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: Mindfulness as a Foundation

Greetings, and here we are for the second day of the seven factors of awakening. I'm very focused on how the seven factors of awakening are part of our apparatus of paying attention, of listening deeply to the world, being a deep witness to what's happening in the world. The question is: how does this inner apparatus of attention—of mindfulness, investigation, engagement, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity—support us at this point where there's so much suffering in the world? As we go into this day of sitting here together, perhaps we can dedicate it to the family of George Floyd, and dedicate our ability to step forward and use our mindfulness practice to be a deep witness, a deep engagement with the suffering of this world.

Mindfulness, which was our topic yesterday, is really the foundation. It's the beginning of the seven factors of awakening. In a sense, it's the beginning of an ongoing process of Buddhist spirituality, and it lays the foundation for what comes next. So we'll keep laying down that foundation as we go into this meditation and through this week.

Taking a posture for meditation, the posture itself functions as a foundation. It functions as a grounding. Maybe the posture even functions as a kind of ballast. The classic meditation posture is one with a wide base, with the legs crossed and folded in front of us, to feel that connection to the ground, to the earth that we all share. We all share walking on this earth, sitting on this earth, held by the earth.

Then bring the attention upward from the ground, through the spine, through the torso, feeling the weight of the body, the substance of the body, whatever sense of solidity or earthiness of the body. Maybe make small adjustments to the spine to line up the vertebrae a little bit better, one on top of the other. Then gently rotate and move the head around, maybe tilt it back and forth, and let the head come into a kind of center. Try to bring it also into balance on the neck, the shoulders, and the torso. So this body is a foundation.

Within this body, as part of your bodily experience, is a different form of foundation: the breathing. Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Feel all around the ribcage expanding as you breathe—front ribcage, back ribcage, sides. Take a few long, deep breaths so that you can have a gentle and long exhale, kind of like a wonderful "ah." Settle in, where there's a sense of appreciation, maybe even pleasure, in the exhale of settling in here. Then let your breathing return to normal.

The foundation of this practice is to open to our natural capacities for attention. Some of those capacities are physical as we sense and feel the sensations of the body. We sense the sounds around us, feel the temperature of the body, feel the areas where it's comfortable and uncomfortable in the body, sensing and feeling the movements of the body breathing. Some of the attentional faculties we have can be the very simple recognition of where attention lands, what comes into awareness: the sound of my voice, the sensations of breathing, the experience of being in a body, the recognition of thoughts that come and go.

Part of our attentional capacity is to very simply observe what's happening, as if we are sitting in an easy chair looking out the window, or leaning against a tree and watching a river go by. In a certain kind of way, we take the self out of the picture—the self that needs to fix, change, judge, and make commentary about experience. Let that part of ourselves come to a kind of rest, or recede into the background. Allow the experience of breathing to come into awareness. Allow ourselves to observe the experience, to be curious and interested in our lived experience of the moment.

To be able to respond well to life, it helps to be present, open, and receptive to the life experience that's flowing through us moment by moment, here and now. As you exhale, let go of your thoughts about other times and places. Or as you exhale, let your thinking recede to the periphery, to the background, so that your interest is with the breathing, not with your thoughts.

From time to time, notice if the way that you are being mindful is pleasant or unpleasant. If how you're being mindful feels unpleasant or a little bit off, notice what happens when you know that. See how simple you can be with that recognition. There is nothing wrong, nothing bad; just notice. Notice what happens in the wake of that mindfulness.

If you notice that the way you're being mindful is pleasant, you can gently allow yourself to feel the enjoyment of that, or the goodness of that, to the degree to which it supports you to sink in further into the mindfulness. And if being mindful has some quality of unpleasantness, maybe you can also, without too much ambition, shift it a little bit. Shift how you're mindful, how you're aware, so it becomes a little more pleasant to be aware—maybe more natural, more receptive, more a way of being aware rather than doing awareness.

Reflections

As we come to the end of the sitting, I'd like to evoke the idea of the Buddha, that when we are centered in our body and our feelings, in our mind, centered with awareness, then mindfulness is a refuge for us. The Buddha also talked about becoming a refuge for all beings.

If we can find a refuge in ourselves by resting, being grounded in our body's capacity for awareness, then that awareness can also be expanded, opened to be aware of others in such a way that we are a refuge for them. And what might that mean, that somehow our presence, our attention, is a refuge for others?

How is it that we could take this practice that we do, and actively consider how we can come from it, out of it, to promote the welfare, happiness, and well-being of all beings? How is it that the refuge of mindfulness can be the vehicle to express our heartfelt desire that all beings be safe, that all beings be free of oppression, that all beings be healthy, and that all beings may really be happy? May it be that we contribute to the happiness of this world.