Becoming Conscious To Our Experience With Marcy Vaughn

A guided meditation for our times, focused on the breath, the heart, spaciousness, acceptance, and equanimity. It uses the seed syllable "hung" (pronounced "hooong"). It's led by 3 Doors senior teacher, Marcy Vaughn, and recorded on June 10, 2020.

Transcript

I think we can all agree we're living in an extraordinary time for many reasons.

There are many layers to the reasons.

There are many things living in us,

Moving in us,

Activating in us,

In our waking hours,

In our sleeping hours,

In our dreams,

In our reflections,

In our conversations,

In what we're hearing,

Reading,

Taking in.

And so when we're doing our meditation,

When we're turning our attention inward to rest,

It's not to pacify or relax out of existence,

But to discover that medicine in the openness of being,

To have support to open to our experience.

And each one of us has unique experience.

And often we have a tendency to discount our experience,

The experience we're having,

Thinking we should be searching for another experience,

A better experience.

And I would encourage us,

Each one of us,

To not do that,

To not go that way,

But to be present to what is actually here in your body,

In your breath,

In your conscious thoughts,

In the imagery that visits you.

However it's coming in this moment and in the moments of our meditation,

That we simply be with that,

Open into the experience.

So let's take a moment and bring some attention to our body and collect yourself in a posture that supports you.

There's a beautiful gesture called the mudra of equanimity,

Where you bring your left hand over your right hand,

Resting in your lap.

Palms are up,

Gathered together.

You can bring your thumbs to the base of the ring finger,

Lightly touching there.

And this is a way of collecting our focus.

And the very word equanimity,

The very expression,

The deeper meaning of equanimity,

Is that capacity to embrace fully happiness and suffering.

We often have a bias,

Of course I'd rather be happy than be suffering,

That our bias causes us to subtly move away,

To contract in the face of suffering,

To move towards what is pleasurable.

And here in this gesture of equanimity,

In this hand mudra,

We're making a commitment to rest with,

To be with the full breadth of experience that embraces sorrow,

Suffering,

Agitation,

Anger,

Joy,

Humor,

Kindness.

All of these are part of our experience as humans and open to the world.

As humans and open us to the diversity of expression of our life,

Not only our human life,

But the life of the species that we share this planet with.

So let's consider this gesture a support.

And as we let our hands come to stillness,

We can use that support to help our mind that is moving and thinking and wandering,

To help our mind rest in stillness.

And as you're seated,

Just make a gesture towards connecting,

Just feel the connection with your support.

Seated in a chair,

Seated on the floor,

Seated on this earth.

And as we are human beings,

We have a spine that allows us to be upright.

And so feel that movement upward through the core of your body,

All the way through the crown of your head,

There is this relationship between the earth below us and the sky above us.

And we can align our spine to support us to feel that connection.

And as we all know,

As humans,

Sometimes our head and our thinking mind takes us out of connection.

And so we may need to bring our head slightly in.

Just draw the chin slightly down,

And that brings the head in alignment with that connection.

The earth below us,

The sky above us.

And as you are resting,

Feeling the breath,

Your breath,

Just as it is,

Every part of your body is nourished by this breath.

Every aspect of this living being that you are is nourished by this breath.

So as we're resting with our breath,

Just take a moment and allow yourself to feel how your breath is experienced in this body.

Coming into the body and being released as you breathe out.

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And you might have discovered that already your mind has drifted away from the breath,

Away from the body.

And if that's the case,

Just allow your mind to come back,

Reconnect.

Each moment of reconnection is a fresh opportunity.

To be and to be aware of being.

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In our meditation day,

I'd like to center our exploration in the heart.

So could you bring your focus to the core of your body?

Center it within your body at the level of your heart and know that this heart center can support you to rest in this moment.

And feel the invitation to be connected to stillness.

As you breathe into the heart and out from the heart,

Let your exhalation support a release of the imprints of doing.

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And let your inhalation support you to feel the invitation to arrive in this present moment,

Connected,

Aware.

Just breathing into and from the heart.

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And if you're willing to,

Can we explore the mind and the breath coming together,

Breathing into the heart.

And as you exhale,

Explore exhaling down through your body,

Down into the earth below you.

Just breathing into the heart and breathing out and down through the body,

Down into the earth below you.

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And breathing into the heart and breathing out upward through the body,

As if you're breathing right out through the crown of your head into the sky above you.

Breathing into the heart,

Breathing out upward through the body,

Through the crown into the sky.

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And breathing into the heart and exhaling through the back,

As if your breath can release through the back of your body,

Through the space behind you,

And continue the sense of boundaries releasing,

Dissolving space,

Receiving your breath as you breathe out.

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Breathing into the heart and feel you're releasing the breath through either side,

As if the heart is opening in an embrace.

Just feel your exhalation supporting that release.

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And so as you're breathing,

Can you feel as if your heart is free to rest in the space that includes what is below and above,

Behind and before you to either side?

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And as we are resting,

As we are open to being held in the spaciousness,

Can we feel,

Can we reflect upon how it is to be you?

How is it to be me at this moment,

At this moment in my life,

At this moment,

In this body?

Can we be open to this embodied experience of life at this very moment?

Listening,

Feeling,

Sensing,

And bringing breath and awareness to the experience of this body,

Your sense of health.

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If you come upon agitations or attentions,

Can you simply be aware and bring breath and awareness to this sense of agitation?

If there are areas of the body that are dead or disconnected from you,

Can you simply bring breath and awareness and be with the experience?

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And if you have disconnected from the heart,

Come back into the heart space,

Feel your breath and attention here.

And ask how your family,

Loved ones,

Ancestors might be living in you now at this time.

Can you hold the space of your breath,

The heart space,

And notice how your family appears?

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And whatever appears in this space of breath and awareness,

Can you continue feeling the support of your breath to open into the experience?

Let the spaciousness embrace you,

Embrace what is moving in you,

What is appearing.

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And if you're willing,

Allow yourself to feel how those in your town,

In your country,

In your community,

Humanity,

Are living in you,

Appearing,

As you open to allow yourself to know what has touched me,

What is moving in me.

And consider that something may be living in the space behind you or underneath you.

And you could lend your breath to these places to allow things to come.

Just being,

Breathing,

Allowing your experience.

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Notice if your body is responding to,

Opening to the presence of others,

The voices of others,

The images of others,

That you may have encountered.

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And as we sing now,

Gently,

Again and again,

The sound,

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This is the sound of the union,

The medicine of union,

Of openness and awareness,

Openness and awareness.

And in that union of openness and awareness,

There is fertile ground that gives birth to medicine,

Love,

Compassion,

Joy,

Equanimity.

Feel the medicine that supports you in this moment.

Can you sense what allows me to rest with an open heart,

Releasing exclusion,

Opening to whatever appears,

What supports me.

And as we sing,

Home,

Feel the vibration of your voice,

The light that is supporting us to be aware of the spaciousness.

This touching whatever in you needs support that may be contracted or agitated or cut off from a capacity that we all inherently have to fully embrace and meet our life with an open heart.

And all the images and thoughts that may have come into your practice through reflecting,

Feel that we are meeting those places now,

Those landscapes,

Those memories,

Those appearances,

Those voices with the medicine of our open heart.

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Home.

Home.

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Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Home.

And as we conclude our practice together,

I'd like to take a moment and engender the intention in whatever way feels authentic for you,

That in any benefit that you have received in your meditation,

That bring it into life with your actions of body,

Expressions of voice,

Creativity of mind,

To serve others,

To benefit others.

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And I hope that through our practice together you had an opportunity to be with others,

To know what you might be carrying and aware of and to be willing to open into it,

To feel supported,

To open into that.

Because if we overlook what's living in us and think openness is somewhere else or it should be some other way,

We'll miss the truth and we'll just be living in a fantasy.

So we need to open where we are and to be supported to do that so that we can genuinely contribute.

It's very humbling to realize that we all have habits of attention,

Habits built on past,

Turning away from things,

Blocking things out.

And when they become a habit,

They're not fully conscious.

And so when we're sitting down to practice,

We have an opportunity to experience these habits,

And we often experience them as discomfort,

Agitation.

That is not a sign that your practice isn't good or that you're not meditating right.

That is a sign that you're coming alive to ways that you have been put together that are no longer needed.

They don't work.

They're not fitting.

They're falling apart.

So there may be a stirring up,

A dislocation,

A confusion that comes into the practice as you open.

It's not just I'm going to open and be comfortable.

It's not just I'm going to open and become a peaceful,

Radiant being.

I could become a messy being of a lot of confusion,

Agitation,

And I may realize that I'm haunted by something.

I'm haunted by someone's voice or some image that I saw.

And these are very necessary places to bring our attention and to be willing to be with and open into.

Because they will grow us.

They will mature us and allow to come forth from us an important medicine,

Not only for you but for others.

So let's bring the final line of our dedication alive for us,

And let it come alive in our bodies,

Our breath,

Our expression.

In liberating my own being,

May I benefit others.

Reviews

Integer, echt, inspirerend en roerend !

I liked the focus on equanimity during these times.