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: Nourishment

So I wanted to express again my great appreciation of coming here and reading all the names in the chats. Some names I recognized from long ago, and some I'm recognizing from since we started doing this on YouTube. So, so wonderful to be with you.

One of the important things to be mindful of, or to be aware of, is that what we do with our attention has a big impact on how we are conditioned: the habits we build up, the dispositions that we build and create, the kind of conditioning that influences us. One way to see that is that where we direct our attention has a big impact on what we register, and therefore are conditioned and influenced by.

If we spend our precious attention and a lot of time focusing on negative thinking that's debilitating or critical, or a lot of hostility or resentment, a lot of self-criticism, a lot of greed, then we're reinforcing that tendency and influencing ourselves. It's kind of like smoothing the channels inside of us for doing those things, making it almost normal. And so we're more predisposed to have those thoughts in the future. If we bring our attention to something which is wholesome, then that's what we're cultivating and being influenced by.

Of course, we don't want to have blinders on and ignore what's negative or the difficulties we have. The way we take care of this in mindfulness is that it's the vehicle through which we're aware of both the positive and the negative. And so, rather than focusing on what's negative and using attention to be involved in it, we can know it through one of the four foundations of mindfulness. We can know it as a physical phenomenon in the present. We can know it as being unpleasant or pleasant, whatever it is in the present. We can know the mind state as being contracted or distracted, or the mind state that's settled, calm, and open. We can know whether, in being involved in that, we are entangled in something, or whether we're spacious around it. And so we're not actually ignoring what's happening, but we are recognizing it through something which is wholesome, through something which is a nourishment.

That is what I want to emphasize today: whatever is happening, whatever you're meditating on today, can you look around to see how to feel it, how to be with it in the present moment in a way that's nourishing, that feels good, that is freeing and opening? So even if you're involved with something negative, something difficult, there is a way that you can look around in your body, your mind, your heart, and find out how it is you can hold it in a way that the very holding of it is a positive influence on you. So that's the task for today.

So, if you can assume your meditation posture. Part of it is to take some long, slow, deep breaths, so that you can see if you can find a way to settle into this body. A settled body is a way to connect to what is wholesome, nourishing, and nurturing, even if there are difficult things happening.

Taking a deep breath in and settling your heart.

And then we'll sit there quietly relaxing, settling in. Whatever is happening in the present moment, can you find a way to breathe with it, to be aware of it, to attend to it in a way that is beneficial and nourishing? Through the body, through the heart, through an awareness that is opening.

Breathing in and breathing out, here and now.

[Silence]

And then, as we come to the end of the sitting, take a few moments to appreciate that one of the really important aspects of mindfulness practice is not what you're aware of, but how you're aware of it. It makes a big difference if you're aware driven by greed or hatred, resentment, fear, or anxiety, or if the awareness is infused with non-greed, non-hatred, non-resentment, non-anxiety. If the awareness itself is pleasant, enjoyable, appreciated, receptive and open, not straining, at ease, and peaceful.

To be aware in an open, peaceful way. And as we come to the end of this sitting, perhaps that can be our gift to the people we encounter: that we are aware of them, we meet them, know them, and are present for them in a way that is non-violent, non-harming, in a way that is not imposing or pressuring, not anxious or preoccupied or closed. Perhaps, with the support of our mindfulness practice, we can be aware of others in a way that is nourishing for ourselves, and therefore friendly, receptive, and kind, appreciated by others.

May the very way in which we perceive, sense, feel, and are aware of others be beneficial to ourselves and to others. Before we have to figure out what to say or what to do, just how we're aware can be our gift. At ease in ourselves, at ease in the eyes that look and see.

May we walk through the world with gift-bestowing eyes, with gift-bestowing awareness. And in so doing, may we contribute to the happiness, safety, peace, and freedom of others. May we not underestimate the tremendous value of non-harming awareness that is really present for others.

May all beings be happy.

Dharmette: Clear Recognition (4 of 5) Comprehension of the Pasture

Thank you. So, for today's talk on clear comprehension, sampajañña^[1], clear recognition, I would like to talk about the third form of clear comprehension, which is clear understanding or clear recognition of the pasture. Pasture is a strange expression, but this is, I think, my favorite of the clear comprehensions.

Pasture refers to the word gocara^[2]. In Pali, go is the word for cow, and probably it's a cognate—Indo-European languages have the same source. And cara means where the course is, like a chariot's course—the place, the location, the field, the place where the cows go to eat. So, pasture.

