I want to take another moment and just really honor the people that hold this space.
Ani Lodro is one of the most luminous,
Generous beings I know and has been such a support to me and to Sharon and to so many teachers and to this lineage and just true Bodhisattva activity.
And Karma Chöying,
Who also is a monastic here.
And all the other staff that hold this space with such care and kindness.
It's really like a home space and they welcome you into their home.
And then all the beings that made this space possible.
One of the spiritual seats of Trungpa Rinpoche,
And he passed away.
Almost three years ago.
And he created this center,
As well as many other centers all around the world,
And has been incredibly supportive of.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of practitioners.
And then the two Khenpos that aren't here right now,
Unfortunately,
But also just hold this space with such devotion and care for many decades.
And have also been incredibly supportive of women teachers,
Which has just been so precious.
To see,
As we all know,
That many traditions have a deep patriarchal.
Laying in them and they are doing everything they can to really support the feminine in spirituality and they've been incredibly supportive to my beloved teacher Sharon.
That I'm so grateful to have here as well.
What a gift.
But just really,
It means a lot to me that they welcome me and her and so many other teachers here and hold with just such open care so much.
Genuine,
Spacious kindness.
Such a gift.
And some.
I'm really grateful to the lineages that I've been.
Blessed to receive teachings from.
Really the most precious gift.
Of my life.
And It's really just such an honor and a joy to get to attempt to share what I've been given.
And things I've found so transformative and so helpful.
It's really.
The most precious thing.
Someone,
When I was blessed to study with His Holiness the Dalai Lama when I lived in India,
Someone asked him,
What's the best way to honor your teacher?
And he said to practice what they taught you.
But it kind of like really blew my mind in the minute,
You know,
Because you can sometimes get caught in like,
Oh,
I should offer this or do this or like.
Whatever,
You know?
It's like practice what they teach you.
And so part of what inspires me to be up here is.
.
.
Offering to the best of my ability this precious gift of the teachings that have benefited me so much.
And.
.
.
Yeah,
To have my precious teacher here is really.
.
.
Such a gift,
And your faith in me is huge,
And your support.
Thank you.
And to all the teachers that came before us and really it's just all these brave beings that have done this work for thousands and thousands and thousands of years to just carry this torch so that it can be offered to each of us.
It is brave.
It's brave to walk this path.
It's brave.
To sit here all day and look at your mind.
And to Step out of the busy distractions and the avoidance and the chaos that we're all used to and,
And just really be here with yourself.
And,
You know,
It's just fascinating I can say,
I think.
I had so many ideas when I started on the spiritual path,
So very many,
And I still have some that I notice I keep running into,
But.
There's one that's,
You know,
This idea that we all have,
Like there's just going to be like this linear line or this mountain we get to climb and it's going to take us to a certain place and it's going to get us to enough and it's going to.
.
.
Do all these things and.
.
.
It's not linear,
And.
.
.
If anything,
I find the journey is this.
Often circular,
Layered.
Very multidimensional journey.
Some of you have been on retreat many times.
Some of you,
I think,
Are quite new to retreat.
And one thing I just want to give you from the beginning is that you can't do this wrong.
And If I would offer,
Just beseech you to do anything is to really use this time to become your own best friend.
And to be just incredibly kind to yourself and your experience.
My guess is you'll have some practices where you're just like.
This insight or this sensation or this experience or this heart opening or this.
Precious memory,
Or just all the things,
And then you'll have some practices where you'll think,
When is this over?
And why am I here?
And it could be within half an hour of each other.
End.
It's just how it goes.
There's not.
.
.
Even really like you don't become like a good meditator in the sense of like you don't think.
Or you're no longer a struggle,
Or that's not really how it goes.
What you learn,
What I see in all the amazing,
Very realized beings I've been blessed to know is that It's really about learning how to be with what is.
It's learning how to be incredibly open and constant and steady with whatever your experience is.
And it's the capacity to just keep coming back.
To presence again and again and again.
And so if anything that makes you a good meditator,
It's actually this brave,
Open heart to just be with your experience.
And it's the ability to just notice when you get lost and come back.
And when your mind takes you on a ride,
Because it probably will at some point.
Today or tomorrow or.
.
.
You might have noticed it likes to do that often.
I would encourage you to just really look at how you're treating yourself in that moment.
And the second you notice you're lost,
You're actually back.
The second you notice you're thinking is actually an incredible moment to celebrate that you noticed.
It's actually a miracle.
There are some beings.
That never noticed their entire life.
That they're caught in their thoughts.
And we tend,
When we become good spiritual people,
Is we judge ourselves like,
Oh,
I think that whole half an hour meditation,
I think I thought the whole time.
Or I don't even know where I was.
Or,
Oh,
I'm a terrible meditator.
