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Let's Talk About Practice: Mindfulness - Diana Clark, Tanya Wiser

What is Sangha?

Tanya Wiser: Well, so there's what Sangha^[1] means to me, and there's probably what the formal definition of Sangha is. The formal definition of Sangha from the time of the Buddha really meant the community of enlightened monks and nuns who had gone from home to become homeless. All they do is have their robes and their alms bowl, and they live off of food that's given to them day by day. And they sleep in parks and places where they're invited to sleep.

That was initially what the term meant. Sangha is one of what they call the Three Gems^[2]. There are three gems in the Dharma: one is the Buddha, the teacher; the second is the Dharma, the teaching, the lessons, the practices; and the third is the community, the Sangha.

We don't have many monastic nuns and monks in our day, and many of us who are teaching now live lives where we have homes and jobs, so life has changed a lot. The community has changed a lot here in the United States. I guess it never really was that way, so it didn't change here, but it has evolved. So now I use the term Sangha to represent spiritual friendship. The people who come to IMC^[3], when we come together, we create a Sangha. And it is that Sangha that created the space; it made it happen. So that's what I mean.

You want to add anything, Diana?

Diana Clark: That was great. I just thought I would... yeah, it's a good one. I actually, just last night, had written up a document for submitting on something, and Gil^[4] said, "Do you think maybe you should define the word Sangha?" So it's a theme. Gil stole my thought! [Laughter]

Guided Meditation

Tanya Wiser: Hi Anne Rose, good to see you. So, are we ready to meditate?

Great. So I thought the way that I would give instructions is sort of a combination of telling you and walking you through it. When it's time to meditate, these are some of the things I've been taught to do, or I do. We all find our exact own way, so this is not like I'm telling you the exact thing that every person does here. But I'm telling you things that are taught a lot, and you can adapt in a way that works for you, if that makes sense. And also, I'll give you instructions, but I also want to give you permission to adjust the instructions. If I say a word that doesn't land right to you, or I invite you to try something and you're like, "No," please trust what's right for your practice.

So the first thing is kind of this decision: we're going to meditate. I'm going to be mindful. That's really the very first thing. We're going to sort of make this choice.

And one posture we can be mindful in is sitting, which is what we're all choosing to do tonight. So we're gonna bring awareness into sitting down and the posture that we take.

Think about how you might be sitting right now if you were about to meet with someone important. How would you show up? How would you feel? What would your posture be if this was somebody important you were going to connect with? There's a little bit of extra lift, right? A little bit of... I don't want to use the word formal, but a little bit more upright in our posture, because we're interested and we want to be respectful too.

So guess who we're gonna show up for like this? Ourselves. We're important. Our awareness is important.

So finding a posture for sitting. Feeling the feet supported by the earth. The sit bones supported by our cushion or chair. Our backs are upright.

And feel into your body. Feel it sitting here. We want to be comfortable too. And so take a moment to see if you need to adjust your posture in any way. It's great to do that. Rock back and forth on the sit bones. You might lean forward, lean back. You might bring your shoulders up and roll them back to help open the chest for breath.

And maybe feeling that there's more a sense of weight. You're more connected to gravity as you bring your awareness inward and into the sitting.

The next thing that can be helpful is inviting a mindset that will support us in our practice. So I'll mention a couple of qualities: faith and inspiration.

As we show up, can we have faith that this is important? That for whatever reason, we got ourselves here. We wanted to be here. And we don't know exactly what's going to happen in the next hour and a half, but can we stay connected to a sense of inspiration and faith that it's worthwhile?

If you have a reason for being here, you might connect with that. Like, "I want to suffer less." Or "I want to have more freedom from my thinking." Or "I want to be able to respond differently to my emotions." Or "I want freedom. I want to be liberated."

The next quality I'll invite you to connect with is the quality of being interested, curious, or receptive. Being curious about how this is going to unfold, because no two meditations are the same. And the journey here is to stay present, awake to what's happening in our direct experience. Curious about the next sensation, sound, or thing that arises.