And so, to recognize, as we do our activities, what is the pasture? Where is the nourishment that can come from anything that we do? Because everything we do, in a sense, is conditioning us. Everything we do is nourishment for something. Specifically, the pasture is the four foundations of mindfulness. The body is a pasture where we get nourished and supported if we know how to bring attention to it. The attention to the feeling tones of experience, to the mind states, to the dhammas^[3]—the mental activities that go on in the mind. All these things are nourishment for ourselves, but the way they are nourishment is when we're aware of them in and of themselves: the body in the body, the feelings in the feelings, the mind states in the mind states, and the mental activities in the mental activities. This is an expression from the suttas.

What this means is that we're aware through the vehicle, through the channels of direct experience, through these four means. Not through the thinking, the proliferation of thoughts, the ruminations, the fantasies, the complaining, the anxiety-producing thoughts that might be spinning around for us. Those are not nourishing. Even if the thoughts are wholesome, they might not be the place of greatest nourishment.

But to be aware of whatever is happening through the channel of the body, and to learn how to feel things through the body in a way that feels wholesome. So it's how we're aware that's important, but we can discover that sometimes through the body, and the body becomes the pasture. We can become aware of it through the feeling tones, whether things are pleasant or unpleasant. Even unpleasant things, there's a way of knowing it, a way of being present for it that, oddly enough, can be beneficial and nourishing. If we're aware of an unpleasant thing as unpleasant, and we're reacting to it, contracting around it, angry with it, or despairing around it, then it's not nourishing. But if we go through it and just feel the unpleasantness—the unpleasantness independent of our reactivity—oddly enough, those unpleasant things begin entering into the beneficial mode. It provides good conditioning for us, good food for us in a certain kind of way, because we're becoming free of it.

Then, if we're aware of the mind state that's present—so it's all having to do with present moment awareness of the mind state—and that present moment, as soon as we're aware and clearly recognize the present momentness of the mind state, that recognition is no longer caught up in the other pasture. We can walk in the pasture of, as I said, rumination, complaining, judgments, fear, anxiety, the thoughts that are spinning and pulling us around. Negative self-thinking is very harmful, and it isn't that we should just push it away or be aversive to it. The magic of mindfulness practice is that we recognize that it's there, but we don't feed there. We don't let it influence us.

One way to do that is to know where the pasture is, a clear comprehension of the pasture, of the good place to be. To be aware through the body, feelings in feelings, to be aware without the channel of these spinning thoughts that we might have. And at different times, different pastures are the most beneficial. Sometimes the best pasture is the body, and we just are really aware, sense, and feel through the body. Sometimes the best pasture is recognizing the feeling tones, the pleasantness, unpleasantness, and neutrality of the experience. Sometimes just be aware of the mind state, the attitude, how the mind or awareness holds it. And sometimes it's better to be aware of the operating of the mind, the attachments, the clinging, the freedom, the different wonderful qualities of mind that are present.

So, to have clear comprehension of the pasture, where we feed from. And as I said, for the Buddha, the best pasture is the four foundations of mindfulness. And then I'll repeat, because it's so important: how we're aware is where the best nourishment comes. So we don't have to avoid paying attention to what's difficult, but how are we aware of it? That is the point. If we're aware of it through these four pastures, it can be beneficial and nourishing to the awareness, not the negative states of mind, not the negative thinking. It's how we're aware which is nourishing.

But then it's a little different with wholesome states, beneficial states. Then there's a kind of double benefit: that how we're aware of them would also not be with greed or holding on or expectations, but how we're aware of them is beneficial, and they themselves make good food. They themselves are good conditioning. So it's a way of not being conditioned by the negative, but to make room to be conditioned by the positive.

All in the service, in the traditional Buddhist sense, of developing greater and greater strength of mindfulness, stability of attention in the present moment, on the way to becoming free. And if we can become free in how we see, become free in how we're aware, our attention to others can become a gift. People can trust us that when we're present with them, that we don't have agendas of our own that we're imposing on them. We're there to see, to be present, and share this common human experience of being alive in this challenging and wondrous world.

So thank you very much. And how we're aware of the challenges of YouTube and sound—that's the art of it, not whether or not the video is choppy or not. But we'll see if we can get it fixed for tomorrow. Thank you.