Practice for about 30 minutes.
Taking these first couple of moments just to.
.
.
Listen to your body.
You might be taking some deep breaths.
You might be adjusting your body still.
In this vehicle of the body that we exist within.
As we begin here,
This is our foundation,
It's tangible.
These little tiny adjustments we can make in our fingers,
Our toes,
Our spine.
That's what we can feel immediately.
And the subtler shifts in our emotional landscape and our belief systems.
Those are not always as obvious.
So we begin with something that's just so clear.
Like we can see when we open our eyes,
Is it light out or is it dark out?
We can feel.
With our body.
Am I supported in this moment?
Quite literally physically.
And that helps us land when our mind takes us in a million directions.
You have been given this body.
It is a gift.
Take a few moments to tend to it.
Do I have the right amount of support?
Can I take a deep breath?
And just land here for a bit.
Landing in your body.
It's conscious choice.
It doesn't mean we're not always in the body.
It's that our mind is often in a million other places.
This ability to just be.
Gives us.
A much greater access.
To the joy in our life.
It also gives us greater access and capacity to hold the difficult things in life.
And it's also the presence that's required so that we don't spiral off into all of the suffering in the world.
We stay with what we're experiencing in the present moment.
That allows us to alchemize.
Any difficulty into wise action.
So that we're not reacting to the world.
So that we're not pulling forward old mechanisms that kept us safe in the past,
That we no longer need.
And all of this wisdom,
This wise action and wise speech,
Wise livelihood,
All of these many steps along the Eightfold Noble Path.
This first comes from.
.
.
Our ability to recognize wise perspective.
That's the first step on the Eightfold Noble Path.
Wise perspective,
Wise understanding.
Understanding yourself.
Understanding that any mistakes you've made It's simply a part of being human.
It's a part of the path.
Wise understanding also includes this naturally radiant heart.
We open the eye of this naturally radiant heart to see the world with what Ram Dass would call loving awareness.
What Kristen Neff,
A modern scientist,
Would call compassionate awareness.
And what the Buddha would call pure awareness.
There's pure awareness every time we slow down and just watch our body breathe for us.
Let yourself be breathed for a moment.
What does it feel like?
Just a moment of pure awareness.
And consciously bringing our loving awareness.
It's not always easy to love what is.
And watch a video of suffering in the world.
Are you experienced?
Something difficult,
Something as small as getting a hangnail.
Something as vast as losing a loved one.
That's part of our wise perspective.
The Eightfold Noble Path is the Fourth Noble Truth.
And the Noble Truths are quite simple.
The first Noble Truth is the fact that suffering exists.
And there's a real beauty in that because when you're in the difficult moment,
It doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong.
It just is part of being human.
And unfortunately we can't avoid suffering,
But what we can do is move through it.
First Noble Truth,
Suffering exists.
Second Noble Truth.
There's a cause to it.
Third truth,
There's an end to it.
Fourth truth The end is the path.
And that's this human journey.
The path is broad.
And there's a lot of.
Missteps that we might take.
But every misstep is a learning opportunity.
Every time we stumble and fall,
It's an opportunity for us to figure out,
How do I tend to myself?
I fell,
I have a scraped knee.
What do I need in this moment?
I fell and now I have a broken heart.
Might require a little more tending.
But it doesn't mean you've missed anything,
You're still on the path.
It's just breath by breath,
Moment by moment.
We come in to just a nanosecond of pure awareness.
Of compassionate awareness,
Of loving awareness.
Your body always in love with you.
Even when you're in pain and you're.
.
.
In an illness.
Your body is doing its utmost.
Care for you.
To heal the wound.
To seal up a physical cut.
Or to allow your heart to break a million more times until you can see what it is that needed tending.
Breath by breath.
Moment by moment.
Present Awareness.
Anytime we become enraptured in our mind,
Whether it's a loop that brings us into some anxious feeling.
A loop that brings us into some excitement.
That thought,
For that moment,
Takes us out of presence.
And when we see that enrapturement of the mind,
That's the opportunity to come back to the body.
Not because the body is better than the mind or vice versa,
But because there's a unity.
Is a unity in presence.
I start to let go of what's called the illusion of disconnection.
In the yogic tradition this is called avidya.
Avidya means ignorance.
And sometimes it'll get mistranslated,
Some idea that we don't have enough knowledge.
But it is,
Because we have so much knowledge.
That we miss.
The connection that's right in front of us.
For our ideals of right and wrong.
And when we connect to our breath,
Suddenly all of that falls away.
And we unite the mind and the body.
And we land in the eye of the heart.
And that's where the Spirit dwells.
Uniting this brilliant ego of the mind.
The universal,
Endless love of the Spirit.
And it is all within.
Within every single breath you take.
And it is from this understanding we hope to take the next step on the path.
It's said that suffering comes from clinging.
We want to stay in the place where we were the happiest.
We want to cling to something so that we're not swept away by difficulty.
That clinging disallows us to be connected to what is truly present.
To hold space for our moments of grief just as much as we hold space for our moments of joy.
