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Guided Meditation: Tranquility and Peace

Hello. Some of you probably miss the meadow, the hillside, and Spirit Rock where I was these last few days, and I miss it as well. I would love to do this broadcasting, meditation, and teaching in the natural world. I haven't figured out how I can do it with the urban life that I live here, but it was a nice taste for those three days.

There is a whole class of mental states and mental practices in Buddhism that fit underneath the family of tranquility, peace, calm, subtleness, and stability. There are all kinds of things where things get still, quiet, and peaceful, that come along with a deep sense of reassurance, confidence, trust, and a sense of at-homeness. The famous story of the Buddha touching the earth—and I think today is John Muir's^[1] birthday—is about touching the earth to feel our belonging here that's so intimate. It isn't that we ever don't belong; we are part of the earth.

The subtleness has come in this process of the factors of awakening. There is, at some point, joy. A very important movement is how joy is a bridge to happiness. Happiness is simpler, more refined, more embodied, and more associated with a very deep contentment. Joy is more associated with the bubbling and excitement of something.

In this process of the Satipaṭṭhāna^[2] and the seven factors of awakening, we are going through this phase of tranquility, of relaxing and calming our whole system. In particular, the texts talk about calming the body. So, I will offer a guided meditation through the first five factors of awakening, coming to tranquility and that kind of happiness. If you don't follow, don't worry about it. Maybe use your imagination to participate as if you can feel or imagine these things, and then someday you might recognize them.

Assuming an upright, alert posture. Even though later there will be a process of relaxing, relaxing can begin right at the beginning. Take a few deep breaths. On the exhale, let your body settle into the spot in which you're sitting. Take a deep breath, and relax and release the whole body as if there's a big "ah" as you exhale here now. Then, let your breathing return to normal.

Part of the function of relaxing at the beginning is to awaken a certain kind of healthy awareness in your body. It is a healthy sensitivity that works best when the body is relaxed. So, relax and feel if there is a shift in sensitivity and sense of awareness in the parts of the body that you relax.

On the exhale, soften the muscles of the face. As they soften, different sensations are there than if the face is tense, and there is different receptivity. As you exhale, soften and relax the shoulders. Feel with whatever softening, relaxing, and releasing of the shoulders you can have. Notice if there's now a little bit more awareness in your shoulders, and more ability to sense and feel in a certain way.

Perhaps on the exhale, you can soften the chest and awaken a certain kind of attentiveness, awareness, and sensitivity to certain kinds of feelings that come with the relaxation. Do the same thing with the belly, relaxing and softening. Even if the relaxation brings sensations that are not so comfortable, appreciate the heightened sensitivity.

Then, use the same process in the mind. As you exhale, relax the mind and the thinking energy. If your thinking quiets and the mind settles a bit, is there some kind of shift in how the sensitivity and awareness of the mind is present for you?

Now for a little while, connect to your breathing. Relax on the exhale, and with whatever heightened sensitivity that relaxation provides, receive the sensations of breathing in and breathing out. On the exhale, let go of your thoughts as if your thoughts can drift away.

With whatever degree of calm you have, let your awareness be sensitive to the contrast of any tension that your whole body-mind system might have. It is almost like there's a conversation between the calm and the tension, the subtleness and the agitation. To whatever degree you can choose the calm way of going, choose being quiet, peaceful, and non-reactive. Instead of letting your mind choose agitated thoughts, stress, or tension, follow the trail of peace and relaxation.

If you can see the difference between being caught in thoughts and not caught, between following a path of stress and agitation versus following a path of calm, stability, and peace—if you see that difference, that can be a source of joy. It is a source of delight that you just see the possibility of following a trail towards peace. It is a joy that you know an alternative to being stressed, preoccupied, or caught up. While it's not always easy to follow the alternative path of peace, it's an inspiration to know it exists and that you can see the difference.

If you do feel some inspiration and some joy at this difference, maybe allow yourself to have a little quarter-smile. Let the corners of your lips move up a little bit to share in the delight and the joy of having this practice.

Then see if you can relax your body even more. As if before you were relaxing the surface parts, now relax something deeper. Go deeper in the face, relaxing and softening. Deeper in the shoulders. Deeper in the chest. Deep in the belly. This relaxing of the whole body is also letting go into a kind of contentment, simply being here, present, connected with a sensitivity that comes from being relaxed.

With each exhale, let the body and mind become more tranquil, even if it's in infinitesimal movements. When on the inhale, you are present for any of the non-tranquil ways you are in the body and mind, however subtle, on the exhale, you relax, soften, and let go into whatever peace is here.

As we come to the end of the sitting, feel or imagine any degree of peace that's present for you. Or imagine and remember a feeling of peace that you've had sometime in your life, a deep tranquility. Imagine that your calm and peacefulness can be felt by others, that it is a gift that spreads from you into the world. May it be that in known and unknown ways, your experience of peace supports others to also know peace or to feel less anxious. May it be that our peace and our contact with peace and deep tranquility is shared with the whole world. May it be that it spreads from us for the welfare and happiness of others. May we be a source of peace for this world. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings experience freedom, and may we contribute to that possibility.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (60) Tranquility and Samādhi Factors of Awakening

Today I will cover the tranquility factor of awakening and the concentration factor of awakening, the fifth and sixth factors. The way the instructions are in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, it does not say to evoke these or make them come forth. It says to recognize when they're present, and then when they are present, support and maintain them.

I think the reason why it says that is because the seven factors of awakening are a byproduct of doing mindfulness practice. As the practice begins to have some momentum, it brings forth within us a clearer capacity for awareness. Mindfulness practice is bringing forth an abiding, a living in a state of awareness. The way of being aware may be very individual in how different people recognize it. Some people may be more with thought, some people more with other perceptive ways of being. Some people feel awareness is more like consciousness; it's just a broad field, a state of attention.

