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.

Guided Meditation: Global Awareness of Body

Hello everyone, and welcome to our morning on meditation, and maybe for some of us, to be productively uncomfortable or wisely uncomfortable. Because sometimes in meditation, things are uncomfortable, and to learn how to sit quietly, peacefully, and non-reactively with our discomfort is one of the great values of meditation.

People often think meditation has to do with becoming calm and peaceful, and that's the end of the story. But what is probably more important is to learn how to be wisely present and attentive to whatever is happening in our life, so that no matter where we go, we can find a wise way of being present. Maybe that means there's a kind of calmness and peacefulness in the attentiveness, or maybe we've learned how to rest in a certain kind of way in our discomfort with things that are difficult.

So we will meditate. If anything feels uncomfortable, maybe avoid, if you can, seeing that as being unfortunate. In some ways it might be, but maybe there's no other perspective that would be useful for this period of time. The perspective that would be useful is that maybe for now, there's a way of resting in the discomfort, breathing with the discomfort, that will teach you something that will serve you throughout the day, and throughout your life, maybe even.

So, assuming an upright meditation posture. It doesn't necessarily mean physically upright, but a posture in which you will not collapse, so that you will somehow stay present and open. Lowering your gaze, softening your focus, and if it's comfortable, gently closing your eyes.

Take a few moments here to familiarize yourself with how you are right now. Perhaps becoming aware of how you are in your body. If you're uncomfortable, maybe at the beginning here, if there are simple ways of shifting your posture so that it's more comfortable, please do.

Then, if there are ways now that you're uncomfortable in your body, let it be. Gently, lovingly breathe through it. Breathe with it, as if the breath lovingly accompanies the discomfort while allowing it to be there.

Taking a few long, slow, deep breaths. As you breathe in deeply, feel your body globally. Feel whatever is pleasant, unpleasant, comfortable, uncomfortable. Take it all in.

And as you exhale—a long, quiet exhale—let it all settle. Let it all settle together here.

Letting your breathing return to normal. In whatever way it's easy, as you breathe, have a sense that you're breathing aware of your whole body. Global awareness of the body with breathing in the middle. The movements of the chest, the belly.

A global awareness of what's comfortable and uncomfortable, pleasant and unpleasant, all held in a kind of global awareness, with breathing accompanying it all.

A global awareness where you're not defined by what's pleasant and not defined by what's unpleasant, not focused on one or the other exclusively. But for now, a global, broad, panoramic awareness of your body, breathing with it.

Then, whatever is most comfortable for you, letting your attention become more focused on a particular place in your body where you're breathing, or have it focus in a particular place in the body that's calling your attention. Or continuing with a global awareness that holds it all openly, calmly, without prioritizing what's comfortable or uncomfortable, but takes it all in through the cycles of breathing.

And as we come to the end of the sitting, once again have a global experience of your body in whatever way that's easy. A wide-angle lens for your embodied experience.

Aware of the movements of breathing as it moves through your body—the chest, the belly, the shoulders, the rib cage front and back. A global experience of the body.

To whatever degree you're able to, see if you can rest in this body. Maybe a feeling that attention settles and rests throughout the body, letting go of tension and holding.

Then, staying in this global body, as relaxed as you can, turn your attention outward now to the people you'll encounter today, the work you'll do, the activities of the day. Become aware of it all, remember it all, while staying rooted in your body, relaxed in your body the best you can.

And from a place of goodness within, a place of warmth or kindness, a place where your care is born, awaken a well-wishing for all the people you'll encounter, all the activities you'll do, and for yourself in those activities. Offer words of well-wishing:

May all these people, all of us, be happy, free of stress and strife. May all of us be safe, free of hostility and ill-will. May all of us be peaceful, free of agitation and conflict. And may all of us be free, free of compulsivity and oppression.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be free. And may we be messengers of this into the world.

Reflections on Discomfort

So again, good morning. This week we're exploring the topic of discomfort, which is a common experience of life, and becoming wiser about it.

One of the things about discomfort that's useful to practice is to see the distinction between the discomfort which is pure and simply physical, and that which is more emotional or mental. The reason for the distinction is that if it's physical discomfort—if that's the primary characteristic, or if you see the physical discomfort as the most obvious part of it—what we can do is rest in the discomfort. This might seem paradoxical, but find where the discomfort is in the body. Maybe the stomach is in knots, or the chest is swirling in agitation or tight. Whatever it might be, there's a restlessness that we feel in our arms, our legs, our hands. Wherever the physical symptoms of being uncomfortable are—you might be in pain—see if it's possible to let your attention, or let yourself, rest into the discomfort.

In this way, the discomfort is not a source for agitation, but rather is the basis where we stop to really rest in it, to be with it, to allow it to be there. We are not allowing it to be there to do whatever it wants, but allowing it so that something inside of us stays close to it and rests in it. It's kind of like a friend of ours might be really upset and agitated about something difficult that just happened. You might come over and just sit next to your friend, or you might hold their hand. You're the calm presence; you rest calmly with the person. So, feel the physical restlessness or discomfort and breathe with it. Feel it in your body, center yourself on it, and find a way of being grounded or centered through it, not around it by avoiding it.