We're often taught that it's helpful to have some sort of an anchor. Some sort of a way to help ourselves not get lost in thought. An anchor, just like an anchor for a boat helps the boat not drift out to sea or crash up onto the shore. An anchor in meditation helps us to stay as close as we can to the present moment.

And it could be sound, breath, or sensations in the body. Most often it's the breath. But we all find what's easiest for us to connect with in a way that helps us stay here.

Paying attention on purpose. In the present moment. To whatever you can sense into, what you can experience right here, right now.

And just like the ocean has waves, we have thoughts. They will come. And sometimes we'll get moved around by them, carried away by them. That's the nature of a mind that thinks. It's not a problem.

But is it possible for the period of this practice to prioritize being with our direct experience overthinking, over-planning, over-conceptualizing? Can you let thoughts just happen and be an experience without getting carried away by them? Agreeing or disagreeing with them?

Over and over again, we might just invite ourselves to reconnect with our anchor, our breath. We might try what we call a noting practice. That might be something like saying, "In" with the inhale, and "Out" with the exhale.

Very simple noting.

And as you breathe in, and out. Feeling and knowing the sensations of breathing out.

You might try noting by just saying the word, "Now," helping your mind orient to this moment. Or "Here." Right here. In this moment, in this body.

Or even just saying, "What happens in your own experience?" Experimenting with curiosity a little bit with these different ways of noting and seeing what happens inside of you. How does your mind respond?

This is about learning. Learning how to be aware and with your mind, not controlled by it. And not wrangling with it either.

Just here.

Just now.

And if the mind is busy thinking, it might be possible to just sort of breathe through the thinking. Just letting the thinking happen and still feeling the breath. Still knowing "now."

The mind can have thoughts, it's okay. And you can be right here. Just now, just this. Breathing right through it. Right with it.

Paying attention on purpose. And giving preference to our direct experience. Direct experience is the feeling of breathing, the sounds you're hearing, sensations in your body.

The mind might be just making little thoughts. They can be like little clouds in the sky, just floating around doing their thing. And we can be like the sky. The sky doesn't care if there's clouds. It's wide and open, spacious.

It's patience.

Just breathing here.

Letting the thoughts be thoughts, the sensations be sensations. Just letting things be. You don't have to try and control them or change them. Just breathing with it and through it.

Breath by breath. Maybe three breaths in a row. Just three. Seeing if you can stay intimately connected with the inhale, the pause, and the exhale.

Three breaths in a row.

Reflections on the Meditation

Tanya Wiser: Thank you. So before Diana gives our talk, I wanted to just see how that was for you. Questions, frustrations, pleasant or unpleasant experiences? We've got a mic here, and for the people out on YouTube—hello!—and the other people who listen later on, would you be willing to use the mic? Let's just hear a couple of comments about how that was.

Tara, thank you.

Tara: I'm wondering if it's normal to feel like you're falling asleep and you're kind of in and out of this dream state? It's sort of hard to tell if it's sleep or thoughts. Is that normal?

Tanya Wiser: Anybody else ever feel that way? Yes. We get exposed in this different way to all these different mind states, right? And that's one of them. And it can be kind of pleasant. Did you find it a little bit pleasant?

Tara: Yeah.

Tanya Wiser: And do you feel like you were able to be aware enough of what was happening as it was happening?

Tara: Sometimes, but this time not so much. It felt pretty sleepy, more sleepy.

Tanya Wiser: Yeah, so you got lost in sloth and torpor^[5], right? Which is one of the hindrances. It can be quite pleasant. And one of the things we can do if we find that is we stand up, or we open our eyes, or we take off our sweater so we're a little cold. You know, these are some of the things to help bring energy, or a little more kind of energy into the experience, so it's not quite so comfortable. Thank you, Tara.

