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Guided Meditation: Meditating with "Yes"

Greetings, everyone. I appreciate so much seeing all the names and greetings, and also the locations of you all who are posting on the chat. It's very nice to feel connected to this very wide network of people, and to appreciate that we are practicing in community, that we're sharing something that is quite profound. Hopefully, as practice opens us, deepens us, and connects us, we realize how profoundly connected we are, and how profoundly interrelated and intersupportive we are and can be. So, it's very nice to be here.

As an introduction to this meditation, I'd like to suggest that it's common enough for some of us, some of the time, to have a selective attention. One of the directions of that selective attention is towards what's not going well, what's wrong, and the challenges we have. Another part of that selective attention is to focus a lot on me, myself, and mine—myself as the experiencer, myself as the arbitrator, as the doer. When we do meditation practice, one of the directions to take it is to free the mind from its selectivity, from its bias in a particular direction of attention, so that it's more freely open in a kind of equal way to all things. In being equal, then it can settle in whatever seems to be most prominent, whatever is most important, and just kind of be with experience as it comes and goes, having the ability to be much more in the present moment.

Sometimes in meditation, as a corrective to selective attention, it can be very helpful to become attuned to that which is going well. To become aware of what is pleasant in our experience, to be aware of what can bring us some kind of joy or sense of well-being or satisfaction. The proposal is that for most people there's actually more well-being, more joy and pleasure that we can avail ourselves of than we usually do. We have many experiences happening at once. There are places in the body that are painful and uncomfortable, and there are probably some places in the body that are pleasant and comfortable. There are ways in which the mind is unhappy, and at the same time, there are corners, basements, and attics of the mind—or inner sanctums—where there is happiness or well-being.

And so, for this meditation, I'd like to suggest not to deny or push away anything that's uncomfortable or difficult. Be with it with the honest and clear recognition that things are challenging, and do not betray those difficulties, but give greater attention to that which is going well. Give attention to that which is pleasant in the present moment, or that which is enjoyable, or that which has a sense of rightness or appropriateness of real presence to what's happening that feels, "Oh, this is good." That could be psychologically, emotionally, or physically.

So, take a meditation posture and spend a little bit of time adjusting your body. Maybe rocking back and forth, maybe forward and backwards, maybe rotating around a little bit. And maybe also the head—just rotating the head sometimes can be nice to do. Do all this in the service of finding a balanced, aligned way of being here.

If you're sitting in a chair, as I said yesterday, it might be helpful to ever so slightly, as it's appropriate for you, sit up a little straighter in the chair. Sometimes with a chair, it's nice to lean forward and push the lower back into the backrest firmly. So then, when you straighten up again, there's a strong support there to help push the spine upright.

Then, feel the contact of your body to where your weight is received by gravity—the contact against your chair, your cushion, the floor. Take some moments to let the mind become quiet as you feel and sense the contact of the body against what supports it from being pulled down into the earth by gravity. And softly, slowly closing your eyes.

As you are right now, if you scan through your body, your mind, your heart, is there any experience which is pleasant? Any experience which is satisfying or has a feeling of rightness to it? An experience where you could say in a nice way, "Yes, yes to this."

If there is such an experience, notice what it's like to experience it. What's it like here in the moment, here and now? Let yourself take in something that's here that's pleasant or enjoyable. It could be tingling someplace in your body, softness or warmth, a glow of some nice feeling. It could be a feeling of stability or safety that comes from sitting quietly here—that kind of being at home in one's own being.

It could be a sense of relief—that it's okay for these minutes to let go of ordinary responsibilities, concerns, and worries. That for these minutes, it's okay just to be here, to be at ease.

To whatever degree there's some sense of pleasure, comfort, well-being, perhaps you can let your thinking mind become a bit quieter, softer, so that you can feel better what it's like to experience pleasure and well-being here. Letting your thinking mind become quieter.

Notice what it's like to be breathing while you feel some goodness, pleasure, or well-being. Perhaps you can breathe with what is good within you, gently breathing through it. Or letting your breathing accompany the joy or the well-being.

Perhaps you can even notice any sense of pleasantness, well-being, or satisfaction that is in breathing itself. Maybe not all the breathing—maybe some of it's uncomfortable. But rather than focusing on what's difficult, notice, even if it's for a few moments, a split moment, that which is pleasant as you breathe.

One way to overcome the selective process the mind has to focus on what's difficult is to very softly, gently in the mind, in the heart, say the word yes. Saying yes is to open yourself to receive, to experience that which is good right now, that which has a rightness to it.

If there are a lot of difficulties, the yes is found in the receptivity, in the openness to feel even what's difficult. Or if you're not focusing on what's difficult, but are really able to stay with what's good and pleasant, enjoyable, and happy, the yes might open that up so it moves through your body and spreads around.

In a quiet mind, the attitude of yes makes room for greater well-being.

Instead of thinking about what you're thinking about, perhaps you can softly say yes to what here and now in your experience is good, is pleasant, is right. Saying yes in a way that allows your thinking mind to become quieter, to make more space to feel and to sense, and to breathe with what is right, what is good.

Reflections and Dedication

As we come to the end of this sitting, take a little bit of time to consciously think about in what ways this meditation—what you've learned, what you've experienced, what you let go of—can be in service of the world. In what way can something from this meditation inspire you to live a bit more for the benefit and welfare of others?

There's often a selective focus on self: me, myself, and mine. Dharma practice is to break up the fixation on me, myself, and mine, and also the fixation on you, yourself, and yours—any fixation on others.

Instead, have this open yes, this openness, feeling of here where we are together. How is it that the ways in which you are developing your own well-being can be expressed outwards so that it becomes living for our well-being, for the well-being of others?

May it be that the practice of mindfulness, of meditation, is for the welfare and the happiness of all beings everywhere. May all beings be happy. May all beings experience joy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings be free of oppression. And may it be that we support that possibility.