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Guided Meditation: Receiving this Moment's Gifts

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good day, everyone. Dear sangha from around the world, I'm delighted to be with you today, supporting our practice while Gil is taking a hiking vacation with his wife. I am so delighted to be here practicing with you today. Thank you for the warm welcomes.

So, another week, another opportunity to cultivate our hearts and minds. Let us begin to practice together, and I will introduce the theme for this week gently in the guidance and talk more about it during the dharma talk.

Let us begin. I invite you to settle in your seat, to land in your body. Ah, arriving. Arriving in this moment, fully inhabiting this moment with whatever is arising.

Let's start by acknowledging whatever is here. Whether it's body aches, a mind that is calm, distracted, or anxious, sadness in the heart, or gladness in the heart, expectation, disappointment, joy—whatever is arising in the heart, the mind, and the body, let's greet it first. Let's greet it with a smile.

It's like this right now. Smilingly bowing to everything that is present in this world internally, in this world externally. Bowing.

Appreciating what is, even if it's a crowd of sorrows, and inviting the thoughts, the heartache, whatever there might be, to be here. They don't have to be pushed away. Is it okay for them to just settle, and allow yourself to give your heart to stillness in silence for just a few minutes?

Taking time, taking a moment of refuge in this fathom-long body. Taking a moment of refuge, turning our gaze inward.

Greeting simplicity. The feet simply touching the earth, the ground. Ah, feeling the simplicity, the joy. Receiving, receiving this groundedness.

Receiving sensations of your bottom on the cushion. Connecting, rooted, landed on the earth.

Receiving the sensations of the hands touching each other and touching your lap. Coolness, warmth^[1]. The uncountably many contact points.

Now, with the next in-breath, receiving ease with the breath. Ah. And with the out-breath, letting go. Letting go of any tension, tightness, holding in the muscles, in the body, and landing more deeply. Connecting more to yourself in this moment in time—this morning, afternoon, evening. This precious moment in time that has never been and never will be again like this. The gift of this moment like this. The gift of this moment of our lives.

Receiving, receiving the in-breath. Magnificent, amazing to be alive. This body knowing how to breathe itself. Letting go, letting go on the out-breath into this moment. Into the unique wakefulness of this moment.

Can we receive what is offered just as it is offered? Can we receive the breath just as it is offered? Deep, shallow, whatever it is, with graciousness.

Can we receive each gift, the entirety of each gift? The entirety of each breath, beginning, middle, and end of the in-breath. Beginning, middle, and end of the out-breath.

Can we receive this body, sensations of the body, whatever is presenting itself, with an open heart? Not picking and choosing, but with an open heart, wholeheartedness.

Opening the gates of our hearts. Just for this period, it's okay, you can close it later if it doesn't feel safe. But if you can experiment just for this period, see what it feels like to try on this attitude of openness and generosity of perspective for yourself.

With each breath, each sensation, even each ache in the body is a gift. It's a gift to teach us something, to point something out. If only we would open up our hearts and generously receive, even if it's challenging conditions.

Of course, there can be joys, ten thousand joys, as well as the ten thousand sorrows. Can we receive? Can we receive? Not go out and get for this moment, but train our hearts, our minds, in just receiving. Relaxing the body, relaxing and receiving.

And imagine the next period of time is a gift to yourself. You've made a gift to yourself. Nothing needs to happen. You're not supposed to accomplish or do anything, even "do" meditation. No, it's a gift. It's a gift of time. Just sit and receive. Just sit and receive.

See how this shift in attitude can change your body, your breath, and the ease of being here. Just relax and receive this gift.

If you notice the mind wandering, thinking, come back. Come back, sweetie. Nothing to do right now. This is a gift of time to just relax in this body and be. Just receive being, the gift of being.

Relaxing, receiving. Receiving the in-breath. Letting go on the out-breath.

What else are we receiving in this moment, besides the breath? A chair or cushion that's supporting us, a roof over our head, likely some food that we have eaten that's giving us energy in this moment.

So many things. Technology with which we can be together in sangha and practice. The works of uncountably many people who have contributed to our well-being to support us in this moment. We are receiving so much in this moment, connected through this web of humanity.

Not to be overwhelmed. Just to sit. Just to sit in this web, in this web of receiving and giving. Relaxing into it, just graciously, smilingly receiving.

And for the last moments of this practice period together, whatever arose or did not arise during this period, have kindness, generosity in our attitude towards ourselves. It's okay, it's okay. Letting go, letting go of any judgment, relinquishing, releasing any judgment, and trusting that there is goodness generated from our coming together. Showing up and practicing. There is goodness generated.

And to generously share that, as if sprinkling this goodness all over the world. May the goodness generated be shared with all beings. May it be a cause and condition for their well-being in ways I cannot fathom. May this goodness be a cause and condition for my well-being, and the well-being of all beings everywhere.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be free.

Thank you for your practice.

Generosity (1 of 5): Receiving Generosity Graciously

So nice to sit, and so nice to sit in sangha and receive each other's presence in this interconnected web of humanity.

Friends, you might have already guessed the topic for our exploration for this week. I'll give you some cues. We'll make this a little interactive, even though it's kind of awkward, right? I don't see you, we're not in the same room. I'm actually on Zoom, I'm not at IMC for those who already know. This is a virtual background, this audio is going through Zoom, etc. So we'll try to make it all interactive.

You might have already guessed, perhaps from the theme of the guided meditation. I'll say a few more things. The theme for this week is one that the Buddha taught first and foremost and emphasized, especially for us lay people. It's a practice that he taught first, before he taught sīla^[2], before he taught ethics.

