Four Foundations Of Mindfulness

*Live Lovestream Recording: In this livestream, we explore the Buddha’s timeless teaching on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness: awareness of body, feelings, mind, and mental patterns. These four doorways invite us out of unconscious storytelling and into direct experience.

Rather than trying to fix ourselves or improve the moment, we learn how to observe what is happening with clarity and compassion. This practice is not about becoming someone new; it’s about seeing clearly what has always been here. Through presence, we discover freedom by changing our relationship to life.

Transcript

I'm happy to be here with you today, And I'm very grateful that you're joining. The world seems to be more and more chaotic every day, And for me, The question is not so much, How do I fix the world, The question is more so, How do I keep my heart open? And so I just invite you into that contemplation before we dive into our beautiful topic today, Which is the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. I just wanted to address that just with this little offering, Rather than coming from the space of, Oh gosh, How do I fix this world, Which feels like a monumental impossibility task, I would imagine, For any of us, Maybe shifting it into, How do I keep my heart open? How do I live from a compassionate space, So that I don't shut down, Given all the challenges that this world is facing, Our world, Your world, My world, Our collective world. For those of you that are here for the first time, I worked as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and microsurgeon for nearly 25 years, And felt the calling to drop the literal scalpel and shift over to soul surgery, Which I was already doing in my surgical practice, Because alongside my surgeries, I also built a wellness center. So I was always in this conversation of mind-body-spirit. But at some point several years back, I no longer felt aligned with the scalpel, The surgeries that I was doing, The needles, All the sharp instruments. I realized that happiness, Freedom, Peace, Love, Were not going to be found at the edge of my scalpel. And that's when I decided to go full-on, Head-first into soul surgery. An old patient of mine said to me one day, Doc, You're not just a plastic surgeon, You're a soul surgeon. I come for the Botox, But I stay for the therapy. So this was how the name soul surgeon came about, And it kind of stuck. So this is what I offer you here. I offer you soul surgery. It's a way to excavate and extirpate the depth of your own suffering, The depth of that which no longer serves you, And transform. Transform whatever doesn't serve you into something that serves you more deeply, More intentionally. And so each of these talks are dharma talks. Dharma means the truth or the teachings as they were presented by the Buddha, Who was a man that walked almost 2, 600 years ago. He was human just like us, And he had a very, Very deep question that he was obsessing over. And his question was, Why do we suffer? And once he figured out why we suffer, Then he wanted to know, Well, Now that I know how we suffer, I have a diagnosis, But how do we stop suffering? How do we end suffering? And that's the Buddhist path. That's it, My friends. It's not a religion. It's not a dogma. It's a path to be lived into, To be experienced directly. And so I come on here as a soul surgeon to offer you to look deeply into yourself, To look deeply into what serves you and what no longer serves you. And if it doesn't serve you, Let's identify it and let's shift, Let's shapeshift, Let's transform. So you'll be happy to know that this talk is a foundational talk and teaching that the Buddha gave. It was given in the Satipatthana Sutta. That's the name of the teaching in which the Buddha spoke of the four foundations of mindfulness. And we'll dissect them, We'll go in nice and deep into each of them. And you'll be very happy to know that these four foundations of mindfulness are the direct path to awakening. Wow, Sign me up. I don't want the indirect path. This life is too short. Just give me the direct path to awakening. And the Buddha said that this is the direct path for the purification of beings. So he's telling us how to purify our being by following just these four, The four foundations of mindfulness as presented in the Satipatthana Sutta. So the Buddha is offering us these daily trainings as a direct path. And these are taught with the intention of offering liberation, Freedom. And the freedom arises through the continuous embodied awareness of this life experience as it is. That's all that this is about, My friends. Simple, Not easy. Can we continuously engage in the embodied awareness of the experience of this life, Just as it is, Reality? Okay. And so these four foundations of mindfulness help us do just that. We can't just say, Okay, We're going to embody awareness in every experience in life, But give me some tools, Give me some path on how to do this. So what these four foundations do is they move us from the gross, Broad experience of life into the subtle, The here and now. They move us from the personal over-identification with the ego mind, I, Me, Mine. They bring us more expansively out into the universal experience. And then eventually, As we practice this, They bring us out of just the experience of life into the wisdom about this life. And ultimately, We