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Guided Meditation: Trust Emergence

A warm hello and welcome to our meditation and dharma talk. As an introduction to this meditation, there is a wonderful expression that has somehow appeared in the last decade or so. I am not sure who coined it, but the expression is "trust emergence." Trust what is emerging, the process of emergence.

How I understand that is that there is a potential, an inner functioning of our psychophysical, spiritual being, that given the right conditions—given enough space and silence—can bubble up and emerge in a wonderful way. Trust what emerges when we get quiet and when we get out of the way, when we don't fill our minds and hearts with activities, desires, wants, and a lot of thinking and fantasy. Be present as if you are delightfully listening for the sound of a rare bird that's nearby. You relax and get very quiet to allow the sound to emerge.

Or the way you would be, maybe just watching in a relaxed way the top of a lake, just waiting for a fish to jump out and plop back in again, and the emergence of the fish. It is an inner stance of receptivity, of openness, of enough quiet, enough of a sacred pause that something within begins to emerge.

It is not always welcome what can come if we have unresolved issues that finally have a chance to surface. But the expression "trust emergence" means trusting that if you can stay open, receptive, and uninvolved with what is coming up—allowing it to surface and bubble—the psychophysical, spiritual depth of who we are will process, will evolve, and will mature with whatever difficulty or whatever great joy bubbles up for us.

Over time, what we come to appreciate and what we trust is not necessarily what is emerging, but we truly trust the space, the openness, the receptivity that makes room for things to emerge. That is where safety can be found. That is where nourishment can be found—in that receptivity, that openness, giving things space, not interfering, not getting entangled with what is here, but holding it all in awareness and mindfulness. So, trust emergence.

Take an upright posture. The physical posture you take is part of this trust emergence—a posture that maybe makes room for something healthy from deep inside to emerge. If we sit all slumped over, there is something deep inside that doesn't really have the same space to appear as if we sit open, with a chest not puffed up, but just kind of present in a clear and full way. Gently close your eyes.

There is a regular rhythm of the inhale emerging. The inhale begins, grows, and becomes full. Full enough, so take a few slightly deeper inhales to really savor, feel, or fill out the emergence of the inhale, almost like you're making room for it to become a complete inhale.

Then, letting go as you exhale. That letting go allows the exhale to be complete, complete enough. A deep inhale that moves your rib cage front and back. A longer exhale that lets the rib cage fall back in again.

Then letting your breathing return to normal and becoming attuned to the exhale. For the next few breaths, really tune into the exhale and gently, without any straining for success, see if you can let go with the exhale, so the exhale is a little bit longer, fuller, complete.

With that exhale, on the inhale, let your body roam around and find a place of holding or tension in your body. On that letting go of the exhale, see if you can do a similar letting go, relaxing of the bodily tension. Relaxing as you exhale. Relaxing the muscles of the face. Relaxing the shoulders. Softening the belly.

For the next few breaths you take, prioritize the inhale by letting there first be a very momentary, short pause before you inhale. Then let go of the pause and allow the inhale to emerge in whatever way it grows or emerges.

With the inhale and the exhale, you allow for the inhale to emerge, and you let go of the inhale completely—let go of it in order to exhale. In a certain way, the inhale is completely gone when the exhale begins. The absence of the inhale allows for the presence of the exhale. The absence of the exhale allows for the emergence of the inhale.

While you're meditating, trusting the emergence of the inhale, during the course of the inhale, be open to and trust the emergence of whatever else happens. It's all okay. Just trust that it appears, whatever it might be. But when you exhale, let go of everything. Let go of your focus or receptivity to whatever is happening, only to be receptive again on the next inhale. Trust the emergence of anything and everything as you inhale. Trust letting it go, relaxing of everything as you exhale.

Trust emergence as you inhale, and get out of its way as you exhale. Let go of it, but more importantly, for the duration of the exhale, let go of your concern with the inhale. Let go of your concern with whatever else has emerged. Trust the exhale. Trust letting go of your thoughts as you exhale.

Then, with the next inhale, trust the inhale. Trust what emerges. Trust emergence. And trust also letting it completely be as you exhale. The kind of letting go that is not really making anything go away, but is letting go of any entanglement, involvement, judgments, or preferences. Just letting it be as we exhale. Letting it be in a quiet mind, a mind that has some stillness in it, which has space for things to emerge.

Even if you drift off in thought, that itself is an emergence of thinking. Maybe there's a way of trusting that as well, as long as on the exhale, you let it go, let it be. Step away from your involvement with it. Return fully with the exhale to create that fertile ground at the end for the inhale to emerge, for all things to emerge again.

As we come to the end of the sitting, trusting emergence is not so much about what emerges, but that open space within us, the open awareness that makes room for things to appear. It makes room for what is deep inside of us to be touched, to be moved by what is occurring.

As we come to the end of this sitting, trusting emergence can also be trusting what is touched as the world emerges for us. What tenderness, what sensitivity, what capacity for empathy can we allow for as we trust what emerges in us? As we take in the world around us, then perhaps we can allow ourselves to be touched deeply, to be moved with love, with care, with compassion, with empathy. We can be touched with the poignant tenderness of this life. We can become tenderized by the fragility of this life that we share with others.

Then, to give space, allowance, and intention to our care for the world. Meditation practice is a source from which to have that inner sensitivity of care, of compassion, of love, of receptivity for the emergence of the world, the people in our lives. May our ability to trust emergence be the space through which we also allow our care and our love and concern for the world to flow, so that we live for the betterment of the world, to make the world a better place, perhaps in the smallest possible ways that we are able to.

May we live this next week for the welfare and happiness of all beings everywhere. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be free. And may we contribute to their happiness, safety, and freedom.