Blah,
Blah,
Blah,
Blah.
My wish for you is in that moment you would just be kind to yourself.
And remember perhaps just how brave and beautiful it is that you're sitting in this room willing to look at reality,
Which includes sometimes a very crazy mind.
And a lot of momentum.
Of your life.
And your karma and your genetics and your journey in this life.
To just keep coming back to the present moment.
And to actually celebrate that you noticed,
Celebrate that there is this precious,
Vibrant space where you came back to realizing that you were caught.
And in that moment,
You're free.
And to actually celebrate that you noticed.
Because every time you celebrate something,
You're actually As they say in neurobiology,
You lay down two synapses instead of one.
So you're actually re-patterning your brain.
Every time you notice something and actually celebrate it,
You're reinforcing that to happen again.
So when you notice your thinking,
Notice the tone of voice that says thinking.
And I hope you'll let it be kind towards yourself that you noticed.
All the beings that created this space.
Not only through carrying the teachings for thousands of years and devoting their life to the path and to serving others.
They all realize the same thing.
And at the end of.
Your journey,
Even though there's no end and there's no arriving,
You'll realize the same thing.
And so every tradition has their own iconography,
Their own symbols.
Of how that is represented.
But as my teacher says,
If you meet a realized being,
They all will say the same thing in the most fundamental way.
That's actually how you know what truth is,
Is it's like.
.
.
You don't even know what tradition it came from,
You can just tell it's got that seed of truth in it.
And we each have that inside of ourselves.
But one thing I've noticed working as a medical intuitive and working with thousands of people now on their healing journey is that we also have to be Open to receiving help.
You know,
I think about if it were up to the Buddha or Christ or any of these other amazing beings.
To help us be realized.
It would have happened a really long time ago if it was their power that could do it exclusively.
They would have done it a long time ago.
Because there's a lot of suffering.
That's not how it works.
It's actually this co-creative participating journey that we each have as a human.
On this planet and so.
Really giving yourself permission to receive support,
To open up and allow.
Whatever word you want to give it,
Grace,
Light.
The Divine Presence.
To hold you,
To support you,
To guide you.
Is so much of the journey.
They can't pick up what you won't put down.
And so it was part of your intention.
I invite you to really just allow yourself to Stop trying to get to enough.
Stop trying to.
Find wholeness somewhere in some way of being and really just trust it's all.
Right here.
And so much of the journey is actually this process of just laying things down.
Handing them over.
Giving Way.
So this sacred space and all these incredible beings that hold it and support it,
Both seen and unseen,
Are all here so that you could be here to do your practice and open up.
That come home to yourself.
And the retreat container is really this incredible gift.
Of something that's holding you.
In our culture,
There's something in Buddhism they call the suffering of choice.
That we have so much constant choice,
This like whole menagerie of experience that is available all the time.
And it can be so beautiful and delightful and amazing.
And it can also be completely overwhelming.
And one of the gifts of retreat is that it puts you in this container that just holds you.
There's almost,
There's very few choices you have to make here.
You can just surrender to the container and to the schedule.
And that is an incredible gift in my experience of doing retreats.
Especially solitary retreats.
There'd be so many times where my mind would start to get really wild.
I would just stick to the schedule that I decided I was going to do.
And sometimes I would just be so grateful that I had actually just sat down again.
Just come back.
Because it's so tempting when you get stirred up,
Whether it's something really positive or very challenging,
We want to do something with it.
We want to get away from the intensity of our experience.
And so we want to talk about it.
We want to distract ourself.
We want to tell somebody.
Turn on the TV,
You know,
And there's nothing wrong with any of those things.
But here in this space,
We're really taking this very ancient,
Very sacred container of retreat and this kind of schedule and let it hold you.
It really will take you on a very sacred journey if you let it do that.
That's been my experience.
As much as you can,
Try to really let it work on you,
Let it hold you,
Let it cook you.
And trust that it really has your best interest in mind.
That's been my experience.
Suzuki Roshi has this quote,
He says,
You're perfect.
And you could use a little improvement.
And I love any of those.
Things in practice that hold the both-and of our journey.
That,
As I already said,
You already have everything you need inside of you.
That You know,
In this tradition,
They would say you already have full awakening in the Buddha inside of you.
And We are all surrounded by a lot of conditioning and karma and momentum and distraction.
And busyness and our culture.
Has this phenomenon I call floating head syndrome,
Where we really live from here up.
And It's really.
Quite hard to stay present and stay connected to what's true in that environment.
Having this opportunity to drop underneath and below and behind all of that.
Gives you this deep access to truth.
And that is the sacred,
Sacred,
Precious container of retreat.
So I invite you to really just fully give yourself to this experience.
