--- ai_generation_date: '2026-05-04' ai_model: gemini-3-pro-preview audiodharma: talks: - date: '2023-03-22' mp3_url: https://audiodharma.us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/talks/17962/20230322-Nikki_Mirghafori-IMC-happy_hour_meeting_every_moment_afresh_with_friendliness.mp3 speakers: - speaker_name: Nikki Mirghafori speaker_url: https://www.audiodharma.org/speakers/229 talk_start_time_seconds: 0 title: 'Happy Hour: Meeting Every Moment Afresh with Friendliness' url: https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17962 video_unavailable: false location_city: Redwood City, CA video_unavailable: false youtube: id: xHM0E3u7nNE imprecise_upload_date: null title: 'Happy Hour: Meeting Every Moment Afresh with Friendliness' upload_date: '2023-03-23' uploader_str: Insight Meditation Center uploader_url: https://www.youtube.com/@InsightMeditationCenter youtube_url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHM0E3u7nNE --- # Happy Hour: Meeting Every Moment Afresh with Friendliness - [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: Meeting Every Moment Afresh with Friendliness](https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/17962) ## Introduction Right, welcome. Hello, everyone. Lovely to be back with you; I've missed you. As I mentioned at the beginning, various things were happening the past week, including on Monday the Persian New Year, Nowruz[^1], which is on the vernal equinox. It's the first day of spring, which was on Monday. So happy spring to you all! Happy spring. ## Guided Meditation So let's start meditating together. Let's begin, and more words will emerge. The theme will emerge. Let's arrive. Let's arrive together in this body, in this moment in time. Arriving. Arriving every moment. Each moment a new arrival. Every moment like spring. Every breath is like spring. Every sensation in this body, fresh, new, never like this before. And we have a beginner's mind. Beginner's mind, the mind that is fresh. Like the green grass. Like cherry blossoms in springtime. Fresh, new, blossoming, meeting this moment anew. Let us meet the sensations of our body resting on the earth, on the cushion. Our sit bones on the cushion, on the chair. Our feet on the earth, the bottoms of our feet. Greeting these sensations anew. And we meet the sensations of this breath in the abdomen. Like the spring breeze, fresh new sensations. The in-breath, the entire in-breath, and the entire out-breath. As well as the pause in between the in-breath and out-breath, out-breath and in-breath. Receiving, opening the door of your heart. Greet the breath, the sensations of the breath, however they arrive. Staying with them like an honored guest you're meeting for the first time. And we have a childlike interest, curiosity, delight at this world. This inner world, the breath's sensations. Receiving it with ease, relaxation, softness. And we meet this moment. Can I meet this moment like a friend? I meet this moment with friendliness, whatever is arising in this moment. If you are meeting a friend you haven't seen for a long time, although they're tired, cranky—oh, it's your friend! The same joy, delight, friendliness. The pains and aches in your own heart here—you won't be upset that your friend is tired or cranky or hurting. You're just happy to be with them. "Oh, it's okay, however they are." Freshness of appreciation to meet whatever this moment brings. Even if it's a crowd of sorrows in our heart, meeting it with friendliness. Fresh. Maybe your mind is scattered, and you meet your mind with friendliness. Meet it like a friend. It might be tired, scattered. It's okay. Love your mind, love your heart. They're doing their best to be present. And if it's quiet inside, meeting the breath with friendliness, kindness, appreciation. Imbuing the breath with appreciation. Breathing in appreciation, breathing out appreciation. And whatever arises, if it's judgment—"I'm not doing this right," or "This is terrible or boring"—you meet whatever arises with kindness, with friendliness. Meet it like a friend. A friend who's cranky right now. It's okay. You still love your friend. I meet this moment with friendliness, generosity of heart. I meet this body with friendliness. Now I meet my heart with friendliness, with kindness. And I meet my mind with friendliness, with kindness. I meet my body, heart, and mind, whatever arises, with kindness, friendliness, with patience, with peace. I meet the present moment, being fully here. Not in the past, not in the future, but right here. Right here. Letting go. Letting go of the past, the future. Letting go of entanglement in the present. Simply be. Simply be here. Opening, opening with kindness. Meet whatever arises in this sphere of experience, mind, body, with appreciation, kindness. As if spring has sprung. And we also meet whatever arises externally with kindness. Sounds that might be arising in the environment. The people with whom we're sharing the space, this practice space in our hearts, meeting them with kindness. Everyone here on Zoom, YouTube, and AudioDharma. Beyond, all people everywhere, all beings everywhere, whatever their conditions might be. Meeting everyone, every being, with kindness, with friendliness, with goodwill. Seeing ourselves meeting others with kindness. Being a source of kindness and goodwill in the world. Spreading kindness, generosity, goodwill wherever we can, however we can. Wishing well for all beings. May all beings be well. May all beings know peace and the causes of peace. Freedom in their heart from greed, hatred, and delusion. From greed, hatred, and delusion, may we have peace. May all beings everywhere, including ourselves, be well and know true happiness. The bliss of integrity, generosity, wisdom. ## Dharma Talk Thank you all. Thank you for your practice. So tonight, at this moment in time, whatever your time zone is, we practiced with a couple of themes. One was meeting the moment, meeting whatever arises in the body, in the heart, and the mind—whatever arises in this sphere of experience—with kindness, with friendliness, like a friend. Also, in that theme, we brought in a sense of freshness, inspired by it being the first couple days of spring. As if we're meeting this moment fresh, whatever is arising, fresh. This childlike interest, freshness, curiosity. Because as adults, we kind of get, I don't know, bored perhaps, or we lose our freshness. We have to rekindle it. We have to remind ourselves that this moment has never been like this before, and will never be. If you spend some time with a young person, you'll just see