Tracy: I kept finding myself hunching over, and then I would need to remind myself to sit up and "be important," because that feels better. It's just easier and feels more open when you're sitting back and attentive. But if I don't pay attention to that, I end up creeping forward and forward, and then I should remind myself to sit back.

Tanya Wiser: Great observation. Do you want to say anything about that, Diana?

Diana Clark: [Laughter] You know, I mean, you have a habit, right, of leaning forward? And part of that is the computer and the phone, and some of it might also just be part of your habit. And so those habits become automatic. And so it's so wonderful you're noticing it during your meditation. And it's just, "Okay, yes, important. Let me just open back up." And slowly over time we just keep coming back and back, and yep, we get to create a new habit.

Tracy: Yeah, I liked what you said about "important"—about sitting with someone important and then that person being yourself. That helped remind me to sit up straight.

Diana Clark: Beautiful. All right, maybe one thing that I will add is the manner in which we're sitting. Like for me, I notice when I'm sitting here with my back against the chair, I'm a little bit more leaning forward, and then it makes it easier to do this than if I'm sitting upright. Probably the reason why I sat on the floor is because my feet don't touch the ground and I don't want to put my bare feet on something. But when we're sitting with maybe the pelvis just tilted a tiny bit forward, then it's easier to be upright because that's kind of how our spine is meant to be. But chairs these days don't allow that. Like, you're going back or something like this. So it can just work with our anatomy to be—if it's possible for some people, you know they need the back support to support their back—a little bit more upright. And that will also help with sleepiness. If I ever feel sleepy meditating, it's when I'm leaning using the backrest, that's just for me personally. So just something else that might be helpful.

Tanya Wiser: Yeah. And finding the right posture, this is definitely something that takes practice. Like we try this, "Oh, that didn't work so well." Try that, "That doesn't work so well." And I just sit on the floor because my legs aren't very long, and it's a way for me to sit upright.

The Anchor and Working with Distractions

Diana Clark: So I just wanted to maybe build a little bit on what Tanya was talking about here with regard to meditation, and trying to use this word "anchor." I like this word so often with mindfulness meditation. Like when we're formally in a meditation posture and with our eyes closed, we choose an anchor. And what we mean by that—and as Tanya said, most often teachers will talk about the breath, but it doesn't have to be the breath. It can be sounds or bodily sensations.

And what do we mean by anchor? So I find myself kind of doing this with my hands: so the anchor is here, and we rest our attention on it. The experience of breathing. Like for example, feeling that this little stretching that happens around the chest, and then the de-stretching, the unstretching. So what is the actual experience? We're not thinking about it, we're feeling, "What does this feel like?" So this is our anchor and we've kind of rested attention on it.

Perfectly natural that the mind is going to wander and start planning or fantasizing or commenting or something like this. And then you'll be like, "Oh wait, I'm supposed to be meditating. Okay." And then it comes back. And then the mind is going to do this again, and then, "Oh right, I'm meditating," and then you come back. So this is kind of what's happening: the anchor is this place where you always come back while the mind is going wherever the mind goes, right? The future, the past, or whatever's happening.

So choose an anchor. Meditation teachers love to talk about the breath, but it can also just be sounds. Even though we're not talking, it's very common that there are sounds outside of the classroom, or just people shuffling their posture, or people doing whatever they're doing. So the meditation hall actually can be quite noisy even though nobody's actually speaking.

Or Tanya talked about bodily sensations. An obvious one, and simple—I shouldn't say easy, right, because this is simple but it's not easy. Right? If you noticed doing any of this that the mind is going everywhere except on the anchor. But to just be with the feeling of the chair or the cushion against the body, like feeling that pressure, that sensation can be another anchor.

So it turns out that actually anything can be an anchor. We're talking about the breath because it's always available, and because it's changing, that makes it a little bit more interesting. So it's a little bit easier for the mind to land there on the breath.