And it is truly all learn.
In the present moment.
Watching your body tend to you as you take this breath.
Breath by breath.
Moment-by-moment present awareness.
In the best of your ability.
Allowing yourself to show up with loving awareness.
And when it's difficult,
When we're in judgment.
Whether it's judgment of self,
Judgment of others,
Judgment of the world.
Recognize that that judgment is telling you what's important to you.
But when we can soften that harsh black and white judgment where we've decided there's a right and a wrong way.
We can start to infuse that with our loving awareness.
Which is where our wisdom comes from.
To move wisely in the world rather than moving correctly in the world.
Your wisdom,
It comes from within.
We can learn from each other,
We can draw from each other's wisdom.
We can witness the wisdom inside of each other and reflect back.
And at the same time for you.
Your wisdom.
Is awakening every time you pause and notice a breath.
What is the wisest step for you?
Cannot be told to you by the outside.
It might be modeled.
You might have a wise human in your life that illuminates the path.
And it's through that illumination you can start to see a little more clearly so that you take your steps.
With your own wise perspective,
Your own wise understanding.
To truly understand yourself is to recognize your flaws,
Your mistakes,
And not make them wrong.
To recognize they are part of the wisdom of learning.
There is no right or wrong.
There is innocence that turns into suffering.
And then we can cling to that,
Trying to fix it.
And in turn,
We turn it into something wrong.
Instead,
We look at this Pali word sama.
Sama means wise.
That there is both grace and grief happening at the same time.
That there is both joy and suffering happening at the same time.
And we don't have to choose either one.
We don't have to cling to one or the other.
We just witness,
Just like our body so wisely moves,
Inhale to exhale.
Not clinging to one or the other.
And in this,
We start to allow our wisdom to come out.
We start to soften our clinging to right and wrong.
And just witness the flow.
On being human.
All of this learned,
The wisdom of your breath.
Rhythmic movement of your heartbeat.
Feeling of the ground beneath you.
And when your mind grips you,
Just wiggle your toes for a moment.
Notice the sensation within you.
And then invite in a bit of softening on this next exhale.
And allow that to be enough in this moment in time.
Just pure awareness of this body you get to exist within.
Notice again your breath.
Notice how your body is being held.
These are the foundations.
When our mind takes us out.
This brilliant vehicle of the mind starts traveling elsewhere.
You utilize the vehicle of your body to ground back into presence.
Lambert never choosing one over the other.
Your body,
Your mind,
Your heart,
Your spirit,
All conjoining.
And that is part of why we are here,
Just to learn this unity.
Uniting all the parts of yourself,
Not relying so much on the knowledge in your mind that you miss the wisdom of the body.
Not allowing the heart to be broken open so many times that we miss the wise boundary of the mind.
We need all of these units within ourselves.
And the good news is you're already whole.
It's already here.
It's only this illusion of separation that we keep seeing the world.
Seeing it as fragmented,
Seeing ourselves as fragmented.
But the truth is.
.
.
Everything you need is here.
Very often it's a slowing down and a remembering.
Rather than moving forward and getting something new.
And yet at the same time,
We learn something new every single day.
And learn from each other.
The illumination of some brilliant podcast that speaks to your soul.
The laughter of a stranger that touches your heart.
The deep grief within you that's hard to hold or even witness.
All of this.
A part of who you are.
There's nothing you need to keep hidden.
There's nothing that is separate from you that you need to take in in order to be whole.
What is whole and complete cannot be taken away from.
And yet what is whole and complete can continue to be made more and more beautiful.
Adding your layers of wisdom.
I certainly don't mean the beauty of glamour.
It is John O'Donohue who would call it the beauty of connection.
Just connecting with yourself,
Connecting with this brilliant eye of the heart.
Letting this bold,
Wise,
Loving eye of the heart connect with your smaller human eyes.
Clear out the skewed lenses of disconnection.
Even if it's just for a nanosecond.
Let your body breathe for you.
Receive that gift.
And allow the softening of your exhale.
And let gravity hold you as you soften.
Notice your breath.
As you notice your breath.
You're bringing your kind attention.
The way that your body cares for you.
And we have this tool with us all the time.
It's always here.
Let's take a moment again to take a big deep breath.
Allow some spaciousness.
As you inhale.
Allow some softening as you exhale.
I'll invite you to bring your hands into any of your closing habits or practices.
Take a moment to just allow your hands to hold you.
Maybe you tuck your chin towards your chest.
It's placing your body in this symbol of gratitude.
And we'll end with a few loving kindness phrases.
It's repeating them back.
Allowing your mind to integrate these words.
Into the ether,
Into your body,
Into your intention for the day.
May I remember the innate goodness.
Of my breath.
May I remember the innate goodness of my body.
May I remember the innate goodness of my heart.
May I remember the innate goodness.
In all the humans around me.
When accent 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.
Fine movement.
Take a moment to thank yourself just for showing up.
As always,
Thank you for being here,
Supporting each other and our sangha,
Our community.
