Practices for Supporting Preferences & Experiencing Impermanence

Pranayama and practices for supporting preferences and experiencing impermanence. Recorded live in class with some background noise.

Transcript

No,

It's just a good session,

I remember that.

Oh good,

Okay.

Oh good.

Then,

Because people did say that they liked what we did last week,

I thought that kind of by popular demand,

We would again do our breathing practices and look at ways to work with preferences during our meditation.

Yeah,

I'll just put it closer to me because it's on,

But if you can't hear it,

I can fix that.

Better?

Okay.

Yeah,

So I thought that we would look at our reactions to our preferences and gently work with how we respond to occasions that we do and don't like to make us more happy.

So this is something,

There were a couple things that I read,

But I thought they'd be repeating,

Not only for you but for me as well,

Given what I've been working on this over the last week.

So again,

This is paraphrasing Eleanor Rosch,

Who is a cognitive psychologist professor at Berkeley,

But also a very long-term committed Buddhist.

And she says,

With respect to our practice and looking at preferences and working with them in a way that's useful,

She says the claim here is that our lives can be approved by changing the consciousness with which we experience,

With which our experiences are perceived,

That is something we can control,

Rather than the experiences,

Which are something that we may not be able to control.

So that's what we're doing.

We're looking at our consciousness,

Our responses,

In a way that's pleasant and gentle.

In order to be receptive to these practices,

Let's start with our usual breath practices,

Yes?

So we'll start with three-stage ujjayi breathing.

Again,

That's with your throat slightly closed,

Yeah?

You start with your hands on your hips.

You'll move them to just at your armpits and the third position,

And again,

I'll tell you when each time,

Is with your hands flat on your shoulder blades.

Again,

It's in and out through your nose,

In for four,

Hold for four,

Out for four.

So let's start.

And here we are,

Hands on hips.

And now,

Keeping your shoulders relaxed,

Move your hands so that your palms are facing down,

Your thumbs are kind of hooked in your armpits,

And your fingers are resting against your chest muscles.

But again,

With relaxed shoulders,

Which everybody has,

And continue to ujjayi breathing.

Okay.

And now third arm position,

Which is with your hands,

Your palms flat against your shoulder blades,

And this will bring your elbows pointing upwards.

And continue the breathing,

Closed throat,

Same count.

And now come to relaxed,

Normal breathing with your hands at rest,

Again on your knees,

And take in any changes.

And now we go on to Bhaastrika,

Where I will show you once just in case,

Your hands,

Your fingers will be curled by your shoulders.

As you breathe in,

Your arms will shoot up,

Your fingers will straighten,

You'll pull your elbows down,

And that'll pull out your breath,

Again as everybody's doing.

Let's do three rounds of three.

One,

Two,

Three.

Take a quick rest.

And second round.

A couple of normal breaths,

And third round.

And back to normal breath.

And again,

Take in any changes,

Any energy that's arisen from this practice,

But let it be what it is.

And the third breath practice that we'll do now is our Kriya,

Or cleansing practice.

And again,

What we'll do are slow breaths,

Then regular,

And then quick.

We'll repeat this a few times,

And I'll tell you when to change.

Again,

These are just normal breaths,

In and out through your nose,

But normal as in your throat is relaxed.

And again,

As you're doing,

Your seat is relaxed as well.

So let's start with the slow breaths.

And now go to a normal speed breath.

One,

Two,

Three.

And now some quick breaths,

And again,

Really put your diaphragm into it.

And slow breaths again.

One,

Two,

Three.

And one,

Two,

Three.

Normal speed breath.

And full out fast breathing.

Back to a slow breath.

And now normal breath.

And one,

Two,

Three.

And fast breath again.

And let yourself really rest now,

And take in any changes.

See how you feel now compared to when we started?

And as you feel rested,

Look for any spots that you didn't notice that could rest even more deeply,

That you could make even more comfortable.

And bring this rest and comfort forward with you as we now do our body scan,

Yoga nidra,

Or alert relaxation.

Put your attention on the top of your head,

And see if the muscles there want to release in any way.

And notice your forehead and your eyebrows.

See if there's any long time holding any tension that just wants to float away right now.

Don't force it,

But to allow it.

And send ease to the muscles all around your eyes.

And all around your mouth.

And notice the hinge of your jaw and the muscles all inside your mouth.

Every tongue,

Palate,

And so on.

And really let all this rest.

Notice the muscles in the front,

The back,

And the sides of your neck.

See if there's some small adjustment that would give you more ease.