the sense of delight. Anything, any little game or any little toy, there's a sense of wonder. So this invitation to meet each moment with beginner's mind, as spring has arisen fresh, can be very helpful as we go around in our daily life. Instead of, "Bah, humbug, yeah, it's Wednesday," it's, "Oh wow, this moment is fresh. It's never been like this, and it will never be like this again." We just take it for granted. We think we're going to be alive for so many more springs. Who knows? Who knows? I thank you for joining through this practice. I'd like to invite us to turn. As we meet this moment internally—we have met it with kindness as much as possible—can we turn? Can we befriend whatever arises? Can we meet others like a friend? Can we meet a couple of other human beings like friends? Whether or not you know them, whether you've seen them before or not, meet them as if for the first time. Without the assumptions, the presumptions that we have: "Oh, this person is like that. This is what they're going to talk about." No. What if you try that on for size? It's easier for people you don't know so well, to meet them afresh, meet them anew with friendliness. And then maybe you can practice in the sandbox and then take it to your family and friends. If there are some buttons that are pushed by some friends, family, and colleagues, maybe you can just try on for size for a few minutes: what if you met them fresh? Without all the expectations, presumptions. With friendliness. So that's the invitation. For the small groups that we'll engage with in a moment, the prompt is: what was this practice like for you? You can share maybe a sentence or two, and the next person will go alphabetically. The next person will share something, or you can just say "pass" and hold silent presence. But those who are receiving, those who are hearing, hear the person as if it's fresh, it's new. Without presumptions, without thinking about what you're going to say. Just friendliness. Friendliness and spring. Bring these two in, play around, see how you can make it work for you. And I'd be interested in your reflections. So I'm going to create the breakout rooms and invite you, as always, to be kind. Be kind to yourselves, be kind to each other. *(Breakout rooms session)* ## Reflections The rooms are closed; everybody's back. Welcome back, everyone. I would love to open this space and also the chat if you'd like to share. Exploring this, what was it like bringing the idea of meeting others with beginner's mind, fresh, as well as this friendliness? Ali, please. **Ali:** Hello everyone. I just loved the beginning, how you started the meditation, saying to see what comes up, kind of allowing. That's what I did all the way through the meditation. Towards the end, I came up with a spring renewal—in the Persian tradition as you mentioned, with this spring. What do I have to say? Be grateful for the sangha[^2]. It came to me: "May spring spring every moment in our lives." In the group, it came to me that in the Hindu tradition, one of the sages said that every moment you open your eyes, you create a new world. That is very true. May that be our case for this lovely space here. We have Nikki and the other teachers, and we're the greatest sangha in the whole world. May the spring spring every moment! **Nikki Mirghafori:** Thank you, Ali, thank you so much. That was absolutely beautiful. I so appreciate it. "May the springs be springing every moment." Actually, it is. As you said, this Hindu saying is that actually every moment it is, it's just that we don't pay attention to it in that way. We're like, "Humdrum, humdrum, same thing, okay, I'm going to open my eyes again." No, actually, we're creating new worlds every moment. Let's have that perspective of freshness, newness. This show is not going to go on for that long, so we might as well. It's always spring, new every moment; we just don't appreciate it. Thank you so much for bringing that. Beautiful. And as they say in Persian, happy New Year, happy Nowruz! Nowruz exactly means "new day." It's all new day. Thank you. Any other reflections? You can also type them in chat, either to me privately or to everyone if you like. Claire, thank you. **Claire:** I'll be very brief. This was not what I talked about in our group, but Ali's share reminded me to mention that—and I've talked about this before—I circulate a gratitude list with two friends every day. I've been doing it for years now. It really forces one to look at what is working well in the day, rather than things that might be going wrong or just the monotony of it. You really have to focus and think through the details, and it's beautiful. It's worked so beautifully for me in terms of seeing the day, every day, fresh. **Nikki Mirghafori:** Yeah, lovely. And you know what it becomes, exactly, after you do this practice for a long time—which I think you're alluding to, but just to unpack that for everyone—is that maybe at first one only looks at what is going well. But later, it's not just that. You actually start to appreciate that so many things are going well! It's just like, "Oh my goodness, the preponderance of fresh and new and wonderful things!" You start to notice more. I think it's important how this practice actually changes our mind. I think some people maybe do this practice like, "Well, I've already been grateful for this and that, what's new?" Actually, it shifts and changes the way you see. So I appreciate you bringing that in. Thank you. Any other last reflections before we close? Any insights from this practice? What was it like to meet others in a group with beginner's mind, even if maybe you had met them before? Did you try that on for size, or did it just go out the window after thirty seconds of being in the group? [Laughter] That can happen! Alright, well, let's bring our time together to a close. Thank you all for your practice. Thank you for cultivating your hearts towards kindness, friendliness, meeting this moment internally and externally anew, and like a friend. May all things be well. May all beings be free, including ourselves. Thanks, everyone. Happy New Year. Happy Nowruz! New day, new moment, every moment. Take good care of yourselves. See you on Friday. Bye! --- [^1]: **Nowruz:** The Persian New Year, which begins on the vernal equinox, marking the first day of spring. [^2]: **Sangha:** A Pali word meaning "association," "assembly," "company," or "community." In a Buddhist context, it refers to the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns, or more broadly to the community of Buddhist lay practitioners.