So one thing about mindfulness practice that's different than perhaps some other general meditation practices, is that something that we like to say is that there are no distractions. What that means is, if you have this anchor, the breath, and the neighbor's dog is barking... "Bark, bark, bark, bark." "Oh, I'm supposed to be meditating." "Bark, bark, bark, bark." You're like, "Oh, this dog!" Then you come over here, right? You may have other language that you use. And then, "Bark, bark, bark." "This dog! Like, wow, I'm never gonna meditate. Don't they know this is my only time I have today to meditate?" And there's a little anger and whatever it might be, and we come back to the breath. "Bark, bark, bark."

And then instead of this fighting with it, you just shift the anchor to be barking. "Oh, the dog is barking in groups of three. It feels like this in my body." Maybe every time there's a little bark, maybe I feel this really slight little tightness, or whatever reaction is. And we might notice that there's some emotions that are coming up, and maybe a flood of thoughts. We're just paying attention to the barking in a relaxed, easy way.

And part of the trick here is the relaxed, easy way. Because we want to—of course we do—we want to control our environment and make it be as best as possible for meditation. That's not possible, right? We don't get to control the experience. So instead, we kind of just fold it into our meditation practice. So you can switch and just bring that into your experience.

Or maybe you stay with the breath and then, just as Tanya was saying, make a little note. It could be the note could be "sound," so you just say quietly in your mind, "Sound," come back to the breath. "Sound," come back to the breath. Or maybe "bark" or "dog." But it doesn't matter what the word is. What's really helpful is just placing a note on it is a way that we can stop getting tangled up and involved with it with a big story-making. Like, "That dang dog, or I wonder what kind of dog it is, it reminds me of that dog that I had when I was little," and right, off we go.

So that's part of mindfulness meditation, is this idea that we can fold anything in. Discomfort in the body, sounds that are happening, whatever it might be, we can turn towards them, bring some open-mindedness, attention.

And I kind of like some of the language that you were using, Tanya, that you started off talking about like inspiration and faith. The faith being this belief that this is beneficial. It doesn't have to be faith in anything else. So that kind of warm-heartedness or softness, as opposed to, "Okay, here's this anchor, and then we notice bark, bark, bark, and then, 'Oh, I'm supposed to be mindful. Dang it, what am I gonna get mindful on!'" and holding onto the breath as much as we can. There's a way in which we might use our mind as a type of sledgehammer, or kind of come back in a way that has a little bit of aggressiveness or a lot of energy to it.

And we notice this when the bell rings: if there's this sense of, "Oh, thank gosh," then that means there was a little bit too much energy because you can't sustain that for very long. So this is definitely the art of practice, is finding the right amount of energy. This is something that it's not like at one time you'll figure out, "Okay, not too much, not too little, okay perfect, I got it dialed in. I know how to do this now." It's something that we will always have to be adjusting depending on what the mind's doing, how the body feels, etc. So this is something that's just integral to meditation practice, is figuring out the strength or the amount of energy in which we pay attention. And this is something that perhaps we never even thought about before but we can explore and discover as we do this meditation practice.

Are there any questions about what I've said so far?

Q&A: Working with Thoughts and Energy

Manuel: Hello Diana, hello Tanya. Thank you. You know, when I first started at IMC was June 30th, and now it's October 20th. But I've been meditating, you know, for six months straight. And I would say that the energy part of it, at least in the beginning and even now—obviously because I'm in no way still learning and all that stuff—but I find that there are some sittings that I don't wait for the bell anymore, and it's nice. And even with this meditation when Tanya was guiding it, I was having like an imaginary conversation and I'm like, "Oh, go back to the breath." And it wasn't so much the, "Dang it, why didn't I?" I'm like, "Okay, just be still. It's cool. I don't have to." And also when I'm breathing, sometimes I'm not forcing it. I'm like, "Oh, go back to the breath, but let's not force it or do whatever." And I was kind of reverting back to just the counting because it's what I was accustomed to. So it's just really nice. It is like the beginning guide to meditation at IMC, and then establishing the practice and continuing. I get it. I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but I'm very, very excited. Thank you.

