to get discouraged. But actually, I find it phenomenally inspiring, this idea that the Buddha describes a process of growth, a process of unfolding. We're not expected to be free just quickly, like instant enlightenment as some people would like to have it. But rather there's something very mature and maturing about settling down for the long term and beginning putting the steady pieces in place of developing, cultivating, growing awareness.

Our ability to be more and more present in the present moment with awareness, with attention, to learn the art of resting in there and opening to it so that it's peaceful, so that it's inspiring, so that it's happiness-producing, so that there's a goodness to it that we open up to as we cultivate and develop this simple capacity to be aware. As we go through the text, different faculties of attention are called into play at different times. And I think of attention is kind of like the Swiss Army knife of the mind. It has all these different tools that can be used.

And so at different times we learn these different tools and apply them. Each of them is useful at different times, different circumstances to help us be present with our experience. And not only be present, but to have the kind of awareness that is onward leading, that has space in it, peacefulness in it, that's not complicated by our expectations and our pushing and our wanting. It's just kind of like making space for the organic cultivation, organic development, maturation that leads to freedom.

And so today, the emphasis was discovering more and more about this quality of knowing, recognition, and how knowing and recognizing things has a power to it and a beauty to it and a peacefulness to it. Sometimes to name something gives some kind of space in the heart, the mind. "Oh, it's been named. Oh, it's like that. Yes, that's how it is." Someone might say that there's a lot of tension here in the group. And then, someone named it, finally. "Oh yes, that's what's happening." And then everyone kind of relaxes a little bit.

So to do that with the breathing: to establish attention, establish awareness with breathing, and then to know the breathing. And as we know it, to begin discovering some of the qualities of knowing, or discover how to know so that knowing is unburdened with all the baggage we carry with us. It's so simple, and to feel the delight or the peace or the freedom from the disentanglement, from that simple knowing. At first it might seem like it's nothing. It's like, "Okay, what's the big deal?" But it's a big deal to develop this capacity to know. A beautiful thing to do.

So thank you. In Norwegian, mange takk, and molte grazie. So I look forward to our time tomorrow.