---
ai_generation_date: '2026-05-07'
ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview
audiodharma:
  talks:
  - date: '2023-03-13'
    mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/17901/20230313-Nikki_Mirghafori-IMC-happy_hour_the_joy_of_awareness.mp3
    speakers:
    - speaker_name: Nikki Mirghafori
      speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/229
    talk_start_time_seconds: 0
    title: 'Happy Hour: The Joy of Awareness'
    url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17901
    video_unavailable: false
location_city: Redwood City, CA
video_unavailable: false
youtube:
  id: upn_WfRBaps
  imprecise_upload_date: null
  title: 'Happy Hour: The Joy of Awareness'
  upload_date: '2023-03-14'
  uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center
  uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter
youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upn_WfRBaps
---

# Happy Hour: The Joy of Awareness - [Nikki Mirghafori](https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/229)

*This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.*

## [Happy Hour: The Joy of Awareness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17901)

## Introduction

Okay, all right. All the preliminaries are done. So hi, hello, and welcome everyone to Happy Hour. It's so lovely to have you from so many different places on this Earth, so many different time zones. 

Let's start practicing together, and I'll share the theme during the guided meditation. I'll say a couple words about it later, so let's just jump in together.

## Guided Meditation

Finding your ease. Finding your seat. Finding your seat on this Earth. Bringing awareness to your sitting bones. Let's start there today. The sitting bones, the connection of your bottom with the cushion, with the chair, and your feet, your legs with the Earth. Taking your seat. Taking your seat.

And letting your sitting posture—whether sitting, or maybe standing or lying down, whatever is appropriate, but I'm going to assume sitting for now—let your posture be informed. Let it rise up, and have a sense of uprightness, a sense of dignity. Taking your place on this Earth.

Just as the Buddha touched the Earth, it is said, on the night of his enlightenment. When he was being assailed by Mara[^1], the personification of doubt, challenges, and hindrances, he touched the Earth: "Earth, be my witness, I belong here." Taking his place on the Earth, a human being just like us. It's called the Earth mudra[^2]. You can see it on lots of statues, the Buddha touching the Earth with his hand. Let us touch the Earth with our feet, or our sit bones. Touching the Earth: "This Earth be my witness, I am on this Earth. Breathing, living, contributing, interconnected. Taking my place on this Earth."

Let there be a sense of uprightness, of taking your place. You matter. I matter. I am part of this amazing mystery called life. I am stardust. It's amazing that I exist, this being who is me. 

Let the breath... this body knows how to breathe this mystery of the universe that is you. Now let the breath breathe you. The breath knows how to breathe you already; don't make it into a project. The breath knows how to breathe you, so relax, soften. Enjoy the breath being received in your abdomen, in your sit bones, your hands and feet, in your spine, in your heart. And let your heart rest with the breath. Taking your seat. 

Nowhere to go, nothing to do. Releasing thoughts and the to-do list. Taking refuge in the simplicity of this. 

And if thoughts arise, not treating them as a problem or distraction, perhaps with amazement: "Wow. This mind can think, and think of so many thoughts and memories. Wow." A sense of awe, appreciation for this mind, and then thanking it. "Thank you, dear mind. Thanks for trying to take care of me, entertain me. I think you're amazing." And invite it to soften and relax in this moment. Resting with thought, resting with the breath. With appreciation.

Yes, this breath, in this body. How amazing the body knows how to breathe. So much more. Receiving the breath with awe, with appreciation. Feeling embodied, settled. 

Let yourself enjoy the breath. Relax, placing your hands in your lap. Enjoying the breath. It's okay to enjoy the wholesomeness. Be enjoyed. And if there is a little voice that says, "No, I'm not supposed to enjoy my meditation," let go of that misguided Puritan judgment. Thanks for your help, but it's wholesome to enjoy the practice.

A delightful reward in this cultivation. The happiness of sitting, and being breathed, and knowing. The happiness of awareness. Simply knowing. It's delicious. Even if we are knowing dukkha[^3], we're knowing what's challenging. Not pushing it away, not fighting with it, but just knowing it. Knowing what is present. There is a delight to knowing, even knowing dukkha, knowing challenges. The body can relax, the heart can relax. Knowing this. The light of knowing and the nourishment of knowing. The awesomeness of knowing.

