Welcome to day two of mindfulness with the moon.
Let's start by just noticing what's around us and bringing our awareness to the moon and knowing that in this new moon phase that we are in we're just planting a seed.
We can't even see the moon yet.
Maybe there's a sliver that's starting to appear but mostly what's happening is sub-visual.
It maybe even feels sub-perceptual.
We can't even perceive that the earth is spinning however we are.
Today we are going to talk about what is meditation?
Where does it come from?
Why do we do it?
What is the point?
And clearly there's a point because you are here along for this journey.
Congratulations!
So meditation has been a tool for thousands of years.
We've seen at least in the records that meditation started about 5,
000 years ago maybe longer.
And the origins of meditation are from Southeast Asia.
Places like India,
Burma,
Sri Lanka to name a few.
And these teachings,
These dharmas have supported humans in creating a space to quiet our minds for prayer.
Specifically in the Buddhist tradition spoken about as meditation.
However in all of the religions creating quiet time for ourselves so we can slow down and listen to God,
To listen to our inner wisdom,
To connect with our intuition.
Meditation can connect us with the entirety of the universe and is a training tool for inner peace.
There is no religion necessary for the benefits of meditation to show themselves.
I remember when I was first starting my private practice as a holistic therapist I was working with a teacher named Tiami and she asked me,
So how's your meditation practice going?
I was like,
Um it's not.
You know I practice yoga and I've never done it before and I don't really know what I'm doing and so I just haven't been sitting.
And she looked at me with a stern face and she said,
Eleanor do you want to be a good therapist or not?
And I said,
Well yes of course.
And she said,
Then you need to be sitting with yourself knowing the thoughts that are coming into your mind.
If you don't know the thoughts that are yours and the thoughts that are not yours,
You're wasting your client's time,
You're wasting my time,
And you're wasting your own time.
If we are going to work together the requirement is that you sit every single day for an hour in silent meditation.
I choked.
I was like,
An hour?
An hour?
But I've never sat before.
I don't even know what I'm doing.
And she said,
Sit on a cushion,
Nice and tall,
Set a timer for an hour and breathe.
That's it.
I thought,
Okay.
So I did.
I sat every single day and I've been continuing to sit every day and now,
Years later,
I am honored to be sharing the teachings I've learned along the way with you.
Now as Tiame shared with me,
Meditation can be quite simple.
However,
There's not just meditation,
There are meditations.
There are thousands of different ways to meditate.
And sitting on a cushion in stillness and silence is one way.
Also,
Mindfulness meditation is one way.
And whatever way works best for you is what I encourage.
And creating some consistency every single day is also what I encourage.
So creating a time to be with yourself in quiet.
Now these teachings that I'm sharing are from a two-year mindfulness meditation teacher training that I've been a part of with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brock.
As a part of the graduation requirement,
We were asked to create a practicum to teach what we've been learning.
And these lessons are so much a compilation from them and from so many of the other teachers in my life.
And the aspects that I will be sharing about the moon are from a dear friend and teacher of mine named David McConaughey.
This course pulls information from my teachers who've pulled information from their teachers who've received information from their teachers.
I'm honoring in this moment with my hand on my heart all of my teachers and all of their teachers and their teachers' teachers.
Perhaps you'd like to take a moment and thank your teachers.
So meditation at its core is training or directing our focus of attention in a deliberate way.
Mindfulness or insight meditation is derived from Buddhist psychology.
Insight meditation teaches us to be mindful.
And mindfulness is not a word that has traditionally been used.
That's just a byproduct of noticing and directing our attention in a deliberate way.
We become mindful.
There's actually not even a word for mindfulness in many of these traditions.
Hinduism or Buddhism.
That's actually a Western adaptation and a Western approach that we've needed to create since the Westerner is often not doing what they're doing while they're doing it.
So in this insight meditation working to train our attention muscle is what we are doing in our seated meditation practice.
So typically this is noticing when our attention wanders,
Right?
A thought comes into our mind.
