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Guided Meditation: Invitation to Peace

Good evening, good afternoon. It occurred to me yesterday when I was talking about the equinox that I assumed everyone was in the northern hemisphere, and I was talking about the light fading, and the light is fading for some and growing for others. How easy it is to see the world from inside us. How easy it is. And so before we begin this morning, I want us to take into consideration that we are part of everything around us. Also, this body that we are in is part of the earth that we are on. And that earth is semi-spherical and we're only in one part of it. This body is on one part of it. But our awareness is much broader, and our awareness can encompass everything.

So as we begin this morning, let us clear our minds. Let's leave them open. Let's be present here. And as we sit, take a deep breath and let it out. As we're walking, standing, lying, whatever posture, a relaxed but alert posture, relax. Relax the head on the shoulders. Allow the shoulders to sink, the elbows to sink. The hands to find a place of rest, the fingers to be at ease. We can't make the body relax, but we can invite it to, invite the body to settle. The torso to settle, the legs to settle, the feet, the feet to know they are on the earth. The toes that propel us forward can be at rest. Another deep breath and let it out.

As we do, invite the mind to clear away all thoughts that came before. Release everything you brought in with you. Accept your will to be here. Banish all wants, needs, agitation. May my mind be bright and awake and aware. May it be filled with friendly feelings. Let the clear mind experience clearness. Let my heart-mind be filled with compassion. Place the awareness on your center, your heart center. Welcome yourself to this moment. A clear mind, a warm heart, and the movement of the breath.

The breath moving in and out of the body, caressing the body, clearing away all the junk. Leaving the mind clear and awake. The heart clear, soft. In these moments of breathing together, we are totally safe. The heart-mind can also rest. Relinquish all thoughts of the world and occupy this space here, this present moment with each breath coming and going. Let the center feel the relaxation of just this. Just this.

Sometimes the heart is just weary, tired of always having to do right, do it right, be in the right place. Sometimes we're tired from the grief and the sadness of loss. Tired of having to measure up. Tired of putting on a face to face the world. Tired of having to figure it out. Let all that tiredness flow out of your heart, out through your lungs, and rest here in the safety of this moment. Breathing in and out. Aware of the heart-weariness. Aware of the desire to be free. Aware of the breath that keeps coming in and out. Allow the tensions of the mind to just release and be at peace just for now.

Aware of the thinking mind, let the thoughts float away, dissipated like a breeze on the edge of the ocean, floating away, flying away, passing through. Being alive is a process. Breathing is a process coming and going, while my gentle heart just watches with friendliness and ease things coming and going. No opinion. One breath not better than the other. One thought not better than the other. One way not better than the other. But just as it is here and now, be just as you are and be friendly to yourself with each breath.

With each breath, I'm aware of the body, my heart-mind experiencing the world through this body. This breath, the awareness extending out beyond this body. In welcoming my heart, I welcome all that I am aware of. Whether it's expanded out or centered in, I know that I am in this body. I know that I am following this breath away from the world of concepts. What do I feel that is not a concept? Breathing, air, movement. Life is a verb. Vibration. What am I aware of through this body, through this mind? This heart-mind at rest. Just knowing awareness.

Dharmette: Wisdom and Views (3 of 5): Intention-Cultivating a Peaceful Mind

Hello again, everyone. I hope my intentions for you all to be at rest and peaceful have found a home. It's sometimes said that a wise person is a kind person. It's not as if kindness is something that comes extra, that is an add-on to wisdom. It isn't that wisdom says, "Okay, now you need to go develop kindness." Wise view puts a light on the intention to be kind as an inherent part of seeing clearly.

When the heart-mind is full of turmoil and agitation and anger and resentment and bad stories and self-criticism, there's very little room left for saying, "What's happening? What's here? What am I not seeing?" All of the elements that go into seeing clearly. It isn't that the heart has to be unfeeling or has to be always kind. But developing that kindliness toward our heart-mind, toward ourselves, is really key to being able to see clearly. Even if what we see is hurt and confusion and failure, to see it clearly is to introduce an element of freedom.

We're not living in a reactionary world of, "Well, I'm upset, and so I'm [upset]," but rather we can say, "Oh, she is upset," and not become that agitation. When we can see suffering, we become disenchanted. We can let go of it simply because it falls away, because we're no longer caught by it, even if it's here. Meanness of spirit is not compatible with a peaceful heart. Letting go of that fear of not being good enough, fear of not being helpful enough, fear of not being whatever it is we think we want to be.

Wise view is really honest. Honest. It sees things that we're proud of, things that we're not so proud of. It stays. It arises. It's here. It leaves. The blind spot in developing trust in ourselves is the problem. The blind spot of trusting ourselves is what's standing in the way of a peaceful heart, and they go together.

Nagarjuna^[1] has a quote of his I like. It is, "To cling is to insist on being someone. Not to cling is to be free to be no one." Clinging is to insist on being someone. Not to cling is to be free. To be no one. This urge to be someone, to be right, to be better. This is very exhausting. The ultimate in confirmation biases is, "Well, you know, I can't help it. This is just the way I am." No, [Laughter] it's the way things are now. But it is not you.