live more deeply as embodied wisdom. So let's jump into it. Let's get into the first one. You ready? And let's get into it. The first foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of the body, Knowing the body as the body. What does this mean? Mindfulness of the body. I already know I have a body, Clearly. Look at these hands moving around on the screen and this mouth talking. There's a body here. I'm sitting inside this body. Most of us live disembodied as a bobblehead, Just a head on top of the neck and shoulders. Most of us use the body as the taxi to drive around the head. Most of us use and abuse our bodies by overeating, Overexercising, Overdoing surgeries like the ones I used to do as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. We use and abuse the body, Drugs, Alcohol, Other addictions, Food, Addiction to suffering, Addiction to stress and anxiety. And so our body suffers. So what the Buddha told us with this first foundation of mindfulness, Which is mindfulness of the body, Is for us to contemplate and meditate on knowing the body in the body. So contemplating the body from inside of the body rather than talking about the body in the third person. So that includes sensations, Bodily sensations that are going on in order to land in the body. So what this does is it grounds our awareness directly into physical reality. So we're no longer this disembodied head. We're actually grounded in awareness, In direct physical experience. So how do we do this? How do we do mindfulness of the body in the body? Many ways. The first one, Which is the most available, Is mindfulness of breathing. Why is this one most available? Because as long as we're alive, There is breath. Don't leave home without it. So you don't need a special meditation cushion. You don't need a special outfit. You don't need incense or a candle burning. You don't need to go anywhere. You're already here with your breath. So we begin experiencing mindfulness of the body in the body through mindfulness of breath. And so let's do a little experience of that right now. So I'm going to invite you into your breath. But before we do that, Let me explain. So what we're going to do is we're going to take conscious, Deep, Intense breath. Intentional inhales through the nose, If that's available to you, And then out through the mouth. When you take it in through the nose, Feel your belly expand. And I'll guide you on this when we're taking our breath in a moment. Feel your belly expand on the inhale. Take a tiny pause at the top of the inhale. And then long exhale, Squeezing the abdominal muscles together, Letting all the air out. Exhale through the mouth, If you can. And then tiny pause at the end of the exhale. Just stop. Stop what? Stop everything. Just be aware of the end of the exhale. Notice that little pause before the body takes that next breath. And when you give your exhale, I want you to blow out like you're blowing out a handful of sand. Imagine you have a big pile of sand in your hand, And you're just blowing it out through your mouth. So you're not going to blow it out fast, Because you're going to have sand in your eyes. You're going to slowly let that breath come out. That's how we're going to do our inhale and exhale. Bringing all of our awareness to the body breathing, And to the breath going in through the nose, Out through the mouth. Little pause at the top of the inhale, Little pause at the bottom of the exhale. Okay, My friends, Let's do it. I invite you to close your eyes, Or have a soft downward gaze if that's comfortable for you. Find a comfortable posture in your body, Preferably upright if that's available to you. And bring the light of your awareness to your breath. Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am alive. Notice the pause in awareness at the top of the inhale, Just before the exhale. And notice a pause of awareness at the bottom of the exhale, Just before the body takes the next breath. Let's do a couple more. Feel your body relax as you exhale, Relaxing the eyelids, Lips, Jaw, Shoulders. Notice the quality of the breath as you breathe it in. Perhaps a coolness. Notice the quality of the breath as you breathe out. Mindfulness of the body through the breath. Using the breath to anchor ourselves in the body, In presence, As awareness. When you're ready, You can just do a couple of shoulder circles, Neck circles, Wiggle your fingers and toes. Open your eyes and come back into the space. Just notice how you're feeling. Just notice how is your mind in this moment. How is your body in this moment? How is your emotional heart in this moment? Knowing the body in the body is the first foundation of mindfulness. We can use the body in many ways to bring ourselves into reality, Into the here and now. Into awareness. So it's not just the breath that we can use. We can use our posture by feeling ourselves in our body as we sit. We could easily do a sitting meditation where we feel the weight of our body in all the contact points on our seat. The groundedness of our feet on the ground. We can do the same if we're laying down or standing. Or we can do a walking meditation. Where instead of engaging with our thoughts and being a disembodied head just living in our minds, We dive into the body in a walking meditation and feel every step of our feet on the ground. The Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers us a beautiful mantra for walking