Tanya Wiser: Thank you for sharing that. Ah.

Diana Clark: This is because you have a good teacher, right? Because Tanya's been here on Thursdays.

Sage: I would like to introduce a question from the beyond. The internet, yes. Someone was asking how to notice your thoughts while meditating without judging them one way or the other? So instead of judging sensations, how do we be with our thoughts and not judge them?

Diana Clark: Yeah, either to be with our thoughts... so, there's a lot of things we could say. I'll just say a few things. One, when you're lost in thought, no problem. Because you're lost in thought, you don't even know that you're supposed to be meditating, right? So okay, that's... there's nothing to be done, right? You're lost in thought.

Two, if you find that there's this real momentum behind the thinking—it's just going on and on and on, or sometimes it's the same thing: "I gotta remember to do this, don't forget to do that, okay I gotta remember to do this," or we're rehearsing a conversation we had before, planning, or whatever it might be. There's a few things we can do. One is to maybe unhook us from the content, is to just generally ask this question: "Oh, are these images or are they sounds?" Like, what are thoughts?

So we let go of the content of the thoughts and look more at the process of thinking, because the process of thinking is happening right here, right now. So just this gentle inquiry: "Are these images or are they sounds?" And sometimes shifting our relationship to thoughts in this way can interrupt the momentum of the thinking. So sometimes that works, and sometimes you might have to do it a lot, like, "Oh okay, here's this image," and then we could ask questions about the images: "Are they in color? Are they clear? Is there a projection screen? Where is it?" If there are sounds, "What is the sound? Or whose voice is it?"

And then maybe the third thing I'll say about thoughts... and Tanya's probably going to do a lot of teaching about thoughts when you do the intro class. But maybe I'll just drop in: Is there an emotion that's fueling the thoughts? I think there's something underneath that's keeping those thoughts going. For example, often when there's a lot of planning happening, and I know I've experienced this a lot, that, "Oh, there's a little bit of fear or apprehension underneath it, because I'm trying to make sure that I can take care of everything so that I don't have to... because I'm afraid of what might happen if it's not going to go the way I want it to," or something like this.

So just this gentle inquiry. What I'm describing in meditation is a bit different than what we might do with journaling or in a psychotherapeutic setting. With meditation, it's more just a gentle dropping in of the question: "Is there an emotion that's fueling this?" And then we just kind of open and wait. We do not go and figure it out. This is our mind's habit, of course we want to figure it out because we want that thinking to stop. But the power here is in asking the question, it's not in finding the answer.

The power is in asking the question. Because there's this way of, when we ask the question, I go like this with my hands, because it's a way in which there's being open to learning something, open to something new, open to what might happen next. So it might be that the answer bubbles up, and it might be that it doesn't, and both are fine. Just asking the question is a way that again kind of interrupts the momentum of thinking. So those are just a few things that I'll say. Thank you for that, Sage.

Sage: On behalf of the internet, we're grateful. Thank you.

Iris: I feel like if you go through those steps and you still feel very attached, or the thought just kind of doesn't let go, how do you work with that? I think maybe that causes me more tension and anxiety when I go through the steps and it's still there. It's not going away.

Tanya Wiser: Yeah, it may not go away, right? That's the... Tanya was talking about habits of mind, right? We have habits of mind and there's so much invested in our thoughts. Many of us earn our living thinking, right? And we've been educated so we get rewarded for thinking. So there's a lot of pressure behind it. But it can... when we can get to where the mind settles down, and the thoughts maybe are going to the background and then they might get wispy and soft while we're having the anchor in the foreground. So there might be a little bit of these thoughts floating around while we're with the anchor, but it could also be where there's just a lot of thinking.

