Unhooking From Thoughts Leads To Ease (Feb 13, 26)

Open awareness, awareness without judgment, or choiceless awareness: these are all ways to name that moment where you no longer have to choose to concentrate, but are simply in the moment. This takes a little practice, a little gentleness, and a little wise effort.
Join us for a guided practice toward tiny moments of ease by unhooking from every thought that arrives.

Transcript

We just have an opportunity to sit for a bit longer and with that in mind taking the same actions we always take these first few moments settling into your body but remembering too that as we sit and stay for a while it's important to listen to your body give yourself the right amount of comfort if it's helpful to lean back and do that sometimes it's helpful to lean forward a bit for a bit more alertness so you get to decide what makes the most sense for you you're welcome of course at any point to close your eyes or set your gaze downward it's taking these first few moments to truly notice your breath moving through you I'm going to be so curious about your breath you can even feel the air hitting your nostrils as you breathe in and reminder as you're settling into your posture there is no right or wrong there's no supposed tos or shoulds those are just judgments that live in our mind so just letting go of any supposed tos or shoulds and just allowing yourself to be in this present moment just noticing your breath for a moment and reminder too that as you settle into your body it's important to seek and find safety within your body if you find when you close your eyes your inner critic turns on or if you're stuck in a judgment loop it's helpful to move your body a bit gentle movements can be really supportive opening your eyes and setting them on something that's not moving in front of you can be supportive so remembering that there's no right or wrong we're also not allowing our mind to move and jump as it often does so it's not about finding quote-unquote the right way to be but it's also recognizing that our mind is often going to be trying to find something new it's going to be looking for something and so it's this invitation to slow down never forceful just an invitation and that's why we often either close our eyes or steady our gaze it's a way to invite our mind to slow down just a bit when our body is in constant motion our mind is in constant motion so let any action you may take be very purposeful let it be chosen action rather than any reaction i'll give just an example of this and i'll give some silent space just to settle in but example of a reaction when we're in our meditation is our mind starts to get a little bored and we open our eyes because we just want to look around for a moment and then as we look around we start to see oh there's that pile of books i wanted to put away and then our mind just starts moving and that becomes reaction to that slight discomfort of boredom instead you might choose i'm just going to keep my eyes closed and just notice what is the heaviness of my eyelids feel like i'm going to bring my attention back to that movement of my breath can i feel the air moving across my top upper lip as i breathe in a wise action to open your eyes rather than a reaction might be i'm becoming so uncomfortable in my body i feel like i'm feeling unsafe so i'm going to open my eyes and i'm going to set them on the first thing that my eyes see and i'm just going to name whatever that thing is for myself and then i'm going to notice my hands resting in my lap it's these conscious moments of choice that eventually allow us to be in what's sometimes called choiceless awareness or open awareness awareness without judgment we first need to allow our mind to make its judgments and let our mind settle rather than forcing a settling maybe you're rocking your body a bit side to side to soothe your nervous system to soothe your mind maybe you're just in so much stillness you can feel your heartbeat where your breath suddenly rising and falling subtly rising and falling noticing where you're thinking mind might have just been and just the pure awareness oh there's thinking happening it's a gentle unhooking from the thought itself you never have to push it away you never have to judge the thoughts and add what buddhism calls the second dart the first dart is just the experience of being sometimes as the buddha taught the very first thing that he taught was that suffering exists and that can feel challenging but in reality it just reminds us of our common humanity that when something feels challenging it doesn't mean there's something wrong it doesn't mean there's something wrong with us it just means that is part of the experience of being but it's when we add judgment when we add i'm supposed to i should i always i never they always they never when we add those layers of judgment we're piercing ourselves with a second dart a third dart a hundredth dart and instead of poking ourselves with more and more pain can we just witness oh yeah there's thinking happening what else is happening here is my breath heartbeat perhaps different layers of sound there's the experience of temperature and pressure and we can start to notice these little ways that our mind will say i like it i don't like it i'm comfortable i like this temperature oh i'm a little uncomfortable i don't like this temperature i like the temperature in my body but i don't like the temperature in my hands i like the temperature in the summer but i don't like it in the winter and vice versa and our mind just goes and when we can witness that it's like watching a puppy playing with something excited at first and then frustrated and then sleepy our mind is just a puppy at play moving through all of the experiences of being and we settle back and we just witness when our mind moves towards something that's going to cause us harm we make an adjustment a conscious choice and then to the best of our ability we settle back into that open awareness letting go of the choice of i like it i don't like it and just allow the beingness of breathing i mean it's not always easy and it doesn't mean we don't make choices or take action in life and just here in this present moment i've set aside this time just to be with myself can i witness those small judgments as they come and go and not get so caught up in them but just notice them oh yeah there's thinking happening oh yeah there's my little puppy mind playing with something getting a little frustrated let me just witness all of this with my tender warm heart with my open hands just allow my breath to move through me notice again where your thoughts just were or where they're headed just the noticing oh yeah there's thinking happening suddenly you're back in the present if the thinking is really busy today or if the opposite your mind is really slow dull and sleepy tiny physical action can be