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Guided Mediation: Nature

Introduction

So everyone who's here, I'm here up in the Sierras on a kind of a long weekend vacation with my wife. It's a little different place than IMC^[1]. I'll be back there tomorrow, and I think the delay between my speaking and you all hearing me is about 30 seconds, which is different than what it has been at IMC, so hopefully this all works fine and you can hear me. One of the interesting things is we have a bird that's chirping on a very regular basis—intermittent when it starts doing it, but some people say it sounds like an alarm going off, and it's been doing it much of the night. It's kind of endearing for me. Hopefully, it'll work for all of you.

I'm here in an oak woodland. The oak tree is behind me. Nice to see your names, familiar names and others. Thank you, Rocky, for loving the birds; I appreciate that. I think Michelle has no sounds, but maybe it's on your end; you have to maybe restart.

There's a very long tradition, maybe from the time of the Buddha, of practitioners practicing in the wilderness, in the forest—sometimes actually called forest monastics. There were no retreat centers the way we have nowadays. So here we are. When you're in the wilderness, you have all kinds of natural life that comes along, and the first today is this bird that's chirping.

Those of you who know Northern California, we've been hiking this weekend along the South Fork of the Yuba River, including going into the river, which was cold but refreshing. It seems like the Wi-Fi connection is quite strong, so we don't have to worry about that.

Maybe I should take a photograph of the scene and use it as a backdrop for our usual YouTube videos; it's quite beautiful here.

William asks, "Is anybody here with me?" I know, I'm alone sitting outside here.

I've thought of broadcasting from the woods near Redwood City, but I looked around to see if I could find good enough cell phone coverage that somehow I could do it—you know, connect my computer to my cell phone—but so far I haven't found a connection strong enough anywhere. I don't know whether using my phone for this purpose would work anyway.

The Wi-Fi spot, the cell phone coverage is good at Natural Bridges State Park. Yes, I should go down there sometime.

So it's seven o'clock here in the Sierras, so we can start.

Those of you just logging on, we're up here for a little long weekend vacation, and so in order to meditate with all of you, I'm doing it from the place where I am. There's a variety of birds around here. What you hear that sounds like an alarm is a bird that goes on a good part of the night. It's a lovely sound, I think, but I don't know how it comes through on the computer. There are some other doves here and other kinds of bird sounds that we have. Chances are that we're getting a little bit of the experience that meditators have had down through the centuries of forest sounds, wood sounds, when they practice in the woods. Yes, there's a beeping sound—that's a bird that's mostly doing a constant chirping on a regular basis. The first night here we thought it was some kind of alarm going off in the house. Oh, and I don't know if you could hear the nearby rooster.

Guided Meditation

So let us start.

One of the benefits of meditating in the natural world is to appreciate that we are supported in meditation by nature. Now, there are more and more different bird sounds—I don't know how much of it comes through, some of it's faint. It's getting to be a symphony of birds, including the one that's keeping the beat. So the natural world is found within us and around us. Sometimes the word Dharma^[2] is translated as "nature," and there are different meanings of the word nature. Sometimes people will even translate it as "natural law." One of the things that we are discovering in Dharma practice is the way that the natural processes that exist within us, and even around us, can support us. We can learn to be in harmony with them.

Practice is not just about our efforts. We certainly have to make some efforts, but some of that effort is to place ourselves in nature, in the Dharma, so that the Dharma and nature can operate in a way that's harmonious, healthy, beneficial for us, and even liberating.

Dharma practice is partly getting out of the way, so that which is unwholesome, that which gets in the way of the natural world or interferes with it in ways that are harmful for us and for the world around us, comes to an end, and what is beneficial and harmonious can operate.

Taking a meditation posture.

Allowing your eyes to close.

Knowing for a few moments that this human body that we have is as much nature as the woods, the birds, and the natural world around us. We come out of the natural world. We are intimately part of it. Our body is made up of 100% recycled materials that come from the world around us.

Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. The natural world is filled with rhythm, and so here we have the rhythm of breathing. The life-giving breath that we fill our lungs with, and that our body then expels the CO2 to allow for fresh oxygen to come in.

Letting your breathing return to normal.

