Hey there,
Welcome back.
Thanks for showing up in this practice.
Allow yourself to land right here,
Right now.
Maybe taking a breath in and exhaling softly.
This is your space to return to presence,
To clarity,
And to a deeper trust in your own path.
Let's take a moment here just to drop into that awareness and knowing.
Today,
We spend time with the second bodhisattva vow,
Delusions are inexhaustible,
I vow to transform them.
Delusion in this context is not a failure,
It's a part of what we all carry,
Habits of the mind that keep us from seeing clearly,
Stories we've picked up over time,
Patterns we fall into when we're afraid or uncertain.
Delusions can sound like,
I'm not good enough,
They're the problem,
Nothing will ever change.
Delusions can show up in subtle ways,
Like distractions,
Defensiveness,
Or always needing to be right.
Sometimes they can take the shape of bigger emotional storms,
Anger,
Resentment,
Anxiety.
The vow doesn't pretend that these don't arise,
It simply says,
I'm willing to meet them with awareness and compassion.
Transformation doesn't come from force,
It comes from presence,
From the willingness to pause,
To observe,
And to stay kind through the process.
You might catch yourself in the middle of a spiral and choose to breathe instead of react.
You might feel a wave of judgment and soften your grip.
That moment of recognition,
Of staying with yourself instead of abandoning yourself,
Is the vow in action.
Our teacher Emma Trojan writes,
Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.
And this is part of what it means to walk the path of awakening,
To walk the bodhisattva vows.
We're not avoiding confusion,
We're learning how to meet it with gentleness and truth.
I invite you now to sit and practice with me.
Closing your eyes or softening the gaze,
Letting the body soften,
Taking a deep breath in through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth.
Breathing in,
I soften,
Breathing out,
I allow,
Noticing the ground beneath you,
Letting yourself be fully supported here,
Allowing your awareness to gently turn inward.
Is there a pattern that you've been noticing,
A loop that returns,
A reaction,
A limiting belief,
A habit of shutting down?
There's no need to solve it,
Just noticing,
Being honest with yourself here,
Not with shame,
But with curiosity,
And just bringing it into view like you would hold something delicate in your hands.
Now,
Offering yourself these words,
May I meet this with understanding.
May I stay present through it.
May I be free to choose a different way.
It's not necessary that we get it right every time,
Just that we continue to practice.
I invite you now to bring to mind someone in your life who may feel stuck in fear and confusion and reactivity.
There's no need to judge them here,
Just seeing them clearly.
And we offer,
May you be free from delusion.
May you see your own light.
May your path unfold in peace,
Allowing that prayer to extend to strangers,
To systems,
And bringing to mind Pema Trojan's words once again.
Only when we know our own darkness well,
Can we be present with the darkness of others.
I want to thank you for doing just that.
Right now,
By choosing awareness instead of avoidance,
You are living the vow.
Let's honor the time you spent here.
Let this practice settle in your body,
In your breath,
In your heart.
And taking a closing breath in through the nose,
And exhale through the mouth.
When you feel ready,
Opening the eyes,
Coming back to your surroundings,
Slowly and gently.
And once again,
If you feel moved to journal after this session,
Here is a prompt that you can explore.
What recurring pattern or story am I beginning to see more clearly?
How does it feel to meet it with compassion instead of judgment?
What recurring pattern or story am I beginning to see more clearly?
How does it feel to meet it with compassion instead of judgment?
Let's close with our second bodhisattva vow.
Delusions are inexhaustible.
I vow to transform them.
May this vow move through me and ripple out into the world.
In our next session,
We will explore the third bodhisattva vow.
Dharma gates are boundless.
I vow to enter them.
We'll reflect on how each moment,
No matter how ordinary,
Can become a doorway into wisdom,
Awareness,
And connection.
I'll meet you there.
Namaste.
