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Happy Hour: Joy of the Present Moment

Oh, I've missed you. It's just so sweet to see you and to be in community together, especially during the holidays and with yet another COVID surge.

I appreciate this sangha^[1] so very much. And tonight, as I was getting ready to teach, I was thinking, "Yippee! I get to speak to the Happy Hour sangha. Yippee!" So there's a sense of gladness in my heart.

The theme that I like to invite us to practice with—there are so many themes, I don't know which one to choose, but one of them is turning towards joy. Turning towards the joy of sangha, the joy of community. Here you are practicing, whether you are right now joining on Zoom or YouTube, or maybe listening later on AudioDharma. There is a sense of coming together, people who are coming together with you. You're welcome to put each other on gallery view so that you can see each other. There's just a sense of coming together, this collective. There's a sense of, "Yippee, here we are." We're coming together, feeling each other's presence from across the world, from around the world.

There are so many good things in life in this challenging period. There are many challenges, and there are also many blessings, and the blessing of this Zoom, online, YouTube sangha is definitely one of them. I know that many of you have talked about that previously. I remember Jerry actually saying, if it's okay to bring this up, I remember you sharing during Happy Hour that at sitting retreats at IMS^[2] and various places, when teachers would talk about sangha, you would think, "Oh, driving and traffic, and there's nothing close, and it's so hard." And here is this gift of community, practicing with fellow practitioners. Just the ease, the joy, the beauty of that. This is your community. If you're new to this community, if this is your first time or you're new here, welcome. You're part of this community. We warmly embrace you and welcome you as a part of this community.

Guided Meditation

So with that, let's turn our attention. Let's turn our mind to our bodies. Let's sit however this body wants to sit, or lie down.

Arriving. Arriving in this body, in this moment in time.

If you're sitting on a chair, why don't you move your feet a little bit? Just move your legs to find a stance in your legs that's firmly rooted to the ground. And if you're sitting on a cushion or in a chair, you're welcome to also move, maybe swing to the left and right, forwards and backwards. Just really feeling your connection to the earth, your sit bones connected to the earth.

I am here. I am here as earth. As the earth may serve as my witness, I'm here. Landing. Landing here. Planting.

Relaxing the body. Relaxing and receiving. Relax and receive. Relax and receive.

Relax and receive the sensations of the body connected to the earth. Melting, softly melting. Relax and receive the breath. The movement, as if waves of the ocean. Calming, soothing, settling.

If you find the mind flutters here and there, a little butterfly, tension flies this way and back... come home. Come home, sweetie, come home. Home, home. Calling yourself home to your heart. See if a gesture of putting your hand, your palm on your heart center brings the feeling of connecting, of centering you. Connecting with yourself. Coming home, home in your heart. Come home, sweetie, come home. It's okay, you can rest at home.

Letting your body relax and receive the breath. Just this breath, this one right here. Get to know it, befriend it, open to it. Ride the wave, the joyful riding of the breath, as if you're a breath surfer, like a windsurfer surfing the wave. Like a surfer.

There is joy, delight in just being here. Here, aware. The heart, the mind bright with awareness, even for a moment. Here. There's a joy, a goodness, a gladness. It could be subtle.

Can we give a gift of our presence to ourselves in this moment? Relaxing, receiving the breath. Every cell of the body relaxed. Ah, letting go and receiving whatever is offered in this moment. The breath, sensations of the body. Not past, not future. Right here. This moment is enough. This moment is more than enough. It's joyful, joyous to be deeply rooted and connected here.

This. This.

Can you feel your feet on the ground, your bottom on the cushion, your hands on your lap, your breath in your lower abdomen? And now I'd like to invite you, continuing to sit embodied, feeling the body here, we're going to open up to being found. Being found by joy. We're not going to go out and look for it, to search or want, but we're going to send an invitation out. A love letter to joy: "Dear Joy, I'm here sitting present in this moment as best as I'm able to. My heart is open, my senses are open. If at any point you'd like to come visit, I'm available."