so supportive choosing it maybe just simply rubbing your hands across your legs noticing the feel of the fabric the gentle friction this is a sensation of touch you might also lean forward slightly and just gently rock your body side to side so our bodies really appreciate rhythmic soothing movement and you might do that just for three or four strokes of your hands three or four rocks of your body or you may continue that motion if it feels supportive perhaps you're just staying settled into the still quiet space so still that you can notice your heartbeat your breath moving through you just allowing your mind to rest in the steadiness of the wisdom of your body moment by moment present awareness just notice where your thoughts were and that your breath is just simply right here and there's an interesting paradox in this choiceless awareness that's this idea that to get to choiceless awareness or open awareness we very often have to make many choices to settle into that space choosing to notice oh yeah my mind is moving instead of just letting our mind wander choosing to stay with yourself even when it feels challenging even when you get a little bored or a little activated or a little frustrated just choosing to stay sometimes is the easiest thing in the world sometimes the most challenging and so this open awareness this choiceless awareness it's this idea that awareness implies seeing the world exactly as it is i'm just aware and i'm choosing to let go of all of the judgments of mind but with practice eventually that choice even goes away and i can just simply witness in my pure awareness and the wonderful teacher ramdas would often talk about the moment and he would talk about it with such reverence and deep love as if he was talking about a loved one as if he was telling a story of his most favorite aunt as if he was telling a story about himself as a child is so loving about being in the present moment and what that requires is giving ourselves permission to let go of all of the constructs of our mind but our mind does not willingly want to give that up we have many many parts that are constantly trying to protect us and they don't want to give up those protections because they believe those parts of our mind believe that's what keeps us safe in the world but true safety is being able to see what's truly in front of me and take wise action when it's needed rather than constantly being in reaction and so as we practice this simple awareness and choosing at times i feel a little extra agitated i'm gonna rock my body a bit or i'm gonna rub my palms together i'm gonna take this small action so that i can stay i'm gonna lean way back and i'm gonna settle in so comfortably into my chair and i might even fall asleep and i'm gonna allow that to be okay there is no right or wrong in this practice there just is and i'll take a few moments here to share so a couple of different passages from krishnamurti a really wonderful teacher he has thousands of recordings and books and his philosophy wasn't rooted specifically in yoga or buddhism or any particular philosophy but he drew from the wisdom of the world from nature and from many different philosophies and this foundation it comes from this idea that freedom is not just for the individual that freedom liberation of our minds comes in community comes in connection and if only one person is free and that's not true freedom that's a conversation for another day but that's the foundation here what he talks about first though is we need freedom first from the constructs of our mind and this is from his created works volume 12 he says it is one of the most difficult things to be free to forget everything that one has known to allow the release of what's pleasurable or painful but it is only then that the mind is free to live free to act fully to do this requires an awareness without choosing an awareness in which all the secret belongings urges compulsions wishes and desires can be revealed where the mind does not choose this desire is right or wrong but it simply observes the moment you choose you have subtly established authority and therefore the mind is no longer free to be inwardly aware of every movement of thought the implications of every word the significance of every desire and wish and not to deny or accept but to simply watch with awareness this is what frees your mind from authority it is only then the mind is free to discover what is true and what is false awareness implies observing the world as it is to know the world the trees nature the beauty and the ugliness to be aware of your neighbor what they are wearing the way of being and also to be aware of what you are inwardly if you are so aware you will see that there are a great many reactions like and dislike punishment and reward in that awareness can you be aware without any choice this choiceless awareness just to be aware without prejudice can you be so aware and this is a very big question can we be so aware very often with awareness comes choice and that's so beneficial but can also choose these moments where we're just simply open letting down all of our protections letting down all of these ideas that we're so flawed we can't let anyone in or that everyone else is so flawed that we can't let them in can we soften that just for a moment and i'll invite you just to open your hands flip your palms up let your palms be open as the yogic tradition says our hands are an extension of our heart it's taking that physical posture of openness and with these open hands i'll invite you to today to work with your loving kindness phrases just with this open posture letting yourself receive the well-wishing of these words repeat these phrases back as they make sense for you may i be open to receive the whole of me may i appreciate myself exactly as i am may i be open to receive the whole of those in front of me today may i be open to appreciate humans nature all beings exactly as they are and then i'll invite you to bring your hands together in gratitude or hands over your heart and these last three phrases may i appreciate myself and all beings exactly as we are may we each choose to move with ease and peace today and may the merits of our practice ripple out to benefit all beings and go slow if you can just take your time whenever you feel complete you can open your eyes and find a little movement in your body take a moment to thank yourself just for being here just for showing up and as always thank you for being here supporting each other

Reviews

What a lovely spacious practice 🥰 so useful. Extra appreciation for the words from Ram Das and Krishnamurti. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned, by the way, that I absolutely love the way you close out meditations—just beautiful guidance and orientation 💛Thank you as always, Larissa 🙏🪷🌻 Every time I see that you have posted a new meditation, it makes me happy!