Day 9 | Mindfulness Of Body | Waxing Crescent | MWTM

Embark on a 29-day mindful meditation journey synchronized with the moon cycles. Day 9 focuses on "Mindfulness of Body," emphasizing the present moment and insights gained by shifting attention to the body.

The body, a source of wisdom in Buddhist philosophy, is not to be controlled but learned from. The 20-minute meditation encourages listening to the body and embracing its wisdom.

Join this lunar-aligned practice for a holistic harmony between the sun and moon movements.

Music | Ren Och Fin - Henrik Meierkord + Human - Henrik Meierkord

Please note: This track may include some explicit language.

Transcript

Welcome to day nine.

We are in the waxing crescent phase of this mindfulness with the moon.

And this part of the moon cycle,

Again,

Is growing bigger with light and this little sprout is starting to grow more and more every day.

Each day you sit with the moon and yourself,

The stronger you become.

So we begin our session today with one of the most well known quotes from the Buddha.

There is one thing that when cultivated and regularly practiced leads to a deep spiritual intention,

To peace,

To mindfulness,

To clear comprehension,

To vision and knowledge,

To a happy life here and now,

And to the culmination of wisdom and suffering.

And what is that one thing?

Mindfulness centered on the body.

So that is what we will be talking about today,

Putting our attention on our bodies and understanding that the body's experience here and now is what we get to explore.

And when we're awake to the body,

We're right here.

The body can really only be right here.

And you know,

You think of the experiences in your life that you're most grateful for,

Where you're feeling enlivened and gratified,

Where you've felt meaning.

And if you just review back in your life,

You might find that you were present for a birth or a death.

You might think of moments outside in nature where you felt intimately connected to her.

Maybe there was a moment with a loved one where there was a real sense of connection and love between you.

Or those moments when you're deep in a meditation practice and you're simply touched by peace,

Or you feel yourself really surrendering to the moment.

And in all of these situations,

There's a common denominator.

And it's that you have this body,

And you're experiencing it.

And you're registering what's happening in the moment.

The Buddhist teacher Munindraji was asked,

Why do you practice by a student?

His response was,

So that I will see the tiny purple flowers by the side of the road as I walk into town each day to live life fully.

It's quite simple,

You know,

Just to see the flowers on the side of the road.

And this all sounds so lovely.

So let's also reflect in the other direction.

If we think about the moments when we're really suffering,

When we're having challenge or when we're in conflict with ourselves or with another person,

When we're in fear,

Or even self-aversion.

And again,

There's this common denominator that Tara Brach tells us about,

Which is experiencing of suffering that we're in,

In some way,

We're disconnected from our body,

We're at war with our body.

So if we have the language of the goal of practice,

One of the goals of practice is really inhabiting a full presence.

And the domain of the body is the energetics of every other experience of emotions,

Thoughts,

And feelings.

Everything arises from what we touch or smell or taste or hear or see.

Pema Chodron writes,

It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have sitting right here,

Right now,

With its aches and its pleasures is exactly what we need to be fully human,

Fully awake,

Fully alive.

So why is this so difficult?

And Tara Brach again reminds us that it's absolutely universal in our conditioning to exit.

We all do.

And why?

Well,

It's in our conditioning.

When it's pleasurable,

We try to hold on,

Which is a kind of contraction away from the aliveness of the moment.

And when it's unpleasant,

We push it away.

How far away can I get from this feeling?

Again,

We're pulling away from the present moment.

And the bottom line is our body's experience is just happening.

And our survival instinct is to try to control things.

So to really inhabit the body means being willing to surrender to what feels out of control.

So this organism of ourselves,

This body and mind tries to split,

Because if we're thinking evolutionarily,

There are parts of us that think that we're dominant creatures.

But really,

We're just these small beings.

But we have cognition.

So we take refuge in this mental control tower that we have up in our brains.

And for many people,

It's exacerbated if we have felt out of control or unsafe early in our lives.

We'll be exploring more about emotions and trauma in the days to come.

And it's critical to bring tenderness as we disassociate and exit when things are feeling emotionally and physically difficult.

So there's this mind-body split and taking refuge in this mental tower that's also contributed by our culture,

That our bodies are seen as objects to be manipulated.

We have a billion-dollar fashion industry.

We sculpt our bodies.

We buff our bodies.

We fix and try to medicate our bodies.

There's this removal from the inhabitation of being inside our bodies.

And then there's even deeper aspects of our culture that keep us connected and addicted to technology that take us out of nature,

Away from nature.

Tara Brach describes a metaphor that I find helpful where we can imagine our bodies as a house.