And then we can talk about, well, what supports waking up out of thinking and coming back to the anchor? Mindfulness supports mindfulness. And maybe that leads me into one of the last things that I want to say here, is that this is a skill. I would say it is something that, you know, we've all learned how to do things. We all learned how to tie our shoes, we all learned how to drive. So this is something that does take a little bit of practice.

But there's a way in which, if we bring mindfulness more and more into our experience, then it just becomes easier to become mindful the more we do it. Not surprising, just like everything else, right, in our life. So maybe I'll just say this, that it's often when we talk about mindfulness meditation, we talk about sitting on a cushion, being in a posture. But we can be mindful all day long, or we can do it in any posture we are in, doing whatever we are doing. Eating. Maybe we take part of a meal or a whole meal every day and just be really present for the experience. Putting the fork in the food, feeling the arm moving, tasting it.

Or talking about posture in the body, maybe the feeling of the body moving as it walks. We could be mindful of that. So it doesn't take any extra time, but just bringing our mindfulness to things that we're already doing makes a giant difference, that when you come to sit on the cushion having had those experiences of mindfulness in other settings, helps when you get to the cushion. Was that helpful, Iris?

Iris: Yeah, I think so. Okay, I do think maybe I'm trying to force myself to not think. Like actually sitting causes more tension because of the thinking and the mindfulness.

Diana Clark: Is this okay, Tanya, if I just say one thing? So then, maybe one thing that I can point to here is, I'm just going to make this up: you have the anchor, and then you're lost in thought, and then you wake up like, "Oh right, shoot. I'm thinking, I'm not supposed to be thinking." And then what can be helpful is to notice that second beat. To waking up, and then notice the attitudes. It's not uncommon to kind of have this little like, "Oh shoot, dang it." And just notice what that feels like. That's mindfulness too. Okay? And then begin again in a gentle way as best you can.

And so this can be really—and this is very common what you're describing, I'll say, and I certainly had lots of this absolutely—so just notice like, "Oh, waking up out of being lost in thought," and then just notice the attitude or the tone or the word, or something like, "I should know how to do this by now, everybody else is probably completely enlightened," or "What am I doing here? I shouldn't even come here." Whatever stories we all make up, right? Crazy stuff sometimes. So just notice that like, "Oh, that's more thinking." And then come back to the breath. So you can notice the attitude or the tone, and maybe there's a whole little quick story that happens when you realize that you've been lost in thought.

Iris: Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you.

Small Group Discussions

Tanya Wiser: So the next part would be to do some small group discussions. But you know, this is pretty important what we're doing right now, clarifying what to do and what practice is. So I just want to make sure your questions... you feel like you got enough answers to any of your questions before we move into the breakout groups. Okay, great.

So why don't we do two groups of four. The first thing I'm going to have you do as you sit down in your circle is, number one, when we're connecting in the circle, we're still practicing mindfulness. We're going to still be aware of what's happening as it's happening. And one of the nice things is to stay aware of your posture. So try and stay upright, not leaning too far back and not leaning too far forward. We want to maintain kind of a balance of staying in our own bodies even as were listening to others, right? Staying grounded and connected to our experience.

And then whatever you can be aware of. "Oh, I can feel the vibration of the sound in my mouth as I'm talking," or when I'm listening, the feeling of hearing, or the impact of the words emotionally on my mind or my body or my heart. So just trying to help yourself stay aware as you're speaking and listening.

So the first invitation now while practicing mindfulness is to go around the circle and if you each share your name, where you're living, and what inspires you to practice mindfulness. Then just go around the circle and maybe take 30 to 45 seconds per person.

[The group breaks into small circles for discussion. After some time, Tanya brings the group back together.]

Tanya Wiser: Okay, so one more question for you. And what I would like to do is invite you to... I'll tell you what the question is, which is: What might happen if you practiced mindfulness every day?

