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Guided Meditation: Dipping into the Body

Hello everyone. Today, this week, we're very much here to experience our body. At least, that's what the instructions for this section of the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness^[1] are about. And one of the things we're contending with as we bring mindfulness to the body is a tendency of thinking to take us away from the body.

I have found it helpful sometimes to think about thinking—to consider my thoughts to be a little bit like thought bubbles in a cartoon or comic, floating above the head. The reason I find that useful is that sometimes it's very clear that when I notice I'm thinking or have been involved in thinking, I'm not really connected to my body very much. There's not any sense of embodied presence, embodied attention.

When I then settle into my body, it's a richer, certainly more embodied experience of myself. But also, it becomes more three-dimensional, whereas thinking by itself is one-dimensional or two-dimensional. It's kind of flat. Even though what we think about might be exciting, emotionally evocative, and all kinds of things, there's some way in which the embodied life feels richer or more valuable. So, this first foundation of mindfulness has to do with becoming embodied.

When we're sitting today, you might study a little bit the difference between being preoccupied in thoughts and not. When you notice you are that way, notice the quality of the mind, the body, and the quality of your experiences when you are so involved in your thinking that you're not connected to your body.

But then, when you switch modes and come into your body through the breathing and settling, what's that like? How's that different? The image I like to use myself in those times when I get preoccupied in thoughts is that I'm going to dip back into my body, like I would dip myself into a refreshing pool of water, or a warm pool of water if it's cold winter weather right now.

Dipping myself into a wonderful pool of water. And as I'm settling myself into the water of the body, that image of settling into water is very nice for me and helps me settle into my body a bit more.

So, taking a meditation posture. Taking a little bit of time with the posture, knowing that mindfulness of posture is one of the practices of mindfulness. Mindfulness begins as we attend to our posture, perhaps making many small adjustments just to get aligned and get everything just right.

Closing the eyes, and noticing the degree to which you're involved in thinking. Is there a lot of energy in your thinking right now? And if there is, feel that energy. Feel the activation that's connected to thinking. Feel that activation physically. What does it feel like in your body? Is there tension or pressure?

Is there physical agitation in some part of your body that's connected to thinking? As you breathe, maybe breathing a little bit more deeply than usual, breathe into the place that's activated. Breathe into the place where thinking predominates. And as you exhale, relax the thinking mind.

As you exhale, calm the mind, maybe slowing your thinking down a little bit or lowering the volume. If you think more in images, maybe you can imagine the images are further away from you, projected into space at a distance so you're not so involved.

Then, taking a few longer, deeper breaths on the exhale. Settle into your body as you exhale. Exhale and relax into the body. Breathing in and breathing out. Establishing yourself in the physical sensations of breathing, and maybe the ways in which the sensations come and go with the rhythm of breathing in and out.

And then coming to the end of the sitting. Dedicating this meditation, the effort you made, dedicating the practice for every breath that you were present for. Dedicating it to the welfare and happiness of others and yourself. Dedicating it for the well-being of this world, including yourself. May all beings be happy, including yourself. May all beings be safe, including yourself. May all beings be peaceful, including you. May all beings be free. May you be free.

Each of us is as important as every other person in this world. When we dedicate the merit, the benefits of practice, may it be all-inclusive for self and others. For this whole world. May this whole world be happy. Thank you.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (21) Unhurried Attention

So, we're spending time these days with mindfulness of activities. That overlaps quite a bit with what's called mindfulness in daily life. The list of things to be mindful of in the text we're going through is quite extensive. When I was in Japan practicing in a Zen monastery, they had a practice called gathas^[2]. They would recite gathas—four-line verses. We were given all these verses in a little book of verses to memorize.

Before we were going to eat, before we were going to shower, wash our hands, go to the bathroom, put on clothes—all these ordinary activities we did. The idea was to recite these four-line verses that you memorized. They were specific for each activity, and they were aspiration verses: "As I do this activity, may I..." As far as I remember, all of them had to do with dedicating the activity for the welfare of everyone, benefiting everyone from this.

When I was here in California at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center^[3], they used a little bit of that. Mostly, it was when we went to the baths. They had these natural hot springs that piped water into the baths, so it was a lovely place to go and shower and then bathe in. But there was an altar as you entered, and you would bow to the altar, and you'd recite the four-line verse that was written above the altar. I don't remember exactly how it went, but it went something like, "As I enter the bath with all beings..." Something like cleaning myself inside and out. But you would recite this.

We have one at the IRC^[4], our retreat center, that was written a few years ago, and I'll read it to you. It had to do with hand washing, because it's so important when forty people are living together and touching the same utensils, serving food, and all that, that everyone washes their hands before using the buffet table and serving ourselves. But to really emphasize the value of it, we have this little verse that's posted: "Cleaning my hands, I clean my heart and mind. Cleaning my heart and mind, I clean the world for others." If you memorize these kinds of verses, when you do something, it takes a certain amount of attention and time to do it. You're preparing yourself for it. You're funneling your attention, your energy, and your time to do the activity you're doing. So you don't do things in a hurry when you recite a four-line verse before you do it.

By doing this in the Zen monastery, it was a training in learning how to take your time, slow down, and not be in a hurry. Just do the thing you're doing when you're doing it. The idea of when you're doing something, just do it. When walking, just walk. When eating, just eat. I thought I would read one by Thich Nhat Hanh. I don't have it here—maybe tomorrow. Thich Nhat Hanh has a whole little book with these kinds of gathas, four-line verses.