Taking those moments to relax your body. Relaxing the belly, letting the belly soften, relax. The relaxing of the body is part of this process that allows the Dharma, nature, to work within us in a harmonious way.

Relaxing in the chest and the heart. Releasing the shoulders, and softening the face. Letting the eyes rest in the sockets.

And then attuning yourself to the natural rhythm of your body breathing, something your body has known to do since the time you were born. Through breathing, we are participating in the process of nature.

And perhaps, as you exhale, let go of your thoughts, your concerns. Let go of your worries, and let go into a deep trust in the Dharma. In those natural processes within that will support us.

(Long silence)

And then, as we come to the end of the sitting... perhaps the sounds that you hear that are around me—the birds, the dogs, the rooster, the turkeys... and I don't know if you heard the crunching of the deer that are stepping around—we share this world with so many other beings.

To sit and really feel that we're connected in some deep way with other human beings that support our lives, and that we're here with other creatures. To live with an open heart to do it all. To live with a sense of care and mutuality that arises because of our gratitude. To live in gratitude for how much it is that supports our lives: the trees around, the plants that make the oxygen that we depend on, the natural world that provides us with our food, even if it's grown by farmers. To feel we're really a part of this world, an intimate, connected part to the natural process of this world.

And to open our hearts and our goodwill to well-wishing for the well-being and the welfare of this world. Of all human beings, and of the planet itself, of Gaia.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings everywhere be free.

May we find a refuge in the Dharma, so that we can be a refuge for all beings. We can be someone who is safe, a refuge of safety for everyone. May all beings be safe.

So thank you all for the meditation. I don't have a bell, so maybe the bird sounds can be our bell today. I don't know how much of it you hear, maybe everything, but there's been a wide range of bird sounds.

Dharmette: Refuge (1 of 5) Introduction

So for this Monday talk, I begin a new five-part series. In some ways, it continues from the long series we had on mindfulness of breathing meditation—meditation in general, not just mindfulness of breathing.

To really kind of settle in and discover the value of meditation, we discover that it's not all about "me, myself, and mine." In fact, to be involved in thoughts and ideations of "me, myself, and mine" limits our ability to settle deeply in the meditation, to in a way get out of the way of our meditative process, to get out of the way of what feels more and more like a natural process of the Dharma moving through us.

At some point, we begin to appreciate how powerful it is to no longer interfere unnecessarily with the natural process of the Dharma within. The unhealthy ways are to be caught up in our thoughts, our preoccupations, to be lost in thought, or to be caught in what often are the motivating factors for preoccupation: it could be greed, it could be resentment, ill will, it could be doubt, it could be anxiety and fear, it can be conceit.

A high percentage of many people's thinking has "me, myself, and mine" at the center—that they somehow concern ourselves. And of course, we want to make ourselves safe. Of course, we want the best for ourselves. But the somewhat paradox is that the less self-preoccupation we have, the more happiness and well-being there is for us. So we begin slowly to learn that there is another way of living that is not centered on self. It might be centered on this body and mind that we have—it isn't that we discount this being that we are—but the ideas, the identities we take on of "me, myself, and mine," we begin to see that even those which are true enough, those which are useful at times, interfere with our deep well-being.

I've often, when I've been in the natural world like I am now, become acutely aware of how some of the preoccupations and concerns I have living in an urban environment seem to just fall away. So many things don't matter so much that I need to get concerned with. Maybe in the urban environment, in the cities, there's much more ongoing concern about what other people think about us. What do people think about me? If I spilled my breakfast all over my shirt, I probably wouldn't feel very comfortable walking around my neighborhood. But if I spill on my shirt while camping, it's kind of unfortunate, but there's all kinds of levels of preoccupations I don't have of "me, myself, and mine," or what other people are thinking. Rather, I stay connected to an ease, a peacefulness, an openness, a feeling that's more closely related to the natural world than what we might feel as part of our social times.