We don't have to identify with everything that arises in our life. We just have to see it. We have to see what our relationship to it is and then decide, "Do I want to be this way or not? How entangled am I?" The truth is, I have a great quote here. Another great quote that I love: "The truth is we like our preferences and prejudices. We like defining ourselves in terms of what we like and don't like. It's precisely desire's entanglement with the sense of self that makes this all so difficult to unravel. Fortunately, there's a relatively easy and accessible way to counter the powerful forces of desire: the cultivation of equanimity." This is a quote from Andrew Olendzki^[2], who is a Buddhist teacher.

This tendency of ourselves to define everything that happens in terms of ourselves puts a great deal of pressure on us. Creates agitation in the mind. What we notice is not who we are. It's simply what we notice. What we're aware of. We don't need to become that. Experience is not what we think about it. "This is a good experience. This is a bad experience. This is healthy. This is not healthy." The experience is just itself. The sensing is just sensing, until we decide we have to have an opinion about it.

One of the secrets to a peaceful heart is actually cultivating a peaceful heart. It's a closed circle in a way. One thing leads to the other, leads to the other, leads to the other. If we're totally engaged with thinking about something and explaining it to ourselves, and explaining ourselves in terms of what we've seen, we become so wrapped up in that that there's a tension and a weaving together that makes it impossible to see out. We become very self-focused, and in that self-focusing, we're making everything tighter and tighter and tighter.

So the practice is to loosen all of that "I've got to get it right" feeling. Loosen that into an intention that is more allowing, is more open to, "May I see what I'm not seeing?" So that I'm not so focused on, "I'm going to get better at this," or, "I'm going to solve this," or, "This harm is everything in my life." It's the moving beyond that and allowing it to be there. Not pushing it away, but not making it everything.

A peaceful heart is one that's able to say, "Despite what I may wish, things are as they are. May I see things just as they are." This is the practice of equanimity. It is saying, "Oh, gee, that's unpleasant. But it's not me. That's wonderful. How fortunate for me." Not, "Ah, I'm going to stay here forever. I'm going to hold onto this." In the very moment that we have that thought, it's escaping us. But when we feel the flow of an open heart, when we feel the flow, we say, "Ah, this feels natural. I want more of this. I will cultivate this. I will remove whatever obstructions are preventing this because this too comes and goes."

But when we attain some peace through seeing clearly, then it becomes easier to see. It becomes easier to notice, "Oh, that causes suffering, that doesn't cause suffering. I'll do less of that, I'll do more of that." But if the heart is all tangled up trying to figure everything out all the time, you can't see the passing through. So allow yourself to not understand everything so that you can understand it.

The first part of ceasing suffering is the disentanglement. When we look at the Eightfold Path, the wisdom section is wise view and wise intention. How can we know if we're not constantly learning and constantly building on that? "This I see, this I don't see. I'm confused by that. I'm weary. Ah, weary. I'm energetic. Energy is here. I can see the energy. But this energy is the energy of anger, and it has a taint to it that feels unpleasant. A different kind of energy." And I say, "No, this is not what I want." The ability to be sensitized is dependent and grown by a peaceful heart.

The sensitization process is what we're about. This is how wisdom grows. As we become ever more and more aware, this is what's happening. But you know what? We have to kind of get out of our own way. We have to be okay with not knowing. Both impermanence and not knowing. The uncertainty that is so frightening to us has to become our partner. And as we experience that, we trust it more and more. It doesn't just happen, but it evolves from seeing, "Okay, the world didn't end because I laid that down."

I was having a slow morning, a fast morning. Things were not going according to the usual ritual. And I found myself saying, "Oh, I'm going to be late. I'm going to be late." And I was aware of that rushing and said, "No, I just have to move quickly. I don't have to rush. I don't have to be in front of myself. Things will happen as they happen." That settling, that is where we are.

I'm going to close with a new poem by Naomi Shihab Nye^[3] called Air Mind.

I'm going to air out my brain the way Germans advise leaving a rumpled bed wide open an hour before making it. Don't fret around politicians to start our mornings. They'll go their own ways, whatever we think. What would it be like to live four whole years without thinking of them? How much room? So far, my opinion meant nothing to a single one. And what about yours? Reams of futility, zen of emptiness. One loud mockingbird in the laurel. Soft light lifting, poking into thought.

What I like about this poem, let me read it again. Air Mind.

I'm going to air out my brain the way Germans advise leaving a rumpled bed wide open an hour before making it. Don't fret around politicians to start our mornings. They'll go their own ways, whatever we think. What would it be like to live four whole years without thinking of them? How much room? So far, my opinion meant nothing to a single one. And what about yours? Reams of futility, zen of emptiness. One loud mockingbird in the laurel. Soft light lifting, poking into thought.

When you wake in the morning, you have a moment in which you can decide: how am I going to be in this moment? How am I going to be in this day? The day will happen. But to be open is to not predetermine the day. To be open is a place of safety. May you all know the air mind that leaves you free just to see clearly so that suffering may cease. Thank you.