Your jaw and your chin,

Your neck.

And let your shoulder and your shoulder blades get heavy.

Really feel the weight of those bones as gravity supports you and you just rest.

Feel the weight of the bones in your upper and lower arms.

And your wrists and fingers.

And send ease all through there.

Send a gentle physical breath or thoughts of ease all through your ribcage,

All through your spine.

And notice the tension,

The kind of tension that you're giving yourself and notice its effect on your heart and on your mind.

And let gravity support you on your seat so that your hips and your upper legs and your knees really rest.

And rest your ankles and your feet.

Really let the earth support them.

Let any fatigue just melt away.

And again,

Feel the result of what we've been doing.

Whatever is true is just fine.

And do let things change.

And take any rest,

Any contentment forward as we start our practice on preferences.

And again,

I'm going to read a bit of a poem from Sen Can,

The third patriarch of Zen,

A Chinese monk who lived around the years 550 to 605 Common Era.

Take the writings not as an admonition of what you should be doing,

But as a description of what's possible with practice.

So I'll read a few stanzas through the first time and then I'll go back and I'll kind of unpack them for modern practice.

Here's how he begins.

The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace is disturbed.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

So what does this mean for us?

How is this helpful?

Let me go over it again.

The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

The mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

But everyone has preferences.

So the point here is depending on how you react to your preferences,

You can get the result of an unsatisfied mind or of great contentment.

That's why practice is developed as the antidote to the unhelpful reactions that will instead lead to our satisfied minds,

Our great contentment.

So here's how he continues.

Live neither in the entanglement of outer things nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

That is,

What you don't have to do is push away any experience or try to put yourself in some imagined serene state.

The practice is developed so that all we have to do is follow the practice instructions and contentment will arise.

And again,

Let the nature of these content states surprise you because they keep changing and they'll be different from whatever you imagine and they'll be quite wonderful.

And Senkan continues,

When you try to stop activity by passivity,

Your very effort fills you with activity.

Do not search for the truth.

Only seek,

Only cease to cherish opinions.

So what's the instruction here?

Let's listen and then do it.

Instruction is to simply put your attention on your breath and then whatever arises in your mind,

Do let yourself feel it.

Let yourself know that you are feeling something that's positive or negative or neutral.

But don't need to embroider it.

Don't set your opinion about how it will continue to be and how it will affect you.

Instead,

Allow your reaction,

Know what it is,

And in response,

Simply make your body and breath comfortable.

Then as soon as you can without rushing,

Either put your attention back on your breath or the next thing that arises.

And here's the next step.

You just keep repeating this and see if you notice this amazing,

Interesting,

Ceaseless flow of offense.

That's going to give us the real happiness.

So let me give you an example.

I gave you an example from my wife last week.

Here's an example from Saturday.

It was a beautiful day.

It was warm.

I put on my spring clothes to go downtown and exchange a shirt that was too small.

I do this.

I'm very pleased with myself.

They have the shirt I want.

It was $4 less.

Yes,

Yes,

Yes.

I step out of the store and the skies open up and it is absolutely pouring in.

I have drenched through.

So here's the point.

Is this an unsatisfactory and unexpected event or is it a potentially enjoyable example of the ceaseless flow of events?

And as soon as I notice that it is ceaseless flow,

It doesn't matter that my shirt is wet.

I get to be happy.

So that's what we're going for here.

Let's try that.

So here are the instructions.

First put your attention on your breath wherever it feels most prominent and most comfortable.

Then as your mind leaves your breath,

Let yourself experience your reaction to what has come up,

Whether it's positive,

Neutral or negative.

Comfort yourself as needed but don't embroider.

And then just go back to your breath.

So put your attention on your breath and see what happens.

And then let yourself experience your reaction to what has come up.

And let yourself experience this awareness.

Let yourself experience the reminder and let go of what is coming upon you.

Really allow your reactions to whatever you notice.

But don't embroider it.

Don't make up a story.

Instead,

Go back to the breath again or to the next reaction and let yourself notice this ceaseless flow,

This impermanence.

That's where your refuge will come from.

That's where your refuge will come from.

That's where your refuge will come from.

If you notice that you do start to embroider,

It's perfectly natural.

That's why the practice was developed.

So notice your reaction,

Positive,

Negative,

Or neutral.

And then put your attention back on your breath.

Just notice that it's part of things keeping on changing.

Beautiful.

Excellent.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Reviews

A calming teacher, very approachable and matter-of-fact. It was recorded in a class so I felt like I was there. Interesting questions at the end too. Thank you.