meditation. He says, Kissing the earth with my feet. So as you're walking you can break up the syllables, Kissing the earth with my feet. And really slow down your walk. I've had some people ask me here before, If they're doing an exercise walk, Is that meditative? And the answer is, Usually not. Because an exercise walk is an exercise walk. The intention is completely different. We're walking to move our body, Get our heart rate up, Use our muscles, Pump the blood to the muscles. But when we're doing a mindful walking meditation, We are bringing our attention, Our awareness to every step. Which is not possible if we're walking fast, Briskly, Or jogging. So when you're exercising, Exercise. And when you're doing a mindful walking meditation as the first foundation of mindfulness, Then do your walking meditation. And then we can use the body in the myriad of ways that we use it throughout our day. Right? If we're eating, We can do a mindful eating meditation. Only putting our attention on eating. On lifting the utensil, Scooping up one bite of food, Putting it in our mouth, Putting the utensil down, Letting it go, And then noticing what's happening to the food in our mouth as we take that one bite. So this is what we do on silent retreat. I offered that in our last love stream. So stay tuned, In a few days you'll have the silent retreat talk. And how we use all of these different ways of using our bodies to come into a stance of mindfulness. And what is mindfulness? Just the word mindfulness? In Sanskrit, Mindfulness means remembering. Remembering to come out of the dream, Out of the illusion. Out of the sense of separate ego, Mind. Remembering to come back into reality rather than to live in the stories that our minds tell us about reality. So these four foundations of mindfulness help us, Support us, In living with intention. In living this life, In the here and now. Rather than living in our thoughts, Ruminating about the past, Worrying about the future. We end up missing our life. We end up missing this moment. And so this first foundation of mindfulness, Mindfulness of the body, It helps us see the body as a bunch of processes, Right? There is hearing that's happening in the body. There is seeing that's happening. Smelling, Tasting, Touching, Thinking. These are all sense processes. So there's no distinct individual self that calls itself a self right here. There is a non-fixed self. This is a body, And it is subject to constant change. And that ties in beautifully to one of the foundational teachings the Buddha gave, Which is impermanence. When we really use the body as a foundation of mindfulness, To ground our minds into the here and now, Into the body, We get to see impermanence head-on. We also get to contemplate death head-on. Because we know that this body is impermanent. We know that this body will die. And that's not meant to be dark or sad or upsetting. It's meant to aliven us, To awaken us, So that we don't miss this precious moment. So this is the power of mindfulness of the body. Of knowing ourselves and our life experience through this body. So ask yourselves, How often do I really consciously have awareness that there's a body here? That I have a body. And how often do I live as a disembodied bobblehead, Just in my thoughts? It's a good question, My friends. Let's move to the second foundation of mindfulness that the Buddha taught as a direct path to awakening. The path for purification of beings. This is what he called it. So any of you who like the cliff notes, Who like just the directness, Most direct possible path, You've tuned in, This is it. And so here's the second of the four foundations of mindfulness. The second foundation is mindfulness of feelings. Now we're not talking about emotions. Angry, Sad, Fearful, Happy, Exuberant. We're not talking about emotions. We're talking about a feeling tone. Feeling tone. So the Buddha offered us the second foundation of mindfulness. Mindfulness of our feeling tone. And this is quite important. The feeling tone is only one of three, So it makes it really easy. Three feeling tones. Pleasant, Unpleasant, Or neutral. That's it. So when we practice mindfulness of feeling tone, We simply check in with ourselves, Take a little screenshot of ourselves in this moment, And notice what is here. Just observe yourself. Do I have an overall feeling tone of pleasantness? And that feels like this. Hmm. Anticipating. Pleasant. Open. Or do I have a feeling tone of unpleasantness? Hmm. Closed. Not excited. Not interested. Or do I have a neutral feeling tone? Hmm. Not pleasant, Not unpleasant, Just neutral. So check in with yourself in this moment. Let's do that together. You can close your eyes. Take your conscious breath. So we can do these four foundations of mindfulness in order. We begin by mindfulness of the body. Bringing the light of awareness to the breath, To the body, Come into the body. Know that you're in a body. And then we move to the second foundation, Which is the mindfulness of the feeling, Your feeling tone. So check it out for yourself right now. What is the feeling tone? Pleasant? Hmm. Unpleasant? Hmm. Or neutral? Hmm. What is your feeling tone in this moment? Mine is pleasant because I'm here with you offering a Dharma talk, Which is one of my favorite things to do in this life. So I feel an overall tone, Sensation of pleasantness. And the reason these feeling tones are so important is because