There is a heightened sensitivity that comes naturally. Whatever awareness is for you, if you relax deeply, you can't turn it off in a relaxed, quiet state that's not distracted by thoughts. The awareness will be there; there's no way not to have it. This somewhat natural state becomes strong and pervasive. It's kind of like when it gets light outside, or light in this room. If I come in here and it's dark, I don't see anything. Then slowly the sun comes up and it gets lighter, until finally, the natural state of the room when the sun is up is to have light and be able to see. The whole room is then in awareness in an effortless way.

So, the sun of awareness dawns and grows within us until awareness becomes stronger, and there's heightened clarity of what's happening in the present moment. That heightened clarity lets us distinguish between the trail that leads to suffering, stress, and reactivity, and the trail that leads to peace, wisdom, and happiness. Being able to see that distinction can bring a lot of joy, because then we know where the path is. We know the trail to take, and we know what trail to avoid.

It might not be easy to avoid the old habits, but at least we know there's a difference. Some people don't even know. Slowly we break the old habits and begin following a healthy way of being—the trail to happiness and peace. This brings a lot of joy, associated with the joy of being able to practice. We might think, "Finally I have meditation, and I know meditation is a good thing. The way I was living my life didn't work, or there's no peace or freedom in being lost in preoccupations. Meditation seems to be a path of happiness, of following a trail towards something really good. I feel so much calmer and subtler when I meditate, and it affects the rest of my life, most of my day." A certain delight and happiness can arise from knowing this possibility to practice.

As we really start coursing in this practice more and more, that joy and delight get stronger. It becomes not just an evaluative joy like, "Oh, I'm so glad I have this practice," but a joy that comes from being absorbed in the practice. It is just coursing and cruising in the practice. As an analogy, it is like petting a cat. As we stay with the practice, the cat within us begins to purr. That kind of wonderful delight and joy comes up. Some people describe being surprised by this strong feeling of joy that wells up as they meditate. Sometimes it can be intense, and some people call it rapture.

At some point, the movement of these factors of awakening is that we're following the path of tranquility, and so things calm down. The whole body-mind system begins to calm, and the excitement, enthusiasm, and inspiration of joy quiets down. The joy becomes a happiness that's more embodied, more like a deep contentment, a sense of being cozy and connected in some soft, embodied way. That happiness is then the foundation for the sixth factor of awakening, which is concentration, or samādhi^[3].

This is important to realize, because some people think that they're going to develop samādhi by huffing and puffing, by straining and trying. Rather, the dharmic way of developing concentration is to have the conditions in place that support the mind wanting to get settled, wanting to become unified, absorbed, and focused on something. That is a mind that is embodied, tranquil, and has a certain kind of happiness in it. Happiness is the foundation for deep concentration.

We are just happy to be here. There is not a question about being present here and now because it's a better alternative than wandering off in thoughts and thinking about our daily concerns or the past. The present, being connected here with this body, mind, and heart, feels so rich and satisfying that of course we want to settle in. It is almost natural to settle in, relax, and give ourselves over to the process of meditation.

The happiness that comes on this path to the factors of awakening unifies and brings together all the fragmented parts of ourselves, so that the unfragmented way of being is samādhi. Because we are absorbed, we're unified, connected, and collected. Then we have the samādhi factor of awakening.

What's remarkable about this is that we've been doing this Satipaṭṭhāna series now for almost 60 talks, going through all these exercises. I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: I believe that we're building on the momentum of having done the practice all along. Even if you go back to the very beginning and just do the first exercise with the breathing, it is a powerful thing to do. If you do it consistently, it just keeps showing up.

By taking your meditation posture and engaging over and over again, there's a natural process that can begin opening up and moving through you. What you move through can eventually be recognized as the factors of awakening. When practice is really strong—and for me it's mostly been on meditation retreats that I feel this—sometimes the predominant experience of the present moment is the seven factors of awakening. What a cool, wonderful thing to do! Not to be anxious about what's happening tomorrow or what happened yesterday, or be angry with anything, but just be really peaceful and settled. All the focus of the mind is on these beautiful qualities of mind and body.

This is a natural process that unfolds, but it requires practicing well, sincerely, and with subtlety. It means learning how to practice mindfulness, how to bring attention, how to recognize what's happening, how to relax deeply, and how to get concentrated to some degree. Learning this whole world of meditation allows you to increasingly trust that there is a natural process emerging that we allow for. If we feel like we are the agent responsible for everything that happens in meditation, we're actually shortchanging the process. A lot of meditation is letting go of thoughts enough, and being subtle enough, that we can trust, open up, and allow for something to move through us. The seven factors of awakening are one way of discussing this.

I talked about tranquility being a bridge between joy and happiness, which it is, and then I went from tranquility to the concentration factor of awakening. So where is the happiness? There are other lists that go from joy to tranquility, happiness, and then concentration. The factors of awakening list leaves happiness out. This is not because it doesn't happen in the process, but for some reason it doesn't need to be there, or maybe the number seven was a special number they wanted to use to show the most important parts.

So what we've done so far is explore awareness, which is often called mindfulness—the ability to differentiate between what's healthy and not healthy in our practice. There is the effort to choose the healthy path, and a joy in being able to do that. Then there is tranquility, and then concentration.

Tomorrow we'll do the last factor of awakening, which is equanimity. We will also do a quick Q&A session after the YouTube broadcast on Zoom. I will post the Zoom link in the chat and on the IMC calendar for 7:45 AM, listed as the YouTube community meeting. It is also in the "What's New" section on the IMC homepage. A password will be required, which will be mettā^[4] (m-e-t-t-a). Thank you, and I look forward to our time together.