Noticing,
Oh there it is,
I'm thinking.
Pema Chodron,
One of my other amazing teachers,
She'll say your mind will wander and all you have to do is say thinking and you just notice,
Oh there I am.
And the faster and the longer you start meditating,
The quicker you'll start to be able to catch that wandering mind.
So typically in insight meditation,
In mindfulness meditation,
We find an anchor point.
These are our senses.
Seeing.
Hearing.
Tasting.
Smelling.
Touching.
And meditation is not just about sitting on a cushion in stillness and silence.
Meditation was made so that we can slow ourselves down so that we can be more present to the messages that are already here for us.
Moment to moment to moment.
Otherwise if we're fearing of the past or worried about what we said or what we could have done or fearing about the future or constantly living in our task list or being angry with someone for something that they said,
For taking things personally,
All these stories that we make up,
We're actually not present.
Pema Chodron says you cannot be in story and present at the same time.
So we're working to just be here now.
And meditation is a practice.
We're in the beginning phases of this course.
So being really kind to yourself is key.
What are you practicing is some of the questions we'll be asking today.
You know,
Are you calling yourself back in a rude way?
Oh god,
Why am I mind-wandering?
Getting frustrated with yourself?
I just invite you to leave that to the side.
It's not supportive for us right now.
So you can just notice the internal dialogue and see if you can just bring some kindness to it.
Let's begin our meditation for today.
I'll mind the time.
You'll hear a bell to start and a bell to bring you back.
Please find yourself in a comfortable seat or perhaps you're laying down or standing,
Whatever works best for you and your body today.
I invite you to notice your breath.
I invite you to notice your surroundings.
I invite you to go inside in whatever way feels supportive and comfortable for you.
For some,
That's closing their eyes.
For others,
It's gazing down at the floor.
Just allowing for your gaze to be soft.
Allowing for your body to be soft.
There's nothing to grip or restrict or hold on to.
And the exhale can allow for more and more spaciousness.
So as you exhale,
See if you can invite a little bit more space.
And I invite you to sit in stillness,
Noticing when your body might want to adjust or what might want to move.
An insight meditation is not about not moving,
Or at least the way that I teach.
It's not about not moving.
It's just about noticing why we want to move,
Where we want to move,
What's happening in our bodies that's saying,
Oh you have an itch,
Scratch it.
Right?
Instead of just scratching it,
Instead of just reacting,
We just take a moment and we stay in stillness.
We notice,
Oh yeah I have an inclination to move.
And before we do,
We can just create an inch or two of space between the sensation and the reaction.
And then after you wait a little while and there's still an inclination to move,
Then with awareness,
Feeling every part of your body move,
Feel yourself move.
And then find stillness again.
Noticing your breath,
Noticing any thoughts that might be arising and just letting them be there,
Thinking perhaps.
And then bring yourself back,
Back to your body,
Back towards what's happening inside.
Noticing where your attention is with kindness and non-judgmental awareness.
See if you can notice all the nuances that happen inside.
The thoughts,
The sensations,
The different temperature changes between your hands and your seat on the cushion.
The part of your body that's clothed or where air is touching your skin.
Of the sounds in your environment,
Just including them.
There's nothing to change or fix,
Just an awareness,
Just a noticing,
Just as it is.
How much can you notice?
Staying with yourself.
How do you do that?
How do you stay with yourself?
Right in each moment.
Oftentimes people will ask me if their challenges will just go away.
Like they'll just feel good after they start meditating and then their life would just be better.
And the truth is we just start feeling it all when we start feeling and sitting.
We can't have only joy without muting the other emotions.
Brene Brown is famous for speaking about feeling and knowing and exploring the full range of what presents itself to us.
And in meditation it's a time to practice feeling what arises from just our experience of breathing and sitting still.
Thank you so much for joining in this beautiful day.
Perhaps you spend a little time hanging out with the moon,
Seeing what she has to share,
Even without the visual sight of her.
See you tomorrow.