Just answer what comes up for you, like one thing that might happen, and then Iris, you say one thing, right? And then Mustafa, you say one thing, and you just kind of keep going around and around, spiraling around, right? Makes sense. So you don't have to say everything that might happen, just the thing that comes up that feels, "Oh, this." And if you have a hard time with that one, you could also just share what you might want to do to help yourself practice mindfulness. Okay, and we'll just do this for about five minutes. So just talking, sharing an idea, letting the next person go, and letting yourself be inspired and impacted by what you hear other people say.

Group Reflections

Tanya Wiser: Just checking in, is this a good time to shift? Yeah? You guys too? Sure. Thank each other, and then let's make a circle. Pull your chairs, let's make a more intimate circle here.

Great. So now we get to just share with each other a little bit about what came up for you. I tend to believe that it's really useful to restate something that was important to you. It kind of helps your mind take it in as important and helps you remember it. And you also get to share with people who weren't in your group, and they get to hear maybe something new.

Is anyone willing to start? And then we'll just pass the mic in a circle. Does anyone have something they'd feel inspired to share to start?

Tracy: So I'm inspired by Manuel, who was surprised, and I loved it. He was surprised that he was able to—this is his first time—amaze, quiet his mind. And he was surprised when his mind was still, and that was so inspiring to me. I loved that.

Tanya Wiser: So that supported your practice, made you feel inspired? Yes. Great.

Manuel: So far it's been a really great experience. It really confirms that I'm on the right track because I'm in the process of rebuilding my life, I guess... starting a new life, I think is the correct word. And paying attention and developing new ways of connecting with people—compassion, kindness, and things like that—probably are going to help me a lot in mindfulness. It gives me the opportunity also to slow down and just pay attention to what I really want or what I don't want. So that's what I'm getting from this. Beautiful, thank you.

Richard: What am I supposed to talk about? Oh yeah. So the fact that everybody here is showing up and doing the best we can. And I'm inspired by that. The fact that you all have busy lives, and you're out there every day doing whatever you're doing, having families, working, all of that. And you still take the time to come and work on something this significant, which is to learn how to create a more compassionate, kind world that we can all live in and be in together, especially in this culture today where we have some divisiveness that comes up in different places. So just being able to commit to that in our lives and to make it a priority feels pretty inspiring to me. Very inspiring. And that this place is run by all volunteers like Diana and Tanya and Richard and Sage and other people. The fact that this place can't happen if we don't all decide to help make it happen. So I'm grateful for that.

Sage: Thank you. I think what stood out to me was, quite a bit of our discussion centered on ways that we can shore up perceived shortcomings and things like that. But what really blows me away is, like Richard said, everybody's here. Despite the fact that so much of what we do and think in our lives comes from seeds that we planted forever ago, or seeds that aren't even our responsibility, people are committed to doing the work to make changes. And choosing to show up when you don't want to—that's impressive.

Speaker: Well, I mean, it seems like even though it is different between us, it seems like we're all kind of here for the same thing. And that in itself is the most inspiring thing, is just everyone here, we're kind of going through the same things but in different ways. Beautiful, thank you.

Mustafa: To be reminded of all the different ways it's helped people. Recently I've had a lack of motivation with practice, so these reasons all kind of help.

Tanya Wiser: Oh that's great. And that's the support of Sangha, right? We really can help each other, inspire each other, remind each other. We learn from each other. Thank you.

Speaker: I'm very grateful. I think gratitude was the one thing that also came up for the practice and for everyone's kindness and receptiveness and being non-judgmental. I just really like that I can be who I am and not feel pressured to just say something to impress people. I just want to say something for the sake of this, for my practice and for my betterment. Thank you.

Speaker: I think what resonated with me is just feeling like so much of what I have felt internally through meditation or mindfulness is being named or labeled as the experience of it and the process. And it feels really wonderful just to hear this commonality that we share as humans. When you were talking about mindfulness, and to hear from you, Richard, that you've been doing this for so many years and you have these little moments or these little epiphanies where you feel a shift, and it's like, "Oh yeah, I've had that too." Just to feel that collective sharing of experiences. I really love that.