And when you notice,
Even just the part of you that starts to be like,
Well,
Should I do this?
Or should I do that?
Or should I sit?
Should I go for a walk?
Just really just kind of drop back.
And just settle into the container and take a breath.
And try to listen to the truest.
Most spacious.
Most quiet.
Kindest part of you.
And see what it shows you.
It's really a powerful question to ask ourselves,
What do we think we need to be whole?
What do we think we need to do here?
To be whole.
And if you really ask yourself that question,
Usually you can start to see all sorts of layers that you're Your system,
Your culture,
Your mind has started to tell you,
You need healing.
To be whole.
And here what we're doing is we're letting Almost everything fall away.
And in my experience,
The most whole thing.
Is right there.
Some distant day when you die.
Everything.
Will fall away.
Your roles,
Your relationships.
Your schedule.
Your possessions.
And retreat's actually a really powerful practice.
Because the invitation is to do exactly that,
Let all those things fall away.
And come back to the one thing you will have when you die.
Which is you.
This being looking out of your eye is the one thing you will have on that day.
That you get to take with you.
And so cultivating a relationship with that.
Is the most precious thing.
Our relationship with that.
Is what defines our entire life.
And most every tradition I've found and every practice I've found,
And there's such a wide array.
There's 84,
000 different dharmas,
They say,
In Buddhism,
Which really means we all have our own unique way of coming home to what's true.
They're all geared to help get all of you into present time so you can be with what's real.
All the practices.
So my wish for you is to find this incredibly loving,
Nourishing relationship with yourself.
To be able to trust yourself.
Until then.
That light that you come to find is always here.
Let it guide your life.
And let it guide this retreat.
Just keep coming back to that presence again and again and again.
That's all you have to do this entire time.
You notice you're caught,
Celebrate,
Come back.
If you're having an experience,
Can you just be with it?
Just let it be here.
Notice what happens.
Keep finding yourself again and again,
Gathering yourself back to present time.
And,
You know,
As we progress on the path,
Sometimes we start to experience that as like a felt sense of just this presence that we can just come back and rest in.
And sometimes when the mind is very busy.
Or the conditioning is very strong,
Or the triggers are very obvious.
Then really you just find your breath.
And you find your ground.
If you can feel your body,
If you can feel the earth.
If you can feel your breath.
You are in present time.
Which is the only place.
Your power.
Your choice.
Or your presence can actually be.
So I just take a few moments again and.
.
.
Really allow yourself to arrive in this.
Beautiful space.
Can be so helpful to let the body feel very supported and held by dropping your grounding cord.
Which is visualized many ways,
But perhaps imagining putting in your two sit bones and tailbone.
Down into the earth.
Letting it plug down into the heart-womb space of this beautiful planet that we live on.
Feeling that support,
That steadiness just rising up to hold you exactly as you are.
In this moment.
Calling all of yourself here,
The parts of you that.
.
.
Might be worried about what people you left at home or planning about what comes after this or.
Just trying to exhale after what you've just came from,
Whatever the dynamics are,
Just consciously retrieving all of your presence,
Your life force,
Your awareness into this body.
This space.
This container.
And if you can,
Really tuning into the fact that all of us in this room are here.
For the same.
Connection to truth.
Alignment with beauty.
Desire for peace.
And we'll all be silently supporting one another.
Just as this beautiful space is silently supporting each of us.
I pray that all the beings that are connected to this benevolent space and all the beings,
Guides,
Protectors,
Angels,
And your own Your powerful awareness is here to guide you,
To hold you.
To hold you with so much care and support while you're here.
To infuse you with as much grace and blessings as possible,
And to connect you into your innermost core.
So that when you leave here truly blesses all beings that you touch.
And the invitation to celebrate for a few moments,
The gift of being in this space where all your needs are taken care of.
And the part of you that brought you here.
Brought you to the space where you can come home.
So let this space hold you while you sleep.
While you have your insightful,
Beautiful practices and your challenging.
Moments.
That may or may not come.
Letting your energy drop back and down.
Feeling your breath in your body.
Feeling your grounding cord holding you.
Feeling your five senses aware of you arriving into this incredibly supportive space.
And time.
And once again,
I invite you to really turn toward your intention.
Of where you want to put your attention.
Your care your presence during this retreat.
Giving yourself permission to receive.
As much support.
And blessings as possible.
Wishing each other well.
Each of you here so bravely.
Showing up for a retreat.
Pivoting from the momentum of your life and taking this time.
To turn toward the most precious thing.
We're doing this practice for all beings.
All the beings that aren't as blessed as we are to have this space to come to with all of our needs met,
Safety,
Comfort,
Kindness.
My teacher Ajah Shanti would always say,
Every retreat,
He would say,
Enjoy yourself.
Enjoy yourself.