See how this shift in perspective—instead of going out and looking for gladness, instead of that, just simply sitting here. Relaxing, open. Just this breath, just these sensations. Let yourself be surprised. Sit back, relax, receive the breath. All the miracles of this moment. The miracles of life. This mystery called life.

Receiving the mystery in this moment through your breath. Through the fingertips, your toes. Through your belly, through your ears. Through your heart. Open, senses open. Your heart open, your senses open. Here.

Maybe, just maybe, for a split second, you might find yourself happy with joy for no particular reason. There may not even be any thoughts, any rumination. Just happy. Glad to be here. Or simply glad, not for any reason. Gladness arising, the joy. The joy of the present moment. The joy of the present moment.

Here, just here.

And then you find judgment arises. You don't know what you're doing, you don't know how to do this, you're distracted, etc. So please smile at the judgment, the judgmental mind. "Thank you for your opinion, dear. Thank you." Smile. And you are here again. Begin again. Every moment a new beginning. Here, just here. The joy of this moment.

And if you like sitting, receiving the joy of this moment. Here, just here. Simplicity. Opening up your heart, your senses to this community who's practicing with you. And soon on YouTube, maybe later in time on AudioDharma. As if you were bowing to them, to each other. Others bowing to you in your mind's eye. Your eyes are closed. Noticing if there is a delight, a joy of spiritual friendship. Even if you may never speak or haven't spoken, you're supporting each other just knowing: you are here. You are here. I am here.

It brings a lot of joy for me, in my mind's eye, seeing the sangha across the planet Earth in so many different places, all of us interconnected. Bowing to you, bowing to each other. Joy arises, joy arises. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for practicing with me. Thank you for sharing your goodness. And sharing this goodness far and wide, generously with all beings everywhere.

May all beings be joyous, be happy, be well. May all beings have the gift of peace. May all beings be free, including ourselves. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your practice.

Reflections and Q&A

So we have time for reflections, questions, comments. The invitation is if you'd like to share your practice for the benefit of others—what worked, what was surprising, what didn't work—it's all okay, especially if you haven't spoken for a while. You can also type them in chat or raise your hand. Type them to me alone; I won't read your name, so it'll be anonymous. If it's typed to the community, I will read the name.

Bill says, "That felt good." I'm glad. Me too. Yeah.

Melissa says, "Thank you for the beautiful practice. I felt so much warmth in my heart." Ah, that's beautiful. That is beautiful. Thank you, Melissa from Victoria, British Columbia. Yeah.

Any other reflections? Mark, please.

Mark: This meditation tonight has been right on the subject that I've been working with all day today. This morning I read a quote from Etty Hillesum^[3], who died at Auschwitz in her twenties. She wrote there, she said, "Most people here are much worse off than they need be because they write off their longing for friends and family as so many losses in their lives, when they should count the fact that their heart is able to long so hard and to love so much among their greatest blessings." And the author of this book went on to say a line that just rocked me and has been with me all day. She said, "Our engagement and participation in the world begin to shift from viewing this world as a field of consumption to experiencing this world as a field of appreciation." And that's exactly what Etty was talking about. Instead of looking at the losses of her family and friends in Auschwitz, she looked at the appreciation that she was able to love them so much.

Nikki: That is profound. Thank you, Mark. And thank you so much for sharing that. I'm so moved hearing those words and the beauty, the wisdom of both words: consumption—you know, the wanting, the consumption, wanting, needing the loved ones—and appreciation. Appreciating them. Appreciating that you have a heart. Oh, that gives me chills. Beautifully put. Beautifully put.

And Bill asks, "Mark, what is the name of this book, please?" Oops, you're muted. You can put it in chat if you like, or you can unmute yourself, whichever you prefer.

Mark: It's The Magnanimous Heart by Narayan Helen Liebenson^[4], who's a teacher at IMS and Cambridge Insight Meditation Center.

Nikki: Oh yes, that's right. Great. Thank you for that. Beautiful.

And Deborah says, "Thanks, I needed that." It's lovely.

Another reflection: "Thank you for the soft and loving guidance. Touching my hand to my heart is proving to be a surefire way to ground into presence and mettā^[5]." Oh, that's lovely. That is so lovely.