Mindful Driving and Dedication of Merit

Tanya Wiser: Full circle. Yeah. And so if there are any other questions that people want to ask, or anything else you want to share about practicing mindfulness, it's not required, it's just optional.

Richard: So we all tend to drive in California. You know, there are people that I've had come out here for different events from the East Coast, and I say to them, "There's no public transportation from where you're going to be working. You need to drive." And they just don't quite get it. And so one of the things that can happen here in California is you're going to drive. The driving is one of the best mindfulness realms to work with because first of all, you're going to make it safer for everybody if you're mindful. And it's wise to bring mindfulness into driving, and I don't think we do it quite enough. We get caught in radio shows or whatever we're doing, we're not paying as much attention as we should be. We're thinking about other things instead of knowing, "Driving is like this: boom, now I'm driving." Right? And I know what I need to do as I'm driving. So I'm a little bit of an evangelist about it to be honest, because I'm always scared when I'm driving. As my mindfulness grows, I notice there's a lot of fear because it's dangerous, and we just take it for granted. So I could go on all night, but I don't plan to. Thanks for listening.

Tanya Wiser: Yeah, it's a great reminder that we can practice doing anything. We can be mindful in everything we do.

I think we'll shift to... I'll say one thing. When we ring the bell three times, just so you know, we're ringing the bell for the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. And at the end of any meditation or Dharma talk or event or retreat, whatever you do, there's something called Dedication of Merit^[6]. And this comes out of the whole philosophy of generosity and the whole devotion to do our practice for all beings. That we're doing this for the benefit of ourselves, for others, and for both. And so at the end of a practice period, we dedicate the merit of our practice. And we dedicate it to all beings without exception. That's the overarching theme.

There's lots of ways to do that, but one of the things we've been doing here is, I can say, "Let's dedicate the benefit of our practice to all beings everywhere." But there's probably a lot of beings we don't even think about that don't come to mind. And so on Thursday nights we've been doing a communal Dedication of Merit, where we pass the microphone around and each person can offer a being, a type of being, or a group, or a cause, an animal—just something short that is on their mind that you would like us to remember and acknowledge, and that we want the benefit of our practice to go to them too. And it helps us all bring more beings into our mind.

So we'll do that now, and then at the end of that Diana will ring the bell three times. Richard, please start.

Richard: I'd like to dedicate our practice tonight to members of the Sangha that are quite mature. One of them is Stephen Browning, he's an artist and you may, if you're lucky someday, see some of his work. He's a phenomenal woodblock print artist, and he's going blind and deaf at the same time. And his partner Pat. So that's who I'd like to dedicate it to.

Manuel: I wasn't prepared because he connected me with something that happened with me not long ago. So I'm dedicating my time here tonight to my mom who unfortunately passed away recently.

Speaker: I'm going to dedicate this to my boss Catherine, who needs a lot of kind thoughts.

Speaker: I'm dedicating my practice tonight to my two sons, Liam and James.

Speaker: I would like to dedicate this practice to anyone feeling lonely or isolated.

Speaker: Maybe I'd like to dedicate this to any of the overthinkers. [Laughter]

Mustafa: I dedicate this to work. Honestly, that's where I'm lacking the most.

Sage: May the benefit of our practice be for the highest good of incarcerated people living in cages across America. May all beings be free.

Speaker: To the waters, and the sky, and the earth.

Diana Clark: I was gonna dedicate to spiders. Partly because I'm afraid of spiders, and so just this "all beings," right? Sometimes we tend to exclude some, but all beings. So may all beings be free of suffering.

Tanya Wiser: Thank you for being here, and thank you for your practice.

Diana Clark: All beings without exception. All beings, yep.