Partly, what this is doing is learning not to give in to the reactivity of the discomfort—the subject of yesterday's talk—and all the different ways we might react to it. Instead of allowing the reactivity to take over, we find how to rest in it. Sometimes, if we do that, this physical discomfort will begin relaxing itself.

It also allows for the second part of stopping, and that is seeing. There's this pairing in Buddhism of stopping and seeing^[1]. We stop, we slow down, and we calm down in order to see more clearly. When we're uncomfortable and agitated by that, there's not going to be a lot of clear seeing. So find where that is in the body, rest in it, and breathe with it.

If it's a social discomfort, rather than spinning out^[2] in the mind and thoughts about what's happening socially, find the physical discomfort and rest in it. Stand in it, open to it, or breathe with it. This is an art form or a skill to learn: turning towards discomfort and resting in it. You might find that there's a kind of rest and calmness that can be found in the middle of the storm by resting attention and just being with it for what this is—uncomfortable in being with it.

If it's an emotional, psychological, or social discomfort—which has to do with the ideas, thoughts, and experiences that happen interpersonally—and there are physical manifestations of that, it's really useful to rest in that physical feeling, to stop and really feel it. It might be the simplest and easiest way to begin relaxing and not being caught in the grip of the social and emotional discomfort that might be there. The discomfort doesn't have to go away. That's a little bit of a trap, to think you're trying to get rid of it. But there's a way of resting in it that gives us a vantage point from which to see more clearly, to not be seeing through the reactivity we might have.

Of course, not all social situations we find ourselves in give us the time to do that, but there are some where we can just take our time and acknowledge, "Okay, I'm really uncomfortable here. Let me feel it and be with it."

Occasionally, there's a discomfort that's not so much physical but primarily mental or emotional. Then it's interesting to also come to your body and find the little remnants or traces of that discomfort in your body, even though the primary thing is psychological. Maybe it's easy to relax that way, or maybe we find the body becomes the holder or the grounding by which we're not caught or trapped by the thoughts, stories, and judgments that are involved in the social discomfort. If uncomfortable things are happening around us, we're not taking it in as deeply if we feel the body. The body becomes more balanced, and sometimes the body becomes more of a shield from the social discomfort coming into the mind or into the heart.

So, find some place of rest in the body in relationship to discomfort. Get grounded, get stabilized in the body. Sometimes that can involve changing your posture. If you're standing, stand in such a way that you're really balanced and strong in the posture, with both feet firmly on the ground, standing tall. If the situation allows it, close your eyes and really be with the body. If you're sitting in a chair, make sure you're not in a posture that collapses or is overly tense, but take a balanced, upright posture where the body supports embodied awareness.

Keep coming back to the body. And then the second part of it is the seeing. Stop to rest in it, stop for the discomfort, and really feel it in such a way that the mind quiets down just enough that there is space to really study what is going on. We can look at all discomfort as a messenger. The question is, what is the message? What is there to learn here in this situation?

There are many things that can make us uneasy, and sometimes the uneasiness and discomfort are actually wise things to listen to. There's a real message here: something is wrong, something is off, and maybe I need to listen to this. Maybe I need to pay more careful attention to what is going on here. Many times in my life, I felt uncomfortable about something, didn't really stop to look at it or take it in, overrode it, and did something or participated in something that later I regretted. Initially, there was the warning—"this doesn't feel right"—and that not feeling right is a wise discomfort.

At other times, my discomfort was limiting me. I was afraid, neurotically anxious about something that was happening, and I felt myself pulling back or shutting down, limited by the discomfort. I learned that if I stopped and really brought presence and attention to it, I could see, "Oh, here I am holding myself back. I'm anxious. I'm afraid. Do I need to be afraid? Should I give in to the fear?"

Sometimes it's appropriate to override the fear or open up to the situation and be willing to be vulnerable. For example, if someone has a lot of warmth, kindness, care, and love, it can be frightening sometimes to have someone really love us. But is it necessary to be frightened? Is it possible to open up? What is the message? What is the discomfort about?

We stop and learn to rest in the discomfort, to rest in the physicality of it, so we can begin investigating and considering: what is the message of discomfort? What is it telling us? How is it useful to know, and what is the useful way of being with it? Is it to open up? Is it to heed it? Is it to step back? Is it to stay quiet? Is it to step forward? Is it to understand ourselves better? Is it to investigate what is happening here for me?

This willingness and ability to stop for discomfort and to rest in it—resting in the agitation and the uncomfortable unease when something is not really at ease—is to see what happens, to discover what opens up. Resting in discomfort is a stepping stone to begin being able to ask ourselves: "What's the message here? What is there to learn? Is this discomfort useful and wise, or is it not useful and unwise?" We can answer that question much better if we've stopped and learned how to rest in it and make space for it.

Chances are that more often than not, you'll have the time and space—maybe even just a minute or a few seconds—to step back, rest in the discomfort, rest in the physical body, and see what happens. See what opens, see what you learn, see what might relax.

I wish you well. Some of you will be traveling and going to places where there may be lots of joy, but there might also be a fair amount of discomfort in the gatherings that might be happening. Maybe it will be a wonderful laboratory to explore your discomfort and develop greater wisdom and self-understanding around this territory of discomfort. Maybe these next days will go easier for you. Thank you.