The pleasure of knowing whatever is arising in the here and now. Breath, sensations, whatever it is. Relax. Enjoy knowing. The pleasure of mindfulness. If opening to all phenomena—thoughts, sensations, emotions—is too much, then stay with the pleasure. The pleasure of knowing the breath, and the nourishment of knowing the breath sensations here and now. Calming, soothing, settling.

Relishing the pleasure, the delight of awareness here and now. Your mind knows this. Your heart knows how to do this. Such a respite. A respite from the busyness of the day, our lives. Just the pleasure, the loveliness of knowing this. Whatever this is. The breath, the sensations. The delight of knowing that you're thinking, and thought is happening in this moment. Really meeting the knowing.

As we explore, as we open our hearts, our minds to the delight, the pleasure of knowing, of being aware, of being mindful. Without resistance, without pushing away, aversion. Knowing whatever is here: breath, sensations, thoughts, pain. There is a delight, a pleasure, a wholesome pleasure in knowing and meeting this, the truth of this moment. Not resisting. Making space for knowing to permeate, to hold whatever is here. Such a delight. How much of a delight.

And entering the last minutes of this practice period, let us experiment. Experiment with wearing a little smile. Meeting yourself with knowing, knowing whatever is present in this moment. It's a gesture of kindness, a gesture of appreciation for the knowing. Knowing what is. And see how a smile might shift it, as if our arms are wide open embracing the moment. Knowingly: "It's like this. Wow, amazing. Yay." Let your heart smile. Even if it's knowing challenges, pain, dukkha. It's a gift to know. And moved upright. We have so much more capacity than we give ourselves credit for.

As we approach the end of this sitting period, this practice: seeing our own goodness. Appreciating that we showed up. We did our best. Even if there was one moment of awareness, of knowing—yay! Infinitely more, infinitely lovelier than zero moments of knowing awareness. Appreciating this being who is me has showed up to support myself and others in this cultivation. Trusting there is goodness. Seeds have been planted, seeds of goodness planted. And together, sharing this goodness with all beings everywhere. May all beings taste their own goodness, the goodness of knowing. May they open up to the mystery, to the awe, taking a seat on this planet, however challenging it might seem. May all beings be free. May all beings be well, including myself. 

Thank you all. Thank you for your practice.

## Reflections on the Practice

I'll say a couple of words about what we did tonight. I invited us to first start with settling with the body, a sense of connection of the sit bones, the feet, with the body, with the Earth. And the sense of letting us take our seat on this Earth, just as the Buddha did. Letting there be a sense of uprightness, of awe that we are part of this amazing world. This body knows how to breathe. It has so many capacities. 

And then I invited us to feel into the delight, the pleasure, first with the breath and then knowing there is delight. There's just built-in delight and joy that we often miss—to know, to be aware in the here and now. That no matter what it is, we are knowing: breath, sensations, thoughts, etc. At first we get our training wheels just knowing the breath, knowing perhaps the comfortable areas of the body. Then we open up more and more to other phenomena. And then when we even know dukkha, when we know suffering, when we know challenge, pain in the heart or in the body, there is a delight. I know that for myself, and I know that from many, many practitioners. There is the sense of delight to know. Actually to meet what's challenging instead of pushing it away, or not going to deal with it, being afraid of it all, but seeing it. Just knowing it: "Oh, it's like this. Oh." There's a sense of uprightness, there's a sense of strength, pleasure, delight.

Another thing that I invited us to feel into and bring in was enjoying the delight, the pleasure of practice, the breath, the body. Because sometimes Buddhism gets this bad rap about being a joy-denying practice, like you're not supposed to enjoy your practice, you're supposed to concentrate. It couldn't be further from the truth. It's a much longer talk, but enjoy without attaching, without grasping like, "I want more." But when it's here, of course, enjoy it! Take delight in the delight that's present now. If you think, "I want... oh, that thing that just happened, I want more of that," no, that will be a cause of suffering, so don't do that. But when it's here, just enjoy and let it go. Like the poem—maybe I'll grab it when you're in breakout rooms: "He who kisses the joy as it flies / Lives in eternity's sunrise."[^4]

So with that, I'd like to invite us now to turn to practicing in small groups. Maybe groups of three, you'll have about six or seven minutes roughly. The prompt is... again, you can pass. When your turn comes, you can just say pass and hold kind silence for yourself and for others. You don't have to share when your turn comes. Let's go reverse alphabetical order. And when your turn comes, if you want to share something about how this was for you: "Oh yeah, I related," or "It wasn't," or "I related with the body but not with the dukkha," or "Wow, it was amazing, it actually lit up," or "I slept the whole time, I just woke up." It's perfectly fine. There are no wrong answers. It's just showing up and being held witness with community, and holding others witness.

