My name is Larissa.
We're going to get started with our meditation practice.
I'm just wanting to really welcome everybody to settle in.
We'll spend a little bit of time here in silence.
I'll offer a bit of guidance here and there.
As a reminder,
This is just space for you to be with yourself.
We get to do it in community with the support of each other.
And a reminder that our meditation isn't meant to be a particular way.
You don't have to come out feeling calm,
Although sometimes that happens.
We just get to show up exactly as we are.
It's a slow process of witnessing what's happening in your mind,
What's happening in your body,
How the environment around you influences you.
But we really get to witness it and experience it in a different way than when we're in the busyness of life.
Our meditation is a really simple formula,
Three parts.
We choose a focal point.
We return to it again and again.
We're practicing being as kind to ourselves as possible in the process.
And this chosen focal point,
We choose it so that our mind doesn't just wander off into all of its wanderings and its doings.
So we choose.
And our chosen focal point often simply begins with body.
Your body is always present.
And just take a moment to notice here how your body is situated.
Do you have the right amount of effort and ease?
You might close your eyes or even just setting your gaze downward,
Letting your eyes become a bit more still.
Our eyes do so much wonderful work for us,
Bring so much beauty to us.
They're also very vigilant,
Working to keep us safe.
So just this choice of either softening or closing your eyes is a way to invite in that gentle kindness,
To witness yourself with a bit of stillness.
A bit of steadiness.
Spend a few moments here just noticing,
Can I feel the earth beneath me?
This gravity,
This consistent source that's always holding me.
And from that stabilization beneath you,
Just notice the freedom of movement you have,
Your ribs expanding as you breathe in,
Your shoulders naturally softening as you exhale.
So what do you experience here is you just notice your breath,
Notice what it feels like to be in your body today.
And just notice where your thoughts possibly moved to.
It's natural that our mind moves.
That's why we come back to the steadiness of our body again and again.
It's this balance between mind and body.
So your body is right here taking the next breath,
Not anything you need to think about,
It's just your body sitting here caring for you.
Stable and steady,
These gentle natural rhythmic movements of heartbeat and breath and digestion.
And beneath you,
This firm steadiness of gravity.
From that steadiness of gravity,
The most constant thing,
These subtle movements of our body,
And we move up to our mind which tends to move the most.
And there's no good or bad in any of this.
If our mind was as heavy as gravity,
We couldn't create anything.
So we need this balance of steadiness and consistency.
These still moments,
The stillness allows us to witness the movement of the mind.
And anytime you notice your mind is headed in a particular direction,
You might give it a little label.
I'm future-oriented,
I'm remembering something,
There's a past thought that's coming up.
And the moment you do so,
You just unhook from the thought for a moment and suddenly you're present again.
It doesn't have to be a monumental effort to stop your thoughts.
Your thoughts may never stop.
You just witness them.
So yeah,
There's thinking happening.
Right here,
Here's breathing happening.
Here's gravity holding me.
No matter how many times your mind moves,
It's just the witnessing of it.
Oh,
There goes my mind again.
You don't have to capture it or stop it.
Just witness.
Oh,
There goes my mind.
Thinking is happening.
That alone is its own little label.
I'm thinking.
Thinking is happening.
But you might notice sometimes little habits of mind.
Oh,
I noticed there's a little anxiety loop running today.
So I notice I'm excited for something in the future.
I'm planning today.
These little labels help our mind settle for just a moment.
It's remembering you don't have to capture or stop it.
You're just witnessing it.
So thinking is happening.
Right here,
Breathing is happening.
Can I allow my body to sink just 5% more into gravity?
Let it hold me.
Let me rest a moment.
It's breath by breath,
Moment by moment,
Present awareness.
As we find this balance,
The steadiness,
The heaviness of gravity holding us,
The rhythmic movement of breath,
The creative and wild movement of the mind.
The more we stay and witness,
The more we learn about ourselves.
We start to learn about the patterns of mind.
It's a little bit like a meditation.
I notice this pattern in my mind,
And we can start to work with these patterns.
Not every thought we think is the truth.
Not every thought is something that we need to follow.
Not every thought is our own.
And this leads us right towards wise perspective,
The first step on the Eightfold Noble Path.
It's sometimes called wise view,
Wise interpretation of the world.
It's our perception really shapes everything that we do.
When you can witness your mind and the perceptions of mind,
You can start to choose.
Is this truly what I believe,
Or is this just an old mechanism,
Some old software running in the back of my mind?
The goal is not to judge it and push it away,
But to witness it and hold it,
Just like gravity is holding you.
Hold it tenderly,
Hold it with steadiness.
Witness it with as much openness and kindness as you possibly can,
Whatever it is.
There's nothing within you that you need to get rid of.
There's nothing you need to fix or change.
It's just witnessing,
And eventually change will come on its own as it's needed.
And although sometimes meditation offers its own challenges,
We get a little bored,
A little agitated,
Our body gets stiff and sore,
All of those things are just opportunities to witness ourselves.
There's also these moments of steadiness and easefulness,
And it's very often just inviting our mind to slow down for a moment to truly receive it.
Like what a gift it is to be able to just sit and listen to yourself.
To be able to just sit and your body breathes for you.
You don't have to think about a single breath.
It just happens.
This brilliant skin that you lived within knows exactly what to do to take care of you.
Just allow yourself to receive here.
Receive this next breath in.
Offer back the gift of the exhale.
With no monumental effort on your part,
Just a witnessing.
