Good morning,
Everyone.
My name is Larissa.
We're going to practice together for about 15 minutes.
Let's take a few moments here to settle in.
Just a little wiggle in your torso,
Settling your seat just 2% deeper into your cushion can be supportive.
Might take a couple of big,
Deep breaths.
You're welcome to close your eyes or set your gaze downward,
Just softening our external I'm starting to turn a bit more internal.
And not that we're not internally facing,
We're very often.
Thinking,
Considering,
Pondering in that internal space.
But beyond all of that,
There's a slowness that exists.
Oftentimes it's talked about as the heart space.
And there's a Greek word,
That's the word nous,
N-O-U-S,
And it's often translated as the heart or the mind.
And a very clear way of saying this in the English language is to see through the eye of the heart.
And that's very similar to the Sanskrit word citta,
Which is often translated as mind.
Sometimes it's translated as heart-mind.
But it's this idea that we're blending together our knowledge base.
All of the mental formations.
All of the past experience that we pull forward.
And we blend it with the heart space.
Which is our intuition,
Our wisdom.
And it's through this eye,
The eye of the heart,
That we practice opening in our meditation.
We're witnessing ourselves through the eyes of lovingness,
Tenderness,
Openness.
And we can also see a bit more clearly the constructs of mind that are not quite the full truth.
It's just past experience that we pull forward.
As you close or soften your external gaze,
It's an opportunity to awaken this inner eye,
This heart eye.
This combination of emotional intelligence,
Emotional resilience,
Emotional spaciousness,
Along with the knowledge that we've accumulated over a lifetime.
And to let all of that be still so we can just see clearly in moments.
And we begin that process by just simply witnessing our breath.
The breath that's always here for us.
It's always abundant.
Always life-giving.
Where do you notice your breath today?
Where do you feel it the most?
Anytime we notice.
That we're in a little bit of judgment.
We find ourselves in a place where we're not feeling particularly compassionate.
All that tells us is that we're missing the eye of the heart.
We're most connected to our true selves.
When we can have compassion for any given situation.
Compassion includes.
Anger and frustration and irritation.
There's never anything we need to make separate from us when we're really looking.
Through the eye of the heart.
In this concept.
We bring it into the present moment by watching our breath move through us.
Your breath never judgmental.
Your body never wondering,
Do I deserve this breath?
It's just abundant.
Freely giving,
Freely receiving.
Spacious.
Spacious to hold whatever is in the present moment.
We also have that natural easefulness of the exhale.
That's a helpful thing to remember anytime throughout the day,
Anytime we're feeling some stress or some judgment.
Just notice how your body softens when you exhale.
Very often we have to remember it.
Because our body becomes tense when we get into judgment and stress.
Just notice right here.
Can I soften just a little bit?
3% more as I exhale.
And just landing in that awareness,
Just feeling your breath moving through you.
Expansive quality of the inhale.
The soft,
Easeful quality of the exhale.
Breath by breath,
We become present again.
With every moment of presence,
We have an opportunity to witness ourselves a bit more clearly.
That's when we're rushing throughout the day and we're just into our regular habits.
That's not a bad thing.
It's helpful to have habits.
That's usually where we end up in old habits of mind that are no longer helpful for us.
That's why change can be really challenging.
Change is happening all the time.
But when we consciously choose to change,
Our old habits just want to take over,
Just in an effort to keep us safe,
To save energy,
Just in case.
When is this conscious slowing down that we do here?
We have an opportunity to really witness.
Whether it's receiving an inhale.
Take a moment to really enjoy this life-giving experience of breathing.
And it's also an opportunity to witness.
What is happening in our mind?
And what happens when our mind takes us out of the heart space?
And we land in judgment,
Confinement,
Stress,
Tension.
And when that happens,
All it means is we're missing the heart.
We need to slow down and land back within ourselves,
Which can feel counterintuitive when we feel stressed,
Because our mind will want us to push forward.
And so we practice here just slowing down.
Receiving this ordinary breath.
It becomes extraordinary when we really notice the experience of it.
And just take a moment here to notice three breaths.
And it's just one at a time.
Maybe you're counting them just to really experience three whole deep and slow breaths.
And just notice.
Contacting your breath in this conscious and slow way.
Can allow you just a moment of ease.
Three deep breaths is a tool that you can use anytime.
Anytime you're feeling a little disconnected,
A little stressed.
It's also a tool you can use when you're feeling joy.
To help you tap into that joy a little more deeply.
Its presence.
Breath is always present.
And we never want to make our mind wrong for taking us out of present at times.
How brilliant it is that your mind can plan ahead.
I always find it fascinating that we have this organ that lives inside of our skull that can time travel.
And yet our time travel is.
Always pulling from past predictions.
Sometimes we make ourselves small.
Because we miss the present moment,
The abundance of the present moment.
And we're just pulling from past experience.
Rather than trying to figure out what the future looks like.
I try to figure out why I said the thing I said yesterday,
Or whatever the mind is doing.
We just notice,
Oh yeah,
There's my mind.
Thank your mind for all of its work,
And then return to your heart space.
Your beautiful lungs surrounding your anatomical heart in this soft landing place.
Where your breath and your body wisdom come together.
And you can experience the ease of your exhale.
I want you to take a moment to place your hands into any of your closing habits or practices,
Palms together like gratitude,
Hands stacked over your heart to contact your body.
And we'll end,
As we often do,
With a few loving-kindness phrases.
Just repeating these phrases back as they make sense for you.
May I continue to awaken the eye of my heart.
May I continue to see the world through the eye of my heart.
When action is needed.
May I choose to move with ease and peace.
And may the merits of our practice ripple out to benefit all beings.
Go slow,
Find movement whenever you feel ready.
Take a moment to thank yourself.
And as always,
Thank you for being here,
Being a part of our sangha,
Our community.
Feel free to unmute,
Say goodbye.
It's gonna be okay.