And a couple of other reflections. Jane says, "With appreciation to me and the sangha, bowing deeply to all." That's a beautiful image from our practice. Bowing deeply to all. Thank you, Jane. Bowing to you and your practice.

Melissa says, "The cue, 'Smile at your judgmental mind, thank you for your opinion, dear, and begin again,' was helpful for me." I'm glad to hear that. And also Melissa says, "Mark, that is mind-blowing. Thank you for that." Yeah.

Jerry says, "Very helpful to ask us to stay in the moment, not the future and not the past." Yes, indeed. Yeah.

And Anton asks, "What is the standard time for meditation practice?" Any time you can practice is the standard time for a meditation practice. This particular sangha starts at 6:00 PM Pacific Time.

Two more reflections. Now says, "Reflecting on the joy when practicing together and the difference when practicing alone." Yes. Yes. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing and beautiful? I feel that also, practicing together there's a sense of beauty and grace and just landing together that I definitely sense and feel. Thank you for naming that. Yeah.

One more reflection: "Inviting joy in felt like preparing my home for guests. Anticipating their arrival, but not knowing or caring when it would be." Oh, I love that. That is such a sweet reflection. "Inviting joy in felt like preparing my home for guests, anticipating their arrival but not knowing or caring when it would be." I love that. That is such a beautiful way to practice with this invitation. Did you notice how different this was than going out and thinking, you know—in some ways actually this relates to what Mark shared earlier—it's not so much about going out and thinking about what I'm grateful for or what I appreciate, which can be a beautiful practice in its own way. But this is just the simplicity of just being here. Just opening the heart and being content. There's a sense of contentment that can arise with the joy of just this moment. Just here. Just here.

So, dear ones, we are approaching the time to invite us to actually now meet in small groups. You have bowed to each other in your mind's eye, and now you can bow to each other in small groups, which is so beautiful. So if you can't stay, please do. Meetings are short, you know, six, seven minutes. And especially with our theme tonight, I think it'll be lovely to continue this practice in small groups. And if for some reason you have to leave, that's understandable. No judgments. But please don't leave because you're afraid of these lovely groups of people. Okay, so here we go. I'm going to create the breakout rooms, and they are open now. Please take care of yourselves, take care of each other.

Okay, the rooms are closed. Everyone is back, and we have a few minutes for reflections, comments, questions, appreciations. The floor is yours.

You're welcome to raise your Zoom hand, because if it's your physical hand I will not see you. And you can also type in chat. What did you notice? What came up, if anything, you'd like to share for the benefit of the sangha?

Greg, please.

Greg: Thank you for the suggestion to gently and lovingly reel your mind back in when it goes off on its little thought excursions. I'm sort of in the habit of commanding my mind to come back and having some degree of frustration about that. But doing it in kind of a soft and loving way, it's a nicer internal dialogue. So thank you for that.

Nikki: You are so welcome, Greg. And just to say that this way of beginning again—just beginning again, "Thank you, thanks for your opinion," and just beginning again, and dropping whatever there was before without animosity, without beating yourself up—this is a crucial insight. This is a crucial insight. This is when practice really starts to deepen. Because up until then, we're throwing all these perfectly good moments after these moments of being distracted, which is fine, but learning to be gentle with ourselves, learning to just arrive, that's where the practice is.

Knowing that the mind will wander, that is normal. That is completely normal. But what you do the moment you realize the mind has wandered, that's where it determines practice versus self-recrimination^[6]. That's mindfulness. Mindfulness, which has mettā in it. Mindfulness always needs to have mettā woven in it. So that is a moment of mindfulness. Practice mindfulness, not self-recrimination. In that moment especially, that's really important. So I'm so glad you raised that and it really came home for you. And I hope it comes home for everyone to really see that crucial moment.

So the time has come for us to bring our session of practicing together to a close. It's been so sweet. I'll see you in the new year. For Wednesday and Friday, we have wonderful teachers who'll be supporting the sangha on New Year's Eve and also on Wednesday, and then I'll see you on the other end during the new year. So let's dedicate the merit of our practice: May all beings be well. May all beings be free, including ourselves.

Thank you all.