we're noticing ourselves before the heavy emotions come in. So this is kind of a sneak peek into what emotions might be here. So when we have a pleasant feeling tone, If we follow that with the emotion that's here, It might be happy, Joyful, Content. We notice that pleasant feeling tones can lead to craving, To stickiness. Oh, This feels good. I want more of this. I want to hang out more in this space. So we get to see that pleasantness can evolve into a clinging. Hmm, I want more of this pleasant feeling. Or we can notice that an unpleasant feeling can evolve into a feeling tone. Hmm. Just feeling kind of a negativity, Not feeling pleasantness. That can lead to aversion, To pushing away. I don't want that thing that's making me feel this unpleasantness, This negativity. So when we notice the unpleasant feeling tone, We can then notice the emotion that follows. Resistance, Fear, Upset, Frustration. Right? So you're seeing how identifying the feeling tone is really critical in mindfulness, In awakening, In remembering what is here in this life and not getting lost in thought. And then a neutral feeling tone can just feel like, Hmm, Not positive or negative. Just present. Not anticipating and not resisting. Open to whatever arises. And so when we notice and observe and connect and check in with our feeling tones, We realize that our reactivity to whatever emotion follows becomes optional. We don't have to act on it. So you can check in with your feeling tone as often as you'd like. Every five minutes, Every minute if you'd like. So when we notice our feeling tone, We can notice how we shift from pleasant to all of a sudden unpleasant. Maybe the feeling tone shifts because you're sitting in Lotus and your legs are cramped and your foot's falling asleep and you're starting to feel like, Oh, My lower back is bothering me. And all of a sudden there's an unpleasant feeling tone. So we get to see the impermanence of this life and the impermanence of all phenomena and all experience because everything changes. All the time. All the time. And so these four foundations of mindfulness help us to see that. They help us to see how everything is impermanent. That is the law of this land. And yet, How often do we try to grasp tightly? No, But I don't want my kids to leave. No, I don't want this good feeling to end. I don't want this vacation to end. I'm eating a delicious meal. I don't want this meal to end. Right? Or we resist. We resist that which we don't want. Oh, Having pain, Tendinitis. I don't want that to be here. Resist it. Push it away. This is why we suffer, My friends. Because we try to cling to what we like and we try to push away what we don't like. And yet, We know that everything changes all the time. The good, The bad, And the ugly. Everything changes all the time. So no matter what you're experiencing, Pleasant, Unpleasant, Or neutral, If you follow it long enough, You're going to watch it change into the other. If it's pleasant at first, It's going to shift to unpleasant. If it's neutral, It'll shift to pleasant. That's the nature of phenomena. That's the nature of this life. Everything changes all the time. If we just learn to accept that one law of this land, Just like we've accepted gravity. We don't walk around trying to fly all the time. Most of us don't. We accept that gravity is a law of this land. We don't walk out of a five-story window because gravity is going to win. It's going to take us down. We don't try to fight gravity. Why do we fight impermanence when it's just another law of this life? So through these four foundations of mindfulness that the Buddha taught, We get to ground ourselves in the breath, Engage in our body in present moment time, Know that we're living in a body that is ever-changing, And then we go into the second foundation of mindfulness, The feeling tone, And check in with what is that sensation, Pleasant, Unpleasant, Or neutral? Or you can call it positive, Negative, And neutral. That's fine, Too, Whichever language resonates for you. We get to check in with our feeling tone and notice it before those heavy emotions come. And that gives us agency. That gives us the possibility to respond versus then to react. It removes us from the autopilot conditioned mind into the awakened mind of choice and freedom. I'll pause for a moment here before we do our third and fourth foundations of mindfulness. Let me know how this is landing with you. What is your experience of mindfulness of the body and the breath, Of mindfulness of the feeling tone? Is it something that you can use in your life? Can you check in with your feeling tone just as you're noticing that you're about to flip out? If you're just about to flip out, You go to the first foundation of mindfulness by getting into your breath. You go into the second by checking your feeling tone, And then you're going to see the third and fourth. Very, Very powerful. When we practice over and over and over again, Just like an Olympic tennis player, This becomes our go-to. It doesn't mean that we won't have an unpleasant feeling tone and a moment of overwhelm if we're in an argument or somebody's approaching us, Feels uncomfortable, But we have these mindfulness trainings, Very accessible. They're just at the tip of our mind, And we almost automatically but consciously dive into them to help us in that moment. What's really hitting you strongly? Because when we identify, What is it that