You'll have the chance to maybe share for a minute, the next person if they want they'll share for a minute, the next person for a minute, and then you have a chance to add some more. So let it not be a long monologue, just a nugget and go round and round. Again, you can always say pass. And we share from our own experience. We don't ask questions or give advice, just "I" statements. Offering each other kindness. This is really where the rubber meets the road. Offering each other kindness and acceptance. Whatever they say, couldn't be greater, couldn't be better. Not asking questions or interrogating.

Okay, so I've created the rooms. Again, take care of yourselves, take care of each other. What a great opportunity to chat with a couple of other practitioners about this practice. Again, the prompt has to do with: How is this practice of finding joy, and feeling into the joy, the delight of knowing? Knowing what's here right now. And also wearing a smile. I forgot that, wearing a smile at the end. All right, here we go. Enjoy, take care of each other, take care of yourselves. Opening all rooms.

## Q&A and Community Reflections

*[Community break-out rooms conclude]*

Okay, I think the rooms are closed. Everybody's back. Great, so we have some time for reflection, especially if you haven't shared in a while. I'd love to ask you to pull forward. Richard, your hand shot up. What's up?

**Richard:** Tonight I wish I could have heard the summary of the meditation before the meditation. Because my attention is always torn between, let's say, my breath and the instructions. I think for me it would be easier to hear the general outline ahead of time so it would be easier to follow it.

**Nikki Mirghafori:** Yeah, okay. I appreciate hearing that. And yet there are advantages... I see both. I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both, and sometimes I do it that way, and sometimes I do it the other way. So yeah, thanks for your feedback, Richard. I appreciate that. For some people, hearing the instructions while I'm giving them out loud is actually kind of not overloading at the beginning, but just giving it piece by piece like, "Oh yeah, here we are." But I appreciate both ways. Thanks for sharing that, Richard.

**Susan:** Hi. The part I really liked was when you said you don't have to be a Puritan, it's okay to enjoy it. Which I took to add to my practice. Just like, why can't I just add some warmth to the breath here instead of it just being clinically the breath? And then I was also applying it to like, oh, I don't have to be a Puritan and be so serious when I'm getting through my list of things, the work I do all day. It's like, ah, I don't have to be a Puritan.

**Nikki Mirghafori:** I love that. Yay! Thanks, Susan. Having descended from one, it's in my bloodline! [Laughter] Yeah, and also in the West, it feels like it's so much part of the perceived Buddhist teachings to be so serious and awakened, whereas actually delight, joy, and pleasure are a really important part of the path. Really important. So yeah, thanks Susan, I appreciate how you shared that it really clicked for you. May you have joy, may you enjoy everything you do during the day. Not just the breath, but everything, everything on your to-do list. Kenneth, please.

**Kenneth:** Yeah, so I enjoy sometimes not knowing, because you have some nice Buddhist tricks. Like we'll send loving-kindness out to everybody else for 20 minutes, and then all of a sudden we'll send it back to us, and we'll go "Whoa!" And that really works, so I call it a Buddhist trick. I have a little—this is not a big issue, but sometimes I wake up and I don't feel good. So I do Tonglen[^5] practice. I don't have trouble stopping it, it just wants to go on and on, you know.

**Nikki Mirghafori:** Why is that a problem? Wait, so just for reference, when you mentioned Tonglen, just for folks who may not know what that is, that's a beautiful, beautiful Tibetan Buddhist practice of taking in, breathing in the suffering of others, suffering of ourselves, suffering of the world. Breathing in suffering, and imagining that the heart transforms it into peace, into succor, and then breathing it out. It's such a beautiful practice. So with every breath it feels like, "Oh, we're bringing peace and goodness to ourselves, to others." It's a lovely practice. It's breathing with suffering and transforming it. So that's what Ken is talking about. What's the problem with it wanting to continue to go on? I'm not sure.

**Kenneth:** It is a very nice practice. I love it.

**Nikki Mirghafori:** So, but I'm feeling like it's a problem that it continues to go on, or is it a problem? Let's explore that.