This topic, which I'm not naming yet—just see if you can guess it—is so important that he taught this first. And when it was firmly established, when the mind, when the heart really had this down, only then did he teach ethics. And only then, after that, did he teach what's called bhāvanā^[3], cultivation of the mind, meditation.

So this comes first in the trilogy, before sīla, ethical teachings, and before bhāvanā, meditation. Any guesses? I'll wait in chat for a moment. You probably already have it.

Also, I'll say one thing: for me, in my own practice when I was younger, I was primarily interested in meditation. Yes, bhāvanā. And as I've become older, and hopefully a little wiser, the importance of these other two factors—of course sīla is so important, of course ethical conduct is so important—but this other factor that I'm not naming yet has become even more important in my practice.

Somebody guessed it. Yes, generosity, dāna^[4], exactly. Dāna, sīla, bhāvanā.

I realized that in my own practice—and when I say practice, it's not just an outward practice of giving; it is so much more than that. I think when I was younger, I was mistaking generosity as just the outward act of giving. Yes, it is that too, of course it is that, but it is so much more than that.

It's really an internal practice. It's a practice of cultivating generosity towards ourselves, towards others, towards our mind, towards our bodies, towards our life. Generosity of attitude, generosity in the way we treat others, the way we give, the way we receive. It's such an important practice.

As I was saying just a little earlier, as I've become a little older, and as practice becomes life... as many of you already know who have been practicing for a long time, life becomes practice, practice becomes life.

So your practice is not just something that you do on the cushion in the morning or in the evening, and then you go and live your life. It doesn't work that way. Maybe at the beginning it felt like, "Oh yes, I'm meditating," and then after a while, your life becomes your practice. The way you live your life, the way you show up, the way you treat yourself, the way you treat others, the moments of your living become your practice.

In this way, generosity is not just something that you do—you just give something to someone and think, "Oh yes, I'm being generous." It infuses your heart, your mind. Generosity towards yourself, towards others.

And it's related to many path factors. We have four other days, so I am so excited I need to pace myself. Part of me wants to just share all the teachings I am so excited about, I want to teach them in one go! But slowly, slowly, slowly. I'm thrilled for us to be discussing this for the next few days, and not just discussing, but to let our hearts and minds swim in generosity. What is it to have a generous heart, or notice moments where there is no generosity?

I've done this practice before, to have my mind swim in generosity for days as a practice, and it's been happy-making and also very opening. So that's the topic, it's a long way of introducing the topic. To place it, as I already mentioned with dāna, sīla, bhāvanā, dāna comes first. This word for generosity or giving—in fact, the word dāna is both giving and what is given. In Pali, the word is d-a-n-a. It's both what is given and the act of generosity.

In an article written by Sayadaw U Pandita^[5], he called dāna and sīla "acts that purify our existence." I love that. Acts that purify our existence. What a beautiful way to relate to it. These are acts that purify our existence.

They have internal dimensions, not just external dimensions of benefiting others, but internal dimensions of purifying. And also other dimensions that are even above and beyond our perception, our understanding, to just open to the beauty and the mystery of this giving and receiving. In life, we're always receiving, we're always giving in our lives.

I'd like to invite us to start today, as we already did with our guided meditation, to start with ourselves. In some way, it is similar to the practice of mettā^[6], loving-kindness, where we start in smaller concentric circles. We start with ourselves and then go out, out, out, and we cultivate kindness, goodwill for ourselves with mettā: "May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be well," etc., so that when our cup feels full, then we can share it with others. We don't have a needy sense of, "Love me, love me, love me," right? When our heart is full, when our cup is full with our own kindness, it's less needy. We can offer it to others.

Drawing a parallel here—let's try this on for size—in order for us... of course for many it might be an easy step from receiving to giving, but to appreciate and acknowledge receiving. Acknowledge that we are the recipient of so much goodness, so many gifts, so much generosity all around us. I mentioned a few items in our guided meditation: the breath, the air you are breathing in. This life, this body, it's ours and it's not so ours. Nothing is really ours. Even things that we "own" aren't really ours.

We are travelers in this life, we're just passing through and we use these items for a while. After I'm long gone, this beautiful Tibetan bell will still be here. For now, I'm its owner, or I'm its custodian, that's it. I'm its custodian. But when I'm gone, it'll still be here.

So, acknowledging so much that we receive, so much goodness. This being that is living this life is receiving. Receiving as a way to open our hearts to the awareness of letting go. Letting go. Generosity is letting go.

There's so much I want to say and we're already at time; I have to save it for the next days. Tomorrow I'll explore more the relationship between letting go, cāga^[7] (which is another beautiful practice, another beautiful term relating to dāna—generosity of heart and attitude of generosity), and dāna, this act of giving. The two go together as beautiful practices.

But for today, the invitation I have is as you go through the day, notice: What am I receiving in this moment? What gift am I receiving this moment? And can I receive it wholeheartedly? Can I receive it graciously? Can I receive it with gratitude? Can I receive it with openheartedness?

For example, if you receive a compliment today, can you receive it with graciousness and simply say, "Thank you"? If they say, "Nice shirt," say, "Oh, thank you," instead of, "Oh, this old thing." Instead of pushing it away, can you receive it with graciousness?

It's a gift someone is giving you. Can you receive generosity of spirit? Can you receive generosity from others, or from yourself, from the universe, with graciousness, with openheartedness, with delight? Because that act of graciousness and openheartedness opens our heart to turn around and share its own generosity, share the generosity of our hearts with others when our heart feels abundant. Like, "Wow, I'm receiving so much."

Thank you for your kind attention. I feel like I'm receiving so much from you with your presence, with your practice, with you participating, with you showing up. Thank you so much, and I look forward to continuing to let our hearts and minds swim in this beautiful topic of dāna, generosity, tomorrow.

Take good care. Be well.