we're hearing that is kind of shaking us up a little bit? Then we can dive more deeply into it. If we just say, Well, This Dharma talk is amazing. This Dharma talk is inspiring. There's not enough specificity there. I'm inviting each of you to maybe journal, Or you can write it in the chat if you'd like. What's really hitting home for me right now? What is something that I can really dive into, I can look at for myself to support my own transformation, To live with less suffering? Here we are, My friends. We're up to the third foundation of mindfulness, Which is mindfulness of mind. Mindfulness of mind, Knowing your state of mind. We want to recognize what is going on in the mind right now. We begin with the first two foundations of mindfulness. We first go into the body. Notice we have a body. Notice how everything changes all the time. We have an itch, We have a scratch. A second later, It disappears. We do that by becoming mindful, Present with our bodies, In our bodies. Then we go to the second foundation of mindfulness, Which is the feeling tones, Which has us become aware of what's here before we get carried away with the emotions. The feeling tone is positive, Negative, Or neutral. Then we land here in the third foundation of mindfulness, Which is mindfulness of the mind. Now we get to observe. Huh, What's here in the mind? Is this an angry mind or a peaceful mind? Is this a contracted, Closed-up, Small-minded mind? Or is this an expanded, Expansive mind? Is this a mind that clings to a lot of desire? I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want. Or is this a mind without desire? Is this a distracted mind or is it a focused, Concentrated mind? Is this a mind that's behaving and reacting on autopilot or is this a mind that is aware, That is present, That is nimble and flexible to adjust and show up to every moment, Every new experience? Mindfulness of our minds, My friends. Is this a mind that's sticky, Really sticky with what happened 20 years ago that I just can't let go? Is this a mind that's present with the here and now? Is this a mind that's confused or a mind that's clear and sharp? So the importance of this third foundation of mindfulness that the Buddha taught in order for us to be free and liberated from suffering, The importance of this is that we stop becoming these mind states unconsciously. We begin to notice what's here and instead of saying, I am angry, We simply say anger is present but it's not who I am. I am not angry. I am not anger. I am experiencing anger. So you can say anger is arising. Anger is here. I'm experiencing anger. Or you can describe how the anger feels. My face is flushed. My heart rate is fast. My palms are sweating. Anger is arising. And so my friends, Taking inventory of our minds when we engage with this third foundation, Mindfulness of the mind, Is a game changer, A total life-changing game changer because we no longer get stuck unconsciously in that mind state, Embodying that mind state, Believing that this is who I am. If there's tremendous sadness here, There's grief. I identify as that grief. I believe that I am that grief, That I'll never get out of it, That I'll be in this grief for the rest of my life. It's never going to leave. But if we practice diligently these four foundations of mindfulness, We are reminded of the law of impermanence. Everything changes, Even grief, Even deep sorrow and sadness. And so this is about radical honesty, My friends. It's about honestly saying what is here? A confused mind? Well, So be it. There's a lot of confusion here right now. A fearful mind? Fear is here because of what's happening in this world? Well, Then fear is here. There's a fearful mind. How are you going to react in your life if you're reacting from a fearful mind versus from a mind of clarity? Two completely different ways to show up in this life. So again, There's no judgment here. There's simply a radical honesty with what is. And finally, My friends, The fourth foundation of mindfulness. This is the mindfulness of mental phenomena. What does this mean? This means that this is how we get to see what is actually happening here. So in this Satipatthana Sutta, Which is the teaching that the Buddha gave on the four foundations of mindfulness to purify beings, This is the direct path of awakening. The Buddha's words, Not mine. The direct path of awakening is written in this Satipatthana Sutta. So if you want to awaken directly, You want to take the A train straight downtown rather than to make multiple stops, Then you can begin to practice these four foundations of mindfulness. So the fourth one observes how these laws laws of the land like the law of impermanence, Like the law of karma, Causes and conditions, How they govern each and every one of our experiences. And what happens is over time as we practice this, We're no longer just watching what's happening in life. We're actually beginning to see how reality works. And we understand that our lives and each and every one of our experiences simply unfolds based on the laws of causes and conditions. So this fourth foundation of mindfulness, Foundation of how these mental phenomena happen, It includes observing these patterns that have shaped us, Observing how much our minds cling, Observing how much we live in the space of restlessness or doubt. How much do we feed our fears or our anger? What seeds are we planting in our mind garden? What seeds are