**Kenneth:** I cuddle babies at the hospital now, and I use Tonglen with the babies all the time. Because I'm just breathing out loving-kindness to them, and breathing in, I don't know, some kind of suffering. So I don't know, it's just once I start it in the morning, if I'm half asleep, it just goes on and on and on. Shouldn't I stop this at some point?

**Nikki Mirghafori:** Oh my god, are you kidding me? [Laughter] I see other hearts and thumbs up showing up on Zoom! I think we're all supporting you. Keep doing it! It's lovely that it's become so natural for you. Oh my goodness, let's celebrate it. And that peace of mind that comes and says, "Oh, shouldn't I stop this?" The answer is, why are you asking me? Why are you making a problem out of something that's actually a beautiful cultivation? You've cultivated it so much that it's now become an automatic response to the suffering of the world. 

I'll give an example of my own practice. I've done these practices that they just show up, like when I'm doing nothing, or I'm swimming, or I'm just breathing, or I'm sitting, it just shows up. Or even the words sometimes show up: "Safe, happy, healthy, ease." They just show up like, "Oh, how nice." They're comforting, and they show up outside. So this is the fruit of your cultivation, Ken. Enjoy it! Thank you so much for sharing that. All beings support you in doing that. That's lovely. Great, that's lovely. Yeah. So Claire, I see your hand. Oh, I think that was maybe... okay. Alright, so Claire disappeared.

Alright, so let's close. Let's close and dedicate the merit of our practice. Oh, actually, you know what, maybe before we close I do want to ask you questions, if anybody wants to reflect on this. Did any of you feel into or have an opening, or an aha moment into what I was guiding you in, especially the big topic of tonight: the delight, the pleasure of knowing? It's just so pleasant. Or was that just a "Duh, yeah, of course we know that"? Or was it like, "Wow, there's pleasure here in knowing whatever it is"? Was it a "Duh, yeah, of course" or was it an aha moment for anyone? Let's see. I see a thumbs up. Do you want to talk or are you just giving a thumbs up? I'm not quite sure who's giving the thumbs up in the long list of people. Do you want to raise your hand? Maybe that was just a thumbs up. Who is it? All right, Neil! Okay, Neil, you get the last word. I'm going to choose you.

**Neil:** It was like, "What is she talking about?" [Laughter] In fact, it was, "What is she talking about, and when is this meditation over?" Right, so there was like frustration, restlessness, all kind of bundled in, you know. That said, I felt very peaceful and it was all kind of nice. But when you were saying that, I'm like... I love it. So that peace and it kind of being nice—well, when you were saying it, it wasn't! When you were saying it, it definitely left me frustrated. But afterward... which I must be honest, this isn't the first or the hundred-and-first time that that's happened. I hear the instruction and I'm like, "This is dumb," right? But then... maybe it works, you know? So...

**Nikki Mirghafori:** Yeah! And so, Neil, your track record with the goodness of your practice, and this reflection of "This is dumb," you know, it comes up a lot. And the frustration. Oh, actually I missed, there was a different reflection there in the chat. "I love the delight in knowing, it was a huge opening." Oh, Mary! Thank you, Mary. I didn't see your reflection earlier. Thank you for that. 

So, yeah, with what you said, Neil, I think what I would invite you to do is to get to know the frustration. What if you actually know the frustration instead of being in it? So that's where some of the Aikido movements of awareness and mindfulness come in. Like, what is it actually, just to know it? "Oh yeah, I'm frustrated in this. There's frustration arising. Ah, wow." There's a delight in turning out of it and actually knowing it, instead of being in it. Yeah. So that's the invitation I'll give you, if you decide to continue to practice with this.

So thank you. Thank you all for your practice, and how wonderful. And may you open up to the delight, to the pleasure of knowing. May it open up for you, there's such a joy to know. May all beings be well, may all beings be free, including ourselves.

Thanks everyone. See you soon.

---
[^1]: **Mara:** The personification of doubt, challenges, and hindrances in Buddhism, who famously attempted to derail the Buddha's enlightenment.
[^2]: **Earth Mudra:** Also known as the Bhumisparsha mudra, a hand gesture representing the Buddha touching the earth to witness his awakening.
[^3]: **Dukkha:** A Pali word often translated as "suffering," "stress," or "unsatisfactoriness."
[^4]: The speaker is referencing William Blake's poem "Eternity."
[^5]: **Tonglen:** A Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice of giving and receiving, where one breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out peace and loving-kindness. (Original transcript misidentified this as "Tomlin".)