Every exhale is an opportunity to let go,
A reminder of the action of letting go.
It's a softening.
Just this practice of witnessing our breath helps us if we ever need to find a change in perspective.
We need to let go of some old mechanism in the mind that's no longer true or good for us.
Within our meditation practice,
We witness,
We observe,
We learn about ourselves.
And our breath itself gives us the wisest action.
A receiving and a letting go.
A spaciousness and a softness.
Notice your breath again here.
You might even breathe a little deeper on this next inhale,
Letting your ribs expand.
Noticing how spacious you might become.
And then on this exhale,
Can you invite in softening from your jaw to your shoulders to your abdomen?
And just witness this brilliant process.
Opening and closing.
Receiving and giving.
Spaciousness and softness.
That softening reminds us too,
When there's a letting go in life,
It doesn't mean we're giving up.
It's very often just a softening.
It's this wise perspective.
We can start to witness,
What is it that my mind clings to?
What is it that I claim?
What are the things that I believe that I am or that I am not?
And it can be so helpful to claim these perspectives.
Believing is who you become.
What you believe is who you are.
So when I believe that I am a compassionate and generous person,
This is a belief that supports me.
When I believe that I'm not worthy of love,
My body believes that and I will take action accordingly.
And the letting go is equally as important as witnessing these things that we claim.
Although I believe I am a generous person,
I also recognize there are times I'm less than generous.
I'm a little sleepy.
I'm a little grumpy.
I have less openness for the humans that are in the world.
Small irritations might become big irritations.
And if my mind clings to this idea that I am generous,
And all of a sudden I have conflict inside.
There are also times where in order to remain generous,
I need to close and go inward.
I need to cocoon and take care of myself,
Rest.
There's nothing we need to cling to.
There's a softening.
I'm allowed to rest,
To recoup,
To regenerate,
To continue my generosity.
I'm also allowed to be grumpy sometimes.
And I can soften to that.
I don't have to hold tight to generosity.
Just like I know it's not beneficial to hold tight to an idea that I'm not worthy of love,
Or I'm not productive enough,
Or I didn't get enough sleep.
Whatever it is,
The things that our mind clings to.
And this is the heart of wise perspective.
It's witnessing what it is that we perceive and then believe.
And on occasion,
We soften so much we let something go and allow it to change.
Very often it's just a simple softening.
I don't have to cling to generosity,
Nor any other belief.
I just witness what is it that my mind perceives and believes.
Just like my breath will change in this next instant,
I trust I too can change in that same way.
Notice again this balance that you're experiencing right now.
This firm foundation beneath you,
Gravity so steady,
You can trust it always.
And notice the subtle movement of your breath.
You can also trust this movement of your breath.
And trusting too the movement of your mind,
The quickness of your mind,
Appreciating each type of movement.
Steadiness,
Subtleness,
Consistency,
Quickness.
It's all happening at the same time.
The wisest perspective we can often take is just the simplicity of breathing.
A pause before you speak.
An appreciation that your body knows how to breathe.
And just witness it here again.
The spaciousness of your inhale.
The softening of your exhale.
Receiving and giving.
Expanding and softening.
Opening and letting go,
Breath by breath.
I'll read here in just a moment a short passage from David Suzuki.
He's a scholar and activist.
This is a way to look at this idea of wise perspective.
It's balance in a mind,
A wise view of the world.
Being able to see when we're no longer acting wisely,
We're acting from reaction,
Acting from old software.
He says,
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.
And I like to take that phrase and use it in many different ways.
The way we see our body shapes the way we treat it.
The way we see others shapes the way we treat them.
So again,
He says,
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.
And he continues here.
If a mountain is a deity,
Not a pile of ore.
If a forest is a sacred,
Sacred grove,
Not just timber.
If other species are biological kin,
Not resources.
Or if the planet itself is our mother,
Not an opportunity.
Then we will treat each other with greater respect.
And this is the challenge to look at the world from a different perspective.
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it.
The way we see our bodies shapes the way we treat them.
The way we see each other shapes the way we treat each other.
And we begin with the simplest space by just witnessing our breath.
This perfect balance of effort and ease.
This perfect balance of giving and receiving.
You don't have to learn anything brand new.
It's very often a shedding of things that society have told us of how we're supposed to be.
Your body knows.
Your body remembers.
This perfect balance,
This wise perspective.
It's one days when we get caught in the constructs of mind and it feels very difficult to let any of it go.
Just pause and notice your breath for a moment.
That natural reciprocation,
Giving and receiving.
And it's such a gentle and wise effort.
Spend a few moments here before we close just noticing again the great wisdom of your body.
The wisest perspective,
Your breath that gives and receives equally abundantly and in natural reciprocation.
I'll invite you to bring your hands into any closing habits or practices.
You might bring your palms together like gratitude,
Hands over your heart.
You might place one of your hands or both on a body part that just needs a little extra support.
So we'll end as we often do with our loving kindness phrases.
Just repeating these phrases back as they make sense for you.
Offering yourself your own well wishing.
May I remember the innate goodness of my breath.
May I remember the innate goodness of my body.
May I practice both giving and receiving today.
And when action is needed,
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
And finally,
May the merits of our practice ripple out to benefit all beings.
And whenever you feel complete,
No rush at all,
Take your time.
Take a moment to thank yourself just for showing up.
Find movement when you feel ready.
And as always,
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for supporting each other,
Being a part of our sangha or our community.