we planting? Are we planting seeds of fear, Jealousy, Perhaps seeds of doubt, Impatience? Is that what we're feeding and watering? Or are we cultivating seeds of compassion, Patience, Joy, Tolerance? So that is this fourth foundation of mindfulness, Where we begin to see how impermanence plays a role in every minute of our experience. Even the impermanence of this love stream we started a while ago, Well, At some point it's going to end. Nothing lasts forever and everything that is born will die. These are the laws. That's what we were born into. And the positive, Beautiful law of this land is karma. And karma is described as the law of causes and conditions. So all of you that are here today with me and my being here with you, The reason that we are here in this moment, Sharing this space together in our soul family, Sangha, Is because of every single thing that has happened before in our own lives, In our parents' lives, In our grandparents' life, And so on and so on and so on. Every single thing that has happened up until this moment of existence brought each of us right here to be together listening to the Dharma. And that's the beautiful thing because what we do affects everything else. And that brings me back to the opening of this Dharma talk where I acknowledged to everyone that this world is challenging and chaotic and a lot is going on all the time. And so the question is more so not how do I fix the world, But the question is how do I keep my heart open so that I can act from the most loving, Compassionate, Patient, Tolerant, Justice-laden space in me. And so how do these four foundations of mindfulness work together? What they do is they are like when you throw a pebble into the lake and you get ripples, Widening circles, They create widening circles of awareness. So the body first foundation, Mindfulness of the body grounds us. It's the anchor that grounds the mind in the body so that we can begin to open our awareness of reality. Number two, Mindfulness of feeling tones. This reveals a reactivity. It shows us where is that trigger point. Oh, There's that unpleasantness coming on. You know that there's going to be more reactivity after that. So it's showing us where am I at? Is there a pleasant or unpleasant feeling tone here? Number three, Mindfulness of the mind, Of the mind state. We begin to build awareness to the patterns of our mind that we maybe cling to anger or we cling to a mind that's fearful or full of doubt. And then the fourth foundation of mindfulness is the mindfulness of the mental objects or phenomena and it reveals the entire structure of the patterns of our suffering. Since impermanence is the law, When we fight impermanence, We suffer. When we cling to what we want and we push away and resist what we don't want, We suffer. So together these four foundations are moving us from this unconscious identification with our belief systems and our thoughts and our minds over into clear seeing, Into freedom. And we begin to experience life directly without the added stories, Without the added stories that create more suffering. So my friends, These are the powerful foundations of mindfulness that the Buddha taught many times over. They appear in the Buddhist scriptures many times over, Which means that they're super important. Why? Because he called these the direct path to awakening, The direct path to living free of suffering. So let's say I have some tightness in my belly because I'm about to go in and give a talk and I'm nervous. So if I'm doing the four foundations of mindfulness, I'm first anchoring my breath, Coming into my body, Noticing the tightness. Oh yeah, There is tightness cramping in my belly. Then I go into the second, The feeling tone. Hmm, There's an unpleasant feeling tone. I don't like feeling this way. There's no thoughts around it yet. There's just tightness in my body, In my belly, And an overall sensation of unpleasant negative feeling tone. Then I go into the mind and I notice, Oh, There's fear here. What's here? Joy, Love, Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Fear. There's fear because I'm about to give a talk. So my body felt that crampiness first. That feeling tone gave me a heads up, Something's not so cool here. And then mindfulness of the mind starts to investigate what's here and what story am I telling myself about it? Hmm, Maybe I'm telling myself, I'm going to do a terrible job. People are not going to like me. I'm feeling self-conscious. I should have worn a different outfit. That's beginning to be mindful of the mind and the stories we're telling ourselves to feed the fear, Which feeds the abdominal contractions. And then the fourth is the mindfulness of perception or phenomena. Realizing, Ah, Okay, I've always gotten nervous before, I'm using this as an example, Always gotten nervous before public speaking, So I've practiced this. I've practiced this a lot. So causes and conditions, Those are the phenomena that are coming into play here. I've practiced this a lot. Maybe I had some negative feedback in the past and it stayed with me creating this self-consciousness. So that's how we use the four foundations of mindfulness. We go one by one. I just did it very quickly, But of course we want to go more slowly. When we practice it enough, We can bring these contemplations into a moment of overwhelm. But until we get proficient at that, We can also do it later in the day. In the evening, After