Welcome to today's meditation.
Wherever you are,
I encourage you to pause.
Let the activity stop as you allow your gaze to soften and as you allow your body to relax.
Give yourself permission to arrive at this next moment.
Chances are there's busyness around you.
Noises.
Distractions.
But see if you can hold your attention to the next breath coming in.
Only noticing that.
And then watch as it becomes the exhale.
And let's see if over the coming minutes,
If by paying attention to the breath coming in and going out,
Maybe the noises and the busyness and the distractions around you won't seem quite as noticeable.
They're all still there.
But our focus is here.
Here in this present moment.
Watch the breath come in.
Watch the breath go out.
Settling into a rhythm of breath that feels just right for you today.
Yoga.
Yoga calms the agitations of my thoughts.
Yoga settles the disturbances in my mind.
This practice,
This yoga,
Quiets the noise and the chatter within me.
But so often,
Even as we say the words,
We begin to wonder how.
How does this happen?
How is it possible?
The great sage Patanjali teaches us that there are four kinds of locks in the world.
Locks,
The same kind of things that you would see on a door that keep you from entering.
He teaches us the four locks are sukha,
Dukha,
Punya,
And apunya.
Sukha,
That manifest as happy people.
Dukha,
That manifest as unhappy people.
Punya,
That is found in the virtuous people.
Apunya,
And that is found in those that are not so virtuous.
We have examples of all four of these locks,
These types of being,
All around us.
Every single day of our lives.
But in Yoga Sutra 133,
Patanjali gives us four keys to actually open these locks.
He teaches us that if we keep these four keys with us,
No matter who we come across in our day,
No matter which of the four locks they represent,
We will always have the proper key to open it.
Patanjali assures us in the Yoga Sutras,
These are the four keys to peace.
The four keys to quieting the mind chatter.
The four keys to lessening the noise and the distractions.
These four keys are made up of our friendliness toward others.
Our compassion toward others.
The joy that we feel when others experience good things in their lives.
And the evenness we feel when those around us are not so happy.
Patanjali says that if we want the stillness,
If we want the quiet,
If we want the impact of the busyness to decrease,
It's all about how we interact with the world.
How we react to the things that happen around us.
How we respond to the people and their behaviors.
The Sutra translates to by cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy,
Compassion for the unhappy,
Delight in the virtuous,
And disregard toward the non-virtuous,
The mind stuff retains its undisturbed calm.
The mind stuff retains its undisturbed calm.
Isn't that what we're all longing for in our busy,
Busy lives?
Undisturbed calm.
Patanjali teaches us that we will meet these four types of being,
These four locks every day.
But the yogic texts teach us that we hold the keys to them.
This friendliness toward the happy is called maitri.
Maitri.
Maitri.
Friendliness.
This compassion for the unhappy is called karuna.
Karuna.
Karuna.
Compassion.
Compassion.
This joy and delight for the virtuous is mudita.
Mudita.
Mudita.
Joy and delight.
And the evenness that maintains itself in our spirit when we encounter the un-virtuous,
That equanimity is called upeka.
Upeka.
Upeka.
Evenness and equanimity.
Patanjali asks us in this sutra to cultivate our ability to both access and use those keys,
First in our meditation practice,
And then as we move throughout our lives.
He asks us to sit with the idea,
Sit with the understanding,
Until someday each of these four keys becomes second nature.
They become our default way of responding to and interacting with all the people in the world.
And it's at that point we truly begin to experience the truth of Yoga Sutra 1-2.
We truly begin to realize that this practice calms the fluctuations of our mind,
It eases the agitations of our thoughts,
And it quiets the disturbances of the chatter around us and within us.
So today we'll sit with each of these,
Just trying to cultivate their presence in our mind,
In our thoughts,
In our being.
Just adding this new vocabulary,
This new key,
To our toolbox of responses to what the world brings toward us.
It all starts right here in the practice.
So I'll offer each word,
And then we'll pause and we'll sit for each for a couple of minutes.
I'll offer it as a mantra,
Repeating the word,
Allowing it to sink in breath by breath.
Maybe you'll remember the word in the quiet.
Maybe you'll lose the sound of it momentarily,
And then it will come back.
Maybe the word will continue to repeat itself within you,
Almost in rhythm to the beat of your heart.
Maybe they will just hold space for you in the quiet as you sit and as you breathe.
So allow yourself to be comfortable,
Whatever that looks like for you.
And we'll breathe in here together.
Mayatri.
Friendliness.
Mayatri.
Friendliness.
Mayatri.
Friendliness.
Mayatri.
Mayatri.
Breathing in,
Allowing the mayatri,
The friendliness,
The key,
To find its place within you.
And then breathe out,
Settling a bit more.
And on this next breath in,
Bringing in karuna.
Compassion.
Karuna.
Compassion.
Karuna.
Compassion.
Karuna.
Karuna.
Karuna.
Taking that next breath in,
Allowing karuna to just be with you.
And on the next breath out,
Relaxing and settling the body even more.
Breathing in that third key.
Mudita.
Mudita.
Joy and delight.
Mudita.
Joy and delight.
Mudita.
Joy and delight.
Mudita.
Mudita.
Mudita.
Mudita.
Breathing in that next breath,
Allowing mudita to just sit with you.
Breathing out,
Relaxing.
Breathing in that fourth key.
Upekkha.
Equanimity.
Upekkha.
Equanimity.
Upekkha.
Equanimity.
Upekkha.
Upekkha.
Upekkha.
Breathing in that next breath,
Allowing upekkha to just stay with you and settle.
Breathing out,
Allow the body to relax just a bit more as we prepare to close our practice.
Notice the sensations within your body.
Notice the energy moving through you.
Notice the breath coming in and going out.
And notice these new keys in your toolbox.
These new keys for unlocking how you respond to the world.
Maitri.
Friendliness.
Karuna.
Compassion.
Mudita.
Joy and delight.
Upekkha.
Equanimity.
In the coming days,
Just continue to sit with these keys.
They are yours.
They are yours.
And little by little,
The more that you sit with them,
The more familiar they become,
The more accessible they feel,
And the more ready that you are to be able to interact with the world in a way that truly reflects everything that is in your heart and in your spirit.
Namaste.