If you're following what I'm saying, then we start feeling there is safety, there is support, there is guidance. There is a profound wisdom in letting go of self-preoccupation, letting go of distractions, letting go of greed, hatred, and delusion. What results from that letting go is a vitality, a wisdom, a safety, an inspiration that we want to make part of our lives. "This is the center of my life. This is what makes sense. This is how I want to live. I don't want to get swept away again in distractions and greed and fear and all the things that I get caught up in. I want to live in this natural mind, that natural heart that's at ease with itself, that operates without contraction, without recoiling, and without constantly being for and against everything."

This strong orientation, the strong heartfelt wish to stay close to this, to make this the center of our lives, for Buddhists is often represented by or expressed through the notion of going for refuge. It's represented by going for refuge sometimes in the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha^[3]. The Buddha, most simply, is the exemplar. The Dharma is his teachings that arise out of his awakening. And the Sangha are the witnesses who have discovered, who have seen for themselves, that what he teaches and what he is the exemplar for is true.

So that's one very traditional way of understanding refuge. There are other ways that the Buddha taught about refuge that have to do with other things besides the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha. There are six things. One of them that's a big surprise for some people to hear is that oneself becomes one's own refuge in this process. Another is one's actions and choices become a refuge. Another is the Four Noble Truths^[4] are a refuge. And the last refuge that the Buddha talks about is the refuge of a deep letting go of greed, hate, and delusion—an ending of them.

So during this week, I would like to talk about refuge. Doing so, for many people, is a topic of deep faith. It certainly is for me. The ancient Theravada^[5] tradition commentators talk about how refuge exists in the seat of our emotions, which is said to be the heart. That it's a heartfelt phenomenon, an element of the heart, this refuge. Maybe it has more to do with a feeling and inspiration than almost anything else. But it's not only a feeling, it's not only inspiration, it's not only a religious sentiment, but it's one that is intimately connected to an understanding and wisdom that we get as we do this practice. That's why the more people practice, the more understanding they have of where true refuge is.

Refuge is also very closely connected to our motivations, our sense of purpose. Refuge provides a direction for our lives, a purpose for our lives. It's an orientation. Having all these things together—a deep faith, a deep heartfeltness, a deep understanding, a deep sense of orientation and purpose that we trust—means that when Buddhists go for refuge, they often will feel a trust or a faith and a knowing that they immediately feel like, "Oh, there's safety." They immediately feel that there is a context for our lives of safety. There's an order, there's a lawfulness in this life. There's a natural process that I can trust.

So going for refuge is an affirmation, not of a blind faith, not of a blind adherence to a religion, but it's an affirmation of what we're growing into, what's growing and developing within us that we begin understanding and have faith in and have a connection to that is so meaningful that for some people it becomes the center of their lives. Maybe they would even say it's the most important thing in their lives. But not more important because other important things have become less important. They can, if they really are important, keep them just as important. But something about the refuge and the Dharma, because it's so heart-based maybe, and so beyond and bigger than any kind of self-preoccupation and self-concern, it feels almost like we're part of something that's bigger than ourselves that connects us to all the other things that are important to us. In fact, as we become freer, and as we become more compassionate through practice, the inner freedom we have and the compassion we have benefits all the other things that we take as important in our life. To take the Dharma as the most important actually improves the quality of our relationships to all the other things that are worthy of keeping important in our lives.

To have it at the center of our lives, the refuge—sometimes the idea is that refuge is a passive thing. It's not passive. It has to do with how we live our lives and how we engage in the world around us. And this, they say in Buddhism, is a gem, a treasure.

So that'll be the topic. This talk here today was kind of an introduction to it. I won't spend so much time on Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha—that'll be a topic for tomorrow. Some of you have heard lots of talks on that, and though I'd love to do a whole series of talks on that, I want to cover these different areas of refuge that the Buddha pointed to as a way of really understanding the full depth and range of something that can be the heart to our lives.

In doing so, we become a refuge for others. Not that we are making them into Buddhists, but rather we are a person whom people feel safe with, and inspired that there is another way to live that's not based in greed or hatred, or based on fear.

So thank you. Thank you for allowing me to share this beautiful place that I'm in, and a nice coincidence that we're in the natural world for talking about a refuge in the Dharma. I think of the natural world and refuge as being somehow closely connected. So thank you very much, and I look forward to continuing tomorrow. Tomorrow I should be back at IMC.