Turning Towards Our Experience

In this meditation we practice turning towards our experience, meeting all that is arising with kindness and acceptance, and without judgment. When we open wholeheartedly to our experience, we are no longer swept up in it or resisting what's here, but are able to find peace and acceptance amidst all of life's joys and sorrows. The meditation includes poems by Derek Walcott ('Love After Love') and David Wagoner ('Lost').

Transcript

You know,

Taking all of that in these five steps,

Turning towards our experience,

Opening wholeheartedly to what's present,

The second step,

Welcoming the guests,

Investigating our pain,

Our difficulty,

Our suffering,

Third step,

Investigating our own role in our suffering.

What am I doing to hold on?

And then turning towards opening to that clinging,

Being with our experience and learning to stay and to let go.

So take some moments to arrive and settle,

Arrive and settle.

Finding a comfortable posture if you're sitting,

Invite the shoulders to relax.

Let the hands rest comfortably in the lap or on your knees or on your thighs.

If you're walking,

Just letting your attention come into the body and feeling the sensations of contact with the earth beneath you.

You might be lying down,

Relaxing,

Letting your body sink into the surface beneath you,

Wherever you are,

Just come into kind and non-judging awareness of your experience as it is right now.

You might take a few longer,

Deeper breaths,

A nice deep in breath,

Filling the chest,

Filling the lungs,

Just a slight pause and then releasing,

Letting go on the out breath.

Just a relaxed out breath.

As though you're breathing out,

Letting go of any stresses,

Any tension you might be holding.

Just inviting in a nice deep in breath and releasing,

Letting go on the out breath.

Breathing in,

Calming the body.

Breathing out,

Calming the mind.

If you're experiencing anything difficult or challenging,

You might put your hand on your heart,

On your chest,

Maybe the other hand on your belly,

Connecting with what's here right now,

With kindness,

With acceptance,

Without judgment,

Just with kindness,

Holding your experience,

Holding what's difficult.

You might find it helpful to invite a smile to your face around the eyes and around your mouth.

Maybe that may help calm the body and the mind,

Help you settle.

Letting the smile be really an expression of how you want to meet whatever's coming up.

Can you meet whatever's here with the expression,

With the attitude of a smile?

This moment without judgment.

Just feeling us all together here today in all our different places around the world,

Practicing together,

Breathing in,

Breathing out together.

And turning towards your experience,

What's alive for you right now?

Meet whatever is here with kindness and with acceptance.

If there's some tightness or some tension or some judgment or some annoyance or frustration,

If you can breathe into that,

Just meet it with kindness.

Hold your experience with acceptance,

With kindness.

Welcome the guests.

Welcome everything that's here wholeheartedly.

This moment just as it is.

How is this moment if nothing needs to be changed?

Just this moment,

Not tomorrow,

Not five minutes from now,

Just what's here right now.

Can you hold this with kindness?

Staying with your experience,

Welcoming the guests.

Deeply accepting this moment,

This breath,

This feeling,

This sound,

This thought,

Whatever is here right now,

Holding it with kindness,

With acceptance and without judgment.

And whatever comes up for you,

If judgment comes up,

See if you can hold that with kindness.

If annoyance comes up,

Anger or fear,

Can you meet that with kindness too?

So it's like we're letting the container of kindness and awareness be large enough to hold whatever life is bringing right now,

Whatever's coming from the world,

Whatever's coming from our own emotions,

From our own habits,

From our own experience.

Can I hold this with kindness?

Can I meet it with kindness?

So that this moment,

Nothing needs to change.

It just needs to be met with acceptance that this is what is here.

And this acceptance can be really transforming.

We can come to see that we have the capacity to hold all of life's joys and sorrows and not that it's easy to do.

And it's a training.

You know,

At first it may feel,

No,

I can't,

It's just too much.

This wanting is too strong or this aversion is too strong or this fear is too much.

But with training,

With practice,

With coming back again and again and again,

We can learn to be with our experience.

Just holding whatever is here for you right now with kindness.

And you might let your breathing be an anchor for you,

Be a support.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Breathing in,

Calming the body.

Breathing out,

Calming the mind.

Breathing in,

Know that you're breathing in.

Breathing out,

Know that you're breathing out.

Whatever's present for you,

Just letting the breath help support you.

Breathing into this feeling,

Maybe it's a feeling of tension or tightness.

Can you make space for it?

Can you let the breath help calm your body and your mind right now?

Breathing into whatever is here,

Letting your breathing help hold your experience.

And when the mind goes off into thought,

Into plans or memories,

Worries,

Daydreams,

You can just gently and kindly come back.

Come back here,

Here,

This moment.

This moment without judgment.

This moment just as it is,

Coming back here.

Stand still,

The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost.

Wherever you are is called here and you must treat it as a powerful stranger.

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes,

Listen.

It answers,

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it,

You may come back again saying,

Here.

No two trees are the same to raven.

No two branches are the same to wren.

If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,

You are surely lost.

Stand still,

The forest knows where you are.

You must let it find you.

So here,

Here in this moment,

We're always coming back here and we always can come back here.

So what is here for you right now?

Can you hold it with kindness?

You know,

Perhaps with your hand on your heart,

Hand on your belly,

Just this,

This moment without judgment,

This moment with kindness,

With acceptance.

Breathing in,

Holding whatever is here.

So breathing in,

You might wish yourself well.

A kindness to ourselves is really at the heart of our practice.

Self-compassion,

Kindness towards our suffering and wanting to alleviate our suffering.

Breathing in,

Wishing yourself well.

May I be happy,

May I be safe,

May I be kind to myself.

May I accept myself as I am.

And breathing out,

Just breathing out kindness to everyone who's here in all of our different places around the world.

And breathing in,

Wishing yourself well.

May I be happy,

May I be safe,

May I be kind to myself.

Just wishing everyone else well.

May you be happy,

May you be safe,

May you be kind to yourself.

May you accept yourself just as you are.

Wishing yourself well,

Wishing each other well.

Breathing in kindness to yourself,

Breathing out kindness to all of us here,

Holding us all together in community.

Breathing in kindness to yourself and breathing out kindness out into the world,

Out to all beings everywhere.

Now into whoever may come to your mind,

To your heart,

To your imaginations,

Needing some kindness,

Some compassion right now.

May you be safe,

May you be happy.

May you be free of suffering.

And we'll finish with another poem,

This one from Caribbean poet,

Derek Walcott,

Love After Love.

The time will come when with elation,

You will greet yourself arriving at your own door.

In your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other's welcome and say,

Sit here,

Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was yourself.

Give wine,

Give bread,

Give back your heart to itself,

To the stranger who has loved you all your life,

Whom you have ignored for another,

Who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs,

The desperate notes.

Peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit,

Feast on your life.

Sit,

Feast on your life.

So wishing yourself well,

Wishing all of us here and all beings everywhere well.

Breathing in kindness,

Breathing out kindness.

Reviews

Wow, wonderful practice for kindness towards all our experiences. Thank you!

That was sooooo beautiful thank you soo much I didn’t even know I needed to hear this this morning
A flood of tears and then a softening
Namaste

Hugh's talks and mediations are always wonderful. This one was exactly what I needed today.
Thank you, Hugh. You always improve my life.

Thank you!

Beautiful ♥️ Wow, really touching meditation. This is one to come back to when life feels challenging or overwhelming. Thank you!! 🙏♥️