What I'm trying to convey here is that when you're practicing mindfulness in activities, don't do things in a hurry. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to slow down. You can do things fast sometimes without hurrying. Hurrying is being ahead of yourself. It's propelling yourself through something or to the other side of it as quickly as you can, whereas mindfulness is meant to be being there for the activity. If it needs to be done quickly, then be fully there and surrender to the activity.

I was a short-order cook for a while after being in the monastery. What I learned in the monastery about surrendering to each activity and being really present for it, I learned to do as a cook. That's all I did—the dance of spinning and turning and cooking many dishes at once. That's the only thing I did. I kind of surrendered to that dance, and I would usually leave my job feeling more concentrated than when I entered because of how I gave myself over to it.

So, giving yourself over to the activity without a hurry. To live a mindful life, to live a life where there's some momentum for mindfulness to grow and enhance our life, it really is valuable to start bringing a good-quality attention to what we're doing when we're doing it, in the present moment.

So I'll go through this list again: "Acts in full awareness when going forward and returning." If you have to go to the bathroom and come back, if you have to go to the kitchen to get something and come back, if you have to go to the bookcase to get something and come back—that's a time that, if you want, can be your meditation time. That's a time for cultivating your capacity for awareness.

It's not just to be aware of what you're doing, which is valuable. But what we're trying to do here with this Satipaṭṭhāna, these Four Foundations of Mindfulness, is to do these activities so that awareness becomes stronger. Present-moment awareness becomes more second nature than something you have to remind yourself to do. So there's both the purpose of being present, and the purpose of enhancing and developing awareness. Awareness is like a muscle, and you can develop it.

"Acts in full awareness when flexing and extending one's limbs." If you're going to reach for something. In Thailand, I don't know if it's still there, but there was a Vipassanā^[5] school of insight meditation that relied not on the breathing, but rather—you know, in breathing you're watching maybe the movements of the belly as it comes and goes—in this school you watched your arm as you moved it. You would lift your arm, put it down to the side, lift the arm up, put it down to the side, and you'd be very focused and concentrated on the sensations of that movement. The mind would get concentrated, a lot of calm would develop, and for some people this movement of the arm was easier to track than the breathing. Eventually, the people who did it a lot became concentrated there, and with concentration they would develop the further steps of Vipassanā.

So, bending and extending one's limbs. "Wearing one's robes and carrying one's bowl," or wearing one's clothes. Putting on clothes, wearing them. For the monastics, being mindful of your robes is important because one of the minor rules you can violate is—you know, monks wear a kind of skirt, and then an outer robe over the skirt. The big outer robe extends down to the edges of the skirt, and the hem has to be lined up parallel to the bottom of your skirt. If you don't do that, then it's a little violation. These robes that monks wear take a certain amount of mindfulness to keep them just right, so you have to be attentive to your clothes. When I was a monastic, I was surprised by this, but I came to like this quite a bit because it was a call to constantly be mindful, constantly be attentive. Rather than seeing it as a nuisance, I saw it as a way of staying relaxed, not rushing ahead, and not getting complicated—just staying present.

"One acts in full awareness when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting." The word for tasting apparently is not exactly "tasting," but more like "savoring." Certainly, you don't want to be attached to it, but to be really present to feel and sense the taste.

There's part of the lore of Buddhism, or part of the records from the ancient commentaries, that a lot of practitioners became enlightened while they were eating. Something about the detailed attention. And the first real opening experience I had in Buddhist practice occurred while I was sipping a cup of tea. So there is this idea that these simple things can be really powerful if we're really present for them and really give ourselves over to it, sense it, and be with it.

"Full awareness when defecating and urinating." Sometimes it's said that a really good poop is a minor Nibbana^[6], a minor awakening. [Laughter] So really be present for these bodily functions that we do every day. "And when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent." I find it very nice when I go to bed at night to be present for the experience of being there, relaxing my body, being mindful, checking in, and letting go of any stresses that are easy enough to let go of, and just be there present.

My teachers in Burma wanted us to be aware right up to the moment of sleep, and actually be able to know if you fall asleep on the in-breath or the out-breath. I tried that for a long time, and it's something I've never been able to do, so I've given up on that. And then to be present when we wake up, and to know if you woke up on the in-breath or the out-breath—also something I've never been able to do. But to wake up and then begin the mindfulness as soon as we remember.

What I tried to convey today is how valuable it is to practice in activities. It's valuable because it gives a heightened attention to what we're doing, which is nice, but it's also a way of strengthening and developing our capacity for mindfulness, our capacity for awareness. Each of these activities listed in this text is quite valuable and has a lot of potential, even potential for realization, for waking up. Eating our food, drinking tea, going to the bathroom—all these things. You want to be present for them because who knows, maybe some activity you're doing today is the activity that's going to be really dharmically significant for your practice. Really significant. And you don't want to miss it. You don't want to have glossed over it. We don't know which one it is, so maybe be careful today with all your activities, and who knows which one will bear some wonderful fruit.

There's a gatha from Thich Nhat Hanh before starting the car: "I know where I'm going. The car and I are one. If the car goes fast, I go fast." Thank you, Barbara. There are lots of these wonderful verses, and you can write your own four-line verse as a way of supporting you to enhance your engagement with whatever you're doing. So, thank you. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, or being here with you tomorrow.