we gave our talk, We go to our house, We sit down, And we say, I'm going to practice the four foundations of mindfulness. And then I bring back that experience that I had. And I go through it as a direct experience. We cannot shift or change anything without awareness. And some of you may have heard before my ABCs of soul surgery, Which are the A is for awareness. Awareness is always, But only always, Every single time, The first intervention. Awareness. B is the breath. We come back to the breath to regulate. And C is compassionate contemplation. So we bring compassion to ourselves and our experience. Sometimes, Hey sweetie, It's okay. Sometimes the mind gets like that. We bring compassion to ourselves. We don't want to live from the space of that inner judge, That critic, That is beating ourselves up. And then the contemplation. We can look more deeply. What is here? What is true? Pretty mind blowing. It's a different way to live, My friends. Quite radical. And this is what the Buddha offered us in the Dharma, In the truth of his teachings. He said, There is another way. There is another way. So, This is why many people enter the journey of self-discovery, The spiritual path, Through suffering. Because when we get sick and tired of all of our suffering, We're ready for another way. And that's definitely my journey from almost 20 years ago when I entered the journey of spiritual transformation. I am not the person I was 20 years ago. Hopefully, None of us are. Hopefully, We've all evolved to some degree. But something has brought you here to this Dharma talk today, Whether you're listening live or in the recording. Something has brought you here. So, Ask yourself, What do I want? What do I really want? What am I committed to? What seeds am I planting in my mind garden? What do I want in this life? Do you want to be free? Free of suffering? Or do you want to keep regurgitating the same thoughts, The same behaviors, The same belief systems? If they serve you, Please keep doing that. If it serves you, I'm all for it. But if it's not serving you, Then maybe, Maybe, Just maybe, It's time to shift. Maybe it's time to walk a different path. Maybe it's time to let go of the people that are no longer supporting you to live in the way that you want to live. Maybe it's time to make changes in your life. And you can start slowly. Transformation doesn't have to be this big transformation, You know, In one shot. It can start gently and slowly. It can start by just asking yourself, What do I want? By asking yourself, What am I committed to? What am I committed to? Because whatever it is that we're committed to, We keep doing over and over again, We're going to see the results in our life. We open spaces here in these Dharma Talks, My friends. We don't have to have all the answers. Just live with the questions. Open these spaces. This is what it's about, My friends. So I hope you got something for yourself from this Dharma Talk on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. And I'd like to read our poem from the spiritual poet Rumi from the 13th century. And the poem is also recorded on my page, It's called The Breeze at Dawn, So you can listen to it anytime. And it's a way of closing up the container of our space together here and all the explorations that we've had. The Breeze at Dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. And so let me share the merit that whatever benefit might have come to us today from our listening, May it benefit not only ourselves but everyone we encounter and may it aid in the healing and transformation of our world. Om shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Peace in your heart. Peace in your mind. Peace in your body. And peace in our world. Thank you, My friends. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for your engagement. Thank you for bringing all of you here. Thank you for your donations. And you're always invited to send me a DM. I've had people write to me with questions, Some things that maybe weren't super clear or something personal. I do offer one-on-ones, So if you'd like to do a deeper dive into soul surgery, I'm very happy to offer you that as well. Just contact me. You can find the information on my bio and there's also a direct messaging here on the Insight Timer platform. And there's also the group. You can join our group where some people go on there and they exchange thoughts about the Dharma Talk and how it's lived out in their lives or how it affects them or what they got out of it. These are all ways to keep the teachings alive. It's called engaged Buddhism, Embodied transformation. It's not enough to just listen, My friends. If that were the case, We'd all be enlightened just by listening to one audiobook or one podcast, But that's not the way it works. We listen first and then we let it land. Just like those snow globes that we shake, All of those thoughts and the beliefs and everything just gets all muddied up with the little snowflakes and then we need to allow them to land and become embodied. And that's when real transformation happens. So, My friends, Once again, Thank you for being, Thank you for being here and I will see you at our next love stream. Thank you for all the hearts and remember what Rumi said, Don't go back to sleep. Much love. See you next time.

Reviews

Hi Dr Tamy
Thank you for this talk. It was enlightening and helpful.
See you at your next live xx