My name is Larissa.
We're going to practice together for about 15 minutes.
Let's always just take these first couple of moments to settle in.
Find some comfort in your body.
It's the smallest little detail.
Softening your shoulders as you exhale.
Or maybe it's something that you need.
Grabbing a blanket or a cup of tea.
All of these little things help set you up to stay for a while,
Set you up for gentleness with yourself.
There was a time,
Really decades ago at this point,
That I used to believe that Meditation needed to be a certain way.
And certainly it's helpful that we have our rituals and we have these tools of support,
Certain ways of instructing our mind.
At the heart though,
It's incredibly important that You are being gentle with yourself.
You're taking care of your needs.
You don't have to sit in a way that your back ends up in excruciating pain at the end.
Sitting in a way that you have the right amount of support and every day is a little bit different.
So we begin with that physical support.
It's very tangible.
You can notice right away if one of your feet is going to be uncomfortable.
You just make these small adjustments.
And it's a good reminder that you are constantly taking care of yourself.
Sometimes we get to the end of the day and our brain does this thing,
Did I do enough?
Did I accomplish enough?
Am I enough?
And instead of what the brain does,
We just listen to the wisdom of the body right here in this moment in time.
So taking care of yourself.
Your body is breathing for you,
Your heart is beating for you.
There's either digestion or rest happening.
A billion synapses in your brain,
Looking for ways to keep you safe.
All of this is already happening.
And so for this moment,
Can you just rest in your exhale?
Rest in the space you've created to just be still for a while.
And remembering you don't have to be perfectly still.
You just get to be for a few moments.
Can you just witness,
Receive,
Perhaps even appreciate the fact that gravity is holding you?
And notice the movement of your breath.
Where do you feel it?
Breath by breath.
Moment by moment.
And we just check in with ourselves again and again and again.
Every time you check in.
You can notice,
Oh yep,
My body's still breathing for me.
Good news.
I'm already taking care of myself.
That kindness,
That gentleness.
That deep connection to caretaking is already here.
And this is the wisdom of the body,
The wisdom of the eye of the heart.
And it's very often our mental clouds,
These clouded perceptions that we start to come in with judgment.
And it's never to make your mind wrong,
It's to integrate your mind.
With the wisdom of the body.
To let your physical eyes start to see a little more clearly.
As you start to view the world through the eye of your heart as well.
Anytime we get caught in a little anxiety,
A little judgment,
A little planning.
Anything that's in the mind.
Can be transformed by just witnessing.
Your body breathing for you.
Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough,
Especially if the thought is particularly worrying.
And yet it is.
It is enough to just notice your breath.
It's just the mind continuing to cling to something.
Watch how your breath softens as you exhale every single time.
There's no clinging.
There's wise action and wise rest,
Every breath in and out.
Where do you feel your breath?
And as we return to ourself again and again.
There's a wise discipline in this.
It's the discipline of showing up for yourself in your meditation.
We are already disciplined.
To breathe.
A small discipline in giving yourself a cup of water.
We have.
This discipline to come to the practice.
To come to our breath.
It's already there.
Sometimes what our mind does is we take discipline.
And we turn it into punishment.
Instead of devotion.
Or dedication.
And so there's this dedication that we have to returning to the breath.
This dedication that your body is already doing.
There's nothing separate from you that you have to learn or figure out.
It's just the mind thinking there's something separate.
So we invite the mind back.
A million times to just witness again the breath.
Just letting go of any discipline that turns into punishment.
And returning to the devotion of your breath.
Your body fully devoted to keeping you alive,
Even in the most desperate situations.
Your body working hard.
To allow you to learn what it is that you need to learn.
Just returning your mind.
Back to your body,
Back to the open space of your heart,
Again and again and again.
And in this way,
We transform any part of the mind that believes it's separate.
Allow yourself to land in the warmth of your heart.
And we do that by physically softening into the exhale.
By welcoming ourselves back with openness.
Oh yeah,
My mind was wandering.
That's okay,
I'm right here with my breath again.
My mind was wandering towards something that was causing me to feel something in my body.
How do I tend to my mind and my body right now with gentleness?
Allowing yourself to fall into your exhale again and again.
And let the wise action of your inhale receive a brand new breath.
So that you can keep learning.
Keep receiving.
It's said that the eyes are the window to the soul.
And sometimes our physical eyes become clouded with the thicket of views and opinions in the mind.
We start to claim things.
I am this,
I am not this.
Other people are this,
They are not this.
Even something as beautiful as claiming your own kindness.
In the moments where we're feeling unkind,
We start to create a dissonance.
And this is where our eyes get clouded.
So seeing clearly,
Opening up our perception so we can wisely see the world.
Is just an observation.
And noticing when we start to judge what we're observing.
Discipline without clear perception becomes punishment.
Seeing the world through a particular lens and claiming it as the one lens becomes suffering.
Every single time.
You return to yourself with a little bit of gentleness,
That you witness judgment,
You witness anxiety.
You witness difficult moments and you allow them to soften into your exhale.
You hold them tenderly.
This is where our clouded awareness starts to become a little bit more clear.
There's never anything that you've done that has been quote-unquote wrong.
But we take these missteps.
They're not wrong,
They're mistakes,
Missteps.
And when we can see the world that way,
We can give ourselves the grace we need to learn something new.
Rather than hold ourselves in judgment and getting stuck.
Or holding someone else in judgment and getting stuck.
It's just breath by breath every single exhale of releasing.
Every single inhale,
A reminder that life is moving through you.
Wisely perceiving the world and recognizing when we're wearing a skewed lens.
And then going slow when you remove a lens,
Because it takes a while to reorient to the world.
Take a moment,
Place one or both of your hands either on your heart or bringing your palms together.
And just notice.
That sensation of touch.
Can you appreciate just for a moment?
Your ability to feel.
And then we end with our loving kindness raises.
Creating an intention in our minds.
Infusing our whole being with these words.
Just repeat them back as they make sense for you.
May I remember the innate goodness of my breath.
May I remember the innate goodness of my body.
May I continue clearing my lenses.
When action is needed.
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
May the merits of our practice ripple out.
To benefit all beings.
And may all beings,
Including myself,
Be free.
Go slow to find movement.
If that feels good,
Take a moment to thank yourself.
As always,
Thanks for being here,
Thanks for supporting each other and our sangha.