And there's a living room and there's a child who wants to play and wants to eat and wants some attention and hurts and cries and,

Play with me.

And you're basically feeling powerless to be able to respond to all of that and it feels really overwhelming and the crying and the demands are starting to feel scary to you.

And you know,

You're getting stressed so you decide to leave the living room and you go upstairs and you just try to distract yourself on the computer trying to,

You know,

Plan ahead for the future and the crying gets louder and louder so you put earplugs in and you get this idea that the further and further more separate you can make yourself,

The further removed you can be from the living room,

This child who's upset and it's still there and you're still disconnected and shut off.

What happens when you leave like that?

Well,

First of all,

There's a lot of fatigue and exhaustion to disassociate,

To leave our bodies.

It is going to leave us feeling tired and even though we're disassociated,

Some part of us still knows that that child is still there.

So there's anxiety.

We can't disassociate without having that anxiety and fatigue come up because in order to leave,

We end up developing these escape habits that aren't actually so healthy.

And sometimes we leave by numbing.

We numb with food,

We numb with technology,

We numb with sex,

We numb with obsessing,

We numb with substance,

You name it.

So how do we reconnect?

You know,

Our earth would not be suffering the way that she is if we were awake in our bodies and the more we can connect to this visceral aliveness inside,

The more sensitivity and perceptiveness and care starts to widen around us.

So we're able to really feel what's going on in the bodies of ourselves and in the bodies of others,

Including this body of the earth that we are made up of.

We too are the earth.

When we can sense the needs of our earth as our larger body,

It's a powerful role that we're in so we can be aware of what needs to be tended to.

It's part of the healing of our world.

Let's begin our practice.

You will hear three bells to begin.

I will lead us through a meditation and you will hear three bells to close.

Finding a seated position that allows your spine to be nice and tall,

Not too stiff,

And also relaxed,

Closing your eyes and establishing a simple sense of presence,

Allowing for your awareness to scan your body wherever possible,

Softening and releasing any obvious areas of tension.

You might take a few very full breaths,

Just allowing for your breath to feel natural,

Not forcing anything.

You might bring your attention to where your breath feels easeful in your body or where it feels pleasurable even,

Just letting this place of experience of the breath be your home base and anchor to the moment,

Noticing this breath right here.

And if the breath is not a good home base for you,

You might instead try to anchor your attention to sensations in your hands or sensations of your whole body just sitting here.

Now with a relaxed,

Open attention,

Discovering what the sensations of your breath or the anchor you've chosen feels like moment to moment,

Where is your attention now?

Each time you notice your mind has wandered off is a moment of mindfulness,

Gently bringing your attention back to the inflow and the outflow of your breath or the anchor you've chosen,

Offering a wakeful presence to what arises.

Now is an invitation for you to scan your body and notice if any particular sensations are strong or calling for your attention,

If so,

Allowing for your anchor to recede to the background and bringing an interested,

Kind presence to the sensations that are presenting themselves.

What do the sensations feel like?

You might be aware of temperature changes in your body,

Chills,

Tingling,

Aching,

Twisting,

Stabbing,

Vibrating,

Twitching,

With a soft,

Open awareness,

Feeling the sensations just as they are,

Noticing,

Are they pleasant or unpleasant?

And as you fully attend to them,

Do they become more intense or do they start to dissipate?

Noticing how they change,

Holding yourself with kindness as you explore tenderness,

Knowing that if anything gets too overwhelming,

You can always come back to that anchor that you established for yourself,

Where you can find space,

Where you can rest with ease.

The anchor is always a place to return to,

And sometimes the anchor can feel overwhelming and we find somewhere else where we can rest in the moment,

Just noticing what arises.

You might ask yourself,

What is happening inside right now?

Noticing any sensations that are predominant,

And then ask,

Can I be with this?

Directly feeling the flow of sensations,

Subtle or strong,

Letting life be just as it is.

Perhaps remembering to bring that compassion wing into your experience,

Holding yourself with gentleness and love and curiosity,

That other wing of mindfulness.

When you pay attention closely and start sensing this constellation of dancing sensations within,

That's the beginning of healing,

To release the blockages and to process trauma.

We're coming back to the body,

Allowing for this visceral experience in the heart,

Which opens up to forgiveness and compassion as we embrace all that life is offering us moment to moment.

I feel a lot of tenderness,

A lot of gratitude for your commitment to be with yourself,

To make room for all of your experience.

Thank you.

All right,

Sweet friends,

We'll see you tomorrow.

Take good care of yourselves and remember to be kind and gentle and compassionate with all that arises.