So this is a meditation for working with anxiety during difficult times.
Have a few thoughts after the meditation,
Which will be about 15 or so minutes.
So if you want to skip ahead,
You can.
So let's come into our comfortable seat upright but not uptight.
And we'll just begin to work with the breath as a grounding home base for a minute or so.
Even if the breath doesn't feel particularly grounding right now,
It is at least a way to locate ourselves in the present moment.
So let's breathe together,
Easefully.
And with a sense of coming home as we feel the breath.
Hence,
We begin with or without any In-噉 or basic content.
Do as an in-噉 Feel free to pause to reflect yourself in the And now having grounded for a minute on the breath,
I just want you to bring to mind anyone who fits the description of a hero or teacher or safe elder.
So you could think of humans present or past who made you feel safe and supported especially.
And you could also think of non-human beings,
Energetic beings,
Saints or angels or bodhisattvas.
And just imagine that they're arranged in front of you.
Sometimes traditionally they're imagined in the leaves and vows of a tree.
Any way that you feel that you can invite heroes,
Mentors,
Angels,
Bodhisattvas,
And just imagine that there's a sense of being held,
Not being alone.
And now start to imagine that they are wishing,
Just as we do in loving kindness meditation,
For your safety.
They are saying to you,
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
They are saying that to you.
And you can start to imagine that you're now saying this to yourself in the first person,
May I be safe or may I feel safe.
And now as it's done in the tradition of Tonglen or compassion meditation,
I'd like to ask you to bring to mind a way that you feel you're struggling right now,
Either emotionally or energetically or literally.
Perhaps you're lacking objects that help you or feel like you are lacking a place that feels like home.
And that way that you're struggling,
I'm just going to invite you as you breathe in to allow that to be fully present.
So breathing in and compassion meditation doesn't mean taking on or getting stuck with because we're already with this experience of struggle or suffering.
It just means allow it to be,
Allow it to fully exist as it is.
And then on the out-breath,
Imagine that you are offering,
Sending to yourself something that might help.
Whether it's words,
Whether it's a gesture,
Whether it's light,
Whether it's an object.
Sending yourself objects is completely fine.
Breathing in your own sense of struggle and breathing out to yourself,
An offering that might help,
Whether energetic or literal.
Let's do that for a couple of minutes.
All right.
And as you do this,
You can still feel that you are surrounded or supported by those heroes or mentors.
And as it gets hard,
You can remember their presence and that they're wishing for your safety.
Breathing in,
Difficulty breathing out,
Some offering to yourself that might help.
And now we're going to do this practice for somebody else we know.
And maybe it's somebody in your life or world who's in a similar circumstance as you,
Similar level of safety,
Vulnerability,
Similar level of privilege,
In terms of social status and ability to handle what's coming from an external perspective.
Friend,
Loved one,
Etc.
Just take one minute to breathe in and allow yourself to be with whatever their struggle is right now.
Breathe out an offering of help,
Of light,
Of a gesture,
Of a phrase,
Of an object that might help them.
Now I'm going to ask you to turn your attention to someone who's in a more vulnerable position than you are with the state of the world right now.
Perhaps it's an elderly person,
Perhaps it's a poor person or somebody who might not be able to get the healthcare that they need.
See if you can imagine without worrying if it feels projective for just one minute what their struggle or suffering might be.
And as you breathe in,
See if you can be very present with that.
Allow that to be in your mind,
In your system.
And as you breathe out,
Make some offering,
Light,
A gesture,
A phrase to this more vulnerable person.
So now we'll begin to contemplate actions post meditation.
It's clear both from the research and experientially that what makes compassion empowering and healing rather than burdensome is its agency,
The idea that it could actually transform into an action that alleviates suffering.
So I'd like you to take a minute to contemplate your own self-care as we're in a state of social distancing and anxiety and being with ourself and perhaps with our intimate family more.
What's one way that I could take care of myself?
Maybe you imagine one of your heroes or mentors reminding you of something or you could just contemplate what's one way I can take care of myself in this time.
See if there's one thing you can actually commit to.
And then we can contemplate the more vulnerable people.
Let's contemplate the same question.
What's one way that I could be of benefit,
That I could potentially help concrete,
Simple but clear in action?
How could I help somebody more vulnerable than I?
See if we can actually contemplate and commit to an action.
And now we can take a moment to again acknowledge this sort of field of protectors,
The mentors,
Heroes,
Bodhisattvas,
Angels that we've invoked and imagine that they slowly turn into light like soft moonlight.
You can imagine that light just entering your own body or your own heart center empowering you with a sense of safety,
Groundedness,
Ability to deal.
And we can just rest for a few final seconds.
And if you'd like to close your practice with a bow or some other gesture of acknowledging,
So thank you all for practicing together.
A few thoughts.
So I work with a lot of people.
I know a lot of people who experience anxiety,
Whether low level or acute.
And I myself experience anxiety.
A lot of the people who know me think I seem pretty calm most of the time.
And I don't think that's a mirage per se,
But even us calm folks experience anxiety.
And again,
In Buddhist psychology,
We're not in the business of diminishing any mind state,
Including and especially those that sometimes have more neurosis associated with them.
And I think a lot of people do diminish their anxiety or wish it would go away or make it into a lesser state of mind than other states of mind or other emotions.
And anxiety contains great wisdom.
It lets us know when we're in a field of uncertainty.
It reminds us of the fleeting preciousness of our life and the lives of others,
How fragile the whole thing actually is.
And then sometimes it causes us to ruminate.
It causes us to not listen to clear thinking,
And it often paralyzes us into inaction.
So I think it's incredibly important to be feel held and supported when we're in a state of anxiety.
For me,
Feeling like I'm alone in the experience often makes it more acute and paralyzing.
And that's why it's really wonderful to visually invoke one's field of teachers,
Mentors,
Heroes,
Bodhisattvas,
Angels,
One's lineage,
And to feel held by them.
That's also why it's really important to remember people who feel similarly.
As Pema Chodron likes to say,
There are many who are just like me and sometimes practicing compassion for those who are in a similar state can make us feel not so alone as well as offering compassion to them.
So it's got a dual positive effect.
And then the other aspect is that when we can not feel paralyzed but feel that we can actually perform an action of self-care and an action for caring for others,
It starts to unfreeze the energy of anxiety.
And in tantric Buddhism,
Anxiety is often the flip side of this energy of accomplishment and doing things that are meaningful and of benefit to self and others.
It's also incredibly important to remember that the highest vow,
At least in Mahayana Buddhism,
Is to try to be benefiting both self and others simultaneously.
And that's why I encourage you to continue to contemplate both your self-care and how you can help others in this time of social distancing,
Fears about our health,
Fears about our society,
Fears about our political situation,
Et cetera.
So if you can keep connecting with your lineage and feeling supported,
If you can keep connecting with yourself and those in a similar circumstance and genuinely take the space and time to cultivate compassion,
And then if you can contemplate simple,
Direct actions you can do to practice self-care and care for others,
It will help you not stop feeling anxiety but to actually work with the anxiety skillfully.
So thanks so much.
Hope to post more of these.
This is Ethan Nickturn,
